Is it based on the cash you have available, what you can get past your other half, or something less concrete?

I want a new bike, I don’t need one, even slightly. But I work in an unrewarding, tedious, stressful job which pays ok and I really enjoy cycling and do a lot of it.

I spend very little on clothes, going out, music, watches, cars etc

Currently looking at a plastic Occam but really struggling withe the enormity of spending that much on a toy. It just feels wrong. It’s daft really, as I’m not going to give the money away to charity or something, and have the money available due to being fairly frugal elsewhere.

So really, I should just splash the cash and enjoy. But I can’t.

There’s clearly loads of people on her spending shit loads on bikes. Do you feel guilty about it?

Do you buy based on what you have available, or is that reduced somewhat by what seems reasonable.

Not really explaining myself well here.

I find the bike I want, then I pretend I can afford it. And then I try and find one used at the price I’m pretending I can afford, and I fail, and I either give up or pay twice as much because I’ve got so frustrated. And then I spend a bucket on parts. But usually I’m quite good at selling stuff so it does balance out a bit

(and when I give up, sometimes I post it on here and randomly someone sells me one for a great price!)

I just look at how much this years Remedy costs and decide I still have to ride last years.

Though this year I did think I could be dead in 6 months best spend it.

I would struggle to justify more than £1500 for a bike to be honest. It used to be £1000 a few years ago but prices have gone up. That is just a personal perception of cost/benefit. It is the same with most things – I won’t often go top of the range. Never really been able to afford it – now I have more disposable income my opinions haven’t changed just because I can afford more.

How much money do I have access to, without altering my current way of life.

That amount is currently bugger all. In the past it’s been 5 figures.

No guilt at all, bikes are my passion.

Despite having the means, I’ve never managed to justify buying a bike more than 2k and generally wouldn’t even go near that. I prefer something cheaper that I can use and abuse rather than something expensive that I want to keep pristine.

I can’t really explain why either but I procrastinate long and hard about every purchase and then typically cave in and buy something on a total whimsy. I totally do my head in over the whole concept of spending money that I work hard for but feel bad about actually enjoying.

Hmmm, this might sound strange. My wife is the person who tells me to buy what I want if it makes me happy. Back in 2017 I had an agreed budget of £7k, which was a self inflicted budget. I spent £3k.
This year wife has said spend as much as I think necessary. My tactic was to show her the new S-Works which is £11k, then show her a slightly cheaper bike – we agreed on £8k. I spent £7.5k….but now having buyers remorse and getting tempted by much cheaper bikes. I think its me I need to convince to spend rather than a budget or other half agreement.
I do have to sell a bike before a new one comes in. I was lucky enough to get a good sale price for my bike I sold so that goes towards it.

I’m with the OP – its the amount I can get myself to spend on a toy – I have only ever bought one new bike anyway – secondhand being so much better value

I’ve always withdrawn cash on a 0% balance transfer to purchase at something I can pay off over a “reasonable” time period like 2 years at an “acceptable” monthly cost. The acceptable figure differs, but my most recent bike was about £2k and I paid it off over 2 years.

My issue is now I want an e bike, and I believe I need to spend at least £4K to get what I want – I’m set on a YT Decoy, Levo (SL) or Canyon Neuron type bike. So I just need to sell my current bike for £1.5k ish and whack the rest on tick for a few years.

Can’t get my head over spending £4K on a bike but I’m going to need do just that soon!

It does feel wrong spending so much on a toy that’s worth than my car. Ridiculous infact. Perhaps it’s because I live frugally in other ways. I really have to convince myself to spend money if it’s for something remotely expensive. I think it’s all about how you were raised. Some people are able to spend money without thinking about it. Some of us need to talk ourselves into it.

Luckily I was able to get the last one on cycle to work which made the cost more acceptable.

For me it’s value rather than outright cost. I prefer to be able to have the spec I want not what the manufacturer has decided but it seems that’s quite hard these days for anything other than a frame only build. Rose don’t seem to do it anymore. Bird are the only ones I think that deliver that and with value.

That said, anything over £4K is boutique:)

Do I like the colour?

Just what I think offers value for money. Ironically this seems to be the inverse of how much cash I have, in 1999 whilst earning £3 an hour i bought a brand new 3 grand orange, I now take home more than that a month and haven’t spent more than £1300 on a mountain bike in 15 years. I might be due an upgrade soon, but it’ll definitely be something from the direct sellers rather than a shop brand

It’s been 0% finance for my last few bikes. The trick is finding the places that do 3 years o% on bikes in the 2k range.
Nearly finished paying for my Occam; bought from Tredz when they had a bonkers offer on. £2400 new bike was reduced to £2k and still available on 3 years payments.
I don’t spend anywhere near enough time off-road to justify anything better but this bike does everything and should see me through the next few years.

If I bought what I wanted, I’d gave a garage full of bikes. So instead I buy what i feel is reasonable for the effort I’ll put in.

Weirdly I have the cheapest bike in the household.

Mrs Weeksy doesn’t care what I spend, to an extent.

My g160 was £1100. I can’t see me breaking £2000 any time soon.

