High Gear—Luxury Bikes Are Making a Statement
By GEOFF NUDELMAN
Wed, Oct 30, 2024 8:51am
4 min
4 min
At the highest end of the spectrum, bikes are becoming a statement piece. Colourful, vibrant frames stand as pieces of art, made from the most efficient materials and using the latest in innovative technology and engineering.
These bikes, often produced in limited quantities, aren’t just for show. They’re built for long touring days, conquering exceptionally tough climbs, and traversing the nearest rock garden.
It’s also a corner of the market that’s seeing steady growth even as the overall bike market experiences some post-pandemic correction. Technavio estimates that the high-end bike segment will grow by another $5 billion by 2028, fuelled by a pack of affluent riders looking for the latest and greatest they can get on two wheels.
There are also more customization options available than ever before. Bike companies can go over every little detail of the build, from customizing a model in stock to creating a truly bespoke bicycle from scratch. Even the most discerning cyclist can find themselves satisfied by the endless choices in a bike made specifically for them.
Today’s cycling trends cater to two extremes. On one end, there are the racing enthusiasts who want aggressive geometry, the lightest-weight construction, and aerodynamics wherever possible. On the other, there are those who want a more comfortable ride, but still with the best possible components and durability.
These bikes represent some of the best the industry currently has to offer, from off-the-shelf to a weeks-long bespoke process.
1. Trek Top Fuel 9.9 Gen 4, $US10,500
The biggest names in the business are getting in on the high-end game. This option from Trek features the customisation options that mountain bikers need, while also having the support of a national brick-and-mortar network for service and maintenance. The Top Fuel is also an example of the growing trend of in-frame tool storage to keep things out of the way, with the bonus of maintaining the aerodynamic engineering that helps riders go fast and get up steep climbs. This bike also has enduring flexibility, with more room for a larger shock and broader suspension range.
2. Colnago C68 Gravel, $US13,200
The Italians have a rich cycling history, and Colnago is no exception, with roots dating to 1954. Like most other bike brands, Colnago has adapted with the times and begun to build gravel-specific bikes meant to go off-road with ease, but maintain a step below full mountain biking. The C68 Gravel is the rare handbuilt, Italian-made gravel bike and the burliest of the brand’s flagship “C Series.” It is a full carbon fibre setup, with Colnago’s own handlebar layout, with two available colour options for the frame and three wheel choices.
3. Cannondale SuperSix EVO LAB71 Team, $US14,000
Cannondale
If you’ve ever wanted a chance to ride like the pros, this is it. Although several bike brands are offering a version of their Tour de France–competing models, there are few as striking as Cannondale’s offering. This bike is an exact replica of what EF Pro Cycling used throughout the 2024 Tour de France, securing the polka-dot jersey (best mountain climber) for one of its riders. LAB71 is part engineering experiment and part performance development for Cannondale, as the lineup has the brand’s lightest and most aggressive frames. As shown, the team edition features every possible upgrade, including a top-end drivetrain and a fully-integrated cockpit co-developed with MOMODesign.
4. No. 22 Bicycles 2024 Drifter X, Starting from $US14,800
No. 22 Bicycles
Titanium is more of an enthusiast’s choice for bike-frame construction as it offers a different ride quality compared to carbon fibre, but it also offers more options for total customisation. New York–based No. 22 Bicycles launched the Drifter X as a racier version of the Drifter model, with more flexibility to go further and faster on choppier terrain. Tire clearance between 28mm and 40mm puts this bike in a sweet spot for both pavement and gravel, with options to make cable routing semi- or fully integrated. Riders can also take advantage of several paint-finish options, including Cerakote, anodised, or keeping the frame finish “raw” in its purest state.No. 22 Bicycles also has a full bespoke program, where the company can tailor frames to the exact measurements of a specific rider.
This article originally appeared in the Fall Issue of Mansion Global Experience Luxury.
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Meta is betting on a human-first AI future, but growing legal battles and declining public trust are putting Mark Zuckerberg’s vision to the test.
By Adam Levine
Thu, Aug 13, 2026 3 min
3 min
“Call us optimists. Call us dreamers. Call us whatever the hell you want, but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds. The future is for everyone.”
That ad copy is from the voice-over of a July Meta Platforms META -3.38%.
spot that’s been part of a public-relations blitz to position Meta as the humanist AI company. The message was undercut by the ad’s inclusion of David Bowie’s “Five Years,” a brooding 1972 song about an impending apocalypse. But this week CEO Mark Zuckerberg left no ambiguity, publishing a 6,500-word manifesto—about 10 times the length of this newsletter—with a title that echoed the ad: “The Future is for Everyone.”
That seems to be Meta’s new tagline. In light of sinking public opinion and the company’s thousands of lawsuits from states, school districts, parents, and users, Meta’s public relations have been defensive. This push represents a return to offense, with a chance to distinguish Meta’s approach to AI from other labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, or SpaceX SPCX +9.65%.
“It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom,” Zuckerberg wrote. “I do not understand why anyone who believes that AI will eliminate most jobs and much of humanity’s relevance would rush to build that future.”
Zuckerberg frames what sort of future we build with AI as the central issue of our time. “We believe that delivering superintelligence to everyone is the way to answer this question,” he says. “This has the potential to begin a new era of personal empowerment where individuals can use this powerful new capability to reach their full potential, pursue their interests, and improve their lives and the world more than ever before.”
The flood of words belies the situation on the ground in mid-2026. Americans, at least, have a love-hate affair with social media. A November Pew Research Center poll reported that 71% of U.S. adults used Facebook, and 51% used Instagram. Worldwide, 3.6 billion people use at least one Meta app every day.
But in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in July and August, 61% of respondents said they wanted more government oversight of social media, and two-thirds supported laws to keep children under 16 years old off the platforms. When it comes to Meta in particular, in the 2026 Axios Harris 100, an annual poll about corporate reputation, Meta placed 96th out of 100. It’s only above two other social media companies, Chinese ultracheap retailer Temu, and Spirit Airlines, a defunct air carrier. Regarding ethics, Meta came in last, and it was only ahead of TikTok in trust.
The steady drip of headlines in the teen social media trials isn’t helping. Last week, Meta lost a judgment in New Mexico state court that raised their liability in that relatively small jurisdiction to nearly $1 billion dollars. On Wednesday, jury selection began for a federal case with four states suing Meta over addictive product design, and false marketing that said its platforms were safe for teenagers. In July, Meta claimed that the states are asking for a total of $1.4 trillion in damages, in addition to design changes in the apps. This is part of a multidistrict litigation, where thousands of federal trials with social media defendants are coordinated in Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ district courthouse in Oakland, Calif.
There is a separate such group of thousands of cases in California state court, mostly with individual plaintiffs. The steady drip of bad headlines from the courts will continue unless Meta decides to settle en masse.
Meanwhile, in the second quarter, Meta booked “$2.40 billion of charges related to legal proceedings,” according to its quarterly filing. That may be just the beginning.
Zuckerberg spent 6,500 words getting his utopian message out, but I can sum it up in two: Trust us. The evidence is that Meta has a long way to go to win back that trust.
