Full suss xc bike recommendations

GhallTN6

Good luck, buying a bike for under 2k was one of the biggest and longest decisions of my life... for the UK scene I would go for a Marin, Orange or Whyte, loads of mud clearence on the back, the only person who can make the final choice is you.

Make sure you at least sit on the bike though, getting the right size is essentail. Your LBS should be able to give you a demo bike for the weekend, it might cost you 20 quid but it will be worth it, and if you buy it from them they usually refund the 20.

NikB

Thanks, I went to JE James and not only were they not interested in selling me a £2k bike but the only demo I could have was outside the shop on a flat piece of tarmac!! I might head over to Leisure Lakes as have had good dealings with them in the past. That is unless someone knows a good place in York?

supersonic

I used to live in and work in the York bike trade, I can recommend Cycle Heaven (Bishopthorpe road I think) and York Cycle Works (Lawrence street, opposite the Rose and Crown). Be aware that not all shops have designated test fleets to take away, and may only let you have a plod around the streets - quite normal. Though if you are really interested, a good shop might let you take one away if you leave a deposit.

NikB

Cool, thanks, I'll take a look at them.

Chaka Ping

The Cycle to Work scheme is usually capped at £1,000, although some users on here have suggested that it's possible to spend more if your employer is particularly co-operative.

Assuming you can get onto the scheme and you do have a max of £1k, yuou shoudl still bite their arm off.

There are ways and means of getting around the limit (legally), if you use a bit of lateral thinking.

NikB

Chaka Ping wrote:

The Cycle to Work scheme is usually capped at £1,000, although some users on here have suggested that it's possible to spend more if your employer is particularly co-operative.

Assuming you can get onto the scheme and you do have a max of £1k, yuou shoudl still bite their arm off.

There are ways and means of getting around the limit (legally), if you use a bit of lateral thinking.

My boss should be quite accomodating so if there's no issue on the government side of things then I should be able to get a more expensive bike. Can you possibly explain the ways you know to get around the limit, please pm if needed. Thanks.

supersonic

The shop may not allow it either. Halfords dont.

andy69

Depending on how the bike is financed, the bike shop needn't be involved in the "Bike to Work" aspects of the bike sale as it is simply an HMRC concession relating to the provision of bikes by an employer to its employees.

The bike shops have jumped on the band waggon as a fantastic wheez to sell bikes with less price sensitivity, and have packaged the whole thing up into a scheme, that involves the salary sacrifice arrangement, bike finance etc, however this can all be unbundled.

If you want to know more, either ask further questions here or PM me.

Rgds

A

supermonkey

I'm very interested in this.

How can it be "unbundled" and what are the benefits for doing so?

andy69

The Bike to Work Scheme is a HMRC concession (for example see: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/sustainable/c ... 732?page=1) that allows employers to loan a bike to its staff. This is not a taxable benefit in kind. It is upto the employer to decide whether s(he) is going to charge the employee for the use of the bike and if they do, this can be done by salary sacrifice i.e. without the employee being liable for tax or NICs on this payment.

The second decision is how the employer is going to fund the bike purchase; they can either fund it out of cash or take a finance arrangement.

It should be noted that if bikes / equipment are being loaned to a value >£1k then the employer needs to have its own Consumer Credit Licence, below this amount they can take advantage of a block licence organised by the DTI (dont you love red tape!).

All the services do is "bundle" it all together i.e. finance, salary sacrifice documentation etc. I presume that the reason for some imposing a £1000 limit is to prevent this CCL issue being a problem with employers. Generally speaking the salary sacrifice amount for the employee is the cost of the finance agreement to the employer.

So for example if you were an owner / manager of business, you could buy a bike out of cash in the business (i.e. not finance it), reclaim the VAT, claim capital allowances in respect of it (beware the rules re CA change from 1/4/08, but these may well allow a more generous regime depending on other capital expenditure in the company's financial year) and not charge this on at all to the "employee".

Hope this helps; none of the above should be considered as advice in any way shape or form!

Andy

supermonkey

So the only way to go over £1000 is for your employer to have a Consumer Credit Licence?

Presumably if your employer has not got a licence then the employee could put the remainder in?

