Most $$$$ Bikes

The World's Most Expensive Bikes
Lance Armstrong's $500,000 Butterfly Madone

Detail of the real butterfly wing design made from real butterfly wings. Image credit: Zimbio

$500,000 Trek Madone bike ridden by Lance Armstrong. Image credit: Forbes.

How do you take a $10,000 - $15,000 bike used by world-class professional cyclists and turn it into a $500,000 bike?

Get Lance Armstrong to ride it and cover it with real butterfly wings.

A few months after the 2009 Tour de France, on November 1, 2009, a Trek Madone model bike ridden by Lance Armstrong on the Tour's final day in Paris, sold at a Sotheby's cancer benefit auction for $500,000. The bike was decorated with hundreds of real butterfly wings clear-coated to its carbon frame by designer Damien Hirst.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called it the bike and its decoration using real butterfly wings a "horrific barbarity".

The auction of Armstrong bikes raised a total of $1.3 million.

Lance Armstrong's $200,000 Yellow Time Trial Bike

Armstrong's $200,000 Trek Speed Concept Time Bike. Image credit: Forbes

At the same Sotheby's cancer benefit auction, a Trek Speed Concept time trial bike ridden by Lance Armstrong in the 18th stage of the 2009 Tour sold for $200,000. The bike had been painted by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. Armstrong rode the carbon fiber bike in the 18th stage of the tour.

Other Armstrong ridden bikes sold for $160,000 and down.

$114,000 Aurumania Crystal Edition Gold Bike

French cycle-maker Aurumania's Crystal Edition $101,000 Gold Bike. Image credit: Forbes

French cycle-maker Aurumania's sells its Crystal Edition Gold Bike for $101,000 - a regular price. The bicycle features a gold-plated frame, spokes and wheels, along with 600 Swarovski crystals. Accessories include a gold and crystal adorned wall rack priced above $6,000.

$75,000 Armstrong 2005 Trek Madone

Armstrong 2005 Tour de France Trek Madone 5.9. Image credit: Forbes

In the 2009 Sotheby benefit auction for Armstrong's Livestrong foundation, the Trek Madone 5.9 he rode in the 2005 Tour de France auctioned for $75,000. The bike's head badge (shown in the photograph's inset above) has 100 white diamonds and seven larger artificial one-karat diamonds.

$46,000 Montante Luxury Gold Collection

Italian bicycle-maker Montante sells a woman's bicycle for $46,000. Image credit: Forbes

Italian bicycle-maker Montante sells a woman's bicycle for $46,000. The Luxury Gold Collection bike is covered in 24-karat gold leaf and 11,000 Swarovski crystals. The seat is made from python leather and a tire-pump is included.