I’m a sucker for limited edition products. Olympic commemorative Coke bottles? Yup, I collect them. Special Crocs collaborations? I have a shoe rack full. And back when Skittles teased us with its lime flavor, I ran out to buy as many bags as possible. If it’s rare and hard to get, I want it. So, of course, the same is true for bikes.
I don’t like to think of myself as a bike snob, but show me some limited edition paint, and suddenly I’m foaming at the mouth. Any of the bikes I’ve picked here would be a worthy dream bike in stock form. But for today’s Dream Quiver, I chose special or limited edition versions that satisfy my inner hypebeast.
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Road bike: Colnago C59 Ottanta - $4,999.99
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We’re starting off this limited edition Dream Quiver with an absolute banger. This lugged carbon C59 was made to celebrate Ernesto Colnago’s 80th birthday, and brand new, it had a wallet-busting $19,000 price tag. With only 80 made (ottanta means “80” in Italian) the C59 Ottanta is both expensive and rare. It’s the type of bike you display in a secure, climate-controlled garage. But look at the photos and you’ll see it has some wear and tear. I kind of like that and commend the previous owner for actually riding it, and riding it hard.
Endurance road bike: Specialized S-Works Roubaix Sagan Superstar Edition - $6,999.99
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Peter Sagan is arguably the best rider of the last decade. Among his greatest achievements was a brilliant win at Paris-Roubaix in 2018. A key component to his victory was his bike: the Specialized S-Works Roubaix. It was completely redesigned in 2017 with Future Shock to maximize comfort. A spring in the headset suspends the handlebars and provides 20mm of travel without much extra weight. Add a shimmering “Sagan Superstar” paint job, and you have a bike that’ll look like a Slovakian comet when blitzing down rough cobbled roads.
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Gravel bike: Open Pistachio WI.DE. Limited Edition - $6,599.99
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Open bikes are designed by Gerard Vroomen, one of the engineers who founded Cervelo bikes. Like a hot clothing designer, Open “works hard to stay small.” It’s done collaborations with high-end cycling brands like Yeti, Assos, and ENVE, producing limited runs of its frames. This Pistachio WI.DE., done in collaboration with Ultradynamico, has to be my favorite. With clearance for massive 2.4” tires, it might be the ultimate carbon bikepacking and adventure rig. Open usually produces around 30-50 frames per collab, so this is an exceedingly rare find.
Downhill mountain bike: YT Tues CF Pro Race Mob Edition - $4,724.99
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Limited edition paint isn’t just for drop-bar bikes. This YT Tues is a king among downhill mountain bikes, designed to crush the gnarliest downhill tracks. In fact, during the dominant years of the YT Mob downhill team, it won several downhill World Cups and a couple of World Cup overalls. America’s best downhill racer, Aaron Gwin, made a surprise move to the YT Mob in 2016, and immediately started winning. Though the team is now defunct, you can relive their glory days with this top-of-the-line Mob edition frame painted to match Gwin’s 2018 bike.
Total cost: $23,324.96
Going for a quiver full of limited edition bikes is certainly going to cost you. For me to get these four bikes in my garage, I’ll have to give up all of the coke bottles, Crocs, and lime Skittles I’ve collected, and chip in an extra 10 grand on top of that. Alas, that is the price of exclusivity.
To keep things reasonable, I think I’d be happy with just one. Which one you ask? I like riding on the road. And I like shredding singletrack. So the bike for me is probably the Open Pistachio WI.DE. It’ll be efficient on pavement and gravel, but with the option to run big 2.4” tires, I can still get wild on my local mountain bike trails. Plus, I think it has the best looking paint here.
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