Lifestyle
The fine art of cycling
Written by Martin Love
Last summer two masked men ram-raided a luxury shop on Regent Street, London’s premier location for high-end designer boutiques. One of the raiders smashed the front door’s armoured glass with a length of scaffolding pipe, while his accomplice sat outside revving a scooter ready to make a speedy getaway. Grainy CCTV images from the shop’s security cameras show the robber clambering through the shattered door and grabbing loot from the shelves before jumping on the back of his partner’s scooter and fleeing into the dark. The whole crime takes less than a minute. Sadly, it is just another Saturday-night smash-and-grab on one of the capital’s poshest shopping streets. Except there was one big difference: the robbers were not after gems, watches or handbags, they were after bicycles. They made off with four top-of-the range frames worth an estimated £25,000.
For decades, bike shops have been colourful cornucopias on most village high streets. Often they are not only the hub of the local cycling community, but they are also oily meccas stocked with bikes and every possible accessory a keen amateur might need to keep their two wheels spinning. But over the past few years there has been a massive surge in interest in so-called “hyper” bikes. These are usually bespoke and collectable dream machines, built to order at enormous cost. They are stunning pieces of featherweight aerodynamic carbon with frames that are weighed in grams rather than kilos and constructed from futuristic materials more at home on space shuttles than road bikes.
But these head-turning pieces of engineered art have, until now, not had the sort of retail premises that truly reflects their new standing in our culture. In the summer of 2015, Pinarello, a leading Italian brand, realised there was a gap in the market for a super-luxurious showcase for its range of cycles and opened the Bike Rooms on Regent Street.
The flagship store now jostles with the likes of Gucci and HermËs for window space to attract affluent passersby and is unlike any cycle shop you have seen. There isn’t an oily rag in sight. Each model is presented on a white plinth, spotlit from above. The bikes are treated like rare works of art or couture dresses. The specification and price of each machine appears in a small card attached to the wall nearby. It’s all very discrete and it’s easy to forget these are not just collectible investments but working machines, too. Shoppers browse the range as they sip espressos and stroll across the space’s blonde wood floors. It’s as far from an Ikea scrum as you can get.
The Pinarellos that the thieves targeted were some of the Italian marque’s most precious: one was a Dogma K8-S, the exact model Team Sky rode in the tough Paris-Roubaix one-day classic. But what they were really after was the stunning time trial bike ridden by Sir Bradley Wiggins when he broke the UCI Hour Record on 7 June. They got away with a replica of it, but not the original, that was locked in the basement and is estimated to be worth €1,275,000.
It seems incredible that any bike could be worth so much, but at least Wiggo’s particular ride has heritage and a heroic race pedigree. What of the other models that now cost as much as a small car? Pinarello stocks road bikes that range from €1,250 - the entry level Trionfo - up to the awesome Dogma F8 Super Record EPS 674 at €11,500. It’s the latest incarnation of the brand’s Dogma frame which claims to be the “most titled bike on the planet”. It’s the bike that has won the Tour de France twice, the World Championship and more than 100 Pro Tour races.
I ask Matt, the debonair shop manager, what the bestseller is. “This one,” he says, laying a hand on the most expensive. “I get Russians popping in, buying two or three at a time. They get us to box them up and taxi them over to the Lanesborough hotel where they are staying.”
Why do they want to spend so much on a bike, I ask. “Simple,” says Matt. “They want to have the best. I get riders coming in and showing me pictures of their friend’s bike and they say: ‘I don’t care what you give me, but it has to be better than his!’”
Though the F8 is the most expensive road bike Pinarello sells, there is a further highly specialised bike which costs €19,000 - the Bolide Dura Ace Di2 Wiggo 889. But that really is one for the experts. Though, as Matt says, he has sold a few.
Who on earth to? “Just regular guys,” says Matt with a mystified shrug. Most of his clients are middle-aged and wealthy. It’s been said that when men hit their 40s they used to join a golf club, now they get into cycling. Along with sports cars, sailing, skiing holidays and costly music centres, bikes have become yet another way for the brash to flash their cash. But perhaps, seen in the context of classic autos and yachts, €10,000 on a bicycle suddenly seems quite affordable for a person who has to have the best of everything. And at least it keeps them healthy.
Of course, once you accept that bikes are a luxury item as oppose to an everyday piece of equipment, the sky is then the limit. And there are many happy to cater to this growing market. Those searching for truly exquisite bicycles tend to head to the annual LikeBike show in Monaco. The fact that the exhibition takes place in the breathtaking Grimaldi Forum with its view over the Mediterranean gives you some idea of the calibre of the bikes on show. Monaco boasts the highest concentration of high net worth individuals in the world as well as the globe’s greatest density of car ownership, so it’s going to take something pretty special to persuade them out of four wheels and on to two wheels.
The LikeBike weekend takes place in June, directly after the Giro d’Italia finishes and before the Tour de France starts, so the event’s centrepiece, the gala dinner, attracts the biggest names in the sport, from riders to team owners. Aside from all the glamour, there are dozens of stands exhibiting custom made, technically futuristic bikes to tempt the richest cyclists in the world.
Frames are offered in carbon and titanium, some are plated with gold or covered in diamond dust. They come with electric gear shifters and bespoke leather saddles and handlebars. At the very top of the tree is a unique bike from Trek which resulted from a collaboration with the artist Damien Hirst. It’s called the Butterfly Madone and was made as a tribute to Lance Armstrong, before his long fall from grace. It’s valued at €500,000. But there are plenty for sale at up to €50,000. How about a Bestianera Montecarlo Edition by T∞RED, the lightest hybrid bike in the world? Or for something more bling what about the mountain bike made by Chrome Hearts for Cervelo which features rhinestones and precious metals?
If proof were needed that in the upper echelons, bicycles boundaries from being modes of transport to collectable works of art, then this is it. The only issue is, would you reallywant to use the Butterfly Madone for a muddy Sunday morning ride? You might be wise to hang it on the wall instead…∞