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see im quite tight tbh and love a bargain...
didn't go too nuts in the CRC firesale, a few tools and consumables and riding kit for the kids
but my biggest win was a set of battered dtswiss e1700 wheels for £65 off pinkbike...
if the rims were as trashed as he said i was planning to just use the 350 hubs, which for £65 Id be more than happy with .
but a £6 end cap from AliExpress, clean and regrease of the ratchet and a night truing the wheels in front of the TV + bending out a ding in the rear and my winter hardtail now has some posh wheels !
what ya got ?
Mate gave me a Norco Optic, I gave him 2 bottles of wine and bought him fish and chips!
Best proper bargain though was probably the TRP brakes I got from Merlin, £70 for a pair of 4 pot brakes! Proper bargain.
Hard to pick.
The £99 ns steel hardtail frame, the vitus fs xc for a silly price.
But actually the best one was either the dhb windproof running jacket for 5 quid, or the fleece and ripstop blankets for a fiver each. Although the brand new cane creek helm mk2 coil for the ns frame for £300 was ridiculous
Chiggle hurt my credit card badly at that time.
Nothing this year, mine was a PSA here about the Chiggle sale. Got a Nordisk Utgard tent for silly money. We've done around 20 nights in it, including two 5 and 7 night stays. Amazing tent. It's actually changed our outlook, so loads of camping going forward. I've done more nights under canvas with bike packing.
This ...
£175 off eBay.
Genesis Day One Singlespeed.
For a few years, I've tried various SS drop bar CX/ Gravel/ Monster-cross bikes, none of which have been quite right. This is perfect. Fits me. Decent cable disc brakes (BB7). I swapped the wheels for some old Hunts that weren't being used, and since added a set of SKS Edge Al mudguards.
This is my nipping to the shops / commuter / WFH filthy trails lunchhour blaster. It's currently my most ridden bike since I bought it a month ago.
Nukeproof Giga frame with a Fox float X2 factory shock for £450 off Wiggle. I think the shock RRP is at least £600. Not only was it a bargain but it has turned out to be a fantastic bike
This.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stu-b/44739536432/in/photostream/
Bought in 2018 and still going strong with more up to date geo than many bikes that were released this year.
All it's cost me this year is tyres, brake pads and a shock service.
That seems like a right bargain to me considering how much and where it gets ridden.
I got this frame which was reduced by a grand from Biketreks in Keswick. Then they announced they were closing down so maybe that's why.
I've bought absolutely nothing in the sales this month.
Bargains are still out there just a bit harder to find. Been stocking up as going to spend quite a bit of time travelling next year
Had a few with more than 50% off
Zeb Ultimates
X01 AXs rear mech
Hope rear hub
Oak Component Levers
Few with more than 75% off
7 idp pads
Various Five Ten Freerider Pros and Trail Cross
Best bargains. So far...
£375 38 Performance from CRC. Just bought a Grip2 damper off of FB for £150 to go in them
2x 10-50 lightweight Spedao XD cassettes off of AliExpress for less than a GX
2.3mm rotors off of AliExpress for about a tenner delivered, and haven't died. Yet.
Trp DH-R Evo brakes with fancy levers and 2x R1 2.3mm rotors off of FB for £150. As spares, but will swap for T4V4 in black, btw.
GX AXS mech for £100 off of FB.
I have a problem, but I do like bikes.
Got a Cube Stereo from a friend at mates rates. My best bargain was a Ground Effect sub merino zipped top which they don't make now, for £10 on eBay. Bought some Darn Tough socks on Sportpursuit which whilst still not exactly cheap are the best socks I've ever had and with the lifetime replacement should work out as a bargain in the long run.
Various bits bought online, but my 2 best bargains are from Facebook this year.
Got most of an on-one codeine for free from the local neighborhood watch group. Very battered, no shock or gears but even so... I've given away the dropper, forks and brakes for spares so shared out the bargains too. Running it with a 20mm shorter shock than designed and 20mm shorter forks. Pretty much DH bike geometry (62° head angle, 300mm bb) but short travel... A bit odd, but lovely to ride!
