There’s a new gold standard. Motorcycle designer and builder Tarhan Telli of TT Custom Choppers in Ankara, Turkey, recently submitted his entry to the Guinness World Record category of “world’s most expensive motorcycle.” It took Telli more than a year to construct the 1800cc 125hp 6-speed V-twin. There is no fancy paint job; rather, the chopper’s chassis, body and exhaust are adorned with 24k white and gold leaf. A relief of Medusa, the snake-haired goddess, appears on the gas tank and snake figures wind their way across the fenders and elsewhere on the bike.
The only comparable Guinness World Record we could find is the 2004 Guinness record for the “most expensive production motorcycle in the world”—the MTT Turbine Superbike, powered by a Rolls Royce Allison gas turbine engine and costing $185,000. Internet searches revealed even more expensive production motorcycles: the Ecosse Titanium Series at $300,000, as well as the Dodge Tomahawk V10 Superbike that was featured in the 2003 Nieman Marcus catalog for $550,000. Amazingly, they actually sold ten of those creatures.
Although no price has been published for Telli’s classy creation, we think he has a pretty good chance of setting a record in what appears to be a new category. The marvelous mount sports 315kg of gold leaf. Converted from metric, that’s 695 pounds, and with the price of gold hovering around $1,600 per pound in the U.S., that’s $1.112 million in gold leaf alone. Who would insure such a bike? If you have to ask; you can’t afford it.
