Cost of cycling (and other hobbies) crisis?

It depends

For me no but all my bikes are built to be reliable, cheaply repaired and I dont drive to ride more than occasionally.

Those that use the latest and greatest parts and drive to ride it coukd be very differnt. I rarely spend more than a couple of hundred on parts per year and usually much less

Would be surprised if there wasn't a collapse in non-essential/discretionary spending and an off-loading of shiny stuff.

Giving that the £/$ exchange rate isn’t moving in our favour ergo the price of bikes and bike parts are going up.
Add the increased costs of mortgages, loans, heating and food many folks are going to have less disposable income which means less to spend on leisure and hobbies.
Me personally, I’ll just be keeping stuff going, replacing anything that breaks/ wears out.

If you buy for fashion, sure.

If you buy for function then it'll be negligible.

You can (re)learn to use cheaper alternatives if you really want to.

Yes my disposable income has absolutely tanked over the last year and we didn't have much to begin with. Full time childcare will see to that even before any of the other rises.

It hasn't really effected my riding. Once I've got a bike and kit I don't keep buying more bikes and kit. I'll certainly be keeping my pretty average bike for longer than I intended but I'm not too bothered.

Everything else I had planned is off the table. Holidays, new cars, motorbikes etc. Absolutely no chance.

I've got some good bikes and some good kit. I don't need any more.
The odd bit here and there but most of my stuff is from ebay or the classifieds,just bought a couple of winter gloves for example but I've got everything else I need.
So no need to spend big sums on kit, some brake pads and some tyres each year, maybe a chain and cassette.
The thing I am feeling is the travel costs to races going a bit mental, I've cut back on that, more local riding, fewer trips away.
.
My other sport is running. Again, all my kit is already bought and paid for, and wasn't much anyway, but a bit less travelling this year

Already happened as the price of bikes has gone up so much. I know people who've encouraged their kids to go running and orienteering, but biking is not an option as it's way too pricey.

I suspect the MTB industry will be better insulated than many! It's an expensive hobby, and the Singletrack surveys page shows that the average STW survey taker is vastly more wealthy than average.* The people who spend £8,000 on a bike probably don't worry about keeping the lights on. And the people who buy one bike per decade will carry on as normal.

But certainly this is an issue. I know a lot of people who work in hospitality who are very worried that people will stay out of bars and clubs this next year due to a lack of discretionary income.

*There are always howls of indignation when someone suggests this, but according to Statista, a household income of something like 80K would put you in the top two deciles for the UK. And the surveys page shows that probably half the STW readership would land there.

It’s an expensive hobby,

Only if you want it to be. Lidl, aldi and decathlon kit and secondhand bikes kept for years using cheap and long lasting parts makes it a cheapish hobby

I suspect the MTB industry will be better insulated than many! It’s an expensive hobby, and the Singletrack surveys page shows that the average STW survey taker is vastly more wealthy than average.* The people who spend £8,000 on a bike probably don’t worry about keeping the lights on. And the people who buy one bike per decade will carry on as normal

Agreed....

.....but, I always understood that the majority of bike shop customers bought a volume of 'cheaper' bikes which dwarfs "occasional" £8k sales....?

Therefore impact on low and middle earners may be pretty dramatic, and most felt by expensive sports such as ours.

Might be more vulnerable than you think at the top end- I wonder what proportion of those mid-high end bikes are bought on time payment of some sort. It's one thing buying a bike out of saving, but committing to a reasonable substantial monthly payment for the next couple of years, out of a shrinking disposable income, might be a bit much fro a lot of people.

I've got a well-stocked spares box and am quite happy to "downgrade" parts if it keeps me riding.

I like to have shiny stuff but its not essential to the experience. A bike is a bike, riding is riding.

Only if you want it to be. Lidl, aldi and decathlon kit and secondhand bikes kept for years using cheap and long lasting parts makes it a cheapish hobby

How cheap was your custom bike that featured on the front page by the way?

I’ve always had a number of bikes and they’ve usually always been specced with the high end components - xtr etc.

I can still afford to do that but as prices have risen so much I’ve chosen not to. I now buy slx and the like because to me the enjoyment from the sport has a value and it’s not worth £200 for a xtr mech for example.

