Your chance to build the most expensive bike in the world
£6399 for the frameset what can you add to get it over £20,000?
LS_09_Blade.jpg
Ever wanted to built the ultimate 'no expense spared' bike? Well now you can… and it won't cost you a penny.
Over the past few months we've tracked the progress of the Litespeed Blade on it's journey from drawing board, via the wind tunnel and the Radial Sheet Break Forming machine, to a bikeshop near you … well almost there. Wind tunnels and Radial Sheet Break Forming don't come cheap, oh, and of course it is made from titanium too…
All that adds up which is why the Blade frameset will cut a £6399 sized chunk from your bank balance. We reckon that right now it is the most expensive frameset in the world which holds out the possibility of building it up in to the world's most expensive bike.
With a six and a half grand head start you'd think that would be easy, but it's a harder task than you might imagine when Scandinavians keep insisting on making bicycles out of gold and diamonds. Currently the most expensive bicycle we can find is the Arumania Gold Bike Crystal Edition – yours for a piffling €80,000 (£69,296.22) and even their standard Gold Bike weighs in at €21,000 (£18,190,58) delivered. Mind you, how likely are you to ride down to shops on a gold-plated bike? Or indeed enter one in your local 10 or 25?
So your challenge is to suggest the most expensive build up you can think of for the Blade using real components and finishing kit – the winner is the person who can get it as far as possible over £20,000 without dipping it in gold (or any other precious metal) or encrusting it in diamonds – which would anyway play havoc with the Blade's laminar flow rendering it blunt as an aero time trial weapon. The complete bike in our main pic with HED wheels and 'bars probably pushes pretty close to the £20K mark, but we think you can get it higher…
There will be a prize. IT WON'T BE A BLADE!
Our challenge will be to get it built – Rebecca Pring from Litespeed's UK distributor, Paligap says they are up for it:
‘Building the most expensive bike in the world is a really exciting project to be involved in – doing something just ‘because’ and just for fun is great!!! We are eager to see what products make it onto the bike, and to see how creative readers will be!’
So let's see what we can do!
All you need to do to enter the competition is paste your suggestions for the ultimate build on to this story - we will also create a thread in the forum that you can add your suggestions to as well.
Here's some more suggestions to get the ball rolling…
A nice set of Lightweight wheels would be reassuringly expensive or maybe some FFWDs.
Campag Super Record Groupset? Or maybe something a little more esoteric… and expensive
Bugger, stalled at £15,700.00, including the frame and forks. 
Damn. £14693 here. If only I had more expensive tastes...
Curse Litespeed for 'generously' throwing in the fork, headset, and seat post - although I think I could have gone higher if I handn't done all my shopping online 
Oh, and I still need to find a set of skewers … though I'm not holding out much hope of finding a set for £5000.
On a bike somewhere…
£15195.99
not all carbon is the same.
Just thought.. If I ditch the cranks and get a Power-Meter thingy I can add a further £2k! 
Then you won't need one of these… Zipp Sub 9 disc wheels with Saris Powertap
I can't find one wheel that's more expensive than this… but maybe I'm not trying hard enough?
...assuming I'm allowed to use a pair of not-very-tt-specific-but-awfully-expensive wheels
Can't see how i'll get over twenty grand though 
Just thought.. If I ditch the cranks and get a Power-Meter thingy I can add a further £2k!
add another grand for the full FSA system: http://tinyurl.com/ch3n8d
Then you won't need one of these… Zipp Sub 9 disc wheels with Saris Powertap
Why not have BOTH! B)
You CAN have too much information y'know
...damn. 
Does anyone make custom carbon mudguards and racks? 
Soon baby, real soon.....
...my final offer. 
Come on guys, someone must be able to top the magic £20k... 
Good work Chuffy, but is it all time trial kit and if the bike got built would it work?
On a bike somewhere…
£21,180.42.
Get in!
Good work Chuffy, but is it all time trial kit and if the bike got built would it work?
Yup. Well, that is it *looks* as if it should all work and it's all tri-specific. Except for the dice valve-caps...
Does it work in Real Life (tm)? I'll let you know about ten hours after the postman arrives tomorrow... 
NOES! ROBBED!
You've found the Magic House of Custom Carbon, haven't you?
£21,180.42.Get in!
dip it in gold? Cos apparently that's against the rules
Spinning on a wheel
There's plenty of time yet Chuffy - everyone's got until Monday to come up with the most expensive build - and the winner will have to list all the kit and components*
There may or may not be a 'credibility threshold to get past'
Mind you, £21,180.42 is pretty impressive… gonna give us any clues to some of the choicer bits of kit schmiken?
