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What are some of the most expensive bikes ever made?

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What are some of the most expensive bikes ever made?

Old 10-04-16, 01:52 AM
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Lakerat
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What are some of the most expensive bikes ever made?

What are the bicycles that royalty and the mega wealthy owned? Ever seen any bikes that had jewels or ornate flourishes by Tiffany or the like?
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Old 10-04-16, 03:20 AM
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C&V bikes only I assume? Are you looking at Retail price, or market price? One that immediately comes to mind is the Colnago Arabesque. Rene Herse go for crazy money too but that's probably true anytime you find a pristine condition bike from any of the really old brands, like Singer, Hetchins, Masi (Mario Confente) to name a few.
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Old 10-04-16, 04:27 AM
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My International a la Carte Folly
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Old 10-04-16, 05:08 AM
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Singer and Herse will always be up there.
Here's a very nice example on craigslist, worth the asking price: Alex Singer Touring Bike
make sure you look at the detail photos

Current top-line carbon touring bikes are $15,00, e.g Calfe and Seven
Just a little less will get you a Ritchey, hand-built by Tom Ritchey.
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Old 10-04-16, 05:14 AM
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You expect them to ride something like this?


Gold is heavy and extremely malleable, diamonds might be used as reflectors but it would be too ostentatious for anyone but the nouveau riche.

The Danish royals:


I believe the brand for their normal bikes is Velorbis

Belgian king and family:


The Dutch Royal family is often seen on normal Dutch high end bikes, 800 euro stuff, and 1800 for the cargo's.

I guess the bike is egalitarian by design.
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Old 10-04-16, 06:01 AM
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Jewel encrusted bicycles are a very expensive option just to get the wife to consent to n+1!
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Old 10-04-16, 07:01 AM
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Confente seems to reign along with some older special edition bikes like the Colnago. But C&V for the most part is still a bargain compared to new. For the price of that Singer you couldn't touch any of the top bikes today, group alone can almost cost that.

Royaltyish wise. I imagine the Colnago made for the Pope would bring in some cash.
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Old 10-04-16, 07:03 AM
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https://www.bicycleretailer.com/north...breezer-philly

it's missing the holy water bottle cage
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Old 10-04-16, 07:08 AM
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I was thinking of the Gold plated Colnago.
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Old 10-04-16, 07:18 AM
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only photo I could find

ah, here it is https://italiancyclingjournal.blogspo...n-paul-ii.html

what I want to see is a photo of the Pope riding it


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Old 10-04-16, 07:18 AM
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Bikes weren't really "high class" where the glitterati were riding them with gems. What makes a bike expensive is generally less rather than more.

When/where I grew up, the most expensive, baddest bike on the planet was a Merlin. Frame/fork was around 3.5k...unheard of then. In comparison a top end De Rosa dripping with c-record was cheaper complete. I am certain that was a factor in me lusting for a Merlin years later...they were imprinted on my impressionable mind as the paragon of quality. It also didn't really disappoint...that Merlin is the finest production bike I've ever ridden.

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Old 10-04-16, 07:24 AM
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When bikes became high class was during the occupation of Paris.
There was no gasoline, there were no cars in Paris, except German staff vehicles. (imagine Paris without cars)
The people spent their transportation money on good bicycles, and that's when Rene Herse and Alex Singer took off.
https://janheine.wordpress.com/2013/...an-occupation/
It's the advent of the modern lightweight bicycle, and good bikes were very much a status symbol on the streets of Paris.
Taxis were bicycles.
There was a daily race to bring produce from farms in the country back to market.
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Old 10-04-16, 07:47 AM
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Originally Posted by bulldog1935
only photo I could find

ah, here it is ITALIAN CYCLING JOURNAL: Colnago for Pope John Paul II

what I want to see is a photo of the Pope riding it

Interesting to know he rode 38km twice a week. I also could not picture him on this, would be a cool pic for sure.

Off topic, but was flipping through my recorded movies yesterday trying to find something to watch, stopped at BreakingAway and figured I would watch a few minutes. I had recorded one of those narrated/intro movies on TCM and never watched the intro. It was Matthew Broderick and he mentioned how great it was and he never had realized why he rode all the time. It was due to him liking the movie when he was young. Maybe he has a Masi that would be an expensive buy.
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Old 10-04-16, 08:01 AM
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Gold plated bicycles are not that rare. Many companies produced them over the years, primarily as a promotional item but sometimes as gifts to valued employees, such as the gold plated CCM Flyers. The practice of gilding bicycles with precious metals and jewels goes back to at least the 1890s when cycling was the newest and biggest sensation. Lillian Russell, the mega-star of the 1890s, had gold plated and jewelled bicycles built for her. The Smithsonian has a 1895 Columbia that was gilded and by Tiffany as a promotional item. You can read more about it here The History Blog » Blog Archive » Bejeweled, gilded silver Tiffany bike on display .
Attached Images
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Tiffany bicycle a.jpg (89.3 KB, 157 views)
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Tiffany bicycle b.jpg (93.6 KB, 158 views)
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Tiffany bicycle c.jpg (88.3 KB, 156 views)
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Old 10-04-16, 08:54 AM
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If you want to see a collection of beautiful and no doubt very expensive bikes, check out decal guy Greg Softley's albums on flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/cyclomondo/albums
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Old 10-04-16, 10:58 AM
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Originally Posted by T-Mar
Gold plated bicycles are not that rare. Many companies produced them over the years, primarily as a promotional item but sometimes as gifts to valued employees, such as the gold plated CCM Flyers. The practice of gilding bicycles with precious metals and jewels goes back to at least the 1890s when cycling was the newest and biggest sensation. Lillian Russell, the mega-star of the 1890s, had gold plated and jewelled bicycles built for her. The Smithsonian has a 1895 Columbia that was gilded and by Tiffany as a promotional item. You can read more about it here The History Blog » Blog Archive » Bejeweled, gilded silver Tiffany bike on display .
1973 Lambert, 24ct. gold plated, yours for only $279

[IMG]lambert-june-73 by carrera247, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]lambert bike gold plated by carrera247, on Flickr[/IMG]
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Old 10-04-16, 11:06 AM
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1979 Colnago Mexico gold plated, built for Pope John Paul II

Ernesto Colnago: We built this golden bike for the Pope in '79. It was a special day when we went to the Vatican to present it to him. Very emotional for me. I went with my entire family; my brother Paolo and his son Alessandro. We heard that the Pope liked to ride a bike and that he did a ride of 38km two times a week when he was in Krakow and he continued to ride when he was in Castel Gondolfo (the Pope's summer residence outside of Rome).

The Pope picked up this bike and told me it was marvelously light and that he wished he had one like it a long time ago!

I remember that the Pope said to me that "you are in the midst of all the cyclists and the sport and I want to bless cycling and all the riders." That really touched me deeply when the Pope said that.

CN: Do you think that Pope John Paul II actually rode this bike?

Ernesto Colnago: No, I don't believe so. After a year or so, the Vatican contacted us to give this bike back and the Pope requested a sports type bike with regular flat handlebars so we built him one, a white one. That's the bike he rode in Castel Gondolfo.



He talks of it at the beginning of this vid.

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Old 10-04-16, 04:38 PM
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When I think of ostentatious bikes, I think of the Columbine bikes. Beautiful, and flaunting it.

Then I think of Frank Schwinn's Paramount- the guy could have had ANYTHING on his bike that he wished.

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