I suspect a fair few people are in the same boat now there’s such a gap between the lower end parts and top end parts, it’s just not worth it any more.

One bike here, HT and don’t carry spares. I’ll be riding less and cleaning the bike more often. Only other hobby is the gym which is £30 a month. Might have to lose that if things get any tighter. Lots of walking and exploring the local forest by foot coming up.

I think the cost of TJs bike is irrelevant in this instance. My understanding was that's a special bike bought for a special reason. Nowhere did he say his bike came from Decathlon and nowhere did he say it was cheap.

Siromjj

Very expensive indeed. As above tho bought for a particular reason. Its also required nothing spending on it in 5000+ miles bar one chain link and one oilchange in the hub.

I could have done the tour on another bike i have.

I spend under 100quid a year on bike stuff normally. Last bike i bought was 700 quid 7 years ago. I bought 3 chains 2 years ago which is the last spares purchase i made I think. Bought some brake pads a couple of years ago. I do ride a fair amount year round but components are chosen for longevity. New tyres on my road bike a year or two ago

The point is it doesn't have to be expensive. Its what you choose that makes it expensive hardtails. 9 spd or hub gears and quality brakepads etc

I was planning a new bike within the next few months. I picked up the bike I ride most at a time when I could afford to spend a few quid (by my standards) on my recently rediscovered hobby - but at the same time I was a relative noob to what I needed. Turns out I chose unwisely. The economy and the diminishing disposible income as a result has caused a change of mind - instead I'm going to make a few tweaks to my existing bike and ride it till it dies or I have saved enough to replace properly. The two should intersect at some point. Component wise I am getting used to deore 12 speed because they seem to be a good balance of price for performance - when I had disposible income I liked the shiney xt/xtr where possible.

Second / third bikes? Well I'll sell the hardtail, well components of it as well as a few other thigns but anything which will work as a spare for my main bike gets kept. The less I can spend on anything that won't actually add to my riding the better.

I used to be exactly the sort of rider companies market to - a magpie (loves the shiny) with disposable income. Now every purchase comes with a proper cost/benefit check. I doubt I'm alone.

How cheap was your custom bike that featured on the front page by the way?

If you don't know the backstory, have a read up. If you do, that was a bit of a dick comment.

I would have thought that the "sport" won't see much change. If you had a spread of people, from a singlespeeder, deore, slx, xt, xtr then all that changes is 2x single speeders and no XTR next year. Doesn't help the industry side though.

I'm not sure how healthy/sustainable the sport has been for a long while though. I know you can go into halfords and buy a half-decent Carrera or Voodoo for the same price as a Playstation, but you very rarely see any of them actually out on the trails.

The point is it doesn’t have to be expensive. Its what you choose that makes it expensive hardtails. 9 spd or hub gears and quality brakepads etc

But you're not a representative mtber, more on off-road tourer. That kind of gentler riding is much less hard on bikes and components than the pummeling more typical mtbing dishes out to gear.

I think the scottish leg probably put more stress on the bike than two weeks mtbing. 30000ft of descent with luggage

But your point is correct but even so. It does not have to be expensive.

I would have thought that the “sport” won’t see much change.

Norco has just canned their XC and DH factory teams after 30 years of continuous racing. I dare say they might not be the last especially if the World Cup disappears behind a paywall.

If you don’t know the backstory, have a read up. If you do, that was a bit of a dick comment.

I think I gave it a quick read it at some point. Can't remember most of it. He's a grown man I'm sure he can cope with someone making a 'bit of a dick comment'. I didn't mean it nastily. I'm just struggling financially (ie disposable income shrivelled, having to make decisions about what will last until next paycheckyear) at the moment and nothing is cheap so dislike being told it is cheap.

Compared to my daughters dance school fees, cycling is an absolute bargain!
I’m with Tj here, if you want the latest trends, fill your boots but if you buy the spares you need to service the bikes you have when in the sales then cycling is a very cheap hobby.
My old man used to spend over £4000 a year on golf club membership in the 80’s!

