Bike for a returnee?

Richard53

Now I really like the look of the Trek! With a rack and mudguards it would seem to be ideal. Even the more expensive one could be within budget if it was the right bike for me.


Bear with me, but I am going to ask another question that shows how out of touch I am. Pedals - I see a lot of bikes for sale online without pedals. I'm assuming that the idea is that the buyer will supply pedals suitable for their own shoe/clip system. In My Day, cheap bikes had black rubber pedals, better bikes had metal rat-trap pedals, and only the exotic had clip systems. You bolted a clip and a leather strap onto the rat-trap pedal, and off you went. I have realised that one of the reasons why hill-climbing on the ebike is such an effort is the pedals. These are chunky, slabby things which are no doubt ideal for use with city shoes (the bike's intended market, to be fair) but don't encourage you to get out of the saddle on a climb as you are afraid your foot will slide off.


I don't really fancy going for some system pedals on what will be a commuter, where I will have to wear something on my feet suitable for the work environment over 10 hours - are traditional toe-clips still available? I have some excellent Madison stiff cycling shoes which worked very well with toe-clips but which would be useless with either the ebike pedals or, of course, system pedals.


Hiring a bike sounds a good idea, but I live right out in the sticks and bike hire places are not common. Must look harder.

brat

My wife and two girls have all got Trek FXs. My girs have the FX7.3 model which was £500. My dealer provided metal grippy flat pedals with removable plastic toe clips, a bit like these...http://www.cyclesportandfitness.com/images/67-27-127_resin-alloy_pedals.jpg

If you don't want clipless, but are looking for something that'll give you a bit more confidence when pressing (and pulling) on the pedal with ordinary shoes, the toe clips and a grippy pedal are a good option.

Nasqueron

Richard53 wrote: »

My workplace does have a cycle scheme, but I am not keen. I don't get paid much, but I do have some savings, so I would rather buy it outright than have a reduction in my pay packet.

I can see the logic as the savings are going to earn little interest but to be honest you are looking at this backwards - just use the savings for your normal expenses if you were going to spend them anyway - the cycle to work scheme saves you 30-40% off the bike cost - a massive saving as it comes off pre-tax so your take home pay is not impacted as much

Nasqueron

Richard53 wrote: »

Bear with me, but I am going to ask another question that shows how out of touch I am. Pedals - I see a lot of bikes for sale online without pedals. I'm assuming that the idea is that the buyer will supply pedals suitable for their own shoe/clip system. In My Day, cheap bikes had black rubber pedals, better bikes had metal rat-trap pedals, and only the exotic had clip systems. You bolted a clip and a leather strap onto the rat-trap pedal, and off you went. I have realised that one of the reasons why hill-climbing on the ebike is such an effort is the pedals. These are chunky, slabby things which are no doubt ideal for use with city shoes (the bike's intended market, to be fair) but don't encourage you to get out of the saddle on a climb as you are afraid your foot will slide off.


I don't really fancy going for some system pedals on what will be a commuter, where I will have to wear something on my feet suitable for the work environment over 10 hours - are traditional toe-clips still available? I have some excellent Madison stiff cycling shoes which worked very well with toe-clips but which would be useless with either the ebike pedals or, of course, system pedals.

Yes modern bikes for most ranges are shipped without pedals with the assumption you will spec it how you want - clip in (SPD/SPD-SL etc) will give you more power transfer but you can buy the pedals with the strap/plastic moulding if you don't want to say leave shoes at work and cycle with cycling shoes and change when you get to the office - the basic ones are around £10

AndyBSG

Pedals nowadays still come in pretty much 3 flavours.

Your standard platform pedals which shouldn't set you back much more than 20 quid for a basic metal set.

Then there's your cleat pedals you'll need cycling shoes for.

Finally there's your toe clip pedals which sounds like what you're after as these are the ones you can just slip a normal show into.

I actually find full strap in toe clips pretty cumbersome if you're doing a lot of stop/start commuting in traffic but you can get half toe clips without straps which I find give the best of both between a normal pedal and a strap system like the Zefal ones below.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Zefal-Half-Toe-Clips-45_69850.htm

They get around the problem of your foot slipping off flat pedals while avoiding the issue of getting stuck in full strap ones.

