Might make an interesting documentary to follow some of these vouchers. See where they went, what was done, and how the bike was used afterwards.
My wife and I have worked full time through this whole thing as well, whilst also schooling 2 kids who have been at home through this whole time and won't be back at school until September. It's not only 'key workers' who have been full time employed throughout this shit. At least key workers kids could go to school.
As I can fix my own bikes and have been on full pay throughout I will not be applying for a voucher, even though I would normally use my bike every day to commute. I'm not the target audience for this scheme.
Releasing them at midnight is not a helpful part of it - the most deprived people in most need of them are the people who potentially need to visit a library or jobcentre or similar to access the internet and by the time they get there on a Wednesday morning, everything is gone.
Cos, like it's only STWers who are likely to misuse this scheme, isn't it. Everyone else in the country is as honest as the day is long.
As @cookeaa says, this scheme is not aimed at most of the users of this forum. It's aimed at helping non-"cyclists" to afford getting their bike working so they can start using it again. It's come out of the (successful) drive by British Cycling et al to promote cycling as a healthier alternative to public transport or short car journeys for those who can do it, and to promote cycling for leisure.
It's designed to make it more economical for people to get their one bike back on the road so they can start using it. It's explicitly _not_ just to buy new kit - only stuff that prevents the bike being used safely is covered.
The "but everyone else will abuse it too, so I'm going to get my dropper serviced" argument is as selfish and lame as saying "I can't see any blue badges, so I'm going to park in this disabled parking bay too."
There's a lazy media stereotype of "cyclists" as selfish, that normally goes with hysterical tropes about holding up traffic or riding on the pavement. Think how much worse it will make all of us look if it turns out that "the lycra clique" took all the money that was aimed at encouraging ordinary people to get back on their bike.
If it hadn’t of been as high at 80% pay for sitting at home I might of felt differently.
What's whether you have been furloughed or not got to do with it? If you feel that you are 'due' a freebie as you didn't get money from government to stay at home then that's a really odd attitude to have. For what it's worth I've been working full time also for past 5 months, and not for one moment have I thought I was 'missing out' on free cash.
If your bike is broken then you are entitled to use the scheme to get it fixed, regardless of whether you've been furloughed or not. Using it for any other reason is just being greedy
Unless you are on your arse financially you should not uptake this scheme.
Cos, like it’s only STWers who are likely to misuse this scheme, isn’t it. Everyone else in the country is as honest as the day is long.
and your point is....
I wouldn't be surprised if some shops don't sign up to the scheme.
People I know in the small LBS trade are all shattered from working 12 hour days / 6 plus days per week since lockdown. They've also had more than their fair share of rude / obnoxious / abusive new customers demanding instant bikes and repairs when there is precious little stock in the country and they are already swamped in what would be months of work backlog during normal times.
The voucher scheme will just be a new flood of people expecting £50 to miraculously and instantly fix a BSO wreck. When the poor shop explains the voucher will only cover labour, there is a 4 week wait for the workshop and it needs £50-£100 in parts they'll get blasted with a tirade about how that is more than the bike cost blah blah blah.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some shops don’t sign up to the scheme
Even if they want to they can't at the moment as the application portal is the same website as the one to apply for vouchers which isn't currently operational.
The shop I work at isn't signing up. We're already fully booked in the workshop until mid October and neither of us have had a day off this year.
If the site wasn't supposed to open until the silly time of 2345, why were people able to register at least as early as 2330?
I'd like to say that I can't believe that people were considering applying for these vouchers when they didn't NEED them either financially or practically. If your bike is functioning (or you are more than capable of repairing it yourself) or it needs work but you can afford to pay someone to fix it for you then you must know deep down that these are not aimed at you.
As had been said, they are aimed at getting non functioning bikes working, helping people to get back into cycling - which I thought most of us would agree was a good thing?
Yes, other people will no doubt take the piss but that doesn't mean we should all act like ****s.
People speed in 30mph zones, people drink drive, people don't give cyclists enough room when overtaking - does that mean it's ok for you to do that? Of course it doesn't.
This is not (currently) a limitless scheme, so the ISA / C2W scheme comparison is flawed (C2W is blatantly abused, I agree, and as I dont *need* it go get a cycle to use to get to work, I dont use it). People taking advantage of that aren't preventing those that need the help getting that help.
If you so desperately need £50 to spend on getting your bike fixed, then why not start a thread asking for help? If you need help learning how to maintain your bike, need to borrow tools, or even spare parts that people may have knocking about - I'm pretty sure that someone on here will be able to help you out.
And if you genuinely cannot afford to get a bike in a usable condition and haven't been able to get a voucher I'd wager that you'll have more offers of help than you will know what to do with.
and your point is….
Oh yeah, forgot about this. My point was, it's a free-for-all (not literally), so if you want to take advantage of the scheme (to get your dropper serviced) then do it. I won't be, because I fix my own bikes, but those getting all snooty because they think people on here will, should climb out of their own arses.
Anyone read their British Cycling email from yesterday that said "The next batch of the Government's 'Fix Your Bike' vouchers are now available..." but there's no hint of this on the registration site.
then you must know deep down that these are not aimed at you
They're aimed at bike shops really... it's a financial impetus to get work and money into bike shop workshops.
Has anybody here used one of these? I could do with a bottom bracket service, and I don't have the tools so I though I'd give it a try*. At the moment there are no vouchers available, but I assume that at some point there will be.
* Purity police: I work part time at minimum wage and I'm a key-worker - do I pass?
Where do you live?
Insure a kindly stwer would swap a BB for you. It's an easy enough job.
That's not a bad idea zippykona.
I wouldn't mind getting someone else to check my bike over, though. I do the maintenance myself, but I'm not great at it, and a lot of my knowledge is out of date after a 15 year gap - I'm constantly astounded by the things people have come up with while I was away.
Mostly it the tools though. I have allen keys and screwdrivers but that's about it.