I come into the survey high household income bracket, but I can't believe how much my "disposable" income has got squeezed this last year or so - mortgage on a house in the south east, fuel/energy bills, a child in Uni and another that we have to fund private prescriptions for and other things that we took for granted, but I am struggling to balance the books at the end of the month. Put the violins down, we still have a good quality of life and there is still stuff that could be culled before I send the wife out on the streets, but this weekend has been spent reviewing all bills, eg: I've cancelled a load of TV packages. Next step would be cancelling charity DD's and reducing pension contributions.

My 'expensive' road bike was a PX £1500, I have a Brompton for commuting on the BTW scheme (paid off) and the other two are both second hand / triggers broom specials. I looked earlier this year at upgrading the MTB (10 y.o Spearfish bought from here) but my thought at the time was that there would be a market for second hand Covid purchases when people got bored of their new hobby so deleted the Vitus on credit that I had sat in my basket - glad I did now to be honest. I do most of my own fixing so maintenance isn't too pricey, but parts if anything breaks will be a squeeze.

A modern mountain bike doesn't have that much in common with the bikes that we started the sport with in the 80's'ish, the mountains are still mostly the same though. The modern mtb is closer in relation to a motocross bike with pedals. Maybe going back to simpler more durable equipment rather than the consumerist disposable market driven gear fetishism we seem to have fallen into would be better for inclusivity and affordability given our economy is rapidly being asset stripped back to the 1880's.

But you’re not a representative mtber, more on off-road tourer. That kind of gentler riding is much less hard on bikes and components than the pummeling more typical mtbing dishes out to gear

I've been beating the shit out of 9 speed SLX and XT for years on the same stem and bars I had when I got the bike, second hand, in 2009.

Thanks to Covid supply chain issues, I've already got 2 years worth of bike consumables in the workshop! Bought everything I would need to keep them all going whenever I could find something in stock, sadly all bought at RRP as there were no discounts to be had when stock was so thin on the ground...

No worries sirromj

Its a fair comment

My point was about consumables really.

I’m with Tj here, if you want the latest trends, fill your boots but if you buy the spares you need to service the bikes you have when in the sales then cycling is a very cheap hobby

I am too. I run our bikes on a shoestring, buy second hand, in sales and service myself etc. I however don't keep LBS or manufacturers employed and open.

My comment is as much about the industry and LBS's seeing a huge downturn over the next couple of years.

It's also about folks who do cycle, but realistically won't have even a 'Carrera and 9speed' budget - and may need to find a different, cheaper past time.

hopefully bike shops and bike related stuff will keep going.
the biggest saving anyone can make, is to ditch the car.

I'd echo the comments made by @endoverend. Modern bike components are nothing like they were just a decade ago, components don't generally break, they're better designed, and manufactured; SRAM 12sp (for instance) is robust and lasts a stupidly long interval before replacement, working on bikes is simpler, and pretty much everything is home-rebuildable if you have the right tools and a bit of time and skill. I still tend to buy towards the top price-wise, but I generally find those components are either better built, last longer, or are designed to be dismantle-able and repairable rather than some lower value parts that are perhaps for instance, bonded or crimped together rather than screwed together. I have a budget for bike stuff, and it's not yet having to be used for other things.

My Enduro was expensive, but it's looked after, and I expect it'll last me a while longer yet. Thankfully I'm not having to sell stuff, or steal parts from one bike to keep another going.

Could we see the boom mid-pandemic become a collapse of sales?
Are people going to ‘trim thier cloth’…?

I was looking to get a higher spec hardtail this year (a Solaris Max to replace my Voodoo Hoodoo) but that has been put on pause for the forseeable and was paused when the pandemic kicked off so essentially isn't happening, that's roughly £2k not being spent. The Rocket has a front brake that needs a rebuild (Hope) and the suspension needs a service, both are on hold as I can't really afford (or more importantly don't want to drain the savings) to spend £400 on discretionary items for a bike I don't really use that much when I have another bike that fits 90% of my riding. That other bike could really do with a new set of wheels but that's on hold until the current ones fail (they're starting to snap spokes). I have splashed out on a new tyre for it though (at full RRP, that stung!) as the current front isn't great for winter conditions. So that's basically a grand I'm not spending on my main hobby until I have to. If it comes to it I can pause any spend on the bikes bar the main one for the winter, my kit purchases are already on a 'need' basis.