I wonder if anyone does gold valve extenders? I thought the £16 Schwalbe one was salty, but I bet you could pay a lot more…
*all there in black and white in the compo rules we will be publishing any day now.
schmiken wrote:£21,180.42.
Get in!
dip it in gold? Cos apparently that's against the rules
Diamond is only a form of carbon....
yes, but I think the problem with diamonds is that they tend to be overly stiff in both the lateral and vertical planes rendering them far from ideal as a frame-making material… now stems and cranks made out of them that's another matter!
Spinning on a wheel
As I don't 'do' TimeTrials... could I spec. a rack, guard set and lights?
gonna give us any clues to some of the choicer bits of kit schmiken?
Think track....
tony_farrelly wrote:gonna give us any clues to some of the choicer bits of kit schmiken?Think track....
Think Silly US shops ( Can I include the P&P and Import Duty? )....
Damm thought I could get to £25,000 but came up a little short, will keep trying
Damm thought I could get to £25,000 but came up a little short, will keep trying
I feel hopelessly inadequate...
Can't wait to see your shopping list!
Are you allowed a fork and headset as couldn't see a mention of whether they come with frame? It looks like you get dedicated seatpost, but wasn't sure about the other bits?
Supplied
I was using 1.42 as exchange rate, with no account for import taxes, vat delivery etc....
… most expensive bike so stuff from the US should be fine (after all that's where the frameset comes from) but it might make it a tad harder for us to actually get the thing built.
Whatever, when we build it we will go for a plausible set up either as a TT/triathlon, or possibly track bike
I found a few other changes that could get it above £25k
...how do we do this? My best is £21,269 and I've got a spreadsheet to prove it. B)
We'll do it on the countback principle - once the compo closes (lunchtime tomorrow) ideally everyone who took part posts their parts and price lists here and then starting with the person claiming the highest total, the judges (me and Dave) will decide on whether their build would work… don't see why any of them wouldn't as long as the parts listed are available and compatible and would build into a TT or Tri bike. The person with the most expensive buildable bike wins. The judges' decision is final but everyone is more than welcome to chuck in their two penn'orth.
We may well have a situation where we have more than one prize - one for the most expensive plausibile build, and one for the most expensive plausible build… that we can actually build.
I did the spec on my mac, so have attached a PDF
hopefully you'll consider this a compatible build and that everything should work together nicely.
OK will try and extract build list
Where can I send this?
Checked RRP on manufacturers website, so now only £25,317. Website i was using for price guide for tyres had pair price for each.
I'm going to get fired keep checking on here...
And it was you.
Although you could have gone higher - we had a few more expensive bits on our build ups and I think some of the other entrants did too - but those wheels were a master stroke, and the £300 stem too.
We'll be posting a story about it later - just as soon as people stop sending me stories, be really interesting if all the other people who managed to get their builds up over 20K posted their build up lists and prices on here or emailed them to us at info@road.cc then we could try and build up an über version.
I did find a £250 chain, but I don't think it would work with Dura Ace
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=11294
My e-mail bounced.
Ah well, congratulations Stu.
I think you probably had me licked on everything except - Lew Custom VT-1 Wheels £10,500ish as mainly
poshbikes,
a bit of zipp
and Dura Ace
Can't wait to see best spec from everyone... can we make 30k?
...will re-send the spreadsheet. Hmmmm, add in the Lew wheels and my build comes to near £26k. Too late now, and well spotted Stu. Betcha didn't have £60 bartape though...
Dura-Ace? I think we can do better than that, get thee to Wiggle laddie!
Cinelli Imperial Leather - £54.80 from wiggle, 68.50 rrp not sure which counts?
Well dura ace shifters, Front Mech - lightweight rear mech at £799, SRM erogmeter @ 3825. I wanted to use, nitrided cassette fron poshbikes but wasn't sure this was compatible with 7900.
Also ulitmate pursuits have Dura Ace Di2 which is extremely expensive (towards lightspeed levels) for mechs with battery etc.. but they don't list time trial levers (or buttons?) but didn't think the STIs would be in keeping with TT build?
I found a better saddle:
http://www.brooksengland.com/shop/shopProductDetail.aspx?id=uid-20070521...
£512!!!!
That would be so incongruous, but so splendid. B)
Sounds like you went down a similar route to me, except that I had SRAM bar ends.
Oh and did you get the £2250 customised carbon aerobars from www.petracycles.co.uk?
Missed those they're fantastic - I had plain old Zipp Vukas + Zipp £300 stem
This is going to be one hell of a bike, do you think they'd let me borrow it for first 10 of the season?
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