Then, last week, got a breezer lightning 29er complete for £100! Lovely retro skinny steel frame with 3*10 gears. It'll be getting some Jones type bars and being used as a gravel/long ride/bikepacking bike and I'll hopefully be able to sell on my practical but boring London Road to make garage space.
Two things:
Mrs_oab is sporting a £5 POC helmet.
I'm sporting a nice to me Orange Stage Evo - brand new second hand with 8 rides use. And about 60% off what it would have cost new.
Mrs_oab is sporting a £5 POC helmet.
Helmets are one item I wouldn't be opting for cheap piece of crap tbh 😉
Biking thing? TLD Flowline helmet for £34, very convenient as I'd just destroyed my old helmet the week before.
Not a bike thing- Bought a complete engine out of a subaru sti for £500 delivered, because it had some Mystery about it and could possibly have needed a lot of work. TBH you can pay £500 for an sti shortblock that needs a full rebuilt anyway so getting heads, accessories etc made it almost definitely a good buy even at worse. I only really needed the shortblock (ie bottom end, not heads and other bits) but it turned out to be just lightly hurt and good enough that I could have just slapped my heads on it and dropped it straight into the car. Dunno what that'd make it worth, £1500 or thereabouts maybe with all the assorted gubbins, most of which I'll be able to sell or reuse. Absolutely delighted tbh.
And that'll go into <last> year's bargain of the year which was a complete, low mileage jdm subaru legacy with a suspect engine for £1200 that included a bootfull of parts worth about £600. That subsequently became a dead engine, but once it's got this motor built and fitted will replace my daily.
My Daughter's Commencal FRS down hill frame from this very forum:
Which got built up into a 'bargain' DH rig with a few other bargains from PB and eBay.
This stands me under £1800 which is the price of just the frame normally exdemo frame and one in one out jiggery pokery 
I hadn't had a bike for a year or so and was on look out for a bargain. I managed to get a 2023 Scott Spark for around 60% discount from 99bikes. Not ridden it yet as it turns out I need a new hip, but I've been in a state of perpetual excitement since it arrived. I go in the garage, just to look at it!
I found a decent pint for under £5 a few months ago.
Last year I bought a Spesh Roubaixs base model it was about 3 years old for £700. It was only ridden about 3 times, all the warning stickers still on it. Kept in garage over winter, then this year changed the boat anchor wheels for some nice light wheels from wiggle for £90. Put some Juin Tech F1 brakes to replace the cable disks for about £130. GP5000 tyres with ride now tpu tubes and it's been great, fairly light, super comfy and cosy about £1k.
Like loads, Sentier full bike £349 - only bought to strip for parts, but kept it and ride it regularly.
Haircut and beard trim for 12,50€ in Allerona, Italy.
Ended up giving him 20€.
Think my last haircut prior to that was 22€.
Torn between the prime deep section carbon rims for £269 or the Nordisk tent we got for £200. That said we paid another £200 for the zip in floor.
TBH I still have a fair few boxes unopened from the chiggle closedown sale. Mostly parts and helmets for future potential use.
Absolutely this
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An entire season of BMX racing and coaching at Manchester BMX. Races for about a tenner, coaching £5 a session (which includes a couple of hours of open gates afterwards) and a fiver for 2 hours at the indoor open gates club nights.
It's been a great Father Son thing, made new freinds and the awards night was top as well, I think there were only about 3-4 people who got an award that weren't there.
Obvioulsy I've found ways to make it more expensive, but for less than the price of a new cassette (£250) i got a complete bike, so that's still a bargain, right?
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Mean while I’ve been proping up the bike industry paying through the nose for parts and servicing, you’re welcome
I think i might have got a pair Vittoria Barzo’s for half price
Oh and i road Oxduro which is free
a pair of schwalbe G One 29 x 2.25 tyres. £13.99 each. 5ooo miles on em. still going strong.
Again with the alcohols - earlier in the year I spotted a box of 16 bottles of Staropramen, reduced from £18 to about £5, forget which supermarket. I picked one box up, it was green in colour. I was on the bike so cycled home with it tucked under my arm, wobbling down quite a steep hill.
