Buying a new e-bike in the U.K.

[J200George]

Found myself inside Tiso in Glasgow where they had a couple of SL's on display. I managed to try the medium for size but think its too snug, I am only 5'7' but with the 29" wheels I reckon I am going to size better in Small frame.

I had a chat with the sales guy, he didn't seem overly knowledgeable and downplayed any motor issues, got the impression that they wouldn't have a stock of replacement motors and any claim would suffer inevitable delays.

I also asked them to check stock and there were no bikes available at all, not even direct from spesh, I couldn't even place an order for one should I have wanted one.

I think from the lacklustre responses and distracted shop assistant I will most likely shop elsewhere for my bike, but I do think it is going to be a while before I get myself in the hills.

 

[baldiebenty]

I think that even though a scheme is limited to Halfords you might be able to use one of their other shops like Wheelies as it's owned by the same group. That's what I'm hoping as my employer is currently sorting out the a changeover from Evans (limited to £1000) to Halfords which would be effectively unlimited.

 

[J200George]

I think that even though a scheme is limited to Halfords you might be able to use one of their other shops like Wheelies as it's owned by the same group. That's what I'm hoping as my employer is currently sorting out the a changeover from Evans (limited to £1000) to Halfords which would be effectively unlimited.

That’s interesting thank you. Never heard of wheelies mind you I’m a few years out of date on my retail cycle knowledge.

 

[Jamm13dodger]

That’s interesting thank you. Never heard of wheelies mind you I’m a few years out of date on my retail cycle knowledge.

There are a bunch of independents that take halfords vouchers.

go here, https://www.cycle2work.info/bikes/store-locator then click "search for your local participating bike shops" and choose this option;

then you will see all the local stores that are not halfords

 

[J200George]

^^ my scheme is limited to £1000. I’ll give the wheelies number a call later and discuss though just to double check that I’m not missing out on any potential savings.

 

[SonicScott]

In relation to discounts - I negotiated a 10% discount (approx £450) from my local shop for Giant ebike less than a month ago. Also was offered a slightly smaller discount from one of the major chains, but had to push hard to get it. Worth asking and not taking no for an answer!

 

[Pivot]

Good e-bikes are all sold out in my region, S-W England. I am buying an e-mtb from across the moat (EU) while we are still in the single market.

 

[Jamm13dodger]

Richardson's cycles in St Ives have a few decent bikes in right now, id be buying a Hai bike from them if i hadnt managed to order a Decathlon Stilus.
They are a long way from you but they will ship i think.

 

[steve_sordy]

Think this is my plan now. There are still a few places that have stock of the Whyte E-150 I want, but decided to get an early order in for a V2 bike from my preferred shop rather than online/mail order.

That is a mature attitude. Delaying immediate gratification for something even better later.

 

[J200George]

Richardson's cycles in St Ives have a few decent bikes in right now, id be buying a Hai bike from them if i hadnt managed to order a Decathlon Stilus.
They are a long way from you but they will ship i think.

I think I’m going to find a good local shop. Despite Levo motors turning to dust I’m still considering one of those so any purchase of a specialized will demand a local supplier to sort out warranty issues quickly. Thanks anyway, I will however have a look.

 

[steve_sordy]

............

I had a chat with the sales guy, he didn't seem overly knowledgeable and downplayed any motor issues, got the impression that they wouldn't have a stock of replacement motors and any claim would suffer inevitable delays.

I also asked them to check stock and there were no bikes available at all, not even direct from spesh, I couldn't even place an order for one should I have wanted one.

I think from the lacklustre responses and distracted shop assistant I will most likely shop elsewhere for my bike, but I do think it is going to be a while before I get myself in the hills.

That sounds like the attitude of someone who knows they can sell all they have. BMW salesman used to be like that, I am told.

 

[apac]

Is the Cycle to Work scheme REALLY a good deal?

here are some figures I imputed for a 24 month agreement. Initially seeming like I would save nearly £2000

But, keep in mind that I have only ‘hired‘ the bike from my employer and after the 24 months are up I still have to pay a minimum of 25% of the used total value of the bike to become the owner.
I’m not sure how the depreciated price is calculated, but as an example it is worth 25% less the £6000 price tag... £4500 and I still have to pay 25% of that, I still have to pay a lump sum of... £1125.
Is this a correct valuation?

i suppose I would still be saving nearly £800, which is roughly 13%... I suppose that is still good seeing that I have spread the cost.

Does anyone know how the depreciation is calculated? I have guessed at 25% over 24 months.

