Quick! Talk some sense into me!

msw

I've been planning my new bike for months. Budget began at £1,100. Then there was this AMAZING offer (no, really) that meant for another £200 I could have really, significantly nicer kit that would cost much more than £200 to upgrade to. Fine, stretched to £1,300, but then there's an availability problem...

...and now the stock's in the shop there's a new offer. For £1,600 an EVEN BETTER DEAL.

2 things to note:

1) it is laughable to think that the higher spec kit will make any difference to my "performance"

2) no children, pets or other dependents will go without shoes thanks to the additional expense

I realise this is probably the wrong place to ask (which is probably why I'm asking here) but.... would anyone care to talk me out of it?

Anyone?


Bueller?


Anyone?

Jay dubbleU

Nope - go for it :twisted:

Greg T

It's clear to me that you need validation to spend the 1,600 notes.

I'm not going to feed this need of yours. You have to man up and recognise that 2,000 PUnds sterling is the least most amount of money a man can "afford" to spend on a bike if he's in the 1-1.5 K bracket.

It's just maths.

You will spend 500 more than you want. You want to spend 1,500 - you WILL spend 2 grand.

Don't know why you're here frankly - this is all in the public domain.

blu3cat

I had the same dilemma, and did spend that extra couple of hundred over my budget and loved the bike.

I then bought my next bike and had the same dilemma, but different financial circumstances. In this case I had to draw the line.

If you can stretch your finances, then you will of course have an even lovelier bicycle and a slightly larger debt to show for it, but in a couple of months / years that extra few hundred will have been paid off. Go for it if you can!

Mike400

In my case, the rules are quite clear - spend as much as you can get your hands on and tell the wife you paid less than 50% of what you really spent...

Yea, my Specialized Allez Elite came in at £250, they had an offer on......

(not that I have said bike yet, just an example!)

The problem is my wife doesnt "get" cycling, and thinks if you can get one in Tesco for £69.99, and it works, you are being ripped off at anything over that...

Yet she would spend £100s on running shoes........

DonDaddyD

On page 365 of The Law of all things consumerable it states:

"There will always be a better item unless you spend the uppermost limit of what you can afford."

That way if there is something better, you couldn't afford it anyway and therefore not worth thinking about. This logic offers an increddible level of peace of mind.

This is exactly why I wanted to spend £1500 but ended up spending more than that (£1800) on THE BEST BIKE I COULD AFFORD.

Doing so ensures that there are be no niggling-burd-like after thoughts of "well I could have got that" or "I would be faster with that" or and the worst though of them all an admission of "should have bought that one".

Buying the limit of what I can afford means there are no excuses its just me and my Kuota Kharma and if I'm not good enough to get up that hill or fast enough I may as well had my nuts over to the devil. :shock:

CiB

The money will continue to come in to you at whatever rate is comes in at, so given time you'll have £1200 / £1600 / £5289 [worth it tho...] to spend on a bike. Conversely, if you buy the lower-priced bike now that's the cut-off and you're stuck with it, and will also have to restart the bike fund to get to the next level and take the hit on selling a used bike that you didn't really want anyway.

There's no logical reason to buy a lower priced / spec bike than the one you want just for financial considerations. Buy right, buy once. Until you need to upgrade in a couple of years time obviously.

simon_ramsey

Greg T +1 - this is so true 1k budget for an MTB - spent £1.5K and then over about 3 months spend another 0.5k on upgrades. Just having a browse on wiggle - did I really pay £130 for some pedals for my bike - yikes :x

Ozzeh

I'm paraphrasing somebody here, probably famous too. It's apt though:

"If you buy something expensive, you have an unpleasant feeling when you buy it, and a nice feeling every time you use it. If you buy something cheap, you get a nice feeling when you buy it and an unpleasant feeling every time you use it."

Pay the extra cash for the nicer bike, you will regret it every time you ride the cheaper one if you don't.

£0.02

spen666

msw wrote:

I've been planning my new bike for months. Budget began at £1,100. Then there was this AMAZING offer (no, really) that meant for another £200 I could have really, significantly nicer kit that would cost much more than £200 to upgrade to. Fine, stretched to £1,300, but then there's an availability problem...

...and now the stock's in the shop there's a new offer. For £1,600 an EVEN BETTER DEAL.

2 things to note:

1) it is laughable to think that the higher spec kit will make any difference to my "performance"

2) no children, pets or other dependents will go without shoes thanks to the additional expense

I realise this is probably the wrong place to ask (which is probably why I'm asking here) but.... would anyone care to talk me out of it?

Anyone?


Bueller?


