Gold leaf encrusted bike with 2 carat diamond in its headtube top cap sold at auction in Geneva
(Image credit: Colnago)
Colnago bikes have a reputation for being expensive, but the Colnago Gioiello Numero 1 is officially its most spendy bike ever, having just been sold at auction at Sotheby's in Geneva for 120,650 Swiss francs. That’s over $133,000 or £107,000.
Officially, Colnago has created the C68 Gioiello in honour of the 106th Giro d’Italia, currently in progress. But it’s also aiming to position itself alongside luxury brands, with the auction part of Sotheby’s Geneva Luxury Week and also including “magnificent jewels, important handbags and watches”, according to Colnago.
Gold leaf replaces paint on the C68 Gioiello (Image credit: Colnago)
Instead of paint, Colnago has part-covered the Gioiello Numero 1 frame in gold leaf. Its head tube is completed by a top cap which incorporates a 2.03 carat diamond, the value of which is around $20,000 alone. It’s set in an 18 carat gold surrounding.
The bike's headtube top cap includes a 2 carat diamond - remove to adjust your headset (Image credit: Colnago)
We’d guess that you have to prise this out to get to the hex bolt underneath if your headset develops some play as you descend the Grimselpass.
The Ace of Clubs headtube badge is also handmade in 24 carat gold.
The bottle cage design mimics the Giro d'Italia winner's trophy and is gold coated (Image credit: Colnago)
Scratch beneath the surface (no, don’t do that, you’ll remove the gold leaf) and the bike is a Colnago C68, with its made in Italy lugged carbon frame and integrated Colnago CC.01 bar/stem.
As you’d expect, it’s not kitted out with Tiagra, but a Shimano Dura-Ace R9250 groupset with CeramicSpeed 3D printed titanium OSPW system. The bog standard Dura-Ace brake rotors are subbed out for Carbon-Ti X-rotor steelcarbon numbers. Wheels are ENVE SES 3.4 with gold accents and even the Pirelli P Zero Race TLR tyres get a gold lettering upgrade.
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Even the tyres get a gold makeover (Image credit: Colnago)
No word on the extra weight incurred by the bike’s added bling, but we’d guess the Colnago Gioiello Numero 1 has not been bought by a weight weenie.
Although the bike sold was number one, there’s a limited run of 50 Colnago Gioiello bikes, so you may still be in with a chance to buy your own gold Colnago C68. It’s not clear if Colnago will be throwing in a diamond-studded top cap with the other 49 bikes though.
The bike is so special, it’s even got its own website if you want to see more.
Paul has been on two wheels since he was in his teens and he's spent much of the time since writing about bikes and the associated tech. He's a road cyclist at heart but his adventurous curiosity means Paul has been riding gravel since well before it was cool, adapting his cyclo-cross bike to ride all-day off-road epics and putting road kit to the ultimate test along the way. Paul has contributed to Cyclingnews' tech coverage for a few years, helping to maintain the freshness of our buying guides and deals content, as well as writing a number of our voucher code pages.
