If money was no object....

[GrumpyGregry]

Hase Pino with all the trimmings

 

[Dayvo]

£3000 would sort my perfect bike out

A Santos Travelmaster with the Rohloff belt drive system ..... pure Heaven

Simon

+1

And if money was no problem, I'd spend most of the rest of my life travelling round the world on it.

 

[Monkspeed]

I would probably get the Eddy Merckx EMX-7. But them Donhou bikes that PowerdByVeg linked too sure look sweet!

EDIT: Added a pic

 

[Tigerbiten]

Obviously, trikes and recumbents tend to be pricier to start with, mostly due to small scale production.

Don't I know it.

My new bent ICE trike was over 2x the standard price .........

 

[tyred]

I wouldn't mind a Mercian Professional but in reality, I would continue to rescue other people's junk from skips as I enjoy rebuilding/restoring old bikes more than I actually enjoy riding them

 

[Bicycle]

I cannot imagine what that would be like (but am reminded of Fitzgerald's 'Diamond as big as the Ritz').

If I could really spend what I wanted, I think I might go for very lightweight bespoke steel (or maybe titanium) roadbikes... From a framebuilder, not a multinational.

There would have to be a matched pair of fixie and geared.

Maybe also a third matching bike with mudguards and winter tyres, which would just hang there and never be ridden as a protest against the ubiquity of muduards.

I imagine an ally hardtail MTB (also bespoke) would keep those bikes company.

All would be painted the same colour, to match my Bentleys and my collection of classic Citroens, Panhards and Italian roadsters.

Most of the unlimited budget would go on the workshop, where there would be beautiful bespoke workbenches, clamps, vices, frame-trueing rigs, wheel-building stuff, good music systems, air-contitioning and a full fridge.

Call me a sentimental old fool, but I'd feel the need to look after the three full-time mechanics I'd need to look after my money-no-object bicycles.

Now... about the house....

 

[ColinJ]

I spent about £2,000 on a Bianchi in 1999. I'm not sure what that would be equivalent to now. That had a 9-speed Campagnolo groupset, but it wasn't Record or even Chorus, it was the then third-in-range (old model) Athena. The wheels were pretty good - Campagnolo Protons. Though it was a very good bike, I could have paid more and got a better one but the law of diminishing returns would have kicked in with a vengeance.

I spent about £2,000 on a CAAD5 Cannondale a few years later. It has 10-speed Chorus and I transferred the Protons over from the older bike. TBH, that bike is about as good as I need, though I occasionally lust after something better.

Most of my riding time is spent on a steel-framed Basso which is a few pounds heavier than a bike needs to be but I enjoy riding it. I do prefer the aggressive ride quality of the Cannondale when I'm fit enough to take advantage of it but I currently need all of the Basso's lower gears. It seems a bit silly to worry about 5 pounds of bike weight when I am 45 pounds overweight!

If I had £3,000 to spend on bikes, I would consider changing the gearing on the Cannondale, and spend the rest on a really good titanium audax/light touring bike. I'd keep the Cannondale for when I wanted to ride fast and the Ti bike would be fine for everything else.

I'd like to try a carbon fibre bike but I couldn't justify buying one while I still have the Cannondale and there is no good reason to sell that, especially since I'd be lucky to get even £500 for it.

I like my 853 Rock Lobster hardtail MTB, but it is a bit heavy so I could maybe see myself getting a lighter MTB in the future once my own weight isn't such a big part of the total. I reckon I could get a bike about half a stone lighter than the current one. Mind you, this one is practically bomb-proof and that is important for a MTB that does actually see some proper heavy duty bridleway action.

I might spend more than £3,000 on a very specialist bike like the semi-recumbent tandem that Uncle Phil & Mrs. Uncle Phil bought recently, but no matter how wealthy I was, I'd consider it a bit OTT to spend that on a standard racing bike.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Hase Pino with all the trimmings

I'll recant.

If money was no really object; a Hase Pino and ownership of (and employment in) an LBS* to buy it from.

*We'd sell kites and hiking gear too.

 

[Beebo]

I tracked down this web site, from Forbes, the worlds most expensive bikes. I know they have gold and diamonds etc, (click on the next arrow to move along the list)

http://www.forbes.com/2010/07/08/tour-de-france-technology-future-design-bikes_slide.html

 

[oldfatfool]

I would be quite happy with Cube agree sl triple, However I would blow £15k or so on a Tacx Alpinista http://www.tacx.com/en/producten/Klimtrainer/Alpinista/index.dot

 

[Bigsharn]

If money was no object I'd get an Innesenti carbon touring trike (£7,495) and, though it's cheating a bit get an aerodynamic carbon shell put on it... *possibly* whacking a 27t Schlumpf High Speed Drive on for towing and hills

 

[sabian92]

I'd invent wheels that can't be knocked out of true. Sick of it!

 

[Keith Oates]

If it was money no object I'd get a Colnago M10, I don't know how much they cost and am not very likely to find out but I can dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TheDoctor]

For me, it's be a Windcheetah. I've ridden one (all too briefly) and it was the best ride ever.
About £4000 and I wouldn't begrudge a penny of it.

 

[ufkacbln]

Depends on what you call "kitted out"

I worked out the there day that my "transferrable kit" of lights. GPS, toolkits, helmet camera, laptop, waterproofs etc comes to almost 3k.