Using 15 of the most expensive parts, a handmade frame, and a wireless groupset you could build a bike worth over £17,000+. You could also buy 2 or 3 cars for that!
If anyone is familiar with Viceland, you may know that they put together some pretty interesting shows. One of my personal favourites is called “Most Expensivest”, the show is hosted by rapper/entrepreneur 2 Chainz and has him jetting around the U.S tasting, sampling and enjoying some of the most expensive items on the planet.
2 Chainz doesn’t think twice about dropping $800 on a bottle of beer, $5000 on some chicken wings, but he doesn’t seem that convinced by the $165,000 kittens he meets.
Watching the show got me wondering “what are the most expensive items in the mountain bike world? And would we be as happy to swallow them as 2 Chainz?”
The resulting list builds a hyper mountain bike with an RRP of over £17,000, get those credit cards out and let’s go shopping.
How to build a £17,000+ mountain bike
This list is in price order starting with the cheapest first, and I’ve used today’s exchange rate to convert non-UK pricing (expect this to change by March…).
Schwalbe Magic Mary SnakeSkin TL Addix Soft – $103 each (£82.42 each)
- Price: $103 each
- From: Schwalbe
Schwalbe makes all sorts of pricey rubber including a set of handmade tubular Rocket Rons for CX bikes that cost a cool £99 each! The most expensive they offer for mountain bikes though is the Magic Mary SnakeSkin TL Addix Soft. This is a newly listed tyre for 29ers, but there are more compound options for 27.5in for the same wallet swallowing price. Remember that these prices are per tyre, so to get two of these 29 x 2.6in black circles you’ll be shelling out £160.85 a pair.
Revgrips – £100
- Price: £100
- From: Cyclorise
Are these the most expenzsivest MTB grips on the market? Quite possibly, but Revgrip is eager to point out that these are a little more versatile than a standard MTB grip, and even F1 teams are using them! No, not on their cars but on trolleys and jacks.
The Revgrip houses a small, elastomer based suspension system that can be adjusted to suit your riding style or the amount of twist you fancy. Once on the bike Revgrip claims the grip reduces arm pump and fatigue. We actually unboxed a pair here, and we’re testing them right now so watch out for the review coming soon.
Rust Components Titanium riser bar – £195
- Price: £195
- From: Rust-Components
These Rust Components titanium bars might be pricey but they’re proving to be popular and have already sold out until March! The 800mm wide bar is manufactured from triple butted titanium tubing for a comfortable and fatigue resistant design.
Rust offers a 10-year warranty on the £195 bar and that’s for XC, Trail, All mountain and Enduro usage. If you do manage to crash on them and need a replacement, Rust will knock 40% off a new pair for you.
Drift Products Carbon Flat Pedals – $299 (£254)
- Price: $299
- From: Drift Products
We’ve written about the Drift Carbon flat pedal before, and it was actually the first item we thought of when putting this list together. The Drift brand has its fingers in many pies, mainly snow sports, but using the knowledge they picked up at ENVE they’ve also created these carbon pedals.
In all honesty, we’re not too convinced by the £254 carbon flat pedal, sure they’re made in the U.S, have 4mm replaceable brass pins and sealed bearing, but the axle is chromoly and the platform is just 95 x 95mm. They do weigh just 262g though.
ENVE M7 MTB Stem – £270
- Price: £270
- From: Saddlback
We’re pretty surprised how few of ENVE’s items made it on to this list. Originally we figured that their carbon handlebars and wheelsets would be a shoo-in, but believe it or not ENVE aren’t always the most expensive.
The M7 stem is ENVE’s Gravity-Rated carbon bodied stem meaning this is the model you’ll want on your expensive all mountain or enduro bike, although the ENVE site doesn’t mention if it’s suitable for DH use. The M7 comes in 35,50 and 65mm lengths has titanium hardware as standard and weigh as little as 85g.
