how do you fund cycling?

le_boss

hello

just wondering how people manage to fund biking?
prices seem to be going up and up and components seem to last half they time they used to!

im finding it really difficult to get out on the bike more than twice a week now, primarily because i dread wearing out another part and having to fork out on it! (or maybe thats just an excuse to stay in and pile on the weight - maybe im having an ullrich time??)

havnt competed in any events this year (lack of fitness - excess flab) so sponsorship is out.

it just seems that entering f1 would be cheaper than cycling. i mean look at other sports:
tennis - just need a racket and some trainers
football - football boots
golf - clubs and lots of golf balls
cricket - pads and a cup
cycling - bike, pedals, lots of inner tubes, energy stuff, clothing, helmet etc etc and then you have to pay to enter even the most basic of events.

i know i sound like scrooge, but i think everyone is struggling at the moment (given the state of the economy). there has been this massive push to get people cycling, yet there seems to be no discussion on prices or help out there.
i know the cycle to work schemes are something, but do they really help that much? i mean the limit is £1000, so get a reasonably good bike and youre up to the limit.

topdude

Any hobby / pastime that you get hooked on can be expensive :?

Carbon fibre fishing rods plus permits
Carbon / titanium golf clubs plus huge fees
Tennis equipment plus coaching fees
Walking boots and technical clothing
Hi-Fi / TV equipment
Astronomy
etc, etc, etc

You can spend as much as you like on just about anything that you enjoy doing.

You can buy a reasonable road bike for around £500, do your own maintenance, ride it everywhere, get fit, get a tan, and enjoy every minute without too much expense

marin_maniac

I fund cycling by rationing my children to one meal a day. I'm going to buy some new wheels soon, so I reckon that week my kids won't be eating and my wife won't be buying any clothes.

Works quite well if I say so myself.

Weejie54

Marin Maniac wrote:

I fund cycling by rationing my children to one meal a day. I'm going to buy some new wheels soon, so I reckon that week my kids won't be eating and my wife won't be buying any clothes.

Works quite well if I say so myself.

Ah...so you buy low end stuff. My bairn sweeps chimneys.

whyamihere

The Student Loans Company keeps me in bike bits.

danowat

Commuting on the bike saves me £5 a day, I can justify spending money on biking just because of this 8)

morstar

I'm sure somebody with facts and figures can prove me completely wrong but, my take is this.
MTB's took off about 20 years ago and there was a big step change in market prices. Road bikes are seeing aboom period and the same step change in pricing is being repeated.
I also think C2W has helped a lot of people get a good deal but it has also helped support rising prices.
Unfortunately cost prices of everything are rocketing at the moment.
Also agree with the OP about new parts seeming fragile. I reckon this is because there is no need to engineer parts to last 10 years when they will likely be upgraded in 2. It is one of the things I love about riding an older steel bike. I'm not worrying about the durability of the components. Although I do worry about how to replace like with like when they do fail. Fortunately, I've had a good success rate so far but it takes some work.
If I could afford it within my means, I'd have lots of lovely bikes but some people do seem to think they need an expensive bike when a £500 machine would meet their actual needs very well.
I accept that changes as you start to compete seriously.

plowmar

You are quite right in your supposition that it is an expensive - but enjoyable - hobby.

However give it a week or so on your £500 bike and you will be fit enough to go into a bike shop, reccy it, then choose what you need and then flee giving the assistants no chance to catch you.

Bon chance.

unixnerd

golf - clubs and lots of golf balls

Seriously? Have you seen what it costs in green fees these days?

I have three bikes, one bought new and two used. I spend under 50 quid a month, well under. Despite this I do 1-200 miles a week. It CAN be an expensive hobby if you're forever buying expensive parts and bikes, but it needn't be.

mikeyboy12345

I commute daily on my Ultegra 6500 equipped road bike, and the servicing costs are almost that of small car! The last service needed new cassette, BB, chain, headset, cables, etc, and now I've noticed a tiny hairline fracture in one of the cranks :x

Trouble is, try finding replacement Ultegra 6500 stuff. It's not exactly mega-old or crappy, but even the BB are no longer available, so I have the choice of a 105 Octalink one, or spend £60 on Dura-Ace! What happens when the supply of Dura-Ace and 105 Octalink bottom brackets disappear? Everybody will be forced to upgrade to a totally new groupset. And for what? Cycling definitely hasn't saved me any dosh.

We've all been dragged into the endless, and largely unnecessary, upgrade circle because parts are engineered to be obsolete in a few years time. Even wheel rims wear out FFS. And meanwhile I have an old 1970's racer, and two 80's bikes with original drivetrains, including chains and bottom brackets. I've just found some old servicing documents for my old Raleigh, and in 1990 a bike service cost just £5!

unixnerd

I've just found some old servicing documents for my old Raleigh, and in 1990 a bike service cost just £5!

Why not service it yourself? Some bike shops run classes (Edinburgh Bicycle chain for example).

mikeyboy12345

Doing your own servicing is def the way to go, am slowly acquiring a few tools and trying to find a bike maintenance course that I can do in the evenings. It's the bike parts that still cost a fortune though!

Bunneh

I buy my cycling clothing mostly off eBay or Sports Direct in town. Components don't have to be top of the range and if you look around you can get stuff from 5 yrs ago+ that is hardly used/new.

Will I buy a Sky jersey? Don't be daft! I'll buy a 8.99 one from Sports Direct or check one of the jersey selling shops on eBay for one for a fiver inc p&p. I don't really 'support' any team or specific cyclist so I guess that saves me a few bob when I don't buy the latest Specialized gear or a £120 helmet because it's got some obscure cyclist's name on it.

