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I'll start - instant coffee. First off, pipe down coffee-knobbers, if you don't like it don't drink it, but I don't mind instant coffee, it'll do.
However, there has been a slight profusion in more expensive instants in fancy metal tins that purport to be all fancy-schmansy and like 'actual' coffee. They're absolutely not worth the extra money though, they're indistinguishable from 'normal' instant.
Any more?
I’d extend the OP to just ‘coffee’
Bottom brackets.
I was going to order a very expensive ceramic bearing jobbie from the LBS and he said ‘to be honest with you mate, just buy the cheapest Shimano, because the expensive one won’t last any longer, especially not around here’
Having tried much more spendy options in the past, he’s right. So I bought the cheapest Shimano. It didn’t last long, but then they never do, and it was only 12 quid
Damn beaten to it
Paracetamol, Ibuprofen etc. Active ingredient is exactly the same in supermarket generic own brands as in the expensive stuff on the next shelf.
Paracetamol, Ibuprofen etc. Active ingredient is exactly the same in supermarket generic own brands as in the expensive stuff on the next shelf.
Yeah, it boggles my mind that people actually buy Nurofen
So many things. Food staples like oats, rice, flour obviously. Medicines - anyone who buys "Nurofen" over supermarket ibuprofen is daft. Same for loads of other branded medicines - get the Boots or supermarket generic version. Brake cleaner - buy a 5L jug of isopropyl alcohol from Amazon and put some in a spray bottle. About 5000 (ish 😉) times cheaper than stuff from a bike shop and useful for loads of other stuff.
Edit: Must learn to type quicker. Apols for being an echo!!
Further edit: Coffee w****r here, biting his lip so hard it's going to bleed!
Alcohol - why bother with ChateauNeuf-de-PooPoo when you can just drink rubbing alcohol?
Brake cleaner - buy a 5L jug of isopropyl alcohol from Amazon and put some in a spray bottle. About 5000 (ish
) times cheaper than stuff from a bike shop
I'd extend this to any bike-specific cleaning product. Between isopropyl alcohol and washing up liquid you're covered for all bike cleaning needs.
Flooring.
Some of the really big names such as 'Amtico' probably are worth the money, however other makes are just ripping you off. You can buy a 'Karndean' lookalike which is as good and much cheaper.
Dogs, and probably cats
I dunno, there are breeders that sells labradors, bred and trained to be beautifully behaved gundogs, but they cost £££££s. I sometimes look at our barky dickhead and think "if I had the money..."
You might save a few grams but you do not necessarily get a better product IMO.
- Stems
- Seatposts
- Bottle cages
- Saddles
Everything else bike related you always get diminishing returns once you get past the mid range products, it doesn't however stop us wanting the latest and greatest products though.
OP - you're wrong about coffee!! 🙂
Cars people in Ferraris get stuck in traffic jams same as me in my Dacia
Halloween tat decor.
No need for that hand crafted Etsy work of art, it's all heading for landfill anyway.
cycle or outdoor clothes.
decathlon quechua stuff is as good or possibly better than any branded cycle clothing.
So so wrong about coffee. I thought I'd hit rock bottom drinking Nescafe red*. No, there's Amazon basics. Life can always get worse.
* supplied by a previous employer, I took to taking my own coffee in after a week.
Not a big coffee drinker, caffeine really affects me. However, we buy Ringtons (NE legend) tea and instant coffee, both are slightly more expensive than typical brands but both are significantly better. YMMV.
Regarding Nurofen/ibuprofen and other branded medicines, a pharma guy on here, posted that there are some differences between the various types, mainly to do with the speed of effect.
Bicycle specific lubricants and oils. Just buy perfectly good general stuff ie don't bother with the tiny expensive bottle of sram fork oil, just use a much cheaper one branded for motorbikes
Going for a walk or ride to appreciate the natural world without being off your tits on drugs?
Going for a walk or ride to appreciate the natural world without being off your tits on drugs?
Mushrooms are free
Dogs, and probably cats
Arguably you could argue they not only "no better" they're often considerably worse.
My mongrel looks like a fancy mutt for a fraction of the price.
OP - you're wrong about coffee!!
What, you think that posh instant is better than normal instant?
It really is though. Well more specifically instant coffee can taste very very different. They're all pretty terrible but there is a definite "drinkable" and "**** that" range.
Caveat.
If you are talking about the Starbucks etc where they include the dust from the roast house floor. Then i agree it taste no better than the best straight instant.
Cars
I have to disagree with that. Drive 6hrs in your Dacia then 6hrs in a posh Mercedes, compare how you feel afterwards.
decathlon quechua stuff is as good or possibly better than any branded cycle clothing.
Nah there is usually a difference. You might not notice it, which is great for you (really, you are way better off if you don't) but it's there. It might not be worth the money either, that's a different question.
