As teams turn over as many stones as possible in search of performance gains, what if they were able to buy their own bikes rather be tied to sponsors and find the best combination for frames, wheels, components and tires for them, even to be able to make choices to suit individual riders?Pro cycling has a settled model where teams are funded by title sponsors, they rely on income from the likes of a billionaire, a fossil fuel rich state or an adhesives manufacturer. The budget is also topped up by secondary sponsors and first among these is the bike supplier who not only furnish the bicycles but compete for the right to do this by bidding with cash on top. The going rate varies by team.This snippet from Groupama-FDJs accounts showed Lapierre, a brand belonging to the Accell Group, was paying 1.5 million a year. Presumably it costs more to sponsor the very top teams, think Pinarellos deal with Ineos.Its lucrative but what if the real luxury was a team that did not need this obligation and could instead scour the market for the goods it wants?The freedom to chose can go far. A team can have different road bikes and time trial frames or indeed chose different road bikes for different days and even vary the road bike for a sprint stage according to the type of rider.As ex-pro Alex Howes remarked the other day, the EF team a few years ago found its Cannondale bikes with Mavic wheels were not as fast as they liked, despite the frame and wheels each testing well in the wind tunnel individually. But put them together and it wasnt quite working. Put Vision wheels in the same frame and it worked better in the wind tunnel and on the road. You can see a similar thing on the same team where some riders use the wide Darth Vader helmet and others a more pointed one because theres no single best helmet here, rather it depends on a riders position and their morphology.This ability to tailor choices is an interesting angle here. Instead of a team being able to choose between two helmets, what if they could find the perfect frame, the perfect wheels and everything else to suit the rider rather than being tied to one product line? Theres a significant gain to be had here.To state the obvious and forestall inevitable comments, no the bike isnt going to transform the fortunes of a team. But it can help. Yet kit from the frame to wheels to clothing, including helmets is a component of performance. Instead of being obliged to use certain products because of sponsorship constraints, a team that has the choice can find gains that are off limits to rivals. Being wealthy enough to choose is a definition of luxury.None of this is new though. Years ago when racing bikes were made from steel tubing it was common to have a popular consumer brand name on the frame like Peugeot, MBK or Raleigh but the frame itself was made to order from an artisan. But the point then was it was hidden, the argument here is that a team could openly shop for the best kit rather than mask items. You cant disguise it these days.It does happen to an extent today. Ineos have Shimano as an official sponsor but theyll use other wheels at times, like Princeton. Many riders use custom TT handlebars rather than stock from sponsors. Less visible is teams having one nutrition sponsor but using other gels during a race.However the difference here is not to have some stealth frame masquerading as a sponsors product. Its the very opposite. Instead to shop for anything going and use this if it suits. For the sake of branding and team cohesion all the bikes used by a team could be in team colours.Its easier said than done and off limits to some teams. UAE might be swimming in money but a key influence behind the team is Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al Nahyan. TBZ is a busy man being part of the ruling family and the countrys spy chief but another role is a venture capitalist and with this he effectively owns Colnago via a company called Chimera. So UAEs backers want Colnago on the podium, it is part of the package. The Lease A Bike co-sponsor of Visma is part of the same group as PON which owns Cervlo so that is unbreakable too. Ineos could afford to do it, possibly others. But also at the lower end of the market, a team that doesnt earn much might consider it as a selling point, were not the richest but we invest in the best kit, a means to attract riders looking to turn around their career who knows they can get the best out of themselves.The financial cost of forgoing technical sponsors is obviously the big hurdle. The millions banked can fund a team leader alone. Yet some of this problem could be mitigated by deal making. If a team does identify the fastest skinsuit and then buys this for their team, its a big boost for the company that produces it. Likewise for the best wheels, frame and so on. So much so that the team might be able to say supply us, even sponsor us. So instead of the usual phoney Brand X is the choice of Team Y ads it could be very valuable because of the authenticity.ConclusionAs teams leave no stone unturned to find legal advantages and spend big money on performance staff and training camps, what if they could rip up the traditional model of bike sponsorship and buy what they wanted? No matter how good a product is, being able to choose and mix-and-match to suit conditions, types of races or different riders can surely bring gains and possibly benefits to outweigh the costs of lost sponsorship revenue.This holds true for the teams at the very top who have generous title sponsors who demand the very best results in return. But it could also work for the most modest teams given the amount they can command in the sponsorship market is not so big. It need not be so costly financially as if a team really did chose a product and even publish why they like it then the suppliers would be delighted and surely supply it for free.The post Buy Your Own Bike first appeared on The Inner Ring.