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I spent £1250 on my road/commuter bike and £3000 on my (full-sus) mountain bike in 2014, replacing an 8 year old hardtail. I bought the road bike cash and the mtb on an interest free credit card, and since then have saved up enough to buy another pretty decent bike.
I'd love to go and replace the mtb again (jonesing for one of the new Rockets) but whilst I have the money, I can't quite square it with my conscience. Yet.
I think the most I ever spent was £4k (maybe a bit more) on a custom built Cove Shocker Loved that bike, but it was like an Elephant, cool to own, but then do you get to use it? Couple of uplift days a year at Cwmcarn, one trip to the Alps, one to Whistler and then tried to sell it when I realised I was never going to ride it properly - probably less than 300 miles on it and it was pretty much like-new, but I couldn't give it away, stripped it and the bits sold eventually, the frame finally ended up going to Cyprus. Now I shudder at the money I wasted on it.
My current bike (Intense Tracer 275A) I bought for £1900 reduced from £3k because it was last years and had been sat in the sun/rain for a few months and the X-Fusion suspension was never popular to buyers. It had some rust spots on some steel bits and the paint is a bit faded - but I've never been one for mollycoddling bikes with invisiframe stuff and all that mine always where their scars with pride. Shifted the XT groupset and Float X CTD over from my last bike, did some selling, some horse-trading with bits and now it's got a lovely spec IMHO, nothing too fancy, but where I believe the sweet-spot is between too-cheap and too-bling, I think the total amount of cash I had to use was £1500, which I can live with.
I might go a bit more mad with the next one, youngest starts school full time in 2 years and that's probably when I'll want to replace this one - she costs me £800 a month in childcare at the moment, I told I could finance a Porsche for that ha ha, but I'll probably make-do with a Carbon framed bike.
The bike I ride the most is my £300 commuter. Perfect.
Just bought a new sb5c frame for £1900, on sale as the new variant will be out soon, saved a grand so am chuffed. So, nowhere near as much as some people have spent!
Just bought a new full suss for £2,000 but it will be paid for by selling the old one and some retro.
One before also cost £2,000 about 3 years ago, also largely paid for by selling other things.
That's the good thing about Orange bikes. They may not be the best value for money originally but they hold their money well meaning it doesn't cost as much to change. 😉
Probably spent around £700 on retro in the last few years but ended up with stuff worth about £1200 so the extra gets spent on bikes, like my new one.
"This year's total spend on push bikes had topped 15k...
I'm not expecting to buy another bike for at least ten years.":
When you break it down, that's £1500 a year. Compare that to car ownership, public transport costs etc, and then it seems a lot more reasonable. And if you're using them to keep fit and healthy, then the cost is irrelevant.
I broke it to my wife that my proposed new bike may end up costing £3k or more. She didn't bat an eyelid, which I though a bit strange. I later discovered that she'd drawn up a long list of household etc 'jobs' that I need to do in order to 'pay' for it. 😳
Oh, and I'm expected to get rid of at least one other bike (this is a 'replacement' for a current one) as well. I don't think she understand the concept of N+1...
Personally, I could buy any bike I desired (up to about £12k), but A- I would never forgive myself because I hate spending money, and B- I can't see it providing anymore joy than the £2.5k budget I set for my new bike. I've poured the money into a few startups I'm playing with instead. No doubt they'll fail, but I find that equally as fun as riding.
Are you taking the mick? Seriously? And I let you get away with just a Whyte T-130... 😮
Anyway... I'm a "startup"... Invest your money with me! I'll give you something to show for it! 😉
Post about expensive bikes, get people to show off and create a thieving two-hat shopping list.
Not playing that one 🙂
Let the willy waving commence.
My Brompton is the most I've ever spent on a full bike. Had it 3 years and fully expect to have it for another 10.
Let the willy waving commence
Far too late for that. Bit of a vulgar thread really. can we start "who earns the most?" Now?!
My MTB probably would be quite expensive if I'd built it for someone - Tomac Revolver Ti with Rohloff, USE SUB, lots of carbon and titanium stuff. I did once add it up to about £5500. But I got the last frame CRC had very cheap (well, relatively) and the rest of the bits were trade or spare, so didn't cost me anywhere near as much.
Nothing more than my [s]time[/s] soul. IT conslutant.
FTFY 😉
MrBlobby
IT Consultant
Isn't there a thing/guide/old wives tale about how much you should spend on an engagement ring - something like 1.5 times a months salary?
Perhaps there needs to be a cycling equivalent 😆
Steve Worland always used to recommend 3 weeks wages to newcomers.
That was about 15 years ago though...
Round my way the done thing is a Nomad with Enves in this year's colours and a VW transporter to put it in.
I'm more bangernomics and self deception for bike purchases. Biggest new bike ticket price was my alu SB66 in 2011 (still got it). £5k and just a couple of months later I was justifying a Bos Deville upgrade.
All that kit has passed the test of time and delivered excellent value.
Do bikes you have to give back count?
My best is a "salary" of about 750 francs a week and some nice man gave me 2 top end colnago/record road bikes and a timetrial bike. It was so long ago that the TT bike had a small front wheel, so before they'd invented aerodynamics. Or corners.......
I had to give them back at the end of the season 😥
Bit of a vulgar thread really. can we start "who earns the most?" Now?!
I am luckily at the age where I have gone past caring and feel no need to display wealth in any way. A more content period of life I guess (or maybe just want for less?)
As for bikes, I only ever own one at a time and as it will always be a rigid single-speed of some kind I couldn't spend £1,000s if I tried.
Far too late for that. Bit of a vulgar thread really. can we start "who earns the most?" Now?!
So British.
I don't think it's vulgar at all. I like reading about what people spend and why. After all, you don't know where the money's come from- could be loans, debt, lottery, profit or something else. It's just people sharing bike stories.
As for bikes, I only ever own one at a time and as it will always be a rigid single-speed of some kind I couldn't spend £1,000s if I tried.
You reckon?
£1,800 on mtb about 5 years ago.
£600 on 2nd hand CX bike 3 years ago.
Trying to justify spending £1,200 on a brand new road bike at the minute.
Bit of a vulgar thread really. can we start "who earns the most?" Now?!
Not related to that at all IMO. I know people who don't earn loads but choose to spend their money on bikes.
I could afford to spend more money on bikes, but really do not see the point.
I've never spent more than £2k on a bike in total, and never more than £1600 in one go. I honestly don't think I could ever bring myself to do so...
You reckon?
Yep, I reckon. Wouldn't want one of those if you gave it to me.