Once home I cracked a bottle, had a sip, found it to be tasty. So I forced the lid back on the bottle, stuck it in the fridge temporarily. I then headed out on the bike to buy the other two similarly priced boxes. Now, I could have taken the car, bought both remaining boxes at once, but that wasn't the game. One box at a time, under the arm down the wobbly hill. Each time ensuring I bought from the same till with no acknowledgement I was de ja vu-ing them.
Then I reopened that first bottle. That was a good day.
£5 poc helmet for my son. Bargain!
£10 pair of clippers in 1997, and my wife is still using them to cut my and my son's hair.
The Wiggle/CRC sale had some crazy Hope bargains. The Pro5 boost rear wheels for £62 were the best for me.
Possibly a bit spendy, but mine was £2500 for a brand new S-Works Kenevo SL frameset (RRP £6750). I built it up using parts that I already had and it’s done about 2000 miles around various trail centers and bike parks. It’s a cracking bike and I’ve not ridden any of my others this year because I only want to ride the Kenevo.
As a bonus, the 2022 Float X2 that came with it was broken/slurping out of the box so I sent that off to Fox and they swapped it for a 24 version which I promptly ebayed for £600.
A couple of shirts from Polaris was a decent deal (thanks to whoever did the PSA on that), but the $4 shirts from the boulder bike coop were bargaintastic (new remaindered stock with labels, not even 2nd hand).
Not sure we quite saved enough to make up for the new gravel bikes my wife and I splashed out on, but it was a contribution 🙂
Bought pair of hope wheels in the CRC sale. Really cheap.
Still in the garage waiting to fit to the ebike.
Brandx dropper post for £30 from CRC.
Rockshox super deluxe £60 from trisport.
Orange stage 6 Evo ex demo, for under 2k direct from orange. Very happy with it.
Thumbs up for BMX racing. Another year or so and we'll be doing the same thing. Can't wait.
Way too much stuff in the Chiggle Fire Sale. Looking through my emails and can't believe how much stuff I ordered.
£60 in lights got me a great set-up. £43 for 2 jerseys, 1 shorts, elbow and knee protection and some gloves from 100% and a £140 Centaur groupset are some highlights.
If we're doing Italian pricing alpin, 4 of us stopped at a cafe during the Torino Nice Rally and each had a pastry and two coffees, total bill was 16€. I practically floated away.
Chiggle sale aside, I got a Bell Super DH MIPS for £45 delivered after someone posted it on here. Have to admit I haven't worn it yet since the Naughty Northumbrian got cancelled, but it's not something I intended using much, just good to have for the odd time I do "full face recommended/required" stuff.
But most of my bargains have been second hand, particularly from Vinted - riding kit and otherwise.
Also got a toughened glass shower screen to enclose part of my covered deck that was exactly the right size on eBay for the princely sum of £1 😀
I like that DayOne up there. Mine was a a touch more expensive. Also has new wheels now that definitely don't merit a mention on this thread!
Sorry, you didn't need to see that twice.
Left my bargain late - not arrived yet!
Hightower 3, down from a ridiculous 8k to 4k in the recent sales. Add bike to work man maths to the equation and its costing me 2.3k. There's much hate for them on here but it was an itch that I've always wanted to scratch...
No idea what I'd use a Day One for, but damn I want one again now.
Trying to find some new SPD shoes at the beginning of the year, I found some Giro Rangers(I think )on Amazon for £27. For once having big feet paid off, it was the only pair in stock and my size!
Not bike related, but a vintage mirror in amazing condition for £5 in a charity shop, selling for £35-£65 in antique shops.
Left hand AXS controller for £60 new (£200 normally)
No idea what I’d use a Day One for, but damn I want one again now.
I sold one about 18 months ago, I have a one on-one out policy, in favour of an old steel P7 for party pace rides. Great mistake, moved the P7 on and bought the black one above. Might be a forever bike, the only thing I think might replace it is if I happen on one of those 853 frames they made briefly.
No bargains really, but I won £5k on a competition earlier this year which paid for our wedding in May. ?
I reckon the Levo SL i just bought for £2999 has to be up there but...
