Just pushed the button on a new front wheel from merlin, hope hub with arch ex, to match the rear I bought a few months ago. £128 with £6.50 delivery, told the wife it was £50. Am I bad man? 😕

yes.

although mine asked specifically not to be told how much the spicy cost. so i took it as carte blance to buy a motorbike as well!

I don’t ask my wife for the costs of what she buys and she returns the favour. It’s been a fabulously happy marriage so far 🙂

sad….. 😉

Everybody does it just be more careful than me. I stupidly left a receipt hanging about which revealed the price I actually paid for my new forks : cue mayhem. I of course would never nosey at paper she leaves around even the receipt for the £80 handbag she bought today despite buying one in the sale last week for £50!

No, but we have a kind of “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

I find evasion works better than outright lies;

“how much did that cost?”

“ooh look, a harlequin cat just walked past the window!”

I once painted a cheap bike frame green…

…some weeks later my Kermit Green Niner SIR.9 arrived. 8)

lol @ takisawa2. Good skillz that man.

why?

*apologies for the f word but couldnt edit it. Mods remove if offense is caused.

you’re gonna get abuse for this you know, lying to your wife is just not on and the sign of a doomed marriage or that your whipped/under the thumb.

Yeah coz we all know brutal honesty is always the best thing for a happy relationship. 🙄

Don’t ask don’t tell. Worst I’ve had was when the mrs noticed I’d paid a wedge off the mortgage in an overpayment “where did you get the money for that?”

Am I bad man?

Bad – possibly

Man – no, not really if you’re scared to tell your beloved how much you spend on bike bits.

Edit: of course it helps if her bikes are as nice as yours.

Everybody does it just be more careful than me.

I don’t.

We’re perfectly open in our house – I buy something for the bike (or a new bike) and she takes it as carte blanche to buy new clothes, shoes or boots. We often sell things and the Paypal fund is there for anybody to use if they need anything; at the moment it’s quite full.

That said, my spend on parts has dropped dramatically since going over to road riding because the kit attrition rate is so much less than in mountain biking.

I don’t lie…I just give an evasive answer.

When I asked now much my Rune cost I just said more than some and less than other frames. She would have gone nuts if she knew the real cost. I cam see why too because to someone not into bikes, it’s a kit if money especially in the same year as a road bike and BFe are bought.

we both have expensive hobbies so it equals out.
I have bicycles to pay for and maintain.
she has the baby to feed and clothe.

Its not just bike parts either, I just ordered a new lense for the DSLR and cant remember if I told the wife before that the best (canon) lenses have a red ring on the front of them. Hoping I didnt and can pass the new lens off as an old one my dad gave me, as long as I can get it in the house without her seeing 😯

I find scaring the wife by showing all the costs of the really top end stuff that I am thinking about buying, and then comment on the ‘bargain’ price I got for this ‘almost’ as good as kit.

The other one is second hand off ebay….

I was allowed to buy an asgard shed the other day as I had been asking for it for 2 years…..

I only lie about the sex toys, but as they come in discreet packaging I can pretend they are bike parts

Standard operating procedure.

brakes – Member

we both have expensive hobbies so it equals out.
I have bicycles to pay for and maintain.
she has the baby to feed and clothe.
Does sir sleep in the shed mostly these days? 😆

I find it better to tell how much discount I got, rather than the actual price, but only if I’m asked in the first place. Never volunteer any information. 😉

she has the baby to feed and clothe.

Genuine LOL… 😆

We sorted this out years ago. Both paid monthly into separate accounts. These accounts bounce the vast majority into our joint accounts to pay for normal life but leaves us exactly the same amount left in our personal accounts. We use that money to buy each other presents (it just feels better than buying a present for someone out of their own joint account), clothe ourselves, put beer money in our pockets and to pay for toys. We have different priorities – she has less expensive hobbies but likes to look nice and I’m constantly getting told I look like a rag and bone man (on shiny bike!). She cringes when we go anywhere together but appreciates that’s not where my priorities are. This way there is no guilt about spending up the family savings, no tit for tat purchases, no justifying to anyone for either of us. It also nicely caps that type of frivolous spending and keeps it at a level you worked out was justifiable. It means I can’t go out and blow a wedge on a new super expensive toy every year but that’s no bad thing.

