Cycling on a shoestring

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DCLane

Found in the Yorkshire hills ...
I do almost all maintenance myself; I learnt plus my university's workshop is great. That really helps keep the cost down.

Regular maintenance; keep the bike cleaned and lubricated. GT85, lubricant and cheap baby wipes are fine for this.

You don't need the most expensive bike; get a simple but reliable one with cheaper parts. I commute on a 16-speed Shimano 2300 road bike and it doesn't slow me down. 2x8 speed means cheaper parts; cassette, chain, etc.

Also, you don't need expensive clothes. eBay/Tenn/sale items/other budget brand ones are fine.
 
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shouldbeinbed

Rollin' along
Location
Manchester way
Aldi & Decathlon for your clothing requirements if you feel the need to dress in cycling gear. Find your local bike jumbles and get along early and with cash for bulk buying tubes etc and rummaging for bits of spares or pedals and such.

For this weather TK-maxx do dirt cheap ski gloves that are just as warm as bespoke bike ones.

Doing your own maintenance is largely easy and saves a bundle, however its worth investing a bit in the tools to do it, very cheap kits are a false economy, you dont need to be buying a £50 pedal spanner but you should expect to spend more than a couple of quid on one.

I cabled and chained my beater MTB for £8 all in from Asda, it goes when I pedal and the gears and brakes work fine.

Keep an eye on cycling magazines, their freebies can be occasionally useful, autumn is great for stocking up on buffs.

Have several lights on your bike, some can be budget but some at least should be of sufficient quality to illuminate you and your way well and be robust enough to take some knocks and bad road jolting. Smart 700 seems excellent vfm at £30 right now and I'm only hearing good things from people about it (comparatively cateye volt 700 is ~£100 ) dealextreme & ebay magicshine clones are similar 20-30 mark and very bright, a few quality concerns reported but mine has been going strong for a couple of years now without exploding or falling apart.

EDIT 26/1: The Smart 700 is a very good light at an amazing price: £33 delivered from HighOnBikes : solid feel, seems very good build quality and superb light output, bright and throws a good beam onto the road
 
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jongooligan

Legendary Member
Location
Behind bars
There are a couple of schemes near me that take in unwanted bikes, do them up and sell them on. I got a proper old skool Rockhopper from recyke-y-bike for my daughter for buttons. They also do maintenance classes.
Mebbe something like this near you?
 

Katherine

Guru
Moderator
Location
Manchester
Sign up for the deals of the day and regular sales on the many online cycle shops.
Make sure you get to Aldi on cycle weeks.
Supermarkets have own brand energy drinks and snacks.
 

Cp40Carl

Über Member
Location
Wirral, England
I bought a second hand road bike from local bike shop as a trade in for £90, then swapped for a hybrid. I bought a load of kit from Lidl for next to nothing and some tools off e-bay. Plenty of YouTube vids to explain mainenance and I'm now up and running for about £150. Will upgrade and replace bike parts as I go and this will be a good way to learn about bike maintenance in a staged way. It can be done cheaply. :thumbsup:
 

KneesUp

Guru
I cycle on a shoestring because I like to pretend that the money I save on bus fares pay for it.

My costs are quite low - the CroMo steel bike I commute on cost £29 (including a new set of brake blocks from Asda) and I commuted on it as bought from eBay (plus new brake blocks) for a few months, and no doubt it would still be useable in that way (although it would have needed a new chain by now even if I hadn't altered it quite a lot).

In the end I decided I wanted drop bars so I swapped the bars, which meant swapping the brake levers and gear changers and getting a shorter stem, and then I decided that the cantilvers were a pain to adjust so I swapped them as well, and then I bought a new crankset because it's hilly here and the 'granny' ring on the cranks I had wasn't round, and as I was doing that I replaced the chain, and I swapped the tyres for semi slicks, and because I commute on it I bought a rack, a bag and some mudguards and so on. And the old saddle wasn't quite right for me, so I bought one from Aldi for a tenner which is much more comfortable (for me), and the steering was a bit wobbly so I put a new headset in - in all I've spent another £245 (I've just added it all up, it's more than I thought to be honest - but that includes every last nut and bolt - and over £80 of it was to do with changing to drop bars)

