Cycle to Work

Depends on employer. My last one wanted a final