Money’s all relative anyway, right? Most decent full suspension mountain bikes will run you at minimum $3,000 at this point. Plenty of carbon gravel bikes with electronic shifting at my LBS for $10k. I recently took a bunch of spins on an $11k Moots titanium bike.
Seems like a bargain now!
Because District Vision, a boutique apparel and sport specs designer in California has recently released the mother of all “is this a joke?” bespoke bike builds. I assume it’s a one off, but it’s not clear from the website. A $30k custom titanium tourer.
What is clear is this thing is a *beaut*. Which it sure as hell better be. Titanium pretty much everything. SRAM AXS groupset, as you’d expect (nay, demand). Custom Dyneema frame bags. A Brooks saddle. Titanium water bottles, it appears.
I put it in my cart, just for fun. Here’s what it looks like:
For a brief moment, the cost of this bike caused me to begin adding up the total cost of the bikes I’ve bought over the years to compare, and, well, I don’t recommend you do that!
They’re going to charge you for shipping?
Anyone have a discount code?
Nice bike
Every time I encounter a person who’s willing to buy a bike over 7K I say: sir, give that money, I’ll make a hell of a bike, one on the planet for you. And I’ll be still able to return you little cash from your budget. Certain people just never learn.
But, do you have a holistic vision and offer meditation? 😉
Ouch, 50% more than I have ever paid for an automobile – and I’ve been driving for 40 years. My commuter bike, still in use, cost me ~$350 in 1986. I’m old enough that everything seems expensive……
i want ( and can afford ) the titanium bell.
Bespoke horseshit.
That price is masturbatory in its level of insult.
How come? The frame builder can’t even be bothered to highlight their welds. This is benchmark practice for anyone building in ti. Further, the company selling it, isn’t even a builder, they’re some whipperhipster company with a blue pill boner about their own bespokeness.
Think I’ll start a car company. I’ll buy a Ferrari, rebadge it with my own stupid insignia, add some wooden fender flares. and a pair of trucknutz out back and double the price, while listing it on my fancy website, with little to no technical info beyond names, sit back, and wait for the hedgefunders to trip over themselves trying to be first in line.
The cycling industry is dead. Any passion, creativity, drive to improve, is gone. Replaced with bean counters driving the ship, and the only performance metrics that matter, are financial ones.
When 100 year plus, legacy names such as Mavic, have now been bought and sold more times in the last ten years than most Pacific bicycles have been out of the garage?
When brands like Race Face have been sold so many times, you need to call their number to find parts for VeloMax wheels (seriously) only to be told they have no product information on that company, despite it being in their “portfolio”?
When MUSA tool brands such as Park, have the vast bulk of their tools now sourced from generic, off the shelf models, made in China, and dipped in their proprietary blue color, since manufacturing it in the USA would be too costly to be profitable?
When most major brands would prefer to sell bikes directly to consumers, then command their dealer network to absorb the loss and buy the bike back for their own inventory on the floor (with their own funds) because Tommy realized he “didn’t like road biking as much as he thought he would”, whereas had Tommy gone to a fucking bike shop, had a 10 minute chat about his needs, and ridden a few bikes, only to find a Hybrid was actually perfect (and cheaper)?
This tiny, passionate, 30 year+ veteran, one man bike shop is done. Fuck this industry, Fuck it’s profit at all costs bullshit. Fuck it’s crushing embrace of designed obsolescence. Fuck its hatred of small shops independence, Fuck its one brand for cradle to grave is all you need, mindset. Fuck Amazon and Walmart for forcing “cost is the only thing that matters” mindsets on a desperate to consume at any cost, customer base.
Oh, and fuck bikes like this. The actual retail price is half this. The rest is meth driven hubris on behalf of the sellers.
Craig, why don’t you say what you really think (haha)
You had me at titanium water bottles, then lost me at SRAM;)