As for my other hobbies? Still spending small amounts on my RC cars but am holding off buying a new one that's in the £300 range. The weekend car is having a bit spent on it over the winter, probably around £500 but that's to do a specific event hopefully next year, I could easily double that without too much trouble but am being sensible. Both the RC cars and the weekend car can be halted if required without any issue if funds do become unavailable.

My disposable income has gone from £5-700 a month pre-pandemic to around £200 thanks to various factors, both on basic salary. That's a big drop and one I'm not very comfortable with. Until a few things are settled one way or another I'm definitely tightening the old financial belt!

We've definitely seen a down turn in sales of of mid to low end bikes in the shop. The high ticket stuff and commuter ebikes are still tricking out of the door. Servicing is still boyant as there seems to be more make do and mend going in.

SRAM 12sp (for instance) is robust and lasts a stupidly long interval before replacement

Counter intuitively, as chains have got narrower they actually last longer as they've been made out of harder metal (or better hardening treatments). Some nice graphs on Zero Friction Cycling showing the trend.

Norco has just canned their XC and DH factory teams after 30 years of continuous racing. I dare say they might not be the last especially if the World Cup disappears behind a paywall.

I was thing the other 99.99% of people. The number of people turning up for the Tuesday night ride, or in the car park at a trail center.

But I can see CRC/Wiggle posting lower profits for a while.

But.....

‘Carrera and 9speed’

Sales don't translate to "MTBing", or even hobby cycling. That seems to be mostly people making rational decisions to buy kids a bike to ride to school (Vs bus fare) or commute to work (Vs paying for petrol). It's easy to justify a £499 bike when compared to a terms school runs.

I suppose the other way to look at things is, is your current bike actually un-ridable?

Or do you just need to familiarise yourself with a few tools and shop about for spares?

Is there any reason you couldn't just maintain what you have while Liz and Kwassi bollox interest and exchange rates, I mean current conditions won't last forever, and deferred gratification isn't such a terrible thing.

Good point about the bike shops.

Certainly when I look at my local bike shop they get plenty of business from a vast cross section of cyclists. They serve the community well and at a good price, and I am sure as a result more people from that particular suburb rely upon their bikes for transport as well as leisure.

I believe we can help with that too… I am almost completely leisure cyclist. Occasion I cycle to the office but as a home worker this is usually a choice not a requirement. So when I need my bike shop to do some work I put urgency down the line. If I have to wait an extra day or so to get my frame bearings changed in order for them to keep a couple of commuter bikes on the road so be it. Those of us who are leisure cyclists can go easy when your local miss their delivery date because someone who relies upon their bike got bumped up. (Yes, I’ve seen this, wasn’t pretty)

I might be lucky, I've accumulated a collection of mid-range bikes over the years, mostly because it never made any sense to sell them, and only one runs disc brakes, none of them on electronic gears, and none on 12 speed.

Tubeless tyres are probably my most expensive vice, and unfortunately I put a deposit down on a fancy Italian carbon rim brake road frameset pre-Fiscal Event 🙄

From a personal viewpoint I don't think it will affect me very much. I have a number of decent bikes, none of which are likely to need replaced. I've "standardised" some of them on 11 speed XT so I can cannibalise parts if necessary. Two of them even have a choice of wheels and forks. Stuff like chain, pads, jockey wheels have been acquired in advance. I do my own maintainance.

It's possible that shops might need to review the services and products they offer for a while, though anything to get away from the constant upgrade cycle would be good in the long term anyway.

However, judging by the number of folk who actually bothered to slow down a bit as a fuel saving measure this past year, I reckon there's a lot more "disposable" outcome out there than we think.

There is a lot of other stuff I could trim our before my bikes suffer. Bikes are far more on my "need" list than day my record collection. I also have loads of stuff that I just don't use. Selling that off slowly helps fund the bikes.

Those of us on here will be mostly ok (with respect to biking)

We already have bikes, and most of us know sort of how to fix them or know that a problem is beyond their abilities and take it to a shop.