However, for a little over £250 I have a strong, reliable bike made of high quality steel (Tange Infinity) that is comfortable and can be ridden on and off road (albeit it isn't road-bike fast nor is it MTB agile) and can carry a useful amount of stuff in all weathers. A similar spec bike new would be getting on for £1000 - although it would have a better paint finish I admit :smile:

I'd definitely recommend learning to do your own maintenance. Bikes really aren't that complicated, and not too much can go wrong. I'd recommend sticking to a maximum of 8 speed at the rear as the chains last longer and I would imagine they are less fussy about exact adjustment. I run 7 speed at the back at the moment (although I will swap to 8 when this wears out as 8 speed cassettes are easier to get hold of) and it gives more than enough range. All I get my LBS to do is wheels - that's the one thing I don't yet have the tools, skills or patience to do. Fortunately the wheels on this bike were straight when I bought it, but even then it's only about £10 per wheel for truing them up I think.

And back to the bus fares - I've had the bike about a year, and even though it's cost more than I thought (to make changes that I wanted to do, but didn't have to do) it's cost me £275. Bus fares are £1.70 per day - a cost per year of £408 - so one might argue I have got fitter and bought a bike to my own specification for -£133. I prefer that way of looking at it :smile:
 

KneesUp

Guru
As for tools - most of the ones you need you probably have. Allen keys and pliers will get you a long way! That said, I got one of the 'Complete' tool kits from Aldi - they are normally £20 but I got one reduced - I think it was £14. Some of the tools aren't great (my cone spanners are a bit dog eared and I've only used them a few times) but they all work, and will get you going. As you wear the cheap tools out (or lose them) replace them with better quality ones that will last longer. The kit will definitely get you going though.
 

Drago

Legendary Member
I cycle on a bicycle for much the same reason KneesUp cycles on a shoestring.
 

Crankarm

Guru
Location
Nr Cambridge
Hi, This is a very open question but I'm interested in some opinions......

I know there are loads of different reasons for cycling and it's likely that most people have multiple reasons. My initial reason was to try to save money, getting rid of the car and commuting daily. Apologies if there's a similar thread I missed but I would love to hear people's tips on doing things cheaply, running a bike, looking after it, changing components etc. What will you save on or do without? What do you refuse to cut corners on? Is there anything in particular you spend more on because it lasts much longer than cheaper alternatives?

Matt

If you are a real cheapskate you could instead of cycling on a shoestring, cycle in a g-string?
 

paul04

Über Member
Also have a look in sports direct/decathlon for clothes, for my commute to work(in the winter months) I wear a karrimor long sleeved running top, cycling top from Aldi and windproof coat from sports direct (and as backup, a small waterproof coat from decathlon) and some tracksuit bottoms, and that has kept me warm all winter.

Also in very cold weather, get a neck warmer or balaclava, look on ebay, or as someone else said, sometimes free in cycling magazines.
 

summerdays

Cycling in the sun
Location
Bristol
I found that the first year or two were the expensive years and now the bike generally ticks along with not too much big investment though I've just booked it in for a big service so expecting a big bill. I could do some of the things they are going to do but the problem is they will want to do them at the same time as sorting out the stuff I can't do.

For me the bike has to be trustworthy, I want it to reliably get me most times from A to B and back again and to not have a major fail at speed. That means not running components into the ground but replacing them before and having some spare bits such as brake blocks and cables sitting around for emergencies. So most of the time I do my own minor maintenance but I just want a professional eye on it occasionally.

And a spare bike is also useful, allowing me to leave sorting out to the weekend if necessary.
 

cyberknight

As long as I breathe, I attack.
I cycle by bike as it saves running 2 cars , where i work there is no public transport too at all so you either have to drive or lift share but the latter still means sharing the cost of petrol etc and as there are differences in finish time even for those working in the same area you can be hanging around .It would cost me about £20 + a week just in petrol let alone other running costs if i used the car .
As @DCLane i use 8 speed gearing to keep the part costs down and most of my commuting kit is decathlon /aldi/lidl along with ebay specials .
 
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