what was your bargain of the year?

Left my bargain late – not arrived yet!

Hightower 3, down from a ridiculous 8k to 4k in the recent sales.  Add bike to work man maths to the equation and its costing me 2.3k.  There’s much hate for them on here but it was an itch that I’ve always wanted to scratch…

No idea what I’d use a Day One for, but damn I want one again now.

Trying to find some new SPD shoes at the beginning of the year, I found some Giro Rangers(I think )on Amazon for £27. For once having big feet paid off, it was the only pair in stock and my size!

Not bike related, but a vintage mirror in amazing condition for £5 in a charity shop, selling for £35-£65 in antique shops.

Left hand AXS controller for £60 new (£200 normally)

No idea what I’d use a Day One for, but damn I want one again now.

I sold one about 18 months ago, I have a one on-one out policy, in favour of an old steel P7 for party pace rides. Great mistake, moved the P7 on and bought the black one above. Might be a forever bike, the only thing I think might replace it is if I happen on one of those 853 frames they made briefly.

No bargains really, but I won £5k on a competition earlier this year which paid for our wedding in May. ?

I reckon the Levo SL i just bought for £2999 has to be up there but…

Whilst I do realise that the rampant discounting and fire sale culture is not healthy, I was actively looking for some light trail bike wheels, so there is no doubt that I won the Chiggle Sale lottery. Sorry.

(there were two sets available and I think another STWer bagged the others! )

That is a pair of Zipp Hitop carbon wheels, for £286.

RRP about £1400, Still haven’t see them for under a grand or so.

And yes, they ride lovely, and I’ve absolutely hammered them.

Right. I think we can close this thread now.

Although congratulations on the win and wedding monkeysfeet.

Oh, that reminds me, I won an Aston MTB competition to win a Rulezman stem (£240)

Aye, monkeysfeet+mrs_monkeysfeet for the win…

Some nice lightly used Hunt carbon wheels for the gravel bike at £330 ish from eBay, sub 1400g. What a difference compared to over 2kg Shimano stock versions.

Mrsmidlfe wrecked her commuter townie and  picked up an identical model still with shop labels on for £75.

Got a pair of Fizik Infinito X1 shoes for £120. Not sure they should have been £329!!! in the first place but still a bargain.

Also got a Xperia 1 V for half price and a nearly new Meile vacuum for £40.

Haven’t really bought much bike stuff. This is probably the first year since 2006 I haven’t bought a bike.

My not very exciting bargain of year was replacing my worn out GX drivetrain with the budget Shimano Cues stuff, had an old HG freehub already for my Pro 4 and found a full drivetrain (well a mech, shifter, chain, cassette) for £120 – which was less than I could get a GX cassette from anywhere at the time. I’ve had it on a while now and I think it’s absolutely perfect for an eeb where the heft doesn’t overly matter. And when it starts wearing you can even buy the bottom few cogs of the cassette individually. Just built my hardtail back up and I’ve put it on that as well.

Spearhead SL7 for £1649, thanks to a PSA!

a pair of schwalbe G One 29 x 2.25 tyres

Simiilarly – Ribble selling off the tan wall G-Ones for £15 each. Been on my Tripster for commuting since, no punctures and weirdly, for Schwalbe tubeless tyres, hardly ever need pumping up. They are brillz

Non-bike was this ‘ere iPad Pro wot I’m typing this on now. john pye auctions, still an expensive thing, but £800 off the retail price.

Nothing too exciting here. Two slx 203mm centrelock rotors for my Alps trip were £10 each. And just got some half price endura mt500 spray trousers for £65. They’re still on offer at leisure lakes.

I also bought some half price roval carbon wheels but considering they were still over £700 it’s hard to call them a bargain!

A brand new OChain off Marketplace for £50. Completely changed the performance of my (also bargain) Mega 297 with Fast coil damper.

Pair of 25kg click select adjustable dumbbells for 90 quid off Sport Direct.

I hate giving Ashley my money but that was to much of a bargain to leave

The £59 Nespresso machine with 100 coffees included. Absolutely brilliant bargain

This year I rebuilt an old rim brake road bike. The barely used Fulcrum Racing 5s for £16 were a bit of a bargain.

Pair of fox 36 factory for £310 was the bike deal, and on the workshop front, the drum sander for 900 was good. Saving 300 there.

I suppose actually the Buzzbike ebike for 500 has proven to be a great deal, certainly paid its worth.

II think I’ve having CRC sale withdrawal symptoms 🙁 ,I dont think we’ll see the like of that again.

I dont think we’ll see the like of that again

I can’t see the way businesses operate changing any time soon, it probably will happen again.

Both bikes I got his year were bargains. First was the Sentier 29, I missed out on the CRC sale but someone was selling one that was barely ridden on Facebook for a similar price. Sold all my old 26″ stuff and ended up making a profit after buying this. Do kinda wish I’d held onto at least the 26″ wheels though as I’m still not sold on 29″ after about a year of ownership. At 5’8″ with a 29″ inside leg it does kinda feel like I’m climbing onto a horse sometimes.

