Anyone know how much you can spend on a really dear road/tri bike. I have been hearing a report that a local guy has just forked out 40K, I’m in OZ so about 34K USD. Is this possible, I know the BMC TT01 with all the bells and whistles can cost about 20K so what could/would you get for this sort of $$$.
Thanks in advance to any replies.
BBBazza
I say, if an idiot is willing to pay for something, a genius is selling it.
I wonder if it rides itself up hills…
Jodi
Hello,
Yes its possible to spent that much. Not in the least bit necessary. Many builders and machinists will custom make parts by hand. If you love a Cervelo P3C but decide that you want a version made with a slighly slacker seat tube and a custom carbon seat bonded directly to the frame, for enough cash you can have someone fabricate it, but its going to be a no fast than a P3C and 5 times the cost.
Same things with full ceramic bearings, custom seats, custom handlebars etc.
As a previous poster said, if someone is will to spend the money, then someone is more than willing to take it.
Styrrell
I was visiting at a high end bike store in Toronto a few years ago and was told that a customer had just purchased two indentical road bikes at a cost of $23,000. CDN each. That’s $23,000 X 2 = $46,000 CDN. It was the biggest single sale the shop ever had.
He wanted one for the house and one for the cottage.
“On October 20 2005 at the Lance Armstrong Foundation Gala an anonymous buyer purchased a Madone 5.9 SL that was donated by Trek and jeweler Alan Friedman. The bicycle is covered with gold and man-made diamonds and sold for $75,000.00 USD making it the world’s most expensive bicycle.”
Apparently, an 19th century bicycle wheel sold for close to three million at auction.
Apparently, an 19th century bicycle wheel sold for close to three million at auction.
It must have had dimples then to be worth that much.
And you thought that Chris King/Mavic combo was expensive? The world’s most expensive bicycle wheel is going for auction in May with a predicted price of $3 million.
This bicycle wheel, mounted on a stool and is hailed as being one of the most important works of art in the 20th century. It is just a normal bicycle wheel, but it was put on a stool and called ‘readymade art’ by artist Marcel Duchamp.
According to the Telegraph
"The story of Duchamp’s readymades begins in 1912 when, after an important painting of his had been rejected by the fashionable Salon des Independants in Paris, he declared: “Painting is all washed up.” So, in 1913, he found a bicycle wheel which he placed on a stool in his Paris studio. Asked why, he said: “I enjoyed looking at it.” In a notebook, he mused prophetically: “Can one make a work of art that is not a work of art?”
This a started Duchamp buying things, signing them and putting them on display as ‘readymade art’ including probably his most famous one - a signed gent’s urinal.
The wheel is being auctioned in May by Phillips, de Pury and Luxembourg in New York. So time to get those phone orders in. Or, alternatively a perfect chance to justify that Phil Wood hub on a ceramic Mavic 618…
Most expensive “rideable” bike frame I ever heard of was American Bicycle’s (St. Cloud, MN) Berylium frame. I believe they made (2) and one of them was stolen. Price was $24k. I can check the facts if needed as my college buddy was in the owner’s family…