09 October 2008

world's most expensive POS

Sweet Jesus... sometimes I have no idea what people are thinking! I'm a regular reader of cyclingnews.com and today they covered the world's most expensive bicycle.

What's so great about this bike? Uh... exactly nothing.

It looks for all the world like some ancient track bike that has been restored, plated in gold and then crusted in diamonds. What's that adage? You can polish a turd but no matter how much you polish it, it's still gonna stink. I mean c'mon, the saddle is made from really hard, uncomfortable leather (and they couldn't even level it out for the photo!), the bar wrap is hand sewn (and why don't we use leather on the bars anymore?) and what's with the pedals?! It looks like they put some regular old, department store platform pedals on a single speed. Nice. What about those super cool new Speedplay nanogram pedals? Or at least a classy, Campagnolo quill pedal with a fancy Binda strap? Heck, plate the strap buckle why not! But no.

This thing doesn't even look good hanging on the wall.

How can you make an expensive bike that is also cool? Sure, there just isn't as much technology involved as say, with a car or a sailboat but you can still do it justice. What about using some kind of unobtanium material for the frame? Or what about sticking some kind of uber-researched disc wheels on the front and rear? Or how about this; we all know you can only make a bike so light and make it affordable, what about if price was not object?

Gluing diamonds on a steel frame just does not get me hot. I can totally see some lower-income kid out there trying to bling out his ride with a can of gold spray paint and some fake stones. Looks the same to me...

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