Chris King Dropset Ceramic headset – £240
- Price: £240
- From: Saddleback
Chris King does make more affordable headsets, but we’re going all out here so we want the best ceramic bearings in the business. For £240 you’ll get an upper and lower ceramic bearing race, seals, a Chris King top cap and… and.. nothing that’s all you’ll get but it should last longer than your bike.
Ceramicspeed BB €369 (£324)
- Price: £324
- From: Ceramicspeed
We’re keeping with Ceramic bearing for the bottom bracket to ensure long life too. This time you’ll need to head to Ceramicspeed for the most expensive BB on the market. Ceramicspeed also makes super pricey hubs, and also shocked the world at Eurobike 2018 with this wacky, 13-speed, chainless drivetrain.
SRAM AXS wireless RockShox Reverb Dropper – £700
- Price: £700
- From: SRAM
SRAM’s latest RockShox Reverb dropper post also happens to be one of the most expensive droppers you can buy. What makes the AXS Reverb different to the one you’re using now is the wireless technology it uses for activation. Instead of a hydraulic hose that needs threading through your frame and bled up occasionally, the AXS Reverb uses Bluetooth and a bar mounted remote. The fact you don’t need hoses also means you could quickly swap this wireless Reverb from bike to bike. So if you had around 4 bikes, and one AXS Reverb, you’re actually saving money?! Good luck trying to convince your other half though.
Trickstuff Maxima Brakes – €800 (£703)
- Price: £703
- From: Trickstuff
If you’re going to be building the most expensive bike in the world, then you’re going to want the most expensive brakes in the world too. It also helps that the Trickstuff Maxima could quite easily be the most powerful brakes on the market too. Trickstuff manufactures the Maxima in Germany, where the company developed the brake based on what they learned from the Direttissima disc brake system. If you did opt for the Maxima for your build then you’re in good company. Atherton Racing will use the brake for 2019 as will the Polygon UR Team.
Cane Creek eeWing Powermeter – £1499
- Price: £1499
- From: Extra
Did you read Fresh Goods Friday 435? If you did you would have seen that we have a set of Cane Creek eeWing cranks in for test. They’re a lovely looking bit of kit, manufactured from Titanium and featuring luscious, buttery welds. Sure these highly polished cranks look the part, but they also offer some benefits too. Cane Creek claims that they are as much as 30% stiffer than a carbon crank, and at only 400g they’re lightweight too.
Our test eeWing’s though are the ‘budget’ £999.99 set, to build the world’s most expensive mountain bike, you’re going to want to get the Cane Creek eeWing with integrated power meter costing a much more respectable £1499. Imagine how well they would spin on that Ceramicspeed bottom bracket.
Herzog Eberhardt saddle – €1850 (£1630)
- Price: £1630
- From: Castlecc.de
There are a lot of expensive items on this list, but its the Herzog Eberhardt saddle that really has surprised us. When hunting for an expensive mountain bike saddle we thought we would max out at £300 for a nice leather, Ti and carbon model, how wrong were we. The Herzog Eberhardt saddle does use carbon and is made for real leather, but it also has a logo made of 24 karat gold. The 95g saddle is suitable for riders 85Kg and under, so keep this in mind before you order one.
SRAM AXS Eagle XX1 groupset – £1950
- Price: £1950
- From: SRAM
Another entrant from the SRAM camp. The SRAM AXS Eagle XX1 is currently the most expensive drivetrain on the market, more expensive than Rotors 13-speed hydraulic system and more expensive than Shimano’s XTR. XX1 obviously means that this drivetrain sits at the top of the SRAM line-up while Eagle indicates that this is another 1×12 system.
What you won’t need to do with the SRAM AXS Eagle XX1 drivetrain is to hunt down some super expensive, ultra exotic gear cables, because this system is totally wireless. SRAM introduced AXS Eagle at the same time as the AXS RockShox Reverb dropper. When used in conjunction it makes for a neater and easier to set up system, just remember to charge before you charge.
