For a while now, I've been cycling to work and back, partly to get fit and partly to save money on fuel. It's a 13 miles round trip so not excessive but very hilly.
The problem I have is that the bike I'm using is a rusty old mountain bike that had been stood in the garage for about 7 years without moving. I gave it a few drops of oil, pumped the tyres up, wiped the cobwebs off the seat and set off in the hope that everything would be fine. The effort it took just to pedal up the slightest incline was ridiculous.
On day 1, I walked out of work to find a puncture. Fair enough, that can happen at any time.
Day 4, my left pedal fell off when I was still 2 miles from work. I pushed it the rest of the way and a Maintenance Fitter managed to tap out the thread and get the pedal back on.
In week 2, my freewheel gave in. For those who don't know, this is like a ratchet mechanism in your rear wheel meaning that when you pedal, the chain drives the wheel but when you stop pedalling, it 'freewheels' instead of stopping dead.
This failed as I was pedaling hard up a hill. All resistance was suddenly lost mid-stride and I fell off, ripping the seat and badly bruising my inner thigh (I count myself lucky that I didn't land on the crossbar!).
In week 5, my right pedal snapped in half. I was only 5 mins from work so again, pushed it the rest of the way. I got a lift home after work, bought another pair of pedals and set about replacing the broken one. As I removed the pedal, the thread just turned to filings. Clearly whoever had originally fitted the pedal had crossthreaded it. There was no chance of re-tapping it.
So all-in-all, despite my determination, it has become pretty impossible to continue riding without investing in overhauling my current bike or getting a new one.
Recently I stumbled across the governments Cycle To Work scheme which is part of the Green Transport initiative. In short, you choose a bike from any participating retailer, your employer pays for it, you pay them back over 12 months via wage deduction. You save on VAT and it comes out of your wages before any other deductions so is entirely tax free. You end up saving 41.3% on the price of a bike + safety equipment (helmet, lights, locks etc). The employer also wins because with it coming out of your gross pay, they have to pay less National Insurance AND they get an extra benefit to offer employees with very little administration.
I approached my manager about it and did all of the legwork of gathering the information, clarifying the terms and getting together a list of colleagues who would be interested and he was very interested and agreed to proceed with it. Unfortunately saying he will do something and actually getting around to it are two entirely different things so now I'm just waiting. My bike is still knackered and there's no point me spending money on it if I will soon be getting a brand spanker.
So, now you've read all of my waffle, I'll get to the point
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Assuming he goes ahead with the exact same scheme, I will almost certainly be using the retailer below. They're the best priced shop around here and also proper cycling geeks.
Ideally, I want a road bike as that would make the journey quicker and easier. Once fit, I may look for a cheap mountain bike on ebay for the weekend though that wouldn't be for some time.
Either that or just go for a hybrid now but I'm not that convinced they're that good.
With a budget of around £400-500 for the bike itself, which would you recommend? :
http://www.cyclistdiscount.co.uk/Mens-Bikes-Road-/Racing-Bikes/c8_25/index.html