Currently soft furnishing are under negotiation – I’m putting forward an amendment that that there are only so many cushions any one person needs and any future purchases come from her and her alone. I’m going to lose!

No point, Mrs L does my account, I get a receipts passed to me with a raise eybrow if it’s considered a little bit spendy 😯

Both the motorbikes have got me in trouble though.

Tell her you lied.

Tell her it was actually £128, and if she doesn’t like it she can sling her hook, and you’ll find someone else who’s more of a doormat who won’t dare to ask questions about finances and bike parts…

Go on..I dare you.

You would be amazed at how many people at work know someone who has got spare cycling stuff and have given it to me. I have a ‘Bike Box’ which is a secret money haud, well I have 2, just in case my wife finds one. If I do tell my wife how much stuff is, it is never the correct price, usually half, if not more off the real price. A lot of stuff gets delivered to work and I smuggle it into the house or shed. I have cycled to work before and fitted new parts to it at lunch time and cycled home with the new stuff on the bike.
Sorry but that is how it is for me, my wife hates the bike.

Brakes…that’s funny.

But have you ever had the minerals to say that to her? A guy I work with referred to the kids as her hobby. I don’t think it went down too well.

As an interesting exercise google the price of all those creams clogging up the bathroom.
Last year I managed to find mrs zip paying for £300 worth of clarins at duty free. Apparently she had saved a fortune and needed it as she wanted to look her best for me.
Women will always out smart us.

…my wife hates the bike.

I’ve never understood this mindset. Being into bikes is a very healthy, beneficial thing. You are fitter, healthier, happier etc. It gives you time apart which is essential for a good relationship too.

If you’d said that your wife hates the pub, then I could understand it…

I find it better to tell how much discount I got, rather than the actual price

I learnt the “Do you know how much I saved on this” tactic from my wife in the first place. And due to the wonders of the internet I’ve never bought anything that wasn’t half price or less. Honest.

We both put the same amount into our joint acct that pays for all our bills. anything left over is mine and hers. I recently bought a Shan and a pair of Lyriks to go with it, I was asked how much they were, and I told her, she was absolutely fine with it. She keeps tabs on Mega TR prices (her next bike probs), so it’s not like she doesn’t know the prices of mountain bikes, and associated stuff.

LOL. Just had some Crossmax SX delivered to my house for a friend. Made sure the invoice was ripped off the box before he took it home. He also bought some Float 36′ off me.
So he’s gone from black wheels and fork to bright white wheels and fork and his wife’s not noticed! 😀

Thing is, you will get a lot of use out of that wheel. Wives buy handbags on a whim ‘cos they have an extra pocket or the strap is wrong on their current one, and then only use it a few times before determining that it too is wrong and they need another…

I find evasion works better than outright lies;

Agreed, or logical reasoning, although I realise this is of questionable merit on the fairer sex.

“How much was that frame?”
“Significantly less than the Audi R8 I’ve been talking about for a while now, I’d go as far as saying a bargain, in fact, I can’t now afford said supercar (glossing over the fact I never could), and as such, this frame has in effect saved me almost £120k”

I had to tell her now as the I can’t get things delivered to work and when(if) the box turns up on saturday I will have a lot of explaining to do. I’ll still get grief for the fifty quid but I’ll play it like ‘the hub was on it’s way out and I don’t want to fail when I’m zooming down a hill so if you’d like your husband to remain in good health then shusshhh*’

*I may not actually say shusshh if I want to retain 2 testicles.

Am I bad man?

No. Just pussy whipped.

We both put the same amount into our joint acct that pays for all our bills. anything left over is mine and hers.

This works until you earn substantially differently – if I did that now I’d be like a pig in shit and Mrs C would have have -£500 every month. One of the hardest things in life I learnt to live with as I ‘grew up’ was watching my income go up and my personal toy money go down.

Luckily, receipts are also very easy to photoshop.