When the Spitfire snapped I sold a lot of the parts on and claimed on the bike insurance for accidental damage, so technically the HB.160 only cost me a grand or so.

No way I’d have been able to afford one otherwise.

I’ll happily spend what it takes to have a bike in 100% happy with. As in there is nothing on it which makes me think id be going faster or having more fun if I had something different. Way i see it, If I’m going to spend a fair chunk of my time doing something, I may as well be doing it on kit without any compromises.

That doesn’t mean it’s the best of everything however, as when you get to the higher end kit I don’t really see any compromise between say ultegra and duraace. I certainly wouldnt notice the difference between the 2, same goes for the 1k carbon wheelset I have vs a pair of 3 grand enve.

If I rode a bit of kit that made me think ‘wow, this is appreciably better than what I had’ it probably buy it, regardless of the cost.

All that said, it also depends on the purpose of the bike. My gravel bike is used for pooling around country lanes. It cost less than a grand and has tiagra. It’s perfect for what I use it for, and having better gears, being lighter etc would make no difference to my enjoyment of it..

I couldn’t say the same about a 1k road bike.

I buy what I think gives the best performance for buck. It has to perform and be good quality, but without being all gucci and excessively spendy for no real performance gain.
I tend to know what kind of thing I want to buy, before I start researching the likely cost. I don’t go in with a fixed idea of what I want to spend until I’ve thought about where the sweet spot is in price/performance.
I buy second hand wherever sensible/possible. That way, if I don’t like it or don’t use it, then I can sell on for little loss.

Aside from the Soul, which I just wanted so bought through a combo of finance for frame and C2W for components, my last two complete bikes have been bought with the money from the previous bike/bikes. My T130 cost what I got for my previous Mondraker and the sale of the T130, my road bike and a few other odds and sods have paid for the Spur. Generally though I try and think about what I can justifiably spend on a bike versus what I actually want. I’d have liked an X01 Spur but the GX is fine, likewise the T130, the works would have been nice but the C RS was plenty for me. I’ve done the pretty high end and generally don’t find the benefit is huge. Seems crazy to call the Spur the upper end of mid-range given what it cost but that’s the market these days! For me I’d put on a ceiling on it, I use the full sus bike the most so £3-3.5k is about my lot, hard tail was about £1.5k (I never did the full maths) and I try to justify similar for another bendy bar bike. I generally keep bikes for around 4 years so I feel like I get my money’s worth out of them. Technically speaking in selling bikes and their monetary value terms, the Spur is still funded by the Ibis I sold in 2015 and built in 2011!

How much money do I have access to, without altering my current way of life

This is the correct answer. Nearly 10 years ago I rode a Cotic Soul with second hand parts for 3 years; I’m currently building an Open UP with AXS that will cost >4x the amount, will it make the riding experience any better or more enjoyable? No.

Usually, how much can I spend to get a bike that will do what I want it to do, and what can I save, sell or borrow to meet that.

Been happy with C2W limit for a bike used predominantly for commuting, bought cheap and second hand to try something different, mainly spend around £2k on new bikes for decent spec without going silly on stuff my ability cannot justify.

Bikes are my hobby and my therapy. £ per mile over the 2-3 years I usually keep them it’s really not a large amount.

Similar circumstance to OP. in not spending money elsewhere.

Also looking at a new bike. One I don’t really need but I want.

Can’t justify or afford a fully built new bike so plan to re-cycle what’s on my current bike, buy a new frame and upgrade from there. Also moving from non boost to boost which complicates things a little.

Maybe spend £1,000 this way as I can’t justify a bike that costs more than my car.

Happy though. I’d prefer to build then buy. Take my time and get the components I want rather than something off the shelf.

A smaller monthly outgoing on upgrades over a few months is much easier for me than a large one off payment on a new bike.

I’m old enough to have passed the stage where I really believe a better bike will provide some kind of joy for me.

Riding a bike provides joy. no matter which bike TBH.

Having said that, I do ride it pretty hard, so I need something strong without weighing a ton. This means I have to spend more than the average.

My current (trail) bike is a Specialized S-works Stumpjumper coil. It was reduced by 50% when I bought it, but still cost 3k. It’s fine, but I won’t spend that much against a number of years. I reckon I’ll get 6 years out of this current bike.

I can afford to buy what I like though, but still wouldn’t spend much more than this.

I tend to only spend what I can afford to replace. Most of my stuff is secondhand or heavily discounted. I don’t need or really want the latest gear and tend to wait for new standards to bed in. However in the long run this can get costly and difficult. Esp trying to source straight steerer forks or 26″ wheels.

I’d always wanted this certain bike.
It was half price in the sale.
It was 0% finance.
They gave me £250 off for trading in a £5 Hello Kitty kids bike.

How much I can afford from savings then value then how much it would hurt to break it. Diminishing returns on top end stuff (so wouldn’t go XTR/Dura ace). I’d be reluctant to spend 4k on a mountain bike as previous bikes have broken or been thrown down rocky hills. Equally I love Di2 but the risk of mech breakages off road puts me off buying it for CX or mountain bike. Drive chain on a CX lasts a season of racing and gravel so again not top end.

