Some people will buy just about anything. Case in point? Check out the latest installment of blinged out bikes – this 24k Gold plated road bike. It’s no gold plated fat bike, but the “men’s British racing bike” will certainly attract plenty of attention if it ever makes it out of your Summer home. From its humble beginnings as what appears to have been a Giant Defy 3 road bike (from 2013!), the sub-$1k bike gets a gold makeover and is suddenly worth £250,000 ($392,785.00).
Just how much gold would nearly $400k dollars get you? Find out next…
If you do the math, after subtracting the value of the bike at full price (let’s say $1,000) that leaves you with a balance of $391,785. At the current price of gold which is roughly $1,223.80 for a Troy Ounce, that would mean you’re paying for around 320 ounces of gold, give or take. Obviously there would need to be some room in there for a profit for Goldgenie as well as the labor to meticulously gold plate most of the bicycle’s parts, but for the sake of argument let’s leave that out.
If you’re spending that kind of dough, you might be curious what else your money could get you. At current rates $391,785 would be nearly 22 pounds of gold!
Now, I’m no expert in gold plating, but I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t take 22 pounds of gold to plate a bicycle. In fact, goldplating.com lists it at 0.316 grams per square inch for a 1 mil thickness. If my math is correct that would work out more than 2000 square feet of coverage. But who does the math on an impulse buy, am I right?
Realistically, this isn’t about the bicycle at all. It’s almost certainly a demonstration of their considerable skill when it comes to gold plating and also to draw eyes to their more attainable products like the 24k gold plated iPhone 6 (only $4,271.94!). In case you’re wondering, the House of Solid Gold plated fat bike is still available – the price has even dropped from 1 million, to just $495,000!
You do have to give them some credit for the attention to detail. The shifters are positioned well, the tape is neatly wrapped (to show off the gold of course), all the gold cable crimps are in order, and the tire hot patches even line up with the valves. And if you do decide to make it rain $392.8k for this golden steed? Try to get them to at least throw in the gold plated stand.
