How Much?! Just for fun!

Moving this to its own thread as not to derail where it started.

*trigger warning. If you get upset by how much bike stuff costs, that’s fine, this is not the thread for you. We/I don’t care what you could buy with the money instead.*

Someone mentioned it wasn’t possible to spend £30K on a bike and whilst I probably agreed, I thought it would be (loosely defined) fun to see how much one could spend on a bike. Here’s what I got.

RRPs used, and assumes all labour for assembly is free)

Specialized Kenevo SL Frame, Motor & Battery plus extender – £7,200
Custom paint job £1,500-£2,000 but really could go to the moon…
Rulezman Dorado – £3,500ish
EXT EStoria – £1,150 – OEM shock, say £500 so £650 total, plenty of scope for tuning £££
SRAM XX Cassette, Mech, Chain & Shifter Pod – £1,400
Cane Creek EEWings Ti eBike Cranks – £1,500
CK ceramic Hubs – £1,350 (thanks @rickdraper
Enve M70 Rims – £2,400
Berd Spokes – ~£500
Trickstuff Maxima Brakes £1,100
Intend Aero Rotors – £200
AXS Reverb – £800
Tyres, those Tacky Chans were £75 each RRP, they’re as good as any for the purpose of this £150
Crank Brothers eggbeater 11 Pedals – £400 (or £300 ish for a set of bling flats)
Chris King Headset – £200
Reserve Valves – £50
5DEV Ti Stem – £350
Dward Designs Ti Spider, Chainring, Seatclamp, Jockey Wheels, Topcap – £600ish
Rev Grips – £100
Specialized Power Saddle £350
Thomson Ti Bars £400

There’s a few other trinkets (ti bolts for example, but i CBA pricing all that up) but that’ll get you a working machine

All this is off the shelf too, custom stuff from a legendary builder may tip you over the 30k mark but the above comes to around £24.5K

For clarity, this is just for fun, NOT my next project!

Any advance on 25 grand?

I look forward to seeing your full build as a magazine feature in a few weeks.

It’ll still need warranty after 12 miles

Just ask Dangerholm how much some of his stuff cost to make.

Only person i know who’d spend 10+k on flat bar gravel bike.

Road CC did a £30k road bike

https://road.cc/content/feature/most-expensive-bike-you-can-build-2023-290809

Add another grand to that road bike, now super record EPS is out…

surely e-bikes are cheating on this exercise?

A Silca pump and some Silca cleats will add another £500 to that.

look forward to seeing your full build as a magazine feature in a few weeks

As part of a £25k bike group test where it’s pitched against an “analogue” carbon fibre road bike in your favourite team colours and a hand built custom rigid steel hardtail. 😜

weeksyFull MemberIt’ll still need exchanging after 12 miles

FTFY 😉

surely e-bikes are cheating on this exercise?

they’re available from bike shops, and are allowed to be used in the same way/places as regular bikes, and also work without assistance.

I’d start with a Lotus/Hope track frame. You can easily add £5k plus for wheels. I’d say £25k is not hard given you need a custom titanium printed front end too.

My wife has two horses and bought a vehicle to transport them in?  I laugh at your £25k. 

Just ask Dangerholm how much some of his stuff cost to make.

Only person i know who’d spend 10+k on flat bar gravel bike.

A lot of that expense comes from his elbow grease, so not considered here, and as for how much he spends (rather than a brands marketing budget these days) I don’t reckon it’s much at all.

surely e-bikes are cheating on this exercise?

Aren’t they always 😀

I’d go for a beryllium hardtail, those frames were $25k back in the nineties

I’d start with a Lotus/Hope track frame. You can easily add £5k plus for wheels. I’d say £25k is not hard given you need a custom titanium printed front end too.

IIRC that’s roughly what they will sell you one for, but no one had bought one when I spoke to Hope about it @ Bespoked a couple of years ago, though they had 2 buyers in the far east making enquiries)

Pff, you could easily beat that with a load of stuff from R2.

Pff, you could easily beat that with a load of stuff from R2.

Go on then, put some imaginary money where your mouth is!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_Trek_Madone

£500k. EoT.

Not really, there was that gold fat bike for a million a few years ago, but they aren’t off the shelf bikes, so don’t really count.