Also I see some discussion on the cycle to work scheme. All I will say on that is to look into your particular companies terms.

It changed a little while ago and my understanding now is that you don't technically own the bike and it's more a lease scheme whereby at the end of the lease period you still have to pay your company to buy the bike(a lot of companies just take a nominal £1 fee)

Nasqueron

AndyBSG wrote: »

Also I see some discussion on the cycle to work scheme. All I will say on that is to look into your particular companies terms.

It changed a little while ago and my understanding now is that you don't technically own the bike and it's more a lease scheme whereby at the end of the lease period you still have to pay your company to buy the bike(a lot of companies just take a nominal £1 fee)

It is technically a lease yes Andy but the "must buy the bike" isn't the case on the main schemes.

Cyclescheme is the one we use (though the others are similar e.g. Halfords, Cycle2Work etc) and at the end of the year you have 3 choices:

1) deposit of 3%/7% (for up to £500/up to £1000) for further 3 years lease - at the end you can hand the bike back for a refund or the scheme will let you keep it at their discretion - this is the normal option - bike is on a lease technically but unless you really care about "owning" the bike rather than keeping it it's the best
2) buy the bike out right (most expensive option)
3) hand the bike back

My bike was £550 + £65 of accessories i.e. £615

After 1 year I was given 3 options:

1) Deposit of £43.12 for 36 months - they will take the bike back for a refund if you wish at the end or let you keep it free
2) Pay full ownership for £153.99
3) Return the bike


For what is worth for the OP

£615 total cost of bike + lights

Cost per month gross (before tax) £51.25
Net salary sacrifice £34.85

Total saving £196.80 (32% over RRP)

Johnmcl7

My hybrid came with pedals similar to this:

http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00vjTQYHpGmRkL/Wellgo-Alloy-Bicycle-Pedal-M-21-.jpg

I found them terrible, the edges were spiky enough to really hurt when they hit my shins but didn't actually seem to offer any grip so I had several pedal slips and made a total mess of my shins. This was my first bike for a while so I just assumed that's the risk of flat pedals until I got an MTB and found the pedals far better, I started with these ones as a cheap set:

https://www.highonbikes.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/040ec09b1e35df139433887a97daa66f/v/p/vp_566_blk.jpg

They're not light or particularly smooth but I now have them on all my bikes as they give good grip and a decent platform to put pressure on and I haven't had any pedal slips.

There's definitely still plenty of toe clip options but it may also be worth looking into different flat pedals as well as the ones with your e-bike may not be that good.

John

jbainbridge

Try this from Ribble http://www.ribblecycles.co.uk/bbd/road-track-bike/ribble-7005-audax-winter-training?part=BB15RIB7005AUDAX&sub=conf_BB_ALL&bike=1

It comes with mudguards and changing it to a triple chainset the price is under £550. Extra £20 gets better mudguards. I quite like the blue!

You would need to add pedals.

Richard53

Thanks to all - very helpful info. Work network won't let me chase up any links at the moment, but will do so later. And sorry for the delay in responding, but I have a had a nasty bout of flu and been in bed for the last 5 days. I couldn't ride 100 yards at the moment!


I was always perfectly happy with metal full toeclips and a leather strap, even in traffic, so I will look for some of those for the current bike. I have a feeling that will help the hill-climbing a lot. Also, will reconsider the CTW scheme and get some specifics from our HR people. I looked into it a while ago (not in huge detail, admittedly) and it seemed a lot of hassle for very little benefit, to be honest.

Nasqueron

Richard53 wrote: »

Also, will reconsider the CTW scheme and get some specifics from our HR people. I looked into it a while ago (not in huge detail, admittedly) and it seemed a lot of hassle for very little benefit, to be honest.

Unless your work make it difficult the process is very simple:

Go to bike shop that does your scheme, get a quote for bike you want
Fill in the cycle scheme form (takes about a minute online)
Send it off, wait for work to process it
Collect bike

Admin takes minutes and the saving is decent for the amount of work you do