And then people wonder why there’s so much theft or attempted theft.
Prices are bonkers, but a fool and their money are easily parted.
I’d like to think that’s a result of the lack of consequences for theft. Risk vs Reward for the thieves, but I bet if faced with a more painful outcome if caught they’d rethink that decision.
£12k would pretty much be what the pros are riding.
My Cannondale was £1500 and has quite a few years left in her yet…
(No-one tell Mrs SBYM the entire drive-train has been upgraded…)
1 Like
Agree the prices are nuts, though.
They are nuts and while we’re at it we are in the full midst of a cheaty bike plague. Most people now have e (cheaty) bikes on my local trails. I think it’s gone beyond getting more people on a bike to scrambling without petrol. What comes next armchairs? I bet they’re a heap of fun but do bugger all for your waistline or eleccy bill.
I’m half in the market for a new mountain bike but stuff looking at a new one or a cheaty one. I’d rather have a Vegemite sandwich and cycle a few miles to burn it off. There’ll be a mug out there having spent stupid on a bike, then bought a cheaty bike and is looking to sell off the one that made him sweat a bit.
The prices are nuts for the top-end of course, but if you look towards the lower-end, there’s lots of value to be had.
Also it’s relative, since this new one will essentially be my car. I genuinely do get around everywhere by bike, and I miss my old trusty companion. Have quite a few photos of my (now stolen) bikes with me all over the place.
I think about it in terms of accessibility. There are plenty of people I know who would find mountain biking quite daunting, but a cheaty bike would be almost like a gateway drug…
I knew a guy that used to keep Falcons, and he used a special kind of tracking chip he attached to their claws. This allowed him to find them anywhere at all if they ever took off on an adventure. Might be an idea to put one inside your new bike frame…!
A company I worked at a few years back that had a ‘cycle to work’ scheme running… a part of some government incentive. Anyway, the company contributed up to 50% of the purchase price of a new bike.
Maybe ask around to see if its still in existence, or if anyone working at such a company can get you such a ticket for it
Difference is, burglars who can break into a house know how to look for and disable/remove trackers.
You’ll love to know it still exists.
How it works is that the company buys the bike for you and you technically “rent” the bike from the company for a monthly payment, but this comes out of your gross salary so you don’t have to pay income tax and NI on the foregone income.
The good news is that there used to be a limit of £1000 that could be purchased this way, but now this limit has been removed, and it’s up to the individual company’s implementation of the scheme.
For businesses, they can save money as well since they don’t have to pay their contribution on the NI, and they don’t actually have to contribute anything towards the bicycle themselves.
1 Like
Yes cycle to work is still running. I’ll look into that tomorrow. Won’t pull the trigger though.
Also, yes I agree it’s given many people route into cycling. I’m fine with that but there’s a whole load of people that use the cheaty bike because they’re basically lazy. There is a big fun factor too no doubt but it’s not being used as a route to fitness I feel.
Each to their own, but I’m way off putting a mortgage sized payment down for a electric bike.
I’d prefer they were being lazy on a bike than in a car.
How much is a mortgage-sized payment? I’ve seen e-bikes from around £2500, which is pretty much what I’m looking at with the Ribble CGR 725 (which is probably also why I’m trying to solicit as many opinions as I can about it)…
Just looking quickly
https://www.wiggle.co.uk/nukeproof-megawatt-297-rs-alloy-bike-x01-2
I also saw one guy trying to sell a used one for £9k the other day.
But I don’t know if you noticed that my posts were a little bit exaggerated / overblown for dramatic effect. There’s a lot of banter at my work place over it as I’m pretty much on my own resisting the purchase of one.
Your point bike Vs car is perfectly valid of course and I do appreciate that you can actually knacker yourself out on an e bike if you put the effort in and go far enough. But I also think it’s a slippery slope.
On another matter, what are people’s thoughts on the little war between cyclists and drivers being pushed by the likes of the Daily Mail etc. Worries me a bit to be honest. There’s people on there advocating people knocking people of bikes etc.
Pretty scary tbh. Might be unrelated but I’ve had 2 near misses in past month with car flying by inches away and shouting out window
1 Like
Yeah. I could easily cycle to work 1 -2 days a week as part of my training regime. A couple of decent climbs too based on my route choice. But I’ve got those loons in the back of my mind.
It’s got worse for sure despite the updates to the highway code etc.
Maybe it is just a regional thing… But when I lived in Cornwall for a number of years, an awful lot of drivers had a thing about cyclists using the roads… vermin was the title they were commonly given, but I think this animosity and total disregard towards them had more to do with the Cornish having a gripe against what they call ‘Emmet’s’ taking over their homeland… I always thought it was very strange because obviously a lot of the cyclists were probably Cornish themselves…
I tend to have at least one close pass everytime I go for a ride that’s longer than 15 mins. Had one commute (11 miles) last month where I had ten close passes and 3 where I may have well been sat in the passenger seat of passing cars.
1 Like
They need some new targets. What else to do but paint cyclists as woke lefties?
I think driving standards (and consideration for others) in general has become absolute shite since the pandemic. Not that they were much better before, which shows you how bad it is now.
I ride from West Wickham to Whitechapel for work, 21km. Get abuse from time to time, mainly from pissed off young blokes for some reason. PLENTY of near misses but doesn’t feel dangerous, I always just assume everyone is a shit driver and go from there.
Australia is exactly the same, imo.
Thing is, I have ridden a fair bit in Italy and it felt like another world. I guess the way the culture feels about cycling does have an impact. I am planning to ride a bit in France next year, will be interesting to see if it feels the same.