Paying for your EBike

[theremotejuggernaut]

Sold my restored mk2 1.8t golf and used some of the sales cash to buy mine.. I paid for it using my mobile phone which i was a bit gob smacked at!

Heres what i'm missing now

IMG_20190525_205047_563 by Laxadams, on Flickr

More pics please. I need a kick up the arse to get mine back up and running.

It's a '90 8v with a PG conversion. Moved house with me 3 years ago on the back of a truck and hasn't really moved since.

I'm sad every time I go in the garage lol

 

[RustyIron]

Sometimes old age has it’s benefits

Being old and RICH has its benefits. Old by itself isn't very useful.
Being young and not spending money that you don't have is the recipe for becoming old and rich.
Maybe pimping and dealing coke, but I haven't tried it yet.

 

[steve_sordy]

Let the power of compound interest work for you.

A typical figure from a financial advisor for long term return would be 6% per annum. Some would say considerably more, but let's be conservative.
A single £1000 invested for 6% will be worth (below) after the following years. No further investment made, just left there.

1 yr £1060
10 yr £1791
15 yr £2397
20 yr £3207
30 yr £5743
40 yr £10286 (At 7%, this 40 yr figure would be £14974!!)

So instead of buying that bike for £6000, get one for £5000 and put the £1000 in an equity ISA or similar. If you are 30 yrs old now, when you come to retire you will have more than ten times as much. If you do that every time you buy a bike, you will be rolling in it when you retire and can then spoil yourself, or retire early (which is what I did).

Note: I am not a financial adviser!

 

[RustyIron]

Note: I am not a financial adviser!

Hey, Mister Not-A-Financial-Advisor.
You forgot the part about how if you use your credit card to borrow $5000 that you don't have to buy a bike that you don't need, and pay it off over five years, at the end of five years you'll have paid $8200 and you'll have a bike that is so old that you couldn't even give it away.

 

[steve_sordy]

Hey, Mister Not-A-Financial-Advisor.
You forgot the part about how if you use your credit card to borrow $5000 that you don't have to buy a bike that you don't need, and pay it off over five years, at the end of five years you'll have paid $8200 and you'll have a bike that is so old that you couldn't even give it away.

A salutary lesson for all those that don't look at the numbers first.

 

[Zimmerframe]

Note: I am not a financial adviser!

So instead of buying that bike for £6000, get one for £5000 and put the £1000 in an equity ISA or similar. If

Are you sure that's what you're saying ?

If the average Spesh costs for example $10000 now. They go up about 20% per year ..

So in 40 years that $10000 bike will cost $14,697,715.68, the S-Works (without discounts) will cost $22,046,573.52

I think you're really saying "Feck it, buy the bike you want now, you can't afford it later"....

 

[steve_sordy]

@Zimmerframe You are forgetting that technology tends to get relatively cheaper as time passes. The bike companies correct for this by fitting more and more amazing tech (the bastards!)

 

[Bob88]

40 yr £10286 (At 7%, this 40 yr figure would be £14974!!)

That £14974 won't buy you a week's worth of groceries in 2063

 

[steve_sordy]

That £14974 won't buy you a week's worth of groceries in 2063

If inflation is that bad, then the returns would have gone up too. And your wages!

 

[Bob88]

If inflation is that bad, then the returns would have gone up too. And your wages!

I'm just going to keep stashing a sovereign a month

 

[2WheelsNot4]

I spent decades collecting Hope stuff. The pic below is only a small part. I also picked up a large number of new or new old stock stuff, like hope brakes, their hubs etc etc as well as some really rare parts.

After years of hanging onto this stuff I flogged 3/4 of it on ebay and made around about £4k
Thats what paid for most of the bike.
I kept only the rarest hens teeth parts, prototypes and one offs, just because I couldnt bring myself to sell them.

 

[jeanmarc]

Took the money from savings (for retirement)… I figured riding more and getting in better shape now is what really counts!

 

[steve_sordy]

I spent decades collecting Hope stuff. The pic below is only a small part. I also picked up a large number of new or new old stock stuff, like hope brakes, their hubs etc etc as well as some really rare parts.

After years of hanging onto this stuff I flogged 3/4 of it on ebay and made around about £4k
Thats what paid for most of the bike.
I kept only the rarest hens teeth parts, prototypes and one offs, just because I couldnt bring myself to sell them.
View attachment 112720 View attachment 112721 View attachment 112722

Did you used to work for Hope and smuggle a piece out every day in your lunch box?

