Saturday 18 June 2011

Got a huge amount of Daddy's money to spend on a bike?

...then the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Chanel bike might be just what you need for nipping down to Sloane Square when you can't take the Range Rover because the leather seats don't match your Manolo Blahniks. Or hey, why not just buy another Range Rover with seats that do match, dahling?

Wondering how a completely normal bike with a bit of leather stuck on it can sell for six thousand quid? Because a lot of people are very rich, very shallow and very stupid, that's how.
Do not assume this is all about style over substance, however. The bike, of which just 50 have been made so that stinking-rich owners can use exclusivity as a substitute for the individuality that the rest of us have instead, comes fully equipped with such vital and useful features as quilted leather handlebar grips, matching panniers in the same material designed to harmonise with the company's handbags and - most useful of all - a jewelry roll located beneath the saddle where we mere mortals keep a Ginster's pastie and a bit of flapjack. We'll bet that more than one owner has been stupid enough to actually use it and then forgotten to remove it when leaving the bike blocking the pavement outside Harvey Nicks - and we'll bet that everyone this happened to was named either Jemima or Fiona, too. Even the supplied pump comes covered in dead cow, but the chances of owners ever using it are probably less than zero.

Launched as part of Chanel's spring/summer 2008 collection, the bikes retailed at £6,200 when new but second hand models are being bought by collectors for as much as £17,300. Which just goes to show how stupid some people are. You can read an online discussion about the bike here, but it'll make you despair for the human race.

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