new pedal bike (through the cycle to work scheme)

looking for some advice here folks. just been advised that my work are starting a new cycle to work scheme sounds a great way to get a decent spec bike at a fairly good discount. but there in lies the problems

1) i'm generally based on building sites, these can be pretty far from home. last year spent 6/7months round trip of 150 miles. not really an option to cycle everyday! how often are you deemed to have to use the bike for commuting, or business miles etc... to qualify for the scheme? if i never really use it for work would people know?

2) i was reading a past thread about it, does it need to be a road biased bike? could i not get a full sus bike?? the guys seemed to be getting road bikes, do you need to go with that?

3) our scheme is through halfords only i think, can they source other makes of bikes than they stock in store? or can you get basically any bike you want?

any help greatly appreciated, but need to move fast on this as think they are only making it open for 2/3weeks for the first lot of applications!

[fizzwheel]

I think...

1. You have to use the bike 50% of the time you use it for commuting to work on. However I'm not 100% sure that anybody does check.

2. If you're going to ride it on the road, get a road bike. You dont need a full suspension bike unless you're a committed off roader, remember you loose energy by compressing the suspension with each turn of the pedals so its harder work to ride ( important if you're not fit ) You dont have to get dropped bars look for a hybrid which has road bike wheels and running gear but flat bars like a mountain bike.

Personally unless you take the bike off road, I wouldnt even contemplate a MTB. If you must have a MTB get a hardtail and something with front forks that you can "lock off" so they dont move about when on road.

3. Halfords should be able to source you any bike you want, but if its not something the usually stock then it might take weeks or maybe a couple of months for the bike to arrive.

Dont forget to factor in a helmet and kit, some more expensive bikes dont come with pedals so you'll need to think about that to.

I might suggest a more specific cycling forum might be useful for research such as www.bikeradar.com

cheers for the info, i need to speak to personel at my work i think for their view on some of my questions! at the moment i'm under 10 miles from my house, and i'd be happy to cycle that to work. but i'm always site based, so if they put me 30miles from home then surely i'm allowed to use my car (i get a car allowance too!)

really i'm looking for a good hardtail or full sus bike, as i'm wanting to get more into cycling (off road/trails etc...) been down the borders a few times and it was awesome!

so if you havent guessed i'm trying to see how much i can bend the rules to get me a discount on my bike!

but on reading some of my work stuff one thing it did say was it could be used at lunch to got to shops etc.. so technically if i had it with me at all times i could use it for local journeys!

[fizzwheel]

Hopefully Mattsv will spot this thread as he got a new bike recently and he'll know the details alot better as he got his with cycle to work.

My company wont sign up to it as they say its to much of an admin overhead

[Ch00]

Originally Posted by fizzwheel

I think...

1. You have to use the bike 50% of the time you use it for commuting to work on. However I'm not 100% sure that anybody does check.

You also dont have to use it for the complete journey just part of it. You could just cycle to the train station 50% of the time.

Ch00

so i could park down the road from the office and cycle say 1 mile into work?!?! it seems very vague on the website! i've found the following:

'
How often does the bike have to be used for work?



There is no requirement for you to cycle to work for a specified number of days throughout the year and there is no special requirement for you to record your trips. You can also use the bike for leisure at weekends and on holiday, although a bike purchased under Cyclescheme should be ridden for at least 50% of time during trips to work. (Please refer to this page for guidelines on bike use.)

so is this saying then i dont actually have to do any trips to work on and certainly dont have to record them. but at least half the bikes use has to be for work, so to use it on a fun cycle i have to have commuted on it too! confusing! i think a quick call to personell tomorrow will let me know if they would even consider letting me apply!

[Jayneflakes]

Halfords do some great urban bikes, basically mountain frames with strong wheels and slick tyres for road bashing.

I had a bike custom made just for this purpose,but do use it on the mud too.Full suspension bikes in the cheaper ranges are often rather inefficient so would not make a great blast about town bike, however if you spend the money and get a slick downhill racer you will find it does not climb too well and bobs on the flat. I use a hard tail for racing and playing and that does me fine.

Cycling to work gets you fit, is cheap to do and contributes to cleaner safer roads (less vans and diesel spills). However cycling 150 miles to work is damn hard work, I think Pro road racers do that and they get a drip at the end to help them recover!

I used to cycle about five miles to work and then go on a training ride inthe evening after work because riding pedal bikes is great fun too. Give it a shot and before you know it, your daily distance is increased as you get fitter and faster.

Road bikes with drop bars and STI gears are things of beauty, but there is a down side. The wheels can be more fragile than an urban or mountain bike wheel and the drop bar can really take some getting used to. Riding on the hoods kills my hands even now, but then I need to get a lot more training to toughen me up again... To think I used to ride cyclocross back in the nineties...

[fizzwheel]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

Road bikes with drop bars and STI gears are things of beauty

Indeed, heres mine ( again !!! )

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

but there is a down side. The wheels can be more fragile than an urban or mountain bike wheel.

Can be, depends on the wheel, a set of handbuilt 36 spoke wheels with good hubs can be very tough, I've got a set of handbuilts on Mavic Open4CD rims, they are twenty years old now and still as straight as the day I got them.

Also my current set of bling mavics as fitted above have done alot of miles so far on roughish country lanes and are still as true as they day I got em.

we do this at the Royal Mail and i was asked about it the other day by a member of staff so i pulled the information off the internal intranet, it said the cycles were hired? so does that mean its hired or an HP agreement? they also couldn't exceed £500

[JamesMio]

It's basically a clever tax dodge, your employer buys the bike then 'hires' it back to you over a year, by dividing the cost of the bike by 12 and deducting that amount from your wages.

The clever bit, is that because you don't own the bike until you've paid it off in full at the end of the year, the reductions that come off your wage are also tax deductable, meaning you pay less tax each month.

I'm trying to get our work to set this up - the limit (set by Cyclescheme) is £1000. I looked at a £1000 bike, and after the VAT & Tax reductions it worked out at something like £570 that it would cost me, that's spread over 12 months at a favourable 0% interest rate too remember!