Most expensive early 90's mtb?

[tintin40]

There was a muddy fox for £5K IIRC

Yeah i remember that one , wasn't it a fillet brazed frame in black with loads of gold bits on it i think they had one in Harrods

My local bike shop chain has one. One of the branches in North London took over the Muddy Fox HQ and there in the basement was £5k MF

 

[pete_mcc]

The £3000 for the manitou was just for the frame and forks and hubs! :shock: A Fat Ti was £2500 for a frame, but the most expensive production bike was the Raleigh Tomac at $6000. There was also the $5k trek Y five-0 that ranked fairly high. The problem with most others are that they weren't production, they were custom. Manitou, Alpinestar, Fat, WTB, Ibis etc were all built to customer specs.

It was possible to spend crazy money as it is today if you know the right people, the beryllium bike at $25,000 is a case in point, or similarly $10,000 cunninghams were there, as were gold plated bikes and other gaudy stuff.

 

[one-eyed_jim]

Moulton AM.

Only $1900 for an AM ATB, according to Mountain Bike:

http://www.mombat.org/889Moulton3.jpg

from

http://www.mombat.org/Moulton.htm

Of course some of the later road models (New Series and AM special editions) sell for much more.

 

[utahdog2003]

American Beryllium by far.

All these other examples you guys are tossing out are simply individual ego justification!

 

[cimmerianbloke]

If I remember right, the Merlin Titanium was about the most expensive frame back then...

 

[RobMac]

My RC100 cost me nearly £2k (in the spec I asked for) from Leisure Lakes in '91' and Ive still got the bike.

.

 

[elite504]

As pete says, Americal Beryllium was the strongest starting point. Then up to you from there.
Botigue hubs, laced to ceramcs via ti spokes and a disc drive.
Onza ti cranks if you knew who to ask.
Ti conckpt componets, and CNC transmission exotica could get you well over $30k using off the shelf and catalogue parts.
Check in the custom stuff, the gold plating on you roholoff etc and the sky is the limit.
Just considering the thousand that it'd be easy to burn just getting custom relieved artwork on a custom leather saddle and you can see how the price could climb. Didn't say it'd necessarly be tasteful though.

Out of interest, I assume we're talking "cycle logical", new cavendish street when referring to 5K foxes. Do you mean to say in all seriousness there is one still in the basement = was it bricked up from the recievers?

 

[Charlieboy28]

1993 American Comp Lite Beryllium $36000, erm I nicked the pic from mombat

the comp lite might be their normal bike though

 

[pete_mcc]

And, of course, don't forget the RetroBike Retail Price Index, this was something that I created in 2009 based on the standard retail price index but adjusted for bikes. I have yet to update for 2010 but will shortly. Sorry all you Septics and other Jonny Foreigners, this is only applicable in pounds sterling. The $ price index is totally different, and Europe is just a bit of a mess!

Just find the retail price of the bike of your dreams and check the RBRPI next to it's year of production, now multiply the retail price by the relevant RBRPI and bingo - there's its 2009 price.

For example:

In 1990 my Pace RC100 cost £1500, with and RBRPI of 2.29 in todays money that is a staggering £3433!

In 1992 my Bradbury Manitou FS Frame-kit cost £2950, in todays money that is an eyewatering £6140!!

But when you look at some of today's bikes it doesn't sound so bad...

RetroBike Retail Price Index


Year - RBRPI
2009 - 1.00
2008 - 1.07
2007 - 1.13
2006 - 1.20
2005 - 1.26
2004 - 1.33
2003 - 1.40
2002 - 1.46
2001 - 1.53
2000 - 1.59
1999 - 1.66
1998 - 1.77
1997 - 1.77
1996 - 1.87
1995 - 1.87
1994 - 1.98
1993 - 2.08
1992 - 2.08
1991 - 2.18
1990 - 2.29
1989 - 2.50
1988 - 2.71
1987 - 2.81
1986 - 2.91
1985 - 3.02
1984 - 3.23
1983 - 3.33
1982 - 3.54
1981 - 3.85
1980 - 4.27

 

[lewis1641]

wasnt the american a one off? surely?