A few of us were having a debate whilst riding on saturday as to how much you should spend on your cycling specific kit, not including the bike. There were 2 obvious schools of thought: Those who have a very expensive bike, but only budget to mid range kit. And those who have a middle range bike but good kit.

By kit I mean cycling clothes, helmets, shoes, lights, hydration packs etc etc.

My take is that I actually get more enjoyment from having high quality high performance kit than having the absolute cutting edge bike. Nice kit makes the actual riding a far more enjoyable experience. Having just done the sums, my kit adds up to 170% the cost of my MTB, but there is some roadie kit in there too.

What do people on here think?

No idea about spend ratio, but I’d agree that decent clothing makes way more of a difference to your ride than say xtr over lx, carbon bars etc.

similar to you really in that I certainly find spending the money on kit makes such a difference to comfort levels, though no intention of doing the calc!

Sometimes cheap kit is good, though most of the time it’s not. I really don’t get on with any of the Aldi stuff – just doesn’t fit right. I’ve just ‘invested’ in some decent dhb stuff from Wiggle – and it’s in a different league comfort and fit wise.

I wear what works for me irrespective of cost. some kit is expensive, some not.

At a guess 50% of the 4 bikes I’m currently running

Plum

There were 2 obvious schools of thought: Those who have a very expensive bike, but only budget to mid range kit. And those who have a middle range bike but good kit.

I’m in the third group, expensive bike and nice kit 😳

I keep kit a lot longer than bikes though, in fact I don’t think I’ve bought any notable bits of kit this year. I’ve also only got 1 MTB, but have 4 helmets, 5 pairs of sunglasses, and at least 15 pairs of shorts, so it’s not really a fair comparison!

jeez, I didn’t think it was that much.

Below is only stuff I ride with, I haven’t included buff’s and merino stuff I use for walking.

My riding kit is 27% ish of the bikes value (orange 5 pro)

Lights: £300
Pack/bladder: £65
Shorts: £45
Top: £40
Socks: £8
Shoes: £40
Knee pads (no laughing at the back) £75
Helmet: £65
Jacket: £100
Glasses: £30
Gloves: £30

0% I suppose
I think cycling specific kit is fairly irrelivent as long as you’re comfortable riding the bike (haven’t bought any new riding kit in a few years and never buy ther latest gimickey clothing, instead I only really replace clothing when it dies, I used to go through aboout 4 pairs of gloves a year but have given up wearing gloves now.
I s’pose my main 4 bikes(have 8 in total)might be deemed “very expensive”.

fourth group…. hair shirt brigade here..

mid range bike with reliable parts.. I own a midrange helmet.. some bargain gloves and some £8 padded undershorts as my only cycling specific kit..