bike for free?

[cyberknight]

Seems to good to be true !
Get a bike for free assuming you meet your pledged mileage , easy enough to do but they want your bank details in the application.
https://www.free2cycle.com/individuals

 

[Milkfloat]

Of course it is too good to be true, the company you work for have to pay for it.

 

[bikingdad90]

It’s not free though, your employs pays for it and gives you a loan....

 

[Dayvo]

Seems to good to be true !
Get a bike for free assuming you meet your pledged mileage , easy enough to do but they want your bank details in the application.
https://www.free2cycle.com/individuals

Just nick one of your choice from the station.

 

[rugby bloke]

It looks like an interesting spin on Cycle to Work schemes, putting the emphasis on actually using the bike to cycle to work. On my weekly mileage it looks like my allowance would allow me to pretty much buy the bike I already own so that seems fair !

 

[icowden]

Actually, it's the Free2Cycle company that give you the loan. Your employer plays Free2Cycle, they pay your loan charges. The loan is high interest (9.9% APR). The sell to your employer is that they will have healthier employees with fewer sick days

 

[cyberknight]

It looks like an interesting spin on Cycle to Work schemes, putting the emphasis on actually using the bike to cycle to work. On my weekly mileage it looks like my allowance would allow me to pretty buy the bike I already own so that seems fair !

i could get the top price based on mine

 

[Slick]

Only 50 miles a week gets you the top prize. Anyone done this?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Seems to good to be true

It's not difficult to get free bikes, without signing up for some scheme that gets your bank details. All you have to do is be given an unwanted one, as I was recently, or pull a dumped bike out of the skip or wherever it was abandoned. I've never seen the need to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds in order to get around by bike. If I was to really put my mind to it, I could do all my cycling at completely zero-cost using nothing but gifted or salvaged bikes and running on tyres and other wearing components removed from various donors. I don't take it quite to that extreme, as I do run some bikes that have had money spent on buying and maintaining them, but it's perfectly feasible to do it for nothing..

 

[DCBassman]

It's not difficult to get free bikes, without signing up for some scheme that gets your bank details. All you have to do is be given an unwanted one, as I was recently, or pull a dumped bike out of the skip or wherever it was abandoned. I've never seen the need to spend hundreds or thousands of pounds in order to get around by bike. If I was to really put my mind to it, I could do all my cycling at completely zero-cost using nothing but gifted or salvaged bikes and running on tyres and other wearing components removed from various donors. I don't take it quite to that extreme, as I do run some bikes that have had money spent on buying and maintaining them, but it's perfectly feasible to do it for nothing..

The three bikes I currently own cost a)£199 new in 2001, b) £0 in 2016, although spent a bit to modify it, and £7. So it can be done.

 

[stalagmike]

Actually, it's the Free2Cycle company that give you the loan. Your employer plays Free2Cycle, they pay your loan charges. The loan is high interest (9.9% APR). The sell to your employer is that they will have healthier employees with fewer sick days

But what happens when you crash and go off for a month with a broken arm?

 

[IanSmithCSE]

Good morning,

I would run a mile from this;

Once you take the hype out it seems to be a clever way of marketing loans, it may not have started out that way but that seems to be how it has ended up.

The bike is bought on finance but you don't get to choose who offers the loan and who you buy the bike off. You have to use a tied retailer who will get "we will pay you the majority of the margin (based on full RRP) that you would have earned selling the bike yourself"

The Organisations T&Cs link points to a non exitsant page at the time of this post.
https://www.free2cycle.systems/spon...3.1199422152.1553323220-1479807647.1553323220

The Organisation (employer) seems to be obligated to pay 20p per mile, that's a lot. As the T&Cs aren't available for the Organisation it is not clear how long they have to pay this, for example after the loan is paid off.

I would be concerned about this being a taxable benefit, the site says that they have expert opinions that say it is not but I couldn't find one from HMRC. In general commuting to a from the normal place of work is not eligible for expenses reimbursement, but this seems to be that.

The price of the bike is RRP, it does seem that brands like Specialized have a price fixing agreement for current model year bikes, but it is less clear if dealers are willing to discount this by offering accessories at a good price. So you wont be able to get last year's model.

You have to use a mobile phone tracker app, sounds like an excuse for you having to pay part of the monthly loan as your phone battery was flat, the app had issues or you just forgot it.

I wont ask what happens when you change employer as that seems to be discretely forgotten in the main site body.

Having thought about it further it appears that you are not buying the bike from the supplying shop, they are just a collection point so they would not have any warranty obligations.

Bye

Ian

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

I would run a mile from this;

The Organisation (employer) seems to be obligated to pay 20p per mile, that's a lot.

I reckon the running costs of my good bikes (the ones I have actually spent money buying new tyres and tubes for), are less than 2p per mile over the expected lifespan of the wearing components.
The hack bikes that I run on whatever stuff I can find laying around, probably cost somewhere between nil and 1p per mile.

 

[cyberknight]

Cheers all , i suspected as much .
Its a moot point anyway as my work has been doing c2w for years so i doubt they would change .
With regards free and cheap bikes my current commuter cost me£32 to make and most of that was the cost of the LBS getting th seized BB out .

 

[Bazzer]

Good morning,

.......
The Organisation (employer) seems to be obligated to pay 20p per mile, that's a lot. As the T&Cs aren't available for the Organisation it is not clear how long they have to pay this, for example after the loan is paid off.

I would be concerned about this being a taxable benefit, the site says that they have expert opinions that say it is not but I couldn't find one from HMRC. In general commuting to a from the normal place of work is not eligible for expenses reimbursement, but this seems to be that.

.......
Ian

20p per mile is the HMRC approved mileage allowance for cycles. However, the mileage allowance is for business journeys only. As a broad rule, travel to and from your place of work does not qualify as a business journey, because it is merely putting you in a position to undertake the work. Once you are at work, that is a different matter.
If anyone is tempted by this I would be inclined to get confirmation in writing of how and how far they are prepared to support you, in the case of a challenge by HMRC.