LikeBike in Monte Carlo calls itself the world’s most expensive bike show, with €2,000,000 of machinery on display – including what could well be the world’s most expensive commercially available road bike.

The Cipollini RB1000 Luxury Edition costs a cool €53,000 (that’s just shy of £38,000 at today’s exchange rate) – and no, that’s not a typo. We’ll take two.

Mario Cipollini could never be considered a shy wallflower as a rider, famously arriving at the start of a stage of the 1999 Tour de France dressed as Julius Caesar riding a chariot, and wearing an array of outrageous animal print skin suits during time trials, but even the Cipollini RB1000 Luxury Edition is ostentatious by Super Mario’s standards.

The bike, described as a perfect mix of jewelry and high technology, combines carbon fibre, platinum, gold and diamonds. The frame, of course, is carbon fibre, and the ‘MC’ logo on the front of the headtube contains 40 grams of 18-carat gold, 12 grams of platinum and is encrusted with 17-carat diamonds. No less than 110 grams of platinum features elsewhere on the bike, too. Fancy a test ride?

The ‘regular’ RB1000 will still set you back £4,350 for the frameset. It’s a machine described by Cipollini as “an extreme frame for specialists, for really cool people” – we’re not kidding – and the aggressive tube profiles make it one of the most distinctive bikes on the market. It’s a frame designed with aerodynamics and power transfer in mind, so it’s far from the lightest at 1,050g.

If you’re scratching down the back of the sofa to rustle up a bit of spare change and the Cipollini RB1000 Luxury Edition doesn’t take your fancy, then other machines on display at LikeBike included the limited edition Sarto 18K worth €27,000, handmade in Italy and with 18-carat gold decals. The saddle, handlebar tape and chainstay protector are, somewhat oddly, made from Zimbabwean crocodile skin. You may have seen the Sarto 18K at last month’s Bespoked Bristol show.