I’ve always sworn by cheaper bar tape, some soft Planet-X stuff, or the LifeLine stuff at Wiggle, it’s great, it does the job, no need to spend more.
Then, browsing a website I see some hideously coloured Lizard Skins DSP at a very good price, under £10 for the roll as clearly no-one wants that colour. I treat myself to see what all the fuss is about.
Well, what an expensive mistake that was. It’s so much better than other stuff.
So now I have to buy 2 more rolls for my other bikes in normal, expensive colours

I picked up a bargain set of forks following a PSA on here, they were going to be an upgrade on my full susser but in the end I decided that there was nothing wrong with the forks in the full susser so I ended up building a hardtail around the new bargain forks.

Free boats??

DrP

“Cheap” fatbikes that you then upgrade practically every component on! 😆

Cheap rims that then need hope hubs, decent spokes and a workshop bill.

Cheap dropper posts which often have non serviceable internals and sometimes no Schrader valve to add air. End up in the bin when they break.

browsing a website I see some hideously coloured Lizard Skins DSP at a very good price

Link?

One of the German sites was selling Fox 34s at a ludicrously cheap price a few years back, something like £175.

Didn’t have a bike to put them on so ended up getting a ti hard tail custom made. It’s got some decent components on, as well as the BARGAIN fox 34s…

My wife will tell you that “bargain offer leading to extra additional cost” describes every bike purchase for the last 17 years.

Oh, and to the OP, you’ll need to factor in the cost of new bar end plugs, as the Lizard Skins ones fall out if you sneeze near them. Or within a 10 mile radius.

Shimano Di2 road bike Sti’s cheap on CRC – led to a further £600 odd spend to get them up and running on my road bike. Worth it in the end though!

Hideous bar tape

£ land!

Hubs, always find cheap hubs and then at some point have to buy 28/32 spokes (30 quid), nipples, etc and a rim, so another 100 quid on top.

A £10 very used Charge Plug frame and forks in need of, well, everything.

I’ve been collecting parts for 18 months, select bits and bobs, mostly 2nd hand. It’s just gone to the powder coaters. But of course it’s had to have a Brooks Cambium C17, because that’s my saddle of choice. And of course matching Cambium bar tape. This £10 frame is looking like £500 worth of “cheap” town fixed, hipster sled.

£100 Garmin Edge 130 (it’s $300 here). So far it’s required the purchase of sensors, and now that I can see the numbers, clearly I need a power meter, and a more aero bike to make the numbers biggerer

Another, “Ooh, that’s a cheap fork/set of wheels. I should get some as a spare for my bike.” 2 months later, “Tadaa! I’ve got another bike, and it was cheap cos I already had the forks/wheels.”

Anything from Aldi’s Isles of Shite!

I bought a leather Brooks saddle which ended up on a Cube CX bike – this was when planning my Lejog I wanted some comfort. It looked so out of place that I had to buy a Van Nicholas road bike which suited the saddle far better.

Cheap hookers followed by the antibiotic bill.

I don’t really want to spend on bikes atm but saw some wider bars for my gravel bike at a decent price so snapped them up. Went to fit them last night and found that the front brake cable isn’t long enough for the new bars so am now going to have to get another cable, some brake fluid and a bleed kit for yet another different caliper/lever.

Bums.

One of the German sites was selling Fox 34s at a ludicrously cheap price a few years back

A friend moved overseas and gave me his pile of old bikes and junk. One of them as his wife’s bike, which was a basic hardtail with Deore and below gear, but it had been parked out in the rain for years and not ridden so the forks were rusted solid. It had a fairly beefy head tube, so I just assumed it took tapered forks and ordered some of those cheap 27.5″ Fox 32s, thinking I would build a mullet bike for playing around. Of course, as soon as I pulled it apart I found that it was straight steerer only, so I got some second hand Psylos for that bike and gave it to my wife.

Having a perfectly good set of brand new 27.5″ forks sitting there that would not fit any frame I owned, I figured I might as well buy a cheap hardtail from on a closeout sale. Got that running with old 9 speed drivetrain and some 29″ wheels from my commuter. It was ok, but the tyre clearance was just too tight even with 2.0 tyres so I picked up some cheap 27.5″ wheels so I could fit in some bigger tyres. Then CRC did a nice discount on 11-speed XT drivetrains just around Christmas time so I figured I might as well make it into a decent bike instead of a hack. Then, of course, the pedals, saddle, bars, stem, and grips were old and tatty, so I figured I should sort that out so it looked like a decent bike.

Most expensive set of forks I’ve ever bought.

hols2 Free Member

Oh, well played !

(do we understand that you have some 29er wheels with nowhere to put them? On you go 🤣 )

Free boats??

DrP wins….