From that starting point, what do you need?
2 tyres, half a drive train and a couple of pairs of brake pads a year.
That’s maybe £15 a month to keep an existing bike going.

Of course it’s possible to spend far far more than that - which I’m a good example of.

Happy I got a new discounted frame early this year, so I should be set for a bit, fingers crossed.

So really, it’s the shops; trail cafes; race organisers I feel for, not us users. We will keep riding, but we won’t be paying them.

Must add, i haven’t accounted for driving to ride, which a large number of us have to. Not have I included coffee/cake stops and so on. Because if you weren’t out mtbing, what would you be doing instead?

Hmm - some people have definitely been economising in different ways but many, who probably should, haven't so I still think there will be an off-loading of shiny stuff starting early next year and this won't be restricted to bikes.
I have four bikes - no, not a humble brag; two were bought 2nd hand as complete bikes.
The other two have been built, using new parts, around 2nd hand frame/fork/wheels.
Also have another 2nd hand frame as the basis for a new build so am trawling ebay and other sites for components.

I think the travel aspect of MTB is for me the first cut back.

However, judging by the number of folk who actually bothered to slow down a bit as a fuel saving measure this past year, I reckon there’s a lot more “disposable” outcome out there than we think.

I drive a lot for my job and motorway speeds have certainly dropped in recent times, although you can easily spot a company car/van driver without a tracker fitted.

Riding mtb is about road trips for me. Not usually very far 1-3hrs away and if I stay overnight I sleep in the van so fuel and a fry up are my biggest running costs. I am having to think much more about trips though.

Just "won" a £30 eBay MTB. New pub/shop bike . Only 20 years young.

i broke my mech and replaced a worn out rotor this week. i replaced the XT parts with deore.

the price of everything else going up aside, i really feel the prices for bike parts are astronomical and probably would have chosen the deore parts anyway.

I drive a lot for my job and motorway speeds have certainly dropped in recent times, although you can easily spot a company car/van driver without a tracker fitted.

Not sure how much of it is fuel economising and how much is down to speed cameras though. I think people have just gotten used to the idea of actually sticking to the posted limit.

But the number of people "making progress" has dropped to almost nothing. 70mph on the cruise controll actually get you held up in the 3rd lane!

I think the total volume of bikes sold won't drop massively, there will just be a shift towards a cheaper trend. Singlespeeding/rigid bikes were massive in the 2008 down turn, as people wanted something affordable but different. Fat bikes followed in the dip in 2012ish.

Expect to see a lot more posts about on one's and a lot fewer about yetis

It's the kids clubs, clothing and travel that I seem to spend a fair chunk on every month. Bikes and kit, I don't need a new bike or any major kit for a few years unless something catastrophically breaks.

I ride mostly local and have a single speed bike so can go mountain biking pretty cheaply if I choose to (or have to).

Travel is the one thing we still do a lot (too much) of…but perhaps we need to use public transport more.

Travel to hike and bike is probably the dominant outdoor hobby cost for me. All the interesting places are 1-2h away. It's just not possible to get to them by public transport.

I know people who’ve encouraged their kids to go running and orienteering, but biking is not an option as it’s way too pricey.

I was thinking about this recently, noticing what different people's kids are doing, and what (if anything) me and my friends were nudged towards or away from as kids.

Main difference for me is I'm riding from the doorstep much more due to the cost of diesel ect (Even though I've just got back from the Alps but that was arranged ages ago)  In terms of what I spend on the bike/riding gear I only buy what I need which isn't usually much anyway, plus I dont do pointless bling.

Nah. I moved from Wales to Calderdale two months ago to allow myself to play locally.

I currently run two bikes, one rigid 26" MTB and one mishmash gravelish thing, both sourced from second hand bits and sale items. The MTB drivetrain (Sunrace MX8 based, 4000km use) will kark it towards Xmas, so I intend combining the best bits of both bikes onto a 29er rolling chassis (Scandal frame, Ridefarr forks, Mavic wheels) that I acquired in sales with tax rebates over the last three years.