Mushrooms are free and part of the natural world
FTFY!
Goretex etc.
I still end up a hot sweaty mess.
'Coffee knobber' 😁
Oi! I resemble that remark 🙃
I predict this will quickly descend into a typical STW discretionary spend row. 'How much for ABC? You could get a car for that...' etc 😐
Farmfoods for their steakybakes 2 for a £1 or even the curried ones, has to be one of the best food shops around
Generic Viagra for about the same price as the steaky bakes
I might be wrong but M&S boxer shorts don't last any longer than ones that are less than half the price, same with socks
I might be wrong but M&S boxer shorts don't last any longer than ones that are less than half the price, same with socks
I would disagree with that. But i do think socks in particular are foot dependent. Cheeper sock the back of the heel goes much faster i find.
Yeah, it boggles my mind that people actually buy Nurofen
Mate, go to Canada - there's nothing but the branded stuff. When I lived there I used to stock up on the Boots/ Tesco own-brand 20p a pack stuff.
Saddles
mmm... I get your point that more money doesn't necessarily equal more comfort; but it's definitely not the case that cheap is 'just as good' as expensive. It depends.
Mobile phone networks/ contracts. O2, Vodafone, EE vs Tesco etc. When you're in the middle of London, none of them seem to work much anyway!
Toothpaste and toothbrushes.
double post
Is this not the whole principle behind Sales \ Marketing \ Branding? People will pay more for a brand they associate something good with. Doesn't matter if that headache tablets, breakfast cereal or cars.
But sometimes the branded items are worse than the generic item and depend on the perceived quality to convince buyers to pay the premium price. Whole brand lifecycle thing in Marketing so at the end of the life cycle the quality goes to shit to get the last drop out of it before it disappears (or gets sold to Sports Direct).
I have to disagree with that. Drive 6hrs in your Dacia then 6hrs in a posh Mercedes, compare how you feel afterwards.
Much better off, works for me.
Why would I drive for 6 hours got better things to do. I honestly cannot recall the last time I drove more then 3 or 4 hours. My Dacia is however far more comfortable than my old Volvo 340 I used to drive from Newcastle to London on a regular basis, 25 years ago so I am sure I'd survive.
don't bother with the tiny expensive bottle of sram fork oil, just use a much cheaper one branded for motorbikes
You can buy a litre bottle of SRAM fork oil for about the same as most branded motorcycle oils. the question is still why bother? The 120ml bottle is a fiver and it's good for 8 lower leg services. I started a thread in here ages ago about fork services and it turns out most folk don't other anyway
I would agree with instant coffee... but I'm a bit of a coffee snob so it all tasted pretty much the same to me. The 'posh' stuff with added dust actually tastes worse than an instant if you actually like coffee. But that is my experience and I'm not going to tell anyone that there is no point in buying their expensive instant because nescafe tastes the same.
So so wrong about coffee. I thought I'd hit rock bottom drinking Nescafe red*. No, there's Amazon basics. Life can always get worse.
See also, "coffee bags"
Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since.
fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza. The dried stuff will make a better and cheaper pizza (and won't make your base soggy)
agree about paracetamol except for kids liquid stuff.
The Boots one is totally bogging, calpol is much better tasting
Don't diss a 340 or a 360. Have you seen the prices of them lately?
Flooring.
Some of the really big names such as 'Amtico' probably are worth the money, however other makes are just ripping you off. You can buy a 'Karndean' lookalike which is as good and much cheaper.
Any recommendations?
Karndean is considered to be up there with Amtico - All the cheaper stuff I've looked at looks considerably more fake than the better stuff from both these 2.
Beers up London for £7 compared to in my "local" boozer out in the sticks of Essex for £3.80.
fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza.
I'll ask my Italian pizza making friends and see what they say/gesticulate. I fear they may disagree.
Well no. I bake better bread with more expensive flour, and good luck making a risotto with cheap long grain rice.
Calm down Nigella 😉
That's just using the wrong type of rice! That's like replying to someone who says cheap car oil is good with "well olive oil is rubbish in my beemer". Of course you use a risotto specific rice if that's what you're making! Tesco own brand carnaroli is pretty good. I do a bit of baking too. I find strong bread flour from the supermarkets is pretty good. I've tried artisan stone ground stuff direct from a flour mill with weevils and bits of twigs in it. I didn't notice any difference tbh. I'm no master baker though to be fair.
fancy mozzarella cheese on your pizza. The dried stuff will make a better and cheaper pizza
The answer is chop and drain it before using it. The dried stuff just isn't the same, but... it doesn't need to be the most fancy either. For us our supermarket buffalo stuff works really nicely but another supermarkets stuff doesn't. If you are at the pricey end of most things they are generally very nice, at the cheaper end you sometimes need to try a few to work out works best for you
Oh don't get me started...