OSPW X for SRAM Eagle AXS Cerakote Limited Edition

£750 jockey wheels for your build

https://www.teamcycles.com/accessories/pedals-cleats/garmin-rally-xc200-dual-sensing-power-meter-pedals__32967?currency=GBP&chosenAttribute=010-02388-04&gclid=CjwKCAjw7c2pBhAZEiwA88pOF_ODiLYhYdmEGOWoojecyAZDW772uOftsOX8tTf8d9cWucGO4OHM_hoCj_0QAvD_BwE

£1000 pedals (rrp)

https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/731136/pn/010-02503-21
£600 computer

Needs some telemetry – ShockWiz equivalent for coil fork and shock, TyreWiz, BrakeAce.

Tyre inserts.

Bentley Components top cap.

Fasst Flexx handlebars.

Hand guards.

Mudguards front and rear.

Replace all frame bearings with SKF solid oil.

Invisiframe, RockStop downtube protector.

I’d rather spend £30k on banishing hand guards from the MTB world.

Bentley and Dward topcaps are about the same money
Fasst bars are about the same price as Ti thomsons

Just order it all from the EU and add the vat on job done 🙂

Mudguards front and rear.

You can’t put mudguards on a £25K bike.

Must say I’m disappointed by the tyres, only £75 seems quite low-budget by comparison!

or spend 10x less and get a functionality similar bike

https://www.balfesbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain-bikes/trek-slash-97-slxxt-29-full-suspension-mountain-bike-2022-in-green__28341

slash 9.7 , carbon fir 2.6k

(id actually wager the slash would get you down an proper enduro stage faster)

or spend 10x less and get a functionality similar bike

Bet you’re fun at parties.

Must say I’m disappointed by the tyres, only £75 seems quite low-budget by comparison!

doesn’t seem to be a daft expensive option here, think £85-90 is the upper limit for RRP, those I mentioned were just ones that came to mind. Even the expensive ones get discounted too.

bet you’re fun at parties

I bring a bottle of Aldis specially selected Prosecco & put it against any of your fancy champers

ive got tech4s on one bike & deore 4pots on the other, the tech4s are soo nice to use and i get a bit less hand fatigue, but if im being honest at ~4x less the deores do me just as well

its great that we can spend a fortune on top end kit, but its more great that you can get such great stuff on the cheap!

Bold of you to assume you’d be let in.

Silca Ti bottle cage at £190?

Dynaplug Covert bar plugs, think they’re about £125.

Is it bad the only bit of that list that actually bothers me is this:

or £300 ish for a set of bling flats)
Chris King Headset – £200
Reserve Valves – £50

I mean wtf, none of those things offers anything at all over a component at half the price!

Dynaplug Covert bar plugs, think they’re about £125.

Wolftooth things must be twice the price at least because they’re Wolftooth?

(I had to Google the forks then promptly said “yeah that’s fine”)

I’d start with a Lotus/Hope track frame.

Yes, can easily beat 30K on a track bike but is that in the ‘rules’?

The WX-R is also around £25K just for the frameset and although the Factor is more of a complete that was rumoured to be around £60K. Add wheels such as Mavic IO, custom bars/stem as you suggest and hitting £40K all without even having to spend money on gears and brakes!

I mean wtf, none of those things offers anything at all over a component at half the price!

Even if everything was half the price, you’d still be looking at a 12-13 grand bike 😉

Literally nothing on that list doesn’t have a much, much cheaper, similarly functioning, alternative.

I suppose what surprises me is these are mostly relatively available, ‘click for next day delivery’, off the shelf parts (fork and paint job accepted), and that you don’t need to spend long on Vitals bike of the day page (search ‘Blesius Bikes’, a shop in California that seems to knock them out pretty much weekly), or on some of the above brands insta pages to see that these sorts of builds are far from uncommon.

EXT EStoria – £1,150 – OEM shock, say £500 so £650 total, plenty of scope for tuning £££

If you buy from Mojo they will revalve/retune your shock as part of selling it to you all at no extra cost.
They’ll even do it multiple times if you’re really not happy with it.
They’ll also swap either or both of the two springs that it comes with.
😉

Some people have way too much time on their hands 🙄

Meh, I’m ‘wasting’ my own time, rather than anyone else’s.

You forgot quarq tyrewiz electronic valves.

I sort of consciously left out any sort of telemetry/recording devices, as all the consumer stuff is kind of playing at it, if you really wanted to go full data acquisition, you’d be looking at 6 figures, plus the salary of the person doing the recording.

That and they aren’t integral to the bikes function. As pointless as a £350 stem is, you do still need a stem.

Literally nothing on that list doesn’t have a much, much cheaper, similarly functioning, alternative.

Absolutely and I’m somehow fine with that £350 stem yet I find that £50 Valves exist or that flat pedals cost l significantly more than clippy ones a little offensive.

£500 spokes? Yeah I’m OK with that.

I get that it’s just me being weird!