 

[Hobo Mikey]

Did you used to work for Hope and smuggle a piece out every day in your lunch box?

My lunch box lives in Hope.

 

[Canyon Shawn]

It’s called work hard, save your money, and make the proper choices. It’s not that difficult. But regardless, Ernest Hemingway once said, “Dove hunting is worth whatever it costs.” Mountain biking is the same!

 

[ALLeighton]

I spent decades collecting Hope stuff. The pic below is only a small part. I also picked up a large number of new or new old stock stuff, like hope brakes, their hubs etc etc as well as some really rare parts.

After years of hanging onto this stuff I flogged 3/4 of it on ebay and made around about £4k
Thats what paid for most of the bike.
I kept only the rarest hens teeth parts, prototypes and one offs, just because I couldnt bring myself to sell them.
View attachment 112720 View attachment 112721 View attachment 112722

Same here...paid for most of my Ibis Oso by selling through a large chunk of my vintage 80s MTB parts and catalogs. Amazing what some '80s brochures and catalogs will bring (e.g., Moots, Bontrager, Ibis, etc.)! Felt like I was recycling back to my favorite hobby

 

[twistgripper]

Cash. never buy what you can't afford. If i had less $$ i'd be riding a human powered bike and just live with the fitness struggle....or find a diffeerent less costly sport.

 

[2WheelsNot4]

Did you used to work for Hope and smuggle a piece out every day in your lunch box?

Not far off actually.
Im also on Retrobike 20+k posts(increasingly less these days) and a chap joined who had a big pile of Hope early stuff, including some one off,rare stuff looking to sell it all. I jumped at the chance and two large boxes appeared in the post a few weeks later. He was working for Hope for a long time, I think as one of their design/engineers.

A lot of it I initially gave away, Im a sucker for a good sob story, things like C2 pistons, hub end spacers, of which there was many.
After that and once I'd separated out the wheat from the chaff, I embarked on a spending spree buying up everything that presented itself on ebay, to complete 'missing sections' of the Hope timeline. I have spent maybe £2k on collecting it. Id fix then either sell on to fellow retrobikers, or squirrel really nice,rare or nos parts into my private collection.

This is one of my choice collections.
As we know bitd every fork was different, many frames had no disc mounts, so Hope made a different cqliper to suit each application. Eg Early Marzocchi bombers weren't IS (51mm) but were 47mm) or other forks the spacing was 50mm, just enough differences that a different caliper was needed long before it all became standardized. So we had 11 different caliper sizes(approximately)
In the pile of parts I got from the Hope chap, was a hub, custom made single speed disc and a caliper for it didnt exist so they prototype'd one and it was designated caliper No10(For C2) Not ever available for retail sale.

At the time I'd most of the numbered calipers but was missing some - No12(DH4 i think, or Enduro 4) but one that was designed to fit the big **Marzocchi supermonster. To get that caliper I paid £80 just for the caliper to complete the 1-12 set
The idea was to make a workshop clock, with all the calipers going round to represent the numpers. Its totally unique because for all intent purposes there is no No10 caliper and I'm the only one who has them(3 actually) so only I can make this clock.
The No12 isnt featured in the pic, i took it before I'd finally found the Fing thing and its been on the back burner,I'll get round to it one day.

For the uninitiated. The Marzocchi Super Monster is a 300mm fork came out in I think about 2002. Makes the Fox 40 look like it belongs on your kids bike. Short lived, but holy hell (pic not my bike)

 

[1oldfart]

I always pay cash. I only paid 4,000$ for a new Giant Stance.
I do not plan on paying over 6,000$ for any bike.

 

[Humanbeersponge]

E Bikes are expensive so how did you pay for yours.
Mine was bought on the credit card and with a bit of savings.

Paid on CC (gave purchase protection in case the bike goes terminal) then paid half off straight away and rest transfered on two year 0% CC.

 

[Cupracraig]

Nice to see someone doing a bam conversion on the driveway

My first ebike was cash, second one was the cycle to work scam.

it honestly not hard, people seem to pay a fortune for places to do it for them and they learn nothing from it

 

[Bongles Grandad]

i had a share scheme at work which matured and i used that. the company i worked for got bought out and the share price went up and it was tax free in the end. i was fortunate, but if that hadnt been there i would have done it on finance.