Trust Performance Message Linkage Fork – $2700 (£2100)
- Price: £2100
- From: Trust Performance
Trust Performance wants to “to touch as many riders as possible and to make as many riders lives better as possible.” and this is why they’ve created a full carbon linkage fork that costs £2100. Really, it’s a wonder that we don’t all have one by now.
The Trust Performance Message fork is very different from anything on the market today, even other rival linkage forks like Motion Ride’s E18. For starters, the Message is only available as a 130mm travel option, and it is designed to work with either 27.5in or 29er wheels. While travel is limited to 130mm, Trust says the fork is suitable for replacing telescopic forks with up to 150mm of travel. There are other details that make the Trust Message different, but you can read our first ride review here, and keep an eye out for our full, in-depth review coming soon.
Syncros Silverton SL Wheelset – £3100
- Price: £3100
- From: Scott
Syncros Silverton SL wheels are a full carbon wheelset, meaning that the rim, spokes and even the hub are made of carbon fibre. From a distance, they appear to be made using separate components, i.e a hub, spokes and a rim or laced together, but in fact, each wheel is made in one piece.
This method of construction is unique and means that Syncros has built a wheelset that weighs in at only 1250g. Obviously, Syncros didn’t build these wheels to meet a budget so the carbon hub bodies receive DT Swiss internals and high-end ceramic bearings too.
Unno Dash Frame – €5000 (£4400)
- Price: £4400
- From: Unno
We’ve opted for the Unno Dash for this build, but really you could choose the Unno Burn 27.5in bike and build a bike for the same price. Each Unno frame is hand made in Barcelona, and the bikes are so exclusive that they only come in one size, although more sizes are incoming.
The Unno Dash is a 29er only bike, so it will work perfectly with those pricey Syncross wheels, and as it has 130mm of travel it should match the Trust Performance Message fork well too. Unno ships each Dash frame with an Öhlins rear shock and bearings are all top of the range Max XO with “50% more balls”.
Is this the bike you would build with £17k?
If money was no object and you had £17k+ to spend on a bike are these the parts you would go for? Share your dream builds with us below and see if you can beat our £17,000+ hyperbike price.
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The fact you CAN build a bike for £17k is just bonkers, and sad in some respects. If I had £17k I’d buy several bikes, have a nice holiday and pay a bit off the mortgage.
Does that beat your £17k bike? 😉
Would I? Er, no… I have a wife.
Loving those Rust bars!
The Rust bars do look lovely, but Thomson’s titanium riser bars are somewhat more expensive still.
@tomd1984 It certainly does 😉 If I had £17k to spend I could by an off the peg Unno and have £9000 change, but I’d probably go for something even more affordable and just enjoy myself.
@Pjay how much are those Thomson bars?
The Thomson website lists the titanium risers at $389.95 (CRC list a uK RRP at £349.99 but are selling at 21% off).
@Pjay WOW! I suppose I could do a follow up article, after all this one doesn’t even include Fox Live Valve 😉
Yeah, looks like some further research is needed as you are missing “cruicial” upgrade in shape of Ceramic Speed jockey wheels. USD1700 only…
Cheers!
I.
Tut tut. Everything shipped in from overseas. Did those kids have a day off school yesterday for nothing?
The true cost of this bike has to be measured in rising inches of seawater!!!
And you could buy 8.5 cars for that couldn’t you Andi? 🙂 It really needs a PUSH Elevensix shock. and all the bolts changing to Ti.
Actually a nice idea to think about but you look at that list and think Blimey it’s all a bit eugh.
Anyway come on, test yourself, how about the lightest 140mm FS trail bike with no budget limit?
£17,000 for one of the worlds ugliest bikes. I hope the Unno has a high bottom bracket, those carbon pedals wouldn’t last long on a Specialized riding anywhere rocky. Though if I had £2000 kicking around I do like the sounds of the Sram AXS groupset.
Cool to see the RUST bars on the list. 🙂
Even cooler to see my custom Bike Park Wales etched bars in the back row of the pic.
Trickstuff maximas are (were on Kickstarter) €990 without rotors, €1100 with. You can/could order a set from r2bike in Germany for €1200, without rotors.