Anyone?

now, if you were sensible and make them go without shoes, and cut down their food intake, and do they need so many clothes, then think of how much better a bike you could afford...£1600... you could easily go to £2000

Kieran_Burns

Myyyyy God.

It's pathetic.

You come on here racked with guilt over spending large sums of money on an expensive bike you really want, and rather than MTFU and spend the damned money you try to offset the guilt onto virtual strangers on a tinterwebby forum dedicated to spending large sums of money on an expensive bike you really want! <pant, pant BREATHE>

My God. You want some cheese with that whine?

I REALLY want to buy a V8. No, I really do. So, to stop me doing so, I'm going to post on a petrol heads forum I moderate on and ask themn to convince me NOT to!

Like THAT'LL work :roll:




(for the hard of humour... all that was said in jest and I accept no responsiblity for exploded blood vessels due to you being a cock.)

Kieran_Burns

spen666 wrote:

msw wrote:

I've been planning my new bike for months. Budget began at £1,100. Then there was this AMAZING offer (no, really) that meant for another £200 I could have really, significantly nicer kit that would cost much more than £200 to upgrade to. Fine, stretched to £1,300, but then there's an availability problem...

...and now the stock's in the shop there's a new offer. For £1,600 an EVEN BETTER DEAL.

2 things to note:

1) it is laughable to think that the higher spec kit will make any difference to my "performance"

2) no children, pets or other dependents will go without shoes thanks to the additional expense

I realise this is probably the wrong place to ask (which is probably why I'm asking here) but.... would anyone care to talk me out of it?

Anyone?


Bueller?


Anyone?

now, if you were sensible and make them go without shoes, and cut down their food intake, and do they need so many clothes, then think of how much better a bike you could afford...£1600... you could easily go to £2000

Feed the pets to the kids, and sell the kids for medical research. Use money saved / made to buy £3K bike.

Do I have to do EVERYTHING around here? :roll:

(please see previous note regarding hard of humour)

Greg T

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I REALLY want to buy a V8. No, I really do.

I bought a long wheelbase vogue range rover 15 years old - mostly shed for 1,500 quid.

V8 went through go juice like mad.

when you revved it the vrooooom effect of the motor pushed the whole body sideways. I drove it into a wall - ooops - at 1,500 notes it was next to disposable.

A year later I got 500 notes PX on it. Ah happy days.

msw

Awww, I knew you guys wouldn't let me down. By "talk me out of it" I transparently meant "into it": there had to be a way it made sense, I just needed some coaching on the particular line of reasoning to take with myself. Were any of you by chance educated by Jesuits?

Jay dubbleU

GregT is the Spanish inquisition 8)

kingrollo

thank god - I am not the only one with this dilmena - I have the cash - but can I jusifty on a modest income with 2 kids....then the expensive get reduced .......but now I don't know if I prefer the cheaper one anyway !!!!!!

Greg T

Jay dubbleU wrote:

GregT is the Spanish inquisition 8)

I wasn't expecting that!

plodderpaul

Hi
Go on, buy the more expensive one. You will only regret it otherwise. Sounds like a bargain. Go on, go on go on!

symo

If you can afford it buy it.

Jay dubbleU

Greg T wrote:

Jay dubbleU wrote:

GregT is the Spanish inquisition 8)

I wasn't expecting that!

Fear or Surprise ? Or fanatical devotion to the Pope ?

always_tyred

Or nice red uniforms...........


I intended to spend about £1k on my commute. I ended up at around £1600 with upgrades. The urge to continue to upgrade is strong. Resistance weak. Result inevitable.

I don't think my life is much different for the cost of 10 tanks of fuel. I just enjoy the bike more than the £1k bike I didn't get.

.........Cardinal Biggles, fetch the comfy pillows.

m0scs

ChrisInBicester wrote:

The money will continue to come in to you at whatever rate is comes in at, so given time you'll have £1200 / £1600 / £5289 [worth it tho...] to spend on a bike. Conversely, if you buy the lower-priced bike now that's the cut-off and you're stuck with it, and will also have to restart the bike fund to get to the next level and take the hit on selling a used bike that you didn't really want anyway.

There's no logical reason to buy a lower priced / spec bike than the one you want just for financial considerations. Buy right, buy once. Until you need to upgrade in a couple of years time obviously.

What wise words.

I normally get this all wrong. Buy something I think is ok and cheapish, then as soon as Ive got it, wish I had spent more to get the thing I really wanted in the first place.

plodderpaul

So anyway MSW.....what bike are you thinking of getting?

kingrollo

plodderpaul wrote:

So anyway MSW.....what bike are you thinking of getting?

Bet its that one from lidl