Any sport is expensive if you have to have all the latest fads. Learn to buy what you need, not what you want. Shop around please! One BS in town asks 4.00 for inner tubes, another asks 3.50 and one other charges 2.50. Guess who I get my inners from? You can patch an inner tube up quite frequently and it'll be fine so long as you seal it properly.

Best cycle shops are the ones not full of 13 yr old sales staff, find one run by a grizzled mechanic, one who seems to know everything about bikes - make friends with them, use them for everything and you will get discounts.

kingrollo

I commutte to work by bike. This saves us, as a family from running two cars - last year I brought a £1500 bike - with my partners blessing, as only running 1 car saves us loads.

Stewie Griffin

The ball they will use in the premiership this year is over £80. yes it will last a while but I think that's taking the Pee. Used to pay £4 to play on a lovely 9 hole pay & play course during a week day.

Or you can buy a football for a tenner & join a golf club somewhere for thousands a year & spend 2k on clubs and a bag to carry them in.

Anyway, there is a point in there somewhere.

carl_p

Some people I know spend more money a year on an iPhone than it cost me to buy my CAAD9.

sm72

Cycling expensive?..you want to try motorcycling as a hobby! .tyres £200 - cycle pro race £30 dealer service £200 - cycle easy diy..trackday £100 -cycle at veleodrome £10 -spectate wsb bsb moto gp- £30-£50 a day- cycle spetator free mainly!

Its only expensive if you have to have the best of everything and like riding slowly past shop windows to see your reflection!

Although it is nice to have a nice expensive toy...i just cant justify it 8) i have too many hobbies!

Buckled_Rims

A £1000 could get me a bike(approx 3000 miles a year), clothing and tools for at least 5 years = £200 per year.

I used to spend £200 per month on petrol.

I think Biking is fairly cheap.

rick_chasey

Earn some money!

acidstrato

cycling is as expensive as you make it...nobody twists your arm to buy all the extras.

you dont have to buy a brand new big brand lightweight bike with spd sl pedals and the latest groupset or wheelset with racing tires.lycra bibshorts and shirts

if moneys tight, there are plenty of cheap sub 500quid bikes from new and plenty of bargains to get on ebay.

pricing has definitly gone up, and I understand what your saying about all the motivation to get people on bikes. BC membership and race license is definitly not cheap. But you can easily take up cycling on a small budget.

louthepoo

i'm going to commute to work on my bike when i start back after the holidays, that'll save me about £20 a week, that'll help to go towards buying a winter bike.

Cleat Eastwood

Prostitution. Me ma doesnt like t but if she complains I just withold her drugs.

markos1963

I rob banks mainly

kettrinboy

I bought three bikes in 2006 plus upgrades and riding kit and spent somewhere between 5-6000 quid funded by my redundancy payout, and four years and nearly 20,000 miles later i still think i couldnt have spent it on anything better in terms of the enjoyment ive had from them, money spent on a decent bike is never money wasted, well unless you never use them.

Frank the tank

Hobbies are expensive 'cos the marketeers know people are and will be prepared to pay out on them. It's exploitation but, that's life.

BTW football used to cost me a fortune in Goalkeeping gloves and physio.

daviesee

Commuting saves petrol money.
Cycling means no gym membership.
More time cycling = less time or inclination for the pub.

That's the wishy-washy justification.

I buy it because I need it or want it. Everything else is flannel.

Any hobby can be as cheap as it need be, or as expensive as you want it to be.

Smokin Joe

The average pub goer pisses far more up the wall every year than I spend on bikes.

tiny_pens

I changed jobs. Compared to DIY costs it makes cycling look cheap. A couple of hundred pounds a year on a bike looks reasonable against a couple of thousand on a new kitchen....

MikeWW

Its a fairly cheap hobby and the road bike costs far less to maintain than the mountain bike.
Used to race cars-that was about £200 per race for the entry, £150 for the testing the day before,£50 in fuel and that's before you take into account tyres,food, accommodation and damage which could be anything from £50 to £5k (or more if it was a really bad one!!)

KevGuinness

Got a road bike from halfords for £200, helmet, jerseys, clipless shoes, pedals, inner tubes, pump, bottle, bibshorts for another £250 and even then I could have gone cheaper on a fair few of the bits.

If I want to go faster I will get fitter, only when I am at a much better stage of fitness will I splurge out and buy a more expensive bike. Buying a lighter bike just to go faster would be cheating when I could just get off my arse and ride more.

Anonymous

KevGuinness wrote:

Got a road bike from halfords for £200, helmet, jerseys, clipless shoes, pedals, inner tubes, pump, bottle, bibshorts for another £250 and even then I could have gone cheaper on a fair few of the bits.

If I want to go faster I will get fitter, only when I am at a much better stage of fitness will I splurge out and buy a more expensive bike. Buying a lighter bike just to go faster would be cheating when I could just get off my ars* and ride more.

Buying a better bike is not necessarily about speed.

For me it's about pleasure. More comfortable, more enjoyment out of the shifting and handling etc, more pride of ownership. That encourages you to ride even more!

Not that there's owt wrong with having a cheap bike, if you are happy then sooper dooper!

I fund my bikes using the money I earn, I make MrsNapD pay for mortgage, food, bills, kids etc. She's absolutely brassic but at least I have some nice bikes and a fab hi-fi!