Buy Buy, Baby: A $30,000 Bicycle

"Buy Buy, Baby" is a new Friday feature that explores unique luxury goods and what makes them special. Check back every week for more items to put on your wish list.

You think spending $1,000 on a bicycle is a splurge?

But 10 Franklins will only get you a low-grade aluminum frame that rattles your insides, heavy components that weigh you down and cheapo wheels that fall apart after a few thousand miles.

Plunk down about $30,000. Sure, it might seem absurd to spend as much on a human-powered two-wheeler as you would on a car -- a Ford Mustang GT, even. What could possibly make it worth your money to invest so much in a custom bike?

Quite a bit, actually.

A KGS custom bicycle, made with a Serotta carbon-fiber frame, can cost as much as a car, and it looks almost as fast.

Kevin Saunders, owner of KGS Bikes in San Antonio, Texas, and a former full-time racer on the road and track, says buying a stock bike is like purchasing a commodity. The difference between off-the-rack bikes is negligible, he says. But a well-built custom cycle is worlds apart.

"What you get is the enjoyment of riding something that has been designed to your taste and body type," says Jose Maldonado, general manager of Cadence, a Philadelphia-based cycling and multisport authority that recently designed a $25,000 bike for a picky Ironman triathlete. Saunders takes it further: "You can be enthralled with the possibility of getting the very best in the world of something."

In those terms, dropping $30,000 on a bike might make more sense than laying out close to $2 million on a Bugatti Veyron.

Anyway, you might fit the demographics of Rex Cycles' clientele in Sacramento, California: 35 to 70 years old, a serious person, an avid cyclist who does 100-mile rides known as "centuries" regularly.