Whilst I do realise that the rampant discounting and fire sale culture is not healthy, I was actively looking for some light trail bike wheels, so there is no doubt that I won the Chiggle Sale lottery. Sorry.
(there were two sets available and I think another STWer bagged the others! )
That is a pair of Zipp Hitop carbon wheels, for £286.
RRP about £1400, Still haven't see them for under a grand or so.
And yes, they ride lovely, and I've absolutely hammered them.
Oh, that reminds me, I won an Aston MTB competition to win a Rulezman stem (£240)
Aye, monkeysfeet+mrs_monkeysfeet for the win...
Some nice lightly used Hunt carbon wheels for the gravel bike at £330 ish from eBay, sub 1400g. What a difference compared to over 2kg Shimano stock versions.
Mrsmidlfe wrecked her commuter townie and picked up an identical model still with shop labels on for £75.
Got a pair of Fizik Infinito X1 shoes for £120. Not sure they should have been £329!!! in the first place but still a bargain.
Also got a Xperia 1 V for half price and a nearly new Meile vacuum for £40.
Haven't really bought much bike stuff. This is probably the first year since 2006 I haven't bought a bike.
My not very exciting bargain of year was replacing my worn out GX drivetrain with the budget Shimano Cues stuff, had an old HG freehub already for my Pro 4 and found a full drivetrain (well a mech, shifter, chain, cassette) for £120 - which was less than I could get a GX cassette from anywhere at the time. I’ve had it on a while now and I think it’s absolutely perfect for an eeb where the heft doesn’t overly matter. And when it starts wearing you can even buy the bottom few cogs of the cassette individually. Just built my hardtail back up and I’ve put it on that as well.
Spearhead SL7 for £1649, thanks to a PSA!
a pair of schwalbe G One 29 x 2.25 tyres
Simiilarly - Ribble selling off the tan wall G-Ones for £15 each. Been on my Tripster for commuting since, no punctures and weirdly, for Schwalbe tubeless tyres, hardly ever need pumping up. They are brillz
Non-bike was this ‘ere iPad Pro wot I’m typing this on now. john pye auctions, still an expensive thing, but £800 off the retail price.
Nothing too exciting here. Two slx 203mm centrelock rotors for my Alps trip were £10 each. And just got some half price endura mt500 spray trousers for £65. They're still on offer at leisure lakes.
I also bought some half price roval carbon wheels but considering they were still over £700 it's hard to call them a bargain!
Pair of 25kg click select adjustable dumbbells for 90 quid off Sport Direct.
I hate giving Ashley my money but that was to much of a bargain to leave
This year I rebuilt an old rim brake road bike. The barely used Fulcrum Racing 5s for £16 were a bit of a bargain.
Pair of fox 36 factory for £310 was the bike deal, and on the workshop front, the drum sander for 900 was good. Saving 300 there.
I suppose actually the Buzzbike ebike for 500 has proven to be a great deal, certainly paid its worth.
II think I've having CRC sale withdrawal symptoms 🙁 ,I dont think we'll see the like of that again.
Both bikes I got his year were bargains. First was the Sentier 29, I missed out on the CRC sale but someone was selling one that was barely ridden on Facebook for a similar price. Sold all my old 26" stuff and ended up making a profit after buying this. Do kinda wish I'd held onto at least the 26" wheels though as I'm still not sold on 29" after about a year of ownership. At 5'8" with a 29" inside leg it does kinda feel like I'm climbing onto a horse sometimes.
Next was the £100 Langster, needed new tyres but apart from that it's pretty solid. Might sell this though as I don't really like riding on the road any more, too many bad drivers. It pretty much just sits on my rollers now. Was hoping if have enough clearance for gravel tyres but it's too tight. I also think it might be a bit big for me, feel really stretched out with locked out elbows when on the hoods.
TBH being a tight yorkshireman I can't remember the last thing I bought that wasn't reduced, had a voucher and bought with reduced vouchers ?
CRC: £60 exposure diablo, £65 hope rear wheel, 4x 10 speed cassettes for £9 each.....
Evans: Dirt cheap 510s
Sold a set of Tech3 e4s and then bought the new Tech4 v4s for £40 more price matched with wiggle.
Also got one of the massively reduced SL7s on cycle to work.
