There is an outside chance that we could be getting it at work.

Is there a scheme that allows me to go out and pick the bike I want from my LBS and negotiate any discount that I can and my company just pays the bill, or is does work have to handle all the purchase?

…and before I get accused of buying something completely inappropriate or taking the pi55 I actually really do want to buy a cheap road bike for commuting.

You can go to your LBS as long as they’re in the scheme
Ask your LBS if they are, lots are nowadays.
or do a postcode search here http://www.cyclescheme.co.uk/

Then once you’ve found the bike you like, say for a grand, you go back to your work and fill out the form they give you, you may have to provide details of the LBS.
Then you wait a long time, about a month, for the voucher to arrive. IN the meantime your company has stepped into action and will have set up the pre tax removal of money from your pay packet, they should tell you how much it is and when it starts.

Once you have the voucher, march cheerfully to your LBS, present it and they’ll do the rest.

At the end your company will take 25% value of the bike off you, or the bike. But I expect that’s a negotiable thing for most companies.

edit: So to answer your question properly, yes. If you can sort out some extraordinary discount with your LBS, your company doesn’t care.

you go to a participating shop and pick a bike and any extras

you get no discount, you fill in the online form with the shops price (or if your shop is nice they do all that for you, mine did) and you get a voucher though the post some time later.

take voucher into shop and exchange for bike.

I run the scheme for my company.

I bought a credit licence so we can spend an unlimited amount on bikes – unless your company has one you will be limited to the standard £1000

You / they dont need any special arrangement, all you really have to do is get the bike company to invoice your company. Your company pays the bill, claims back the VAT and effectivley charges you to use the bike over a long period of time. You pay this fee as a salary sacrifice.

Some companys find this hard to deal with and some bike shops sell them a “Scheme” to make it easy. Actually it is easy – but not all accountants ride bikes 🙂

Bottom line is you get a bike for a massive discount – I saved over 50%, plus negotiated a further discount of the bike shop for putting business their way.

We run our own in house scheme, with no 3rd party facilitator such as Cyclescheme. We are able to purchase bikes direct from any cycle retailer, negotiate a discount, company buys bike and recoups cost through salary sacrifice.

We run our own in house scheme, with no 3rd party facilitator such as Cyclescheme. We are able to purchase bikes direct from any cycle retailer, negotiate a discount, company buys bike and recoups cost through salary sacrifice.

That’s the sort of thing I’m after.

Our accountant runs ours, much better than cs in so many ways. . Want some sample paperwork?

Helping middle class office drones purchase that essential 5th bike since Two Thousand and Whenever.

😉

We use Cyclescheme.

The LBS quotes a price, which your employer has to okay. You them get a voucher, which you send to the shop.

The bike can be a custom build. I got a pannier and rack and some spare tubes and stuff as part of the deal.

Good point, am down to 4 now, must order a new one 🙂

we’re on the halfords scheme, which isn’t as good. In addition, our company refuses to claim the vat back. Depending on how much they choose to take out when the 12 months is up, it may be a more expensive way of buying a bike than doing it in person (ie if they ask for 25% back and a lower rate taxpayer has only had 20% off the bike, they’ll end up paying 5% more than list price..)

5lab, wtf dont your company claim back the VAT – are you paying it !

Thats really not right.

yeah. I’ve complained, but apparently its too complicated as there’s sub-companies.

there’s about 4000 employees in the UK, so my thought is that HR is simply too lazy. Still sucks though

wtf dont your company claim back the VAT – are you paying it !

My tightwad employer claims the vat back and pockets it rather than passing the saving on to the employees 🙄