What's the cheapest Bike Shaped Object you've ever bought?

[Riverman]

I'm not ashamed to say to date I have bought two brand new BSOs. The first was a £39.50 one bought in 2004 from that sterling house place (using discount codes). And the second was a £59.99 universal BSO from woolworths in 2006.

beat that! :-)

I rode the first one to death. Second one gathered dust abit. I laughed though when I bought a new derailuer for my new bike and it cost more than that £39.50 one.

 

[4F]

My first commuter, £ 75 bso from littlewoods catalogue before I knew better. Managed to get 4 years of commuting out of it without spending any money on it before it died which I was quite impressed with

 

[Plax]

Apollo CX10. Paid about £99.99 for it I think. I only used it for a few months before I got another bike in the sale (GT Nomad Sport). Sold it for £40 so quite a loss but I was glad to get rid of it!

 

[dav1d]

£5 (no, I haven't missed a nought off!), one in the 90's, which was a fold up bike which had a load of problems. Still, it did a few journeys, although parts literally fell off it (didn't matter how tight they were). The entire brake cables and brakes fell off going downhill!

Another about 5 years ago or so also £5. Needed new tyres and a new seat, and stuff, but my brother had an old unworking BSO that was no longer usable, so with parts off that, the bike was fine. It had no gears, but somehow, I beat my shortest time to get to Stockport town centre on it. I never dismounted for hills on it, just cycled as fast as I could as soon as I saw one. That lasted me about a year fine until it was stolen. And after I got it back, another 6 months or so until it got stolen again.

New bikes, my cheapest record is approx £45 from woolworths, think that would have been around 2006 or 2007. Lasted me a year before it got buckled and other problems. As it was only £45, it would have been cheaper to get a new one, but I'd got my moneys worth out of it anyway in saved bus fares.

 

[chris667]

My old job was taking people who had learning disabilities out on cycling, and one of the guys had a Ranger XC. Terrible bike, it was out of alignment. It was **very** hard to steer and tiring.
The guy in question never rode more than a couple of miles, but one day we saw an aincient Dawes road bike in a bike shop. A deal was done with part exchange for the Ranger, and the next day we did a 50 mile round trip.
And six months after that, we did a 6 day tour!

 

[Sittingduck]

This nasty Raleigh "Rave" was 90 quid from the shop known as Halfords!

 

[RedBike]

£49 from a local lawn mower repair shop.
I can't even remember the make of it now.

 

[asterix]

£25 from Bulmers of York. (I don't think they are allowed to sell bikes any more)

It was a Raleigh and must have been a reasonable quality 5-speed once. Not 531 or anything as good as that.

I removed the broken derailleur and used it as a single-speed commuter (not fixed) for a year or two. Once I put a derailleur back on it to do a century ride in the Wolds and later a wheel with a 3-speed SA hub was built for it. It was occasionally repainted with black hammerite when the rust started to show but was otherwise manintenance-free. Eventually the steel chain-ring teeth became so worn it was impossible to keep it going any longer and I sadly took it to the skip

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I bought a £99 special from the back of a paper once - what was I thinking of! Anyway it wasn't so bad, I guess, and I managed to get £50 for it when I flogged it!

 

[gbb]

If we're talking second hand...£16 for a Raleigh Ascender MTB off ebay.
Sold it the next week for £25 to a guy at work (hopes he does'nt read this)...but i still think i did him a favour.
Its solid, wheels were good, i serviced everything and cleaned it up....and i told him it'll outlast any sub £100 bike he was thinking of buying. He's still got it and functions fine.

New BSO ?, not me, but another guy at work brought a bike off Bid up TV for about £70. He came in with the rear wheel after its first outing. He said there was a big bang and then it jammed up. The sprocket on the back cassette had actually snapped ...on its first outing
Absolutely outrageous

 

[lazyfatgit]

£15 for a damaged racer from a pal which i broke for spares.

 

[HLaB]

When I got my first job before I knew about bikes I bought my Mum a BSO out of Makro £55 I think

 

[jimboalee]

I bought a Bicycle Shaped Object.
It was yellow plastic and about an inch long. It came with a little plastic rider behind a Renault 19 Camera Platform in Corgi Toys GS13.

Every other thing with two wheels, pedals, saddle and handlebars has been a REAL bike.

 

[PBancroft]

An Apollo something or other, about £75. I even bought it on the basis that it was Halfords' cheapest full suspension bike (I'm so stoopid).

Still got it. Wife occasionally rides it - need to get her something better.

 

[MontyVeda]

Just resurrecting this for @DCBassman as it appeared after the 'What's the widest/narrowest tyre thread'.

Never had a proper BSO myself but a former friend gleefully told me once that he'd bought a full suss MTB for £80... and the best bit? It was buy one get one free!! Feck me they were clankers; cast iron Y frames and a cheddar group-set. He even did the old fork wrong way round trick