I'm 100% in the category of 'I'll buy anything if the price is too good' ......I have a problem.
A nearly new Jitsie race trials bike for £590 (1700 new) was pretty good.
Would have said the Bell super dh MIPS for £45 but it was massive (size L) should have got a medium but non left.
Those TRP slate Evo brakes for £100 were decent too!
Oh and new tech 4 v4s from that wheel building shop for £360 delivered was damn good.
A set of carbon MTB bars for £15 in the CRC firesale. Retail was about £130!
I'd bought a new hardtail MTB (also a total bargain at about 50% off) but the bars on it (heavy aluminium things) were horrible. Dead feeling and so stiff they gave me wrist pain on riding. Swapped for these discount carbon bars and suddenly, no hand or wrist pain at all and way more comfort. Plus an easy weight saving.
So for many reasons, those bars were the best bargain I've had!
Actually, probably my best bike bargain was when I was looking for the cheapest possible functioning beater bike for leaving outside pubs and playing bike polo on. Ended up paying £40 for a late 90s Saracen Alltrax(?). The pictures weren't great, and I could see the top tube was quite scratched, but when I picked it up, I couldn't believe how well-looked after it was. Didn't even need brake pads. And actually a really nice light bike. Problem is I would actually be sad if it got nicked now, which wasn't the point.
Problem is I would actually be sad if it got nicked now, which wasn’t the point.
This is the story of every "cheap pub bike" I have ever owned
Not my bargain, but I built this for a mate in the Summer. He paid about £275 for frame, fork, and stem; everything else was donations from various pals (and some permanent loan wheels I'll never use again). Before I cut the hoses, obviously!
Well that Vitus looks sweet, but even by my standards that's a lot of cable at the bars.
I had so many bargains, mostly in the Chiggle closing sale. Don't make me choose - it's like picking a favourite child.
actually my biggest bargain was free
I got some m6120s supercheap (£90) but that was technically last year
Ive had a few shimano brakes over the years but this was the first time Id ever had the wandering bitepoint thing, must have done 3 or 4 bleeds on the rear and it would always start happening again after a few rides
and then I watched the video here https://www.mbr.co.uk/how-to-2/wandering-bite-point-shimano-405883
what a revealtion!
Yikes, the Chiggle firesale feels like ages ago! Similar to above it's tricky to pick one bargain from it. Probably an Assos EQUIPE R HABU Winter Jacket S9 for <£60 against a rrp of £310. Seriously nice, seriously warm, best fitting jacket I've ever bought.
TRP Slate Evo 4-pots for £70 from Merlin also a highlight.
Bikes? Toss up between one I ordered last week but not yet received, and my new-to-me XXL Tallboy CC bought for <£3k from a well-known vertically-excelling Pitlochry local last month. Less than 10 rides use although given who the seller was those were 'proper' rides... Unusual spec with the Mezzers, DPX2 Factory, Reserve carbons, full XT etc and I bloody love it.
From a proper shop/online shop: Rocky Mountain Instinct A50 - £1,900 down from £4,700.
On ebay: a Garmin Enduro, originally £700+, picked up for £175.
I grabbed one of the XL Bombtrack Hook EXTs that were getting cleared at around £700 in the spring. Its a fantastic machine and ive prob put a couple thousand km on it. Coupled with a Redshift stem, its surprisingly capable off road!
Bought a Garmin 530 last week for less than £60 - won a Halfords voucher which paid for most of it and then after various black Friday discounts and cash back, managed to just drop the price below £60.
Just had ours. MrsBS had her eye on an e-town type bike for leaving the car at home and going to the shops and also for chucking on the back of the camper, for the baguette run when we’re in France on campsites etc.
Just picked up a Cannondale Adventure Neo Bosch mid drive thing with 7km on the clock, receipt in the box from Evan’s for £2800 post lockdown. We paid £595. Bargain! All it needed was the tyres pumping up, the seat was even at the right height for her.
I got a VGC 2022 Trek Slash 7 for £750, pretty happy with that tbh.
My 800 quid bird am9 that ended up costing me 0 after selling my old bike! Now got a better bike and cash in my pocket