Would I? Yeah I would. (I’ve 5 items from that list, but not all on the same bike)
Also, if you put Enve rims on King hubs, with ceramic bearings, and some posh spokes, I reckon that would tip them over the price of the syncros wheelset.
I now have a set of RUST bars cut to 780 with a 15mm rise.
I uses to have a 730 flat Ti Thomson set which were heavier than the RUSTS.
Both are luxury items that were/are worth every pound as they’re truly comfortable to ride on.
Carbon bars are hit or miss for stiffness and too stiff for my liking. Ti bars however really do take the sting out.
One thing that is missing from my bike is EEwings which if I coukd stomach COULD get hokd of via a trade source for once!
@eddiebaby I could buy a lot more cars than that for £17,000 😉 As for the Push Elevensix, they don’t offer one for the UNNO so I didn’t bother adding one. Ti bolts are a good call though!
@tomhoward you don’t have those carbon pedals do you? 😮
@digdan85 the Rust bars are really something I’d love to give a go, along with eeWings and Maxima brakes. I may need to start building a new bike very soon 🙂
It all relative if you got a Ferrari a Bentley and a rolls Royce what’s 17k on a bike plus those guys and gals pay for the tech everyone else has in a couple of years. Win win for everyone that’s capitalism
@singletrackandi no, but i reckon there are more expensive clipless pedals? don’t crank bros do some silly money egg beaters?
(I’ve the king headset, Enve stem and am waiting for the AXS gears and reverb and TS Maxima to arrive)
yep, Crank Brothers Eggbeater 11 Ti , RRP £399.99
“Win win for everyone that’s capitalism”
On what planet?
Not this one, self-evidently…
Schmolke look at Rust bars and laugh at their bargain bin price…… 380 euros. Or 333 quid currently,if you go for the widest, heaviest weight taking ‘black edition’…… Or cheap out and get the 263 quid versions like a sucker.
+1 for lightest. Also an Environmental impact bike, covering material choice, air miles, sustainability, I’d guess a steel rigid single speed might win that, which would be dull…so maybe not.
Those forks have had lame reviews so far and given the forks are probably either 1st or second most important part Id say you are looking at a £17000 lemon
Generally, if anyone was building a bike for it to meet that “most expensive” marker, they don’t know or care what it should ride like!
I sold a GT Team STS once; the mechanic started explaining all the rebound, compression etc and the guy didn’t want to know, he said “all i’ll be doing is riding it to the shops”. He’d already swapped out the stock wheels for some more expensive ones and kept asking “is there anything else i could change on this bike?” Paid in full on the Amex Black credit card. That’s the sort of people who buy these insanely expensive things – footballers, bankers on massive bonuses, oligarchs. None of them care about what it could or should ride like, they’ll be leaning it outside the cafe or cruising down the beachfront on it.
A shop I worked in once had to convince a customer that a triple clamp DH fork, I forget which, was not the ideal accompaniment to an XC hardtail frame, despite them both being the most expensive frame and fork choice at the time… I also know of another shop that, having built up a mega £££££ spec bike, the customer wanted to return it for a refund after the first ride as it wasn’t ‘fast enough to keep up with his mates’.
Why spend £480 on a bar AND stem, when you could spend €650 on a bar/stem combo? ridegemini.com/en/tienda/kastor-en
XTR Di2 is $500 more than SRAM AXS … missed opportunity 🙂
£1939 for 2×11 (meaning you need a 2x compatible frame, iirc the dash isn’t) vs £1950 for xx1axs?
This is all expensive stuff, or on the side of expensive. I could get me one of those titanium bars. The seat however, doesn’t even belong here. Its only outstanding feature is the price. Absolutely ridiculous to spend that on a seat when you can get a 100-gram full carbon seat on aliexpress for 25 dollars.
But, does expensive = best?
Some things on the list look like vajazzled tat… The saddle, for one…
Only 3 things I want from the list, bars, cranks & grips. And I’d probably need to be richer than I am now…