High end phones. Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does and the battery in my phone lasts for three days and if I drop it of a ladder or into a burn it is absolutely fine without needing a £40 case.
Karcher pressure washers - twice the price and last half as long as pretty much anything else.
Hozelock hosepipe fittings. Just the same as any other plastic fitting that dies in the first frost. Buy cheap or buy brass with O rings.
Electronic gears. Might feel nice, but will not make you ride faster, or ride anything that you wouldn't ride with normal gears. Cost more to buy, more to replace, more to maintain. Only exception is on a TT bike where you can have shift buttons on the hoods and on the aero bars.
Pre-packed fruit. My colleague just bought a plastic tub of fruit as part of his lunch. It contains about 4 grapes and two thirds of an apple for £1.20. Just buy the bloody apple.
Lots of sporting events. Silverstone want £150 to get in plus another £150 if you want to sit anywhere you can actually see anything on F1 weekend. BTCC is better racing for £35.
On the coffee one - if you think all instant is the same try catering instant - its vile.
good luck making a risotto with cheap long grain rice
Lidl do good cheap arborio rice. I use it once a week for what its often our cheapest meal of the week.
See also, "coffee bags"
Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since.
The Taylors ones?
I think they're awesome and pretty much the same as a nice cup of filter coffee. All instant tastes like muck to me.
Going the other way... Sainsburys do a custard cream flavoured tea bag for £2 a box. Taking one for Team Singletrack, I tried it. Vile doesn't quite cover the experience, as possibly could have been predicted. Really, just buy nice tea and some actual biscuits.
Going the other way... Sainsburys do a custard cream flavoured tea bag for £2 a box. Taking one for Team Singletrack, I tried it. Vile doesn't quite cover the experience, as possibly could have been predicted. Really, just buy nice tea and some actual biscuits.
But sticking with the theme, would expensive custard cream flavoured tea bags, if they existed taste any better? I'm guessing not!
Btcc was great to go to years late '80's early 90's and other than being a cheaper weekend it's nowhere near seeing an F1 car at Spa or Silverstone
Hi fi does plateau out after you have bought a half decent £1000 system unless you have above average hearing ability and no waxy lugs
I bet it takes a better picture.
That's more down to the individual. If my Dad had it the photos would still be out of focus snaps of people's limbs and the lower slopes of mountains with no obvious summits
Lots of sporting events. Silverstone want £150 to get in plus another £150 if you want to sit anywhere you can actually see anything on F1 weekend. BTCC is better racing for £35.
That misses a lot of important points. I went to F1 at Silverstone this year. It may be the only time I go to an F1 race, may be the only time that I experience that crowd, the noise of those engines, the actual event with several live and well-known bands, seeing Jackie Stewart drive past, etc. (Also, we had a perfectly good view of the action and didn't pay £150 for stand tickets.) You aren't paying for just an F1 race, you're paying for everything else that is going on as well.
In your world, going to see Joe Bloggs play a £10 gig in your local pub is the same as a ticket for Glastonbury?
I follow my local rugby team for about £12 a match. There'll be about 200 people in the ground. Often, the rugby is far more entertaining than watching Wales butchering another game, but we don't get male voice choirs, 50,000 people singing Hymns And Arias, fireworks...
So yeah, feel free to be cynical but nobody is forcing you to pay for any event. Go to BTCC, it's great, but it's not F1, not Glastonbury, not a Six Nations match.
See also, "coffee bags"
Bought them as an alternative to instant coffee for a bike packing trip. I was shocked to find they were significantly worse than any instant coffee I'd ever had. The rest of the unused box has been in the cupboard ever since.
The Taylors ones?
I think they're awesome and pretty much the same as a nice cup of filter coffee. All instant tastes like muck to me.
agree. Ours were free samples but way better than instant, and better than whatever crap they put in the bean to cup machines at cheap hotel chains (ibis budget, travel lodge etc).
I’d go with organic veg. Doesn’t taste any better. Environmental benefits debatable
Wives, obvs.
Agreed, but don't tell her she's the Tesco value version.
And we see ourselves as Fortnum and Mason hamper?
Fleece jumpers/jackets.
The way I look at this is, if something is twice the price, is it twice as good?
As a random example, take canned spaghetti (don't judge me, it use it in place of beans because something always tastes 'off' to me about baked beans). A can of Heinz is about £1 if you buy a multipack (and £1.35 if you don't). Tesco's own brand is something like 36p, and their bargain basement ones something silly like 14p. On a taste test, I'm convinced that both Tesco ones are an identical product except the pricier one has a multicoloured label and a ringpull lid, so we can immediately rule the middle one out. Heinz is clearly the better product, but is it ten times better?
Your £1200 iPhone doesn't do anything that my £250 Android does
I bet it takes a better picture.
Does it take a picture which is five times better?
What are you doing with those photos anyway, printing them out to A3 or tagging friends on social media?