Wealth

The $500,000 gold-plated super chopper

6 crazy ways to use gold
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6 crazy ways to use gold

If it can fit on two wheels, Sam Nehme has probably built it.

For the past 15 years, the owner of BMS Choppers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has been creating some of the wildest and most expensive motorcycles in the world.

He's currently working on the "Drum Bike," a three-wheeler with a fully working drum set that will cost the buyer around $100,000.He's also modified a Y2K superbike with carbon fiber, which boosted the price some five figures to around $200,000 — and raised its speed to more than 200 mph.

His clients have included Diddy, Flo Rida and Ice T.

"Most of our clientele, they want what they want," Nehme told CNBC's "Secret Lives of the Super Rich." "They can afford what they want. And they pay the price to have it."

Sam Nehme’s Nehmesis motorcycle
Source: BMS Choppers

What Nehme considers his motorcycle masterpiece, however, was for his most important client — himself.

For a custom chopper competition in 2007, Nehme built a bike he calls "Nehmesis." The gold-plated chopper stretches nearly 11 feet and took more than 3,000 man hours to build. The chrome and gold plating alone cost around $25,000, and the wheels were another $25,000 total.

Nehme said the total amount invested in Nehmesis, including labor, was somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 — not that it's for sale. Years from now, if he ever did decide to sell the custom creation, Nehme said he would want visitation rights.

"I got attached to that bike," he said. "One day, I'm gonna be old. And I can have that bike sittin' there and say, 'I built that,' and be proud of it.'"

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"Secret Lives of the Super Rich" airs Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. ET.