Cycle2Work

[Stevenj214]

I'm going to be buying a bike through the Cycle2Work scheme, probably from Cycle Lane.

Knowing absolutely nothing about push bikes, what sort of money should I be looking to spend and are there any makes I should be looking at?

I like value for my money (i.e. not cheap tat but not overpriced monsters) - is £250-300 a decent budget for the bike, excluding accessories?

My riding will be on road to work and possible some park paths (country parks etc.)

Edited by Stevenj214 on Wednesday 2nd June 11:37

[Stevenj214]

Having a look around, it looks like Cycle Lane has only a limited selection of bikes. I could look at other shops in Glasgow.

[Stevenj214]

Also, I will be 'new' to cycling, if that makes a difference; my last bike being a cheap mountain bike when I was a teenager.

[npope]

I woudl try Evans Cycles htey have one in Glasgow I think, they will price match anything and will give you great advice. When you say 2-300 that would depend on how much tax you pay if higher end you could get 50% off a new bike so for £600 you would get a good bike. Are you buying road or MB or maybe folding, go a long and talk with Evans your best best.

Good luck

[Stevenj214]

I was more thinking £250-300 before the tax saving (I'm lower band in anycase). Is this too low for a decent bike?

[Stevenj214]

I pushed the budget up a bit and the sales assistant at Adrenaline Bikes sold me on a 2010 Trek 7.1 FX.

Now to present the quote to work; hopefully I'll have it in 2-3 weeks!

[Stevenj214]

I'm still waiting on my bike!

I got the voucher last Monday (28th June), but wasn't going to have time to go in to the shop and present it so I called them up and placed a £50 deposit over the phone so that they would order it in for me. The person I spoke to said it should be delivered on Thursday or Friday and they would give me a call when it was ready for collection.

I called last Saturday for an update to be told the bike hadn't been delivered yet, they were expecting it on Monday and they would give me a call when it was ready for collection.

Fast forward to today and they still have not been in touch.

I'm disappointed at the lack of contact, but is 2 weeks+ normal for an independent shop to order the bike in and set it up for you?

After the good service I received when I was in the shop, this is putting a bit of a damper on things.

Edited by Stevenj214 on Saturday 10th July 12:28

[3216]

Stevenj214 said:

I'm disappointed at the lack of contact, but is 2 weeks+ normal for an independent shop to order the bike in and set it up for you?

It may not be their fault. It's getting towards the end of the year for bikes as next years models will be staring to filter through soon, therefore stock may be low or non-existent at the distributor.

Edited by 3216 on Saturday 10th July 12:56

[Gooby]

Stevenj214 said:

I was more thinking £250-300 before the tax saving (I'm lower band in anycase). Is this too low for a decent bike?

It depends on the type of bike and the type of riding you want to do.

If you want to go mountain biking - yes, your budget is too small.
If you want a road bike then I would suggest more money,
If you want a hybrid to get you to work with simple, solid forks then you are on the ladder.

[Stevenj214]

I called on Saturday to chase again and lo and behold, my bike is in! That was the good news.

The bad news was it has been in since the beginning of the week, but no one at the shop thought to give me a call to let me know and some of the accessories (mud guards, etc.) are not in stock, so they'll now have to be ordered in.

[Stevenj214]

I turned up at the shop yesterday with the intention of either walking out with my bike and equipment or cancelling the order and going elsewhere.

Luckily some of the items they were waiting for were delivered yesterday morning, so I am now the owner of a Trek 7.1 FX!

Pics to follow

[okgo]

Well done, my gf has just bought one of those, seems to be an okay bit of kit for the cash