Last CX bike was £1500. Last road bike was £3.8k. Currently thinking about a mountain bike and it might be £2k purely based on there not being anything from the likes of Vitus or Canyon available to come in cheaper.

I want a new bike, I don’t need one, even slightly.

Then £0 is the correct amount.

My budget is usually somewhere form £800 to £1.5k secondhand. Most of the budget comes from sale of the previous bike and the rest from cash saved or 0% credit card. Only have one bike at a time now (would like two) and my current bike is the first new bike I’ve bought for years and is also a bit over budget at £2k. Of that, £1650 was from the sale of the last bike.

What I have in the bank, or indeed a small payment I can afford for (maxim) a year as well..

The most expensive bike I’ve bought was my Sub5, back in 2001 and it was £1500+. Since then everything has been £1k or less, often second hand.

I also keep bikes until they are worn out, I don’t do the upgrade thing either, I just replace parts.

Same as the OP, I’m more limited by how I feel spending X on a bike than anything else. My last road bike was £3500 in 2014, which I thought was a silly amount on money at the time. It was the top of the range (list price was £4K) – SRAM Red, 1450g DT Swiss wheels etc. But I’ve done over 25000km on it since then so it does get used.

Just looked at the same brand now. Top of the range is now £8K, with discs and SRAM Red eTap, carbon wheels.

Given I’ve added eTap (£1K) and Prime carbon wheels (£600), it’s very hard to justify another bike just to get disc brakes and a slightly more aero frame.

Then £0 is the correct amount

Goodness, do you only buy stuff you need?

I’m impressed ( and a little sceptical)

It’s easy for me.I am a crap, fat and unfit rider – spending more on bikes and components won’t change that so i can spend the savings on beer and kebabs whilst enjoying riding my cheap bikes!

Not quite all true (apart from the rider description)

Basic MoSCoW analysis, geometry review, then massive distrust of certain bike brands usually leaves me with few options.

Big factors against that shortlist are where I can buy from (i.e. somewhere I trust if it goes wrong), availability and value for money.

In previous years this usually resulted in an old model in an unusual colourway or with a weird spec.

For example a bright yellow Scott plus bike. Geo was identical to the 29er, even had the same shocks, but it was thousands less. Have the plus stuff for pooling about bought a cheap set of 29er rims for hooning.

For road bikes it is simpler. Some key requirements like geo, tyre clearance, then because I dislike gloves it must have Ultegra as the composite levers aren’t cold like the metal 105 levers.

Generally I spend loads under budget, can’t see that happening again.

Would I like it?
Can I afford it?
Is it a niche I don’t have covered already?

If the answer to all of those is yes, I buy it. That raises the question of what ‘afford’ means. To me, it means being able to lose that money without it putting the future of my family at risk. I don’t think I’d ever borrow money to buy a bike, but then I’ve been lucky enough to be well paid for many years – and I don’t really spend it on anything except bikes, craft beer and artisan roasted coffee.

I’d really like a Transition Spur, and I could afford one, but I thought that the niche between my Jeffsy and my XTC probably wasn’t big enough – and it’s heavier than the Jeffsy.

Maybe you’re looking to buy the new bike partly to fill the void that’s left from your unfulfilling and stressful work, which is absolute madness because material things will never be able to do that.

A top shelf bike will bring no more joy than one that just gets the job done adequately – as long as you stop comparing to others and stop reading about bike reviews.

Spend the money by all means if you have it, but be aware it won’t fulfil you or bring about any lasting joy beyond the first couple of weeks. I think we all know this but sometimes need reminding and i’ve been guilty myself many times.

A top shelf bike will bring no more joy than one that just gets the job done adequately – as long as you stop comparing to others and stop reading about bike reviews.

All depends how you get joy/define joy I suppose but tend to agree. I have made it very easy for myself though by riding a very simple type of bike for the last 20 years and my current complete bike cost £700 to put together and I am very happy with it.

A top shelf bike will bring no more joy than one that just gets the job done adequately – as long as you stop comparing to others and stop reading about bike reviews.

No, it will be slightly better, not 2x as much better, but marginally better.

If you can afford it and are happy to spend that amount, then go for it.

I have two 2 bikes, one’s a Trigger’s broom that I’ll just keep forever and keep going with second-hand parts.

With the other ‘modern bike’ my thought process is always how much I can sell it for i.e. depreciation. Same with other stuff too, cars, gadgets…

My last bike was £2.2k, but only cost me £200 quid over 2 years ‘cos it made a very good price when I sold it. I always buy at around midrange spec wise, so running costs are the same for whatever a have.

Is it based on the cash you have available, what you can get past your other half, or something less concrete?

Rush of blood to the head, then bad man maths making me believe I can afford it, before sleeping on it for a few nights and not pulling the trigger!

I’d love a really fancy bike, but I just can’t justify the price. I don’t race, so again it’s just a toy really and I don’t ride enough to justify anything over maybe 2k.

I’m not loaded, but could afford more than 2k, but I just don’t see the point. Apart from weight (possibly), the difference between a 2k and 4k bike will not change how I ride it. It would all just be about looks.