 

[SonicScott]

Do any employers ever insist on this payment?
On two previous purchases I’ve not had to pay any money back to my, local government, employer.

 

[GMLS]

It works best when you extend the initial period. You need to compare the benefits of this to say negotiating 10% discount and getting a 3% personnal loan, 0% credit card deal or paying close to full price and getting a 0% finance deal from the retailer.

 

[baldiebenty]

I'm trying to figure out the same thing, added to this is the consideration that my bikes have a fairly hard life and with an e-bike I'm intending to also use it for a 15 mile each way commute if we ever go back to the office. Would the bike survive 2+ years?

 

[James_C]

Would the bike survive 2+ years?

define "survive"...

there is the warranty, and all bikes will need parts, consumables etc surely.


my scheme provider allows more than 1 purchase, mine is a 4 year scheme. so I can actually buy another in say 2 years time and run both schemes at the same time. You arent "supposed" to sell the old one, as you don't own it until 4 years old however.

regarding reliability and warranty, I've been back to the shop numerous times. mainly for a "won't turn on" issue. But also other bits. That would have been a nightmare with a mail order bike. The shop also helped me out by posting bits as and when needed (like a warranty derailleur) - the shop is 70 miles away from me.

There are shops which actively work towards keeping you on the bike, by keeping parts in stock, (like motors), or borrowing bits from new bikes for your warranty. These are the ones that I will continue to use.

 

[SquireRides]

Sadly my cycle to work scheme is only with Halfords.

My new employer is Halfords too. Do you know if that includes Tredz though, seeing as Halford owns Tredz?

 

[SquireRides]

Cycle to work isn't necessarily quite as good as it sounds. But it is good.

• You pay for the bike from gross salary (pre-tax) which is great.
• It's technically a lease for 1 year. You do not own the bike during this time (but you're still liable if it gets stolen!).
• If you lose your job during the lease period, you have to complete the payment from net salary.
• You also pay a % at the end to own the bike (assuming you want to keep it).
• Often the bike shops won't give you the same discount you would have got for cash, because many of the bike scheme organizers take a % as a middle-man. When I bought my Levo SL, the scheme price was based on full list price.

Overall though, if it's available to you, it's a no-brainer. I asked my LBS for a cash price and a scheme price. The latter was still far better thanks to the tax break.

 

[apac]

It works best when you extend the initial period. You need to compare the benefits of this to say negotiating 10% discount and getting a 3% personnal loan, 0% credit card deal or paying close to full price and getting a 0% finance deal from the retailer.

here is another scenario with an accurate depreciation of 4 years which is 7% of original value. I have read that this is the usual value after 48 months.

So doing the same sum as before...
7% of £6000 = £420
total amont paid 4088.84 + 420 = £4508.84. Bit of course that means keeping the same bike for 4 years

 

[baldiebenty]

"Survive" - Main concern is the motor & battery really, I'm already happy enough doing most of the other work/parts replacement on my regular bikes.

Regarding the Halfords vouchers Jamm13dodger posted a link to be able to check for LBS that accept them and I was surprised to see ho many local to me would, although I haven't been able to test that out yet.

 

[SquireRides]

Is the Cycle to Work scheme REALLY a good deal?

here are some figures I imputed for a 24 month agreement. Initially seeming like I would save nearly £2000

View attachment 35433

But, keep in mind that I have only ‘hired‘ the bike from my employer and after the 24 months are up I still have to pay a minimum of 25% of the used total value of the bike to become the owner.
I’m not sure how the depreciated price is calculated, but as an example it is worth 25% less the £6000 price tag... £4500 and I still have to pay 25% of that, I still have to pay a lump sum of... £1125.
Is this a correct valuation?

i suppose I would still be saving nearly £800, which is roughly 13%... I suppose that is still good seeing that I have spread the cost.

Does anyone know how the depreciation is calculated? I have guessed at 25% over 24 months.

I think it varies from scheme to scheme. There are multiple scheme organisers that manage the cycle to work scheme for businesses.

The default end-of-lease payment does always look quite high, but there's ways around it. My cycle scheme organiser instead charges you a smaller one off fee to lease it from them for another 2 years (I think). It's far cheaper than the official buy-it-now price, i suspect because it adds 2 more years of depreciation.

UPDATE: Cyclescheme call it Own-it_later, rather than the standard Own-it-now. For Own-it-Later i paid about 7% of the bikes new value. It's a one off payment, but you are still technically leasing the bike for another 3 years.