Next was the £100 Langster, needed new tyres but apart from that it’s pretty solid. Might sell this though as I don’t really like riding on the road any more, too many bad drivers. It pretty much just sits on my rollers now. Was hoping if have enough clearance for gravel tyres but it’s too tight. I also think it might be a bit big for me, feel really stretched out with locked out elbows when on the hoods.

TBH being a tight yorkshireman I can’t remember the last thing I bought that wasn’t reduced, had a voucher and bought with reduced vouchers ?

CRC: £60 exposure diablo, £65 hope rear wheel,  4x 10 speed cassettes for £9 each…..

Evans: Dirt cheap 510s

Sold a set of Tech3 e4s  and then bought the new Tech4 v4s for £40 more price matched with wiggle.

Also got one of the massively reduced SL7s on cycle to work.

I’m 100% in the category of ‘I’ll buy anything if the price is too good’ ……I have a problem.

A nearly new Jitsie race trials bike for £590 (1700 new) was pretty good.

Would have said the Bell super dh MIPS for £45 but it was massive (size L) should have got a medium but non left.

Those TRP slate Evo brakes for £100 were decent too!

Oh and new tech 4 v4s from that wheel building shop for £360 delivered was damn good.

A set of carbon MTB bars for £15 in the CRC firesale. Retail was about £130!

I’d bought a new hardtail MTB (also a total bargain at about 50% off) but the bars on it (heavy aluminium things) were horrible. Dead feeling and so stiff they gave me wrist pain on riding. Swapped for these discount carbon bars and suddenly, no hand or wrist pain at all and way more comfort. Plus an easy weight saving.

So for many reasons, those bars were the best bargain I’ve had!

Actually, probably my best bike bargain was when I was looking for the cheapest possible functioning beater bike for leaving outside pubs and playing bike polo on. Ended up paying £40 for a late 90s Saracen Alltrax(?). The pictures weren’t great, and I could see the top tube was quite scratched, but when I picked it up, I couldn’t believe how well-looked after it was. Didn’t even need brake pads. And actually a really nice light bike. Problem is I would actually be sad if it got nicked now, which wasn’t the point.

Problem is I would actually be sad if it got nicked now, which wasn’t the point.

This is the story of every “cheap pub bike” I have ever owned

Not my bargain, but I built this for a mate in the Summer. He paid about £275 for frame, fork, and stem; everything else was donations from various pals (and some permanent loan wheels I’ll never use again). Before I cut the hoses, obviously!

Well that Vitus looks sweet, but even by my standards that’s a lot of cable at the bars.

I had so many bargains, mostly in the Chiggle closing sale. Don’t make me choose – it’s like picking a favourite child.

wordnumb

Free Member

I found a decent pint for under £5 a few months ago.

On a similar theme, blackcurrant and soda plummeted to 35p from £1.75 in my local. Saved me a few quid and a few hangovers.

actually my biggest bargain was free

I got some m6120s  supercheap (£90) but that was technically last year

Ive had a few shimano brakes over the years but this was the first time Id ever had the wandering bitepoint thing, must have done 3 or 4 bleeds on the rear and it would always start happening again after a few rides

and then I watched the video here https://www.mbr.co.uk/how-to-2/wandering-bite-point-shimano-405883

what a revealtion!

Yikes, the Chiggle firesale feels like ages ago! Similar to above it’s tricky to pick one bargain from it. Probably an Assos EQUIPE R HABU Winter Jacket S9 for <£60 against a rrp of £310. Seriously nice, seriously warm, best fitting jacket I’ve ever bought.

TRP Slate Evo 4-pots for £70 from Merlin also a highlight.

Bikes? Toss up between one I ordered last week but not yet received, and my new-to-me XXL Tallboy CC bought for <£3k from a well-known vertically-excelling Pitlochry local last month. Less than 10 rides use although given who the seller was those were ‘proper’ rides… Unusual spec with the Mezzers, DPX2 Factory, Reserve carbons, full XT etc and I bloody love it.

From a proper shop/online shop: Rocky Mountain Instinct A50 – £1,900 down from £4,700.

On ebay: a Garmin Enduro, originally £700+, picked up for £175.

I grabbed one of the XL Bombtrack Hook EXTs that were getting cleared at around £700 in the spring. Its a fantastic machine and ive prob put a couple thousand km on it. Coupled with a Redshift stem, its surprisingly capable off road!

Bought a Garmin 530 last week for less than £60 – won a Halfords voucher which paid for most of it and then after various black Friday discounts and cash back, managed to just drop the price below £60.

Just had ours.  MrsBS had her eye on an e-town type bike for leaving the car at home and going to the shops and also for chucking on the back of the camper, for the baguette run when we’re in France on campsites etc.

Just picked up a Cannondale Adventure Neo Bosch mid drive thing with 7km on the clock, receipt in the box from Evan’s for £2800 post lockdown.  We paid £595.  Bargain! All it needed was the tyres pumping up, the seat was even at the right height for her.

I got a VGC 2022 Trek Slash 7 for £750, pretty happy with that tbh.

My 800 quid bird am9 that ended up costing me 0 after selling my old bike! Now got a better bike and cash in my pocket