Cheap as, does the job. But I'm grateful to all the upgrade whores that subsidise my activities.

Used bike prices are down for sure.

Not sure how much of it is fuel economising and how much is down to speed cameras though. I think people have just gotten used to the idea of actually sticking to the posted limit.

I'm having to overtake a lot more cars in my truck, that used to be virtually unheard of. Even driving along at 60-65 in my car I'm having to make a lot of overtakes, it's only the company cars and vans with fuel cards that are doing 70+ these days on my commute.

My road bike cost £400 off eBay a few years ago, most of the group rides I do have people on bikes where the power meter cost more than my bike. I don't think they are having more fun. Bought an on one whippet this year £1200. First MTB since 2001 ish......oh actually had a orange five for a while bought used (about £600) and then sold a few years later (£350 I think). It doesn't have to be an expensive sport

As others have said, travelling to rides/events is where it's going to hurt,plus if you race in all types of conditions,that can be really hard on kit.When it comes to (in your mind)balancing spend on toys against essentials, it gets easier if your bike is also your main form of transport. Over all the years I have commuted (30ish) I have saved around £65,000 ,that's a lot of toys and kit.

My road bike cost £400 off eBay a few years ago, most of the group rides I do have people on bikes where the power meter cost more than my bike. I don’t think they are having more fun. Bought an on one whippet this year £1200. First MTB since 2001 ish……oh actually had a orange five for a while bought used (about £600) and then sold a few years later (£350 I think). It doesn’t have to be an expensive sport

This is/was general experience of things new bikes are a mugs game mostly.
TBH though I think even the used market has run away a little bit thanks primarily to COVID and probably now due to the man maths not stacking up for shiny new toys every year, people with little understanding of value just pay over the odds...

I'm happy to stick rather than twist for a bit, but it's probably not going to suit people looking for a sensibly priced bike or the next size up for their kids.

Plus I think the route to a new toy for many will still be via C2W, it's the middle class tax dodge that helps the bike industry through the odd rough patch, Boardman seemed to shift plenty of £1k hardtails post 2008 IIRC.

I've just bought a used gravel bike. It's partly about saving money and not wearing out my MTB riding through the winter. It's also about a bit more variety.

I havent bought an MTB since 2013. Since then MTB's have appeared to over inflate in price. Road bikes didnt appear to be so extreme in their over inflation at the same point in time, but they do appear to be catching up in more recent years. We need golf to become more popular again and magazines like this stop publishing reviews of £10k bikes saying that they are 'normal'

As to travelling, I have never really done that to bike as I had great riding on the doorstep. In fact it really surprised me in lock down just how many people do travel just to ride a bike.

Other things do appear a bit nuts though when an outdoor waterproof jacket its being sold for £500, and you cant buy decent running shoes for less than £100

I suspect I'll be fine with just replacing renewables, but I'm less likely to splurge on posh upgrades like, say, a higher spec fork. Can't see myself buying a new frame unless I sell off some existing stuff, but generally bikes are pretty high up my priority list, almost, maybe even 'essential', though if it comes down to a bread v brake pads scenario, the pads will probably be, erm, toast. Or maybe not.

It's hard to generalise though. It's always going to come down to how important bikes are to you and how picky you are on economising on components and of course, how hard hit you are personally by the cost of living crisis en masse.

And I can't see any overseas bike trips in my near future.

With all my bikes bought and paid for, it's the travelling that will really take the hit over the winter and probably beyond. There's a reason I didn't go the Lakes much, it would cost me around £35/40 in fuel alone for a trip to Grizedale and back for example.

My road bike cost £400 off eBay a few years ago, most of the group rides I do have people on bikes where the power meter cost more than my bike. I don’t think they are having more fun.

Mine cost £300 back in 2005! It's been through a few rebuilds since then though. I think excluding consumables it's cost me about a grand to build it up as it is now (7800 Dura Ace gears/brakes, Ritchey WCS finishing kit, Carbon FSA cranks, handbuilt wheels). It's gone through the stage of looking cheap and now get's admired as retro!

It's just had it's 4th complete strip and rebuild with new moving parts, which due to the lack of decent quality 10s stuff ended up costing <£100, of which the lions share was new chainrings form SJS.

