Cheapest vs Most Expensive Tour de France Bike

We delved into finding out what the most expensive Tour bike is and who is racing on the most expensive (no prizes if you guess that). We compare the two, calculate the price difference, and determine what you get for the significant increase in price between the two. We learned a lot in the process.

Hello, welcome back to the VEL tour coverage and today we’re delving into the cold hard cash of pro bike riding. We’re going to look at the cheapest and the most expensive tour bikes that are being used to race around France. Now, you probably have looked at the Pelaton and realized that for the most part, a lot of the bikes you need to auction off an organ to even think about buying one, but there are bikes in the Pelaton that do we dare say are a little bit more manageable. Now, we’re going to start off with the cheapest bike in the Pelaton. And you would think we would need to head over to XDS Aana, a team that is now sponsored by a company that sells over 1 and a half million bikes a year in China alone. But you try and find how much the XLAB bike is online. It’s not the easiest of job. In fact, it’s a brand that’s not sold not only in the US, but also not in Europe. You can only pick it up in Asia. And apparently it is a place where the brand sells many of the bikes on the Tik Tok Asian competitors website. That’s right. You can turn on your phone and bid away for one of the team bikes or a replica at least. Now we’ve run the numbers and yes those XLabs are cheap but once you start adding the upgrades that the team use they get more expensive than the bike I have here. And that is why we have come over to Inter Marsh Wanty because yes, they’re riding, dare we say, a cheap bike at the tour. It’s still expensive, but it’s a lot more pocket friendly than the bike we’ll see later on in this video. The team are using the Cube Lightning Arrow for the most part throughout the race. So, let’s run through exactly what we got here and exactly how much it costs. Let’s delve into price first because this thing retails in Europe for a reasonable €7,699. That gives you the exact same frame, group set, and wheels as the team are using. The only thing that the guys are pretty much changing out from that stock standard bike that you can buy in the shop are the chain rings and the tires. This year the squad swapped tire sponsorship and they’re now working with Hutchinson and actually have a new tire that they’ve helped developed with the French brand and as I say that chain ring in a 544 isn’t stock standard on the retail version of this bike but pretty much everything else is. Let’s start with a Newman wheels. This is a German brand. A brand that’s well German engineer. It’s got to be good stuff hasn’t it? Believe it or not they don’t just make for themselves. They also make for um I don’t know if I’m allowed to say the brand, but let’s just say they’re like really big, like giant big. And they are really interesting wheels because they could possibly be coming illegal next year. But one of the nice little details that you’ll see on these wheels and not on any other wheels that I’ve seen in the Pelaton is that the valves are hidden. There’s not actually a press valve in there. There’s a shroud valve in there and you need a special adapter to get in there. Keeps things nice and clean. Next up, group set jaw race. Exactly the same as your stock standard cube Lightning with the chain ring. That’s only different. No fancy oversized pulley wheels here. No ceramic bearings in the bottom bracket. Exactly as it comes from the factory. The bars are really interesting though. Cube make a huge array of one piece bars and stem. In fact, I’m pretty sure they offer more size options than anybody else out there. In fact, over there, one of the team riders is riding a 160 stem with a 38 width bar. And believe it or not, this is also a product that could be becoming illegal next year due to the new UCI rules. Hanging off the front of the bike is one of the latest Brighton computers. We have been told that these guys work very closely with the team. In fact, they got a WhatsApp group where they can add advice to the team over at Brighton on how to improve this thing. The other touch point saddle comes from Pro Logo. Pedals of course also come from Shimano. Right, let’s get the calculator, top up how much this thing really costs compared to the retail value and head over to our next team where you got our very deep pockets to buy one of their bikes. Next up, a bike that is nearly double the price of those cubes and one that this team use. You’ll know what it is. The corn nargo. These things are spendy. Why? How? What’s the difference? What do you get for your money? Well, first up, let’s break down exactly what this team are using and why it comes to crazy money. And it’s going to be a voiceover. cuz I’m not standing in this wet weather. [Music] We all know this one’s going to be an expensive one and I’ll let you into a little secret before we even get to the end. It is double the price that we thought it would be over the cube. So, what is it they’re riding Pogc? The Y1 RS, a bike that has recently been released by Coronado earlier on in the year. It is their first true aero bike and one that we’ve seen him use throughout the tour. Price-wise, well, it’s stupid in it and it’s even more expensive if you’re going to go for the world champs colors, which of course he has. But do not worry, you don’t have to buy a handlebar and stem for it because luckily that comes included. I should hope so for that sort of money. Right onto the group setting. Of course, it is Jaw Race, but we’ve got a power meter to add on there. And yes, you’ve noticed those chain rings aren’t from Shimano. They are in fact carbon tie. So, let’s add them onto the bill as well. Things are already totting up, aren’t they? Wheels, of course, they’ve come from the team sponsor, Envy, and in this case, it’s the SCS 4.5 Pro, but they’ve swapped out the axles there for carbon tight again. looking a bit blink with a sort of an anodized rainbow on there. Now tires. This is an interesting one. They’re meant to be riding the Continental Archetype tires. The only team at the race using them. We’ve might have seen them use it a couple of times, but they’re also using the GP 5000 TTRS as well. Frames and gear hanger. I’m guessing that’s just to bling it up a little bit. Wahoo Element bolt computer in a fancy yellow. And there is a custom mount. We’ll have a rough estimation at the price there. That sticker, I’m not sure, maybe 50 cents. And yes, we’re doing this in dollars because it is available in the States. Saddle one to one. $600 for a custom printed saddle. Wish we could all have one. Elite T-Ra carbon cage. These are the cheap bits. $35 each for one of them. Bottom bracket BK1. Apparently one of the smoothest BBs on the market, but should be at that sort of money and jaw race pedals to round it all out. So what’s it come to people? You’re sitting comfortably. A grand total of $19,159. That is $9,517 more than the cube. So yes, you can have two cubes for one of them. Yeah, that’s quite a lot in it in difference between the two bikes. Over 9 grand’s worth. Yes, you can buy two of them. Who would have thought? Well, quite a lot of people. But how much of a difference does that make between the two bikes? I know we can look at results and say it’s everything. Winning the tour, winning the Jiro, and winning a couple of sprint stages at last year’s tour in the green jersey aren’t exactly the same thing. But as we all know, it’s not the bike, is it? It’s the legs, the performance that matter, the people behind it. your teammates, your infrastructure, that really makes the difference. And when you’ve got a team that’s running on something like 50 million euros a year at UAE and into Marsh one, you’re running on about 20 million euros a year. In fact, maybe even less than that because there’s talk of them merging with Lotto next year. It’s not the bike, is it? It might be a little bit, but it’s not much of the bike. It’s the infrastructure, the riders you can afford to pay to help you out on them stages that really make the difference to us everyday people. I would think it don’t matter what one of them two things you’re going to ride, you’re never going to be as good as bog, are you? Right, let me know what you think in the comments below. Let us know what bike you’d go for. I’m going to go for the one that doesn’t look like a 1990s Kestrel, if you know what I mean. Right, as always, thank you for watching and enjoy your ride