So bike costs £1500
£1000 paid through salary
£500 paid cash direct to shop by me when buying the bike?

Chaka Ping

andy69 wrote:

So for example if you were an owner / manager of business, you could buy a bike out of cash in the business (i.e. not finance it), reclaim the VAT, claim capital allowances in respect of it (beware the rules re CA change from 1/4/08, but these may well allow a more generous regime depending on other capital expenditure in the company's financial year) and not charge this on at all to the "employee".

Great (not) advice Andy.

Do you understand the paragraph above to apply to sole trader businesses or just limited companies?

stubs

While you are deciding which bouncer to buy try a suspension seatpost I have a bad back and I hate rear suspension so it is the only alternative for me it wont be as good as suspension but it will take the trail buzz out and if you hit a big one and youre sat down it will soften the blow try a post moderne bracer I think they are going for about £45 on the internet so it wont break the bank if its not for you

NikB

Thanks Stubs, I do currently run a suspension seatpost but it doesn't help much really.

Thewaylander

I have a 2007 stumpy FSR is awsome i love it!

andy69

Supermonkey
Think you need to be careful with doing this as there is a danger of messing things up for the employer, for example, what is the VAT invoice that the LBS produces for the employer going to show, £1000 or £1500? It would need to be the former as otherwise it broaches the CCL limits. Is the LBS going to be happy producing an invoice for the incorrect amount?

Rgds

A

andy69

Chaka Ping
It only applies to employees unfortunately
A

supermonkey

andy69 wrote:

Supermonkey
Think you need to be careful with doing this as there is a danger of messing things up for the employer, for example, what is the VAT invoice that the LBS produces for the employer going to show, £1000 or £1500? It would need to be the former as otherwise it broaches the CCL limits. Is the LBS going to be happy producing an invoice for the incorrect amount?

Rgds

A

Is there any other way around it?

Could the company buy the frame and components for £1000 while the employee buys the wheels for £500 for instance? Bit of a stab in the dark but there must be some way to do it.

andy69

Dont know, the obvious one is get the employer to have a CCL.

The problem with the LBS supplying a bike without wheels is that when the employer lends it to you its a bit difficult to ride to work!! I suppose they could supply rubbish / second hand ones which you then upgrade.

A

supermonkey

andy69 wrote:

Dont know, the obvious one is get the employer to have a CCL.

The problem with the LBS supplying a bike without wheels is that when the employer lends it to you its a bit difficult to ride to work!! I suppose they could supply rubbish / second hand ones which you then upgrade.

A

We're a small company and I would be the only person wanting a bike so applying for a CCL just for me to have a bike at a cost of around £300-400 (for the CCL) just wouldn't be worth it.

There must be a way to do it. It's not like I would be benefiting by spending more than £1000 regarding tax as the excess would be taxable any way. If the bike shop were prepared to separate the bike into components and split the invoice and there was a problem with this, at what stage and with who would it become apparent? (At the shop, with the scheme coordinator, with the tax office etc)

Thanks

andy69

I agree, but you need to speak with the bike shop to see what they are and arent prepared to do.
A

NikB

My lbs are more than happy to do it so it's worth asking to see.

supermonkey

NikB wrote:

My lbs are more than happy to do it so it's worth asking to see.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Nik.

How did you go about splitting the invoice and which LBS did you use?

How did you fracture your spine by the way?

NikB

I haven't bought the bike yet.
My spine was a stress fracture. I was born with a mild degree of scoliosis and doing ordinary things as a kid like jumping out of trees etc eventually fractured the articular facets which keep each vertebrae in alignment with the next. So my lumbosacral junction had to be fused (arthrodesed) to make it heal. I also have to deal with a degree of spondylosis, spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis which basically means my back is buggered. Today has brought home how knackered it is because I'm in that much pain I can barely move. No idea why because I haven't done anything for the last few days.

Matteeboy

Bloody hell that sounds nasty

Chaka Ping

I'd be careful about naming bike shops that are helping you with what HMRC *might* construe as a bit of a fiddle.

NikB

Fair point.

banshee dhr

GIANT ANTHEM