Spengle, the Switzerland-based brand known for its tri-spoke carbon wheels and its #spokessuck hashtag, has announced a rather unusual wheelset with a coating of actual gold.
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The rather unimaginatively named Spengle Gold is a standard carbon monocoque set of Spengle tri-spokes with a hand-laid coating of 24ct gold leaf, which it’s claimed took months to apply.
The set is priced at £10,000, a mere £9,150 more than Spengle’s cheapest standard offering.
According to Spengle, the Gold wheelset is fully ridable “should you really want to”.
Spengle CEO Pius Brauchart explains the thinking behind Gold as follows: “The bicycle wheel represents a unique visual canvas – kinetic art in its most pure form. Art and sport are both deep passion points and with Spengle Gold we saw an opportunity to blend these two worlds together.
“There’s something very compelling in mixing the traditional craftsmanship of hand-laid gold leaf with cutting edge materials science, and it has resulted in a visually stunning wheel.”
If nothing else, Spengle has certainly answered the question we were all asking: if King Louis XIV of France were a triathlete in the 21st century, what wheels would he buy?
The Spengle Golds will be on display at bike shows over the coming months including the UK’s own Bespoked in BikeRadar’s hometown of Bristol this coming May.
Spengle rather confusingly refers to the Golds as “limited edition 1/1” but also says in its press material that the wheels can be made to order.
Are you tempted? Head over to Spengle’s website to place your order right now.