 

[GMLS]

here is another scenario with an accurate depreciation of 4 years which is 7% of original value. I have read that this is the usual value after 48 months.

View attachment 35444

So doing the same sum as before...
7% of £6000 = £420
total amont paid 4088.84 + 420 = £4508.84. Bit of course that means keeping the same bike for 4 years

So circa £1500 saving but potentially halved against securing a 10% discount and taking a different finance route.Pros and cons all round

 

[apac]

It works best when you extend the initial period. You need to compare the benefits of this to say negotiating 10% discount and getting a 3% personnal loan, 0% credit card deal or paying close to full price and getting a 0% finance deal from the retailer.

here is another scenario with an accurate depreciation of 4 years which is 7% of original value. I have read that this is the usual value after 48 months.

View attachment 35444

So doing the same sum as before...
7% of £6000 = £420
total amont paid 4088.84 + 420 =

So circa £1500 saving but potentially halved against securing a 10% discount and taking a different finance route.Pros and cons all round

yeah, and I just looked into it from my employer who is my local county council and they only allow you to pick from a pre-selected bunch of bikes. So that’s ano go for me....
Unless I fancy a step through bicycle with a shopping basket up front. ?

 

[GMLS]

Enjoy!

 

[SquireRides]

Bit of course that means keeping the same bike for 4 years

Don't think so. Even when i use the buy-it-later option at the end of the 1 year initial lease, I can still start a new scheme. I could buy a bike every year if I wanted to.

'Technically' the lease would end up being for 4 years in total. 'Technically' you don't own the bike and can't sell it, and should be using it for commuting.

 

[Roughshod]

There are multiple different schemes available. Though which you can use will depend on your employer being signed up to it and also the bike you want being available from a retailer/supplier that is on the same scheme.

Regarding the end of term payment Cyclescheme will charge you a 7% end of hire ownership fee if you want to buy it later at 4 years. Green Commute Initiative will charge you £1 regardless of the bike cost, though it's not as widely used. I've no idea how much each scheme will charge the retailer and I imagine this varies from scheme to scheme too.

A lot of retailers I contacted earlier in the year about it, as mentioned above, won't offer any discount when using these schemes, I've seen some will even charge you an extra fee to cover it which makes using the scheme a lot less worthwhile, or perhaps even more costly.

The cyclescheme cost of ownership is worked out using the following table (taken from their site) How is ownership fee calculated? - Cyclescheme Knowledge Base

You may also not be able to use it on a discounted sale bike, though cyclescheme have a list of retailers which will allow you to do that Cyclescheme | Sale Bikes on Cyclescheme - Cyclescheme

 

[Jamm13dodger]

Is the Cycle to Work scheme REALLY a good deal?

here are some figures I imputed for a 24 month agreement. Initially seeming like I would save nearly £2000

View attachment 35433

But, keep in mind that I have only ‘hired‘ the bike from my employer and after the 24 months are up I still have to pay a minimum of 25% of the used total value of the bike to become the owner.
I’m not sure how the depreciated price is calculated, but as an example it is worth 25% less the £6000 price tag... £4500 and I still have to pay 25% of that, I still have to pay a lump sum of... £1125.
Is this a correct valuation?

i suppose I would still be saving nearly £800, which is roughly 13%... I suppose that is still good seeing that I have spread the cost.

Does anyone know how the depreciation is calculated? I have guessed at 25% over 24 months.

Ive done 3 C2W shcemes in the past and have never had to make the final payment. YMMV.

 

[MadsB]

Ive done 3 C2W shcemes in the past and have never had to make the final payment. YMMV.

When I asked about this at the LBS they said you should never pay the final amount. You can extend the higher period for a small fee or just had the bike back to them and start again. My employer also said they wouldn’t charge the final amount I believe. Either way never pay it. It’s not as if cyclescheme are going to what the bike back as that only means they would have to sell it.

 

[Jamze]

That is a mature attitude. Delaying immediate gratification for something even better later.

Is this a roundabout way of saying I'm old? ?

 

[James_C]

"Survive" - Main concern is the motor & battery really, I'm already happy enough doing most of the other work/parts replacement on my regular bikes.

Mine is specialized so under 2 years is still under warranty. Not the end of the world if / when at some point you have to replace one or the other. If you are commuting on it, surely saving money that would have been spent on car/train?

info from Spesh:

"Turbo batteries have a warranty for 2 years or 300 charge cycles—whichever comes first. "


mine's currently on 22 charge cycles, 6 months old. Not quite sure how it calculates top ups from 50% > 100% etc though.? is that 1 cycle or half?