>>54423366Hate to tell you this anon but the most expensive high end bikes irl ARE $10k plus, the median tour de France bike costs roughly around $15k. Interestingly enough this isn't because of inflation, but it's because of the sport gentrifying around the 90s and going from a working class sport to stuff dentists do in their spare time (even in the 90s the most expensive bikes was less than $3000, the switch to carbon fibre and emphasis on stuff like gadgets, weight, electronic battery shifting is where we are today and people with money buy that up.) Pro bikes are much nicer but like if you're not a pro the gains aren't really worth it, their physiques and ability to generate vo2 are just on another level compared to plebs and freds. (to do a onions pokemon analogy the guys in the club are like Misty's goldeen and your average pro is like Lance's Gyarados or something, while pogacar is Cynthia's Garchomp) t. Bike mechanic and low level college racer
Tho obviously your protag isn't riding anything like a pinarello dogma so like... Yeah expensive bike jokes are really cliche ngl
