Cycle to work scheme

[Tsundere]

Anyone had any experience of this? My employer is joining this scheme and of course I'm very interested in it, but something tells me there's going to be some limitations on what kind of bike you can get, or worse, there'll be a list of approved dealers that we will be forced to choose from.

In my wildest dreams I get to spend a couple of grand or more on top tier fillet brazed early 90's magnificence with the government/employer fronting the cash and writing off some of the cost while I get to pay the difference back over many months in nice painless interest free bite size instalments, but of course that's too much to hope for, right?

 

[MatBH5]

I think it’s got to be a new bike!
But I’ve used it a few times. Ours is through Cyclescheme and recently I’ve been able to use my friendly local bike shop (an independent registered with that scheme) who got me something shiny (frame only) through one of their distributors, at my specific request.
The savings stack up differently depending on the rate you pay tax… and there’s usually a payment at the end (with my scheme they use a technicality to make that as little as possibly, like 5% value).
I’ve been really pleased.

 

[Stressed]

You can 'claim' for repairs, I think...so if you buy a £2K Bonty with a broken brake cable & do a bit of 'creative accounting'!?

 

[gtturbo]

I had a rather positive experience. I got a Planet X RT57 with Sram Red a few years back, didn't like the bike and since sold it but that's another story. My employer only ever took one payment and I may have forgotten to mention that when I got made redundant about 12 months later ;-)

 

[brocklanders023]

Used it a couple of times and it's been great. Got my Ragley Trig via Cyclescheme earlier this year. No real pitfalls but worth checking out your companies t+c's as they may limit your spend.

 

[retroJIM]

I used it to part pay for a Sonder Gravel Bike. My employer capped it at £1000 and only uses the Halfords scheme .

Alpkit are one of the few companies that accept Halfords vouchers and they can be used as part payment.

https://alpkit.com/pages/sonder

 

[FluffyChicken]

I used it to part pay for a Sonder Gravel Bike. My employer capped it at £1000 and only uses the Halfords scheme .

Alpkit are one of the few companies that accept Halfords vouchers and they can be used as part payment.

https://alpkit.com/pages/sonder

Was that recent and it used to be a grand they increased it (last budget?) so you can buy mopeds, I mean e-bikes etc.

Of course shops have to have bikes to be able to sell you first...

 

[FluffyChicken]

From memory if you are one of the poor people in need of a bike for travel, you are stuffed, so you'll have to use higher priced loans/finance schemes or walk or pay a fortune on public transport.
No luck for the poor people to make travel accessible and cheap. All since you need to get paid more than poor people get to be able to use the cycle to work scheme.

It should be called Mamil2work scheme to fund all the Halford/Evans bikes to stick on the back of a SUV.

 

[retroJIM]

Was that recent and it used to be a grand they increased it (last budget?) so you can buy mopeds, I mean e-bikes etc.

Of course shops have to have bikes to be able to sell you first...

It was last year, a company policy rather than a Government one. They've since increased it £1500 and people are complaining it's too low. Understandable if you want a half decent eBike.

 

[FluffyChicken]

It was last year, a company policy rather than a Government one. They've since increased it £1500 and people are complaining it's too low. Understandable if you want a half decent eBike.

Ah, it was June 2019 they removed the grand cap and left it to employers.
It's as if I've missed a year...