I'd quite like shimano to go back and do a run of ultegra / XT level spares. It'd be nice to get the basic stuff like decent quality 11-27 and 11-36 cassettes, but I guess that stuff isn't going to sell as well as making 12s OEM stuff.

With all my bikes bought and paid for, it’s the travelling that will really take the hit over the winter and probably beyond. There’s a reason I didn’t go the Lakes much, it would cost me around £35/40 in fuel alone for a trip to Grizedale and back for example.

I never did travel much, and when I do it tends to be optimized, so if I do a trail center it'll be a late drive up on Friday, probably the equivalent of two rides on the Saturday (e.g. a red route and a natural route) and then another early start Sunday, break for lunch and some recovery, then another long ride in the afternoon before riding home. I've never been one to drive to Afan or Surrey for the day.

i am cutting back in all walks of life, but my bike fund is being spent much more wisely.

These days i will buy say Nukeproof shorts (on sale at CRC) rather than Fox and then wear them until they die.

My bike is pretty well specced, so its going to be costly to replace like for like. For example, my AXS reverb has been on its way out for a while (mainly due to my poor maintenance which has sent it past the point of return.. an expensive lesson learnt), so whilst i did look at a new one, spending £500 odd on a new one doesnt seem sensible, so i will probably replace it with a One-Up, which in turn will give me a chance to split it the Reverb apart and see if i can repair it.

I have regular desires to add another bike to the garage, but know its not needed and is spending money i dont really have.

In regards to travelling, I drive an hour sometimes to get to the trails (surrey hills or QE) and i am much more aware of driving a bit slower to save a few extra pennies.

I also cycle to work as much as i can. Again, to save fuel... tho it does help me with mental and physical health too.

I am less likely to do any local events either. Nearly £50 for a round of Southern Enduro just doesnt seem good VFM anymore. I rather put that towards a couple of big events like Ard Rock or similar.

Oh and i am preparing myself for not having a riding holiday abroad next year. Thankfully there is plenty of the UK i have yet to explore.

I've not been carting bikes to and from the caravan this year, I just left one of my road bikes there ! I've not driven anywhere to ride the bike, although we've a weekend planned this month on the MTB's.

Spending has been as needed - I've got 4 bikes to run, but only the commuter has needed some cash, new wheels and worn drive chain. It is saving me upto £10 a day, each time I ride to work.

Just as 'luck' would have it, I'm mainly riding the road bikes or the commuter. The FS has hardly been touched due to extra mileage on the others. I did munch most of the drive chain during lockdown, but that's all recently replaced.

As for a new bike, I don't need one, so not buying one.

I won't believe there's even an issue until Weeksy stops buying bikes.

For a year or two now I’ve been struggling to justify the cost of mountain biking…the latest squeeze on disposable income isn’t making it any easier.

I can afford replacing parts etc, but it’s hard to justify purchasing X, Y or Z for a hobby, when we’re sat in the cold with no heating on.

And I’m not talking new bikes, general wear and tear components like tyres, brake pads and cassettes seem to be getting a bit out of hand.

I won’t believe there’s even an issue until Weeksy stops buying bikes.

It'll be a cold day in hell fella.

I do expect to sell my KTM though... but mostly because i don't really ride motorbikes these days.

Could we see the boom mid-pandemic become a collapse of sales?

Already happening. I think the market hasn't just reverted to normal post-Covid, but dipped beneath it a little with the general economic doom and gloom.

I don't expect many of us will be forced to give up our hobby, but many are already cutting back on new bikes & upgrading of parts.

As above, used prices are back down to sensible (or even cheap) levels now, and recent sales have offered some real bargains again.

Colin - I'm being much more picky about my traveling to ride too. We might even have to lift-share, eh? 😀

I've cancelled my subs to trainerroad and to GCN (bit gutted I can't watch the cx but needs must).

My mtb is out of action, needs extensive maintenance, leaking brakes etc., and I'm not rushing to get it fixed due to money... but then I'm mostly riding my cx bike which is in working order anyway. I'd probably normally have spent more maintaining the cx bike in the past too, but that was probably over maintaining due to my racing vice 🙂

I’ve cancelled my subs to trainerroad

Yeah Ive notice the subs for this sort of stuff have really short up over the last year or so.

