>>1252086I understand the spirit of your question, OP, but a better question to ask is "what can you do with a $2500 bike that you can't do with a $500 bike", because really anything more expensive than about $2500 is just shaving off handfuls of grams of total weight, or minute improvements in overall stiffness and ride quality, or higher-end components, wheelsets, etc. Much of that cost is in labor to manufacture, not materials, because the high-end bikes are hand-made in small production runs with painstaking attention to detail, as opposed to mass-produced like, say, a Chinese-made Walmart bike.
But to answer the spirit of your question: for the average rider? Nothing, except improving your bragging rights that you own one. High-end bikes are intended for high-end riders, people who race, mostly professionally, but also high-end amateur racers. If you're at the peak of your potential athletically, with only tiny improvements possible, then to get an edge on the competition you have to do something to improve the bike. We're talking about tiny differences in overall performance of bike+rider, like reaching the top of a climb a second or two faster, or winning a finish sprint by a foot or less. An average, recreational/commute rider, who has had more than one bike, would find a $5000 bike to be a nice ride (potentially), and it would shift smooth and quick, but they might also find it to be uncomfortable because of the frame geometry, for instance (too bent-over as opposed to upright).
TL,DR: "The right tool for the job".
