What's the most unnecessary purchase you've made for your bike?

[cardiac case]

I'm fed up with presto plastic valve caps splitting so as I was in Halfords I spotted a pair in a blister pack for £2.

Came home and and went straight onto eBay and ordered five aluminium caps in blue for £1.05.

I don't know what to do with the other three but I dare say I'll figure something out by the time they arrive some time in 2017.

 

[tyred]

Has anyone said helmet yet?

My helmet does an excellent job of taking up space and gathering dust on the garage shelf

 

[MontyVeda]

one of those bar bag things that fits badly to the top tube near the stem and looks like a bag o' sh!te.

A freewheel removal tool.

After buying cable ferules from the LBS for 5p each. I got myself on Ebay to buy myself a bag full. I think it was something like £1 for 50, or a bag of a 1000 for about £4... still got 996 left over. They'll be in the family for generations!

 

[MontyVeda]

My helmet does an excellent job of taking up space and gathering dust on the garage shelf

you need to turn it into a hanging basket.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

New wheels

 

[rrarider]

A freewheel removal tool.

I'm guessing that you either had a cassette type hub or that you bought a tool that didn't fit your freewheel. On the rare occasions that I need to change the gearing for a change of terrain, I find such a tool essential.

My own worst purchase was a cheap mini-pump. This thread has reminded me to go out to the garage right now, grab the pump and throw the useless thing straight in the bin.

 

[Milkfloat]

I bought a new groupset a couple of weeks ago - just so I could swap wheels and components around on different bikes. The old groupset had only done 1000 miles. Still, it kept me quiet for a few evenings.

 

[derrick]

I might have one or two jerseys i did not really need.
But some make me feel faster than i am.

 

[MistaDee]

MCFK handmade stem, slightly extravagant but it is 95g for 120mm including bolts

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

I won some vouchers the other week and used them to buy a pair of Boardman carbon fibre bottle cages at £25 each.
I almost certainly wouldn't have spent that much on bottle cages if I hadn't had the vouchers, but they do match the bike so what the heck.
I'm sure that the 19g weight saving (each) over the cages that were fitted previously will make all the difference...

So my question is what have you bought for the bike just because you could, rather than for any tangible benefit?

I too, am guilty of that
I fitted Ritchey WCS stem, bars & seat-pin, to my Gran Fondo
Then, I bought Ritchey bottle cages & bar-tape to match..................

Van Nicholas Titanium headset cap. Totally unnecessary as the standard fitment cap did the job perfectly, but...

Erm.... I have my eye on the Ritchey head-cap http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ritchey-wcs-headset-compression-device/

I may go for a Kapz 'White Rose' instead though

 

[keithmac]

I bought a mid drive electric kit and Nuvinci hub as a project for my other bike, it's all fitted (months back) but I haven't ridden it yet...

 

[DaveReading]

My son, bless him, bought me these:

He eventually twigged from the fact that I'd never got round to fitting them that I had no use for them, so he reclaimed them for his own bike. They fell off halfway through a training ride.

 

[phantasmagoriana]

There are no unnecessary purchases for the bike

Exactly! I've bought many things that would probably be construed as unnecessary by most people (mainly purple bits for my bike - today's purchase was some purple jockey wheels, and I've got silly things like matching cable ends, too), but they're totally necessary...

 

[Profpointy]

MCFK handmade stem, slightly extravagant but it is 95g for 120mm including bolts

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'kinnell I've bought cars for that

 

[MistaDee]

'kinnell I've bought cars for that

I best keep quiet about the seat post & bars then