Cycle to work scheme

What's not to be impressed about? Your saving 23%?

^^ This - plus paid off over 12 months, what's not to like

Mostly the selection from Halfords. In reality I'm annoyed at myself for not joining the scheme when I should have before the 25% final purchase fee was brought in.

Just don't sign the 25% final purchase fee.

You can continue the lease for a 7% fee, which you pay at the end of the 12 months. You then use the bike for another 3 years and then the bike is yours. During those 3 years you don't pay anything like you did for the first year.

Make sense?

Good shout!

I've bit the bullet, signed up for a £600 LoC. I figure a new geared bike will complement the fixed I'm building, and at £25 a month less than at present.... Not too much to worry about.

Exactly even with my 1k voucher its only about 60 a month. Worth doing imo.

So, Letter of Collection in Hand. Wondered if the good folks perusing this thread could offer me an opinion. I'm tied to Halfords, I believe, though I would prefer to source another bike from and LBS if poss.

I have two halfords options I'm considering. Does anyone have any opinions on either of these:

Carerra Virtuoso - £400

vs

Boardman Road Race - £600

I'd like something I can take on a Cycle trip / holiday and withstand a little bit of abuse, but clearly an amatuer cyclist. I'm not familiar enough with either of the two brands to make an assumption, and I take whatever the Halfords chaps have to say with a shovel of salt.

Thoughts, anyone?

Don't you usually get a lot for your money with the boardman bikes?

I have two halfords options I'm considering. Does anyone have any opinions on either of these:

Carerra Virtuoso - £400

Boardman, and get a proper bicycle shop to give it a good tweak.

it come with eyelit for mudguard, so rack can be use with p-clip if you intend to do some tour, so a win-win I reckon.

Definitely the Boardman out of those two. Better frame, carbon forks, better groupset.

Agree with Ed, get the bike in a box and hand it over to a decent bike shop to build up. Should be £50 or so.

Hi all, I am considering getting another bike, but I am not sure if it'd worth me getting it through the cycle to work scheme. All I want this time is either a replacement langster or a charge as my all weather commute bike, I am not sure how much realistically I could be saving on a bike tha is less than £400. Would I be better off saving it for my custome built dream bike? A friend got a bike through the scheme and it was about £700, and that he said it wasn't the max he could have gotten. Just had a look on the company website, it says the average spending on a bike is £700, so would I be better off saving this opportunity for my next proper bike?

You'll save 25-40% on the list price ExTra, you can only do it once a year so if your not planning on buying another bike this year do it! Hope that helps

Hmmm.. With the list price, does that mean without any discount? I am looking at a 2010 model of a charge that has already been discounted for about 30%. If I were to buy that bike through the scheme, would I have to buy it with the RRP? I am not too fussed with the year model as it's only a pub / work bike.

Why don't you order a nice Bob Jackson or something? They work through the cycle scheme.

that was the plan, to get a custom built or sth through the scheme, but I have only just finished a really nice bike less than a year ago, so there is no point of having 2 nice bikes... well I can't afford it anyway. Besides, what I really want is to have a cheap ish bike to replace my langster to get aroudn town in shitty weather etc. But thanks for the suggestion, spenceey. :-)

Maybe get something practical then if your using it around town? Space for mud guards?

If I use evans or cycle surgery for c2w do they still price match?

I know it's cheeky but worth knowing in advance before I try to convince my work to enter into the scheme.

I was sort of asking the same question last night, Sandy. Like I said, I had my eye on a 2010 model Charge that is going for almost half price, unless Evans coiuld still price match it, I'd be paying more even with the scheme in place for a newer model, which I really am not bothered with. Just difference in colours really.

I'll send evans an email and see what they say.

So, Letter of Collection in Hand. Wondered if the good folks perusing this thread could offer me an opinion. I'm tied to Halfords, I believe, though I would prefer to source another bike from and LBS if poss.

I have two halfords options I'm considering. Does anyone have any opinions on either of these:

Carerra Virtuoso - £400

vs

Boardman Road Race - £600

I'd like something I can take on a Cycle trip / holiday and withstand a little bit of abuse, but clearly an amatuer cyclist. I'm not familiar enough with either of the two brands to make an assumption, and I take whatever the Halfords chaps have to say with a shovel of salt.

Thoughts, anyone?

Condor will accept these vouchers (or at least they did for me a couple or three years ago). Give them a call.

Am I took late for benjy?

Because if I'm not too late, and benjy hasn't already bought himself a Carrera or Boardman, he may be very interested to know you can actually order ANY bike through Halford's scheme. At least you could last year.

Already picked up a Boardman by now! Quite happy with it if I'm honest. Maybe should have planned a little better to got something more specific to my needs, but it does the job for what I wanted it for.

Just had a look at a website of a bike store in Norfolk, it says if you buy a sale / discounted bike through the scheme then there will be a admin charge as the profit margin has decreased due to the discount. Sounds like you can still buy sale bikes but how much is the admin fees, I wonder. Must give HR and the shop a call tomorrow to find out.

Also, is that really true that yo can get a new bike once a year? Or does it depends on which company? Someone at work just told me today that it used to be once a year but now it's once every 3 years... hummm... not a good deal...

Just had a look at a website of a bike store in Norfolk, it says if you buy a sale / discounted bike through the scheme then there will be a admin charge as the profit margin has decreased due to the discount. Sounds like you can still buy sale bikes but how much is the admin fees, I wonder. Must give HR and the shop a call tomorrow to find out.

Also, is that really true that yo can get a new bike once a year? Or does it depends on which company? Someone at work just told me today that it used to be once a year but now it's once every 3 years... hummm... not a good deal...

That's crap its once every year mate. Trust me, I brought my last audax 2 years ago and have just picked up a new one. Go for it mate.

If you still looking for a fixed why not just buy a frame from bob Jackson? You could have all the braze ons you'd need and it wouldnt cost you too much. Under 500 rings a bell.