Just reading the Pagani story on the main page on here, and after a conversation the other day I've been wondering whether a 'hyperbike' would sell?

If you're mega-wealthy, and you don't want a run of the mill superbike, that can be bought by any Tom, Dick or harry, there really aren't too many choices.

I know there's the Virus (sp?) thing, but they haven't grabbed people's attention in the same way that Pagani have captured the four wheeled worlds heart.

So, if there was a bike for sale for about 60 grand, who reckons it'd sell? There's still some very wealthy people about, and to them that kind of money would be nothing. Ducati didn't struggle to shift Desmo's, as far as I know. I was thinking something more exclusive, but without the Ducati name - which is kinda what Pagani did to Ferrari.

I reckon something quite gimmicky, like a carbon fibre framed bike with either a big two stroke engine or maybe even a breathed on RSV4 or Desmo engine (if you could get them) would do the trick.

Bored, idle thinking out loud

I'm thinking really a proper show off bike for rich people! There's cars which are more proven than the Zonda (on road and track), yet they sell for hundreds of thousands of pounds over their original price already.

They use an AMG engine (so not their own one) and make their product special by attention to detail and really wowing people with their workmanship.

I just wondered whether a bike from the same mould would work.

I believe there was an Ago special edition and a Tamburini edition which were both very expensive. The very first Serie Oro ones were about 35k I think. I was thinking more along the lines of something completely bespoke though, rather than an edition of something else.

There seems to be lots of very expensive custom style one offs, but very few sports bikes!

What kind of one offs do you mean - bikes?

That's what I was thinking though really. If you want an 'ultimate' superbike, there really are very few options. You're completely right that most superbikes have the performance but I suspect that if you're mega rich (ie someone who'd buy a Zonda!), you may be more worried about exclusivity, rather than outright performance.

An ex-race bike is one way I guess, but the same could be said of an ex-F1 car, or touring car instead of a Zonda!

Yes:

Desmo
Y2K
Vyrus the new 70k one
Black Shadow
NR750

There have and always will be hyperbikes that will sell in small numbers

Yep. I think a bespoke carbon fibre frame would set it apart from anything else enough. Combine the very best forks and shock, carbon fibre wheels and stunning bodywork wrapped around something like a big Duke or RSV4 engine and really make the difference with the quality of detail and paint.

Make a very limited number and charge enough for it to be not for the commoners!

I reckon the 1199R will be knocking on 35-40k when it is released...

I'd say 30k minimum. That'll be the two-wheeled equivelant of the 458 Scud though (when both are released!) - rather than the Zonda

I just wondered whether a £100k (ish) bike would sell on exclusivity alone I guess. As I said to begin with, just idle thoughts and something I've been thinking about a while and was triggered by the Huayra story on the main page.

A 100k bike? Not new it wouldn't. There just isn't enough engineering in a bike to warrant 100k new... But as a historically significant vintage piece of bike history, perhaps.

There's been loads of expensive bikes (like the NR750) but they were real tecno' showpieces. I'm fairly sure that Honda will have lost an awful lot of money on each of those that they sold, but that wasn't the point. In the same way the Veyron loses money for VW.

The only real comparison to the Zonda I can think of was the Magni MVs, that sold in the 70s for big money which was an exotic engine wrapped in even more exclusive clothes. Vincent Black Shadows were 'just' a breathed on Rapide, which was a touring bike and whilst expensive, wasn't that rare a site in the 50s. I must admit I'd forgotten about the Y2K, and as mentioned the Vyrus things have been about a while. Maybe you're right, that they just don't attract the same attention as they're bikes, not cars

There's regularly old bikes selling for way more than that figure!

I'm not sure whether you necessarily need it to be 'worth' the money, when into hyper money - that's what I wondered really. There's nothing new about what Pagani does it, they just do it with a degree of finnesse that nobody else has.