A modern mountain bike doesn’t have that much in common with the bikes that we started the sport with in the 80’s’ish, the mountains are still mostly the same though. The modern mtb is closer in relation to a motocross bike with pedals. Maybe going back to simpler more durable equipment rather than the consumerist disposable market driven gear fetishism we seem to have fallen into would be better for inclusivity and affordability given our economy is rapidly being asset stripped back to the 1880’s.

+1. 'Cycling' as an activity is fairly healthy in economic terms; more people on bikes than when MTBs first appeared. 'MTBing' is an increasingly niche activity, if you discount the pootling around woods/along towpaths/bridalways etc that most people who used to buy 'MTBs' actually did. Those same leisure/casual cyclists now buy other types of bike; 'gravel' bikes have become very popular as a result. MTBing has been marketed increasingly as an 'extreme sport', so the bikes have become more sophisticated and specific. Yes, you can still buy cheaper MTBs from Halfords and Decathlon, but the 'entry' point for 'serious' MTBing seems to be relatively a lot higher in cost than it used to. But I imagine golf is probably more expensive these days too. Has anything actually got cheaper?

It’s an expensive hobby,

Riding all the latest tech gear and driving to all the tech trails for van-life weekends is expensive.
Local XC MTB on a less service-needy bike, or road/gravel riding, is basically pretty cheap.

Good fit, good geometry, great ride quality - none of those things are actually expensive to have in a bike. It's only marketing telling everyone that more expensive or 500g lighter etc solutions are needed.

Living near good riding may be a bigger cost or less easy to have. But that's the reason I'm not a rock climber or windsurfer, as much as I've enjoyed those things I don't have them on my doorstep and I'm not interested in having to travel every time I want to enjoy something. What I do have is miles of riding and bikes that suit the riding I have. Bike-location equilibrium.

Has anything actually got cheaper?

Not at all.
The price for new bikes now is insane - I know (because I was looking to buy...) that Specialized recently had a mid-season price increase, the bike I was interested in went from £2650 to £2950 and most models have seen similar 10 - 15% increases across the range.

I ended up going for a Canyon (and even that was in the Factory Seconds sale).

To be fair, I've needed a new road bike for years now so it was now or never - if I'd have left it any longer I'd literally not have been able to afford it with price rises.

I rarely drive to ride now; I used to pop up to the Lakes sometimes but won't do that now, it's almost all local rides unless it really is a special opportunity.

CBA read further, but this made me laugh:

We were chatting this morning about the cost of our other sports – hill walking, canoeing, road/touring cycling Vs MTB costs. All our other activities are cheaper and/or kit lasts longer. Travel is the one thing we still do a lot (too much) of…but perhaps we need to use public transport more.

Compare cycling to other folks hobbies - try horses like my OH has. End of thread.

YOu can get a regulation size football for about £4 in sports direct

it’s only the company cars and vans with fuel cards that are doing 70+ these days on my commute.

"Company cars"? How on earth do you know they're "company cars"?

but the ‘entry’ point for ‘serious’ MTBing seems to be relatively a lot higher in cost than it used to.

I don't think that's true. You can get a (new) hardtail that's suitable for serious mtbing for £1k. I started riding in '98 and the cost of a half-decent bike then (something with better than rst 281 forks) was around £600. inflation-adjusted, those are the same amount. At the same time, kit lasts a huge amount longer than it used to, particularly in terms of failures

The top-top end has got higher, but the entry-level-serious is pretty much the same.

Travel is the one thing we still do a lot (too much) of…but perhaps we need to use public transport more.

Have you tried getting a train anywhere on a weekend?!
If there are even any trains running in the first place (engineering works, strikes...), they'll go to somewhere just far enough away to be inconvenient, cost a fortune, only allow 2 pre-booked bikes on and that's before you even consider return journey logistics (often only to find that there's one train back and if you miss it, you've got to find an overnight stay somewhere).

So it's cheaper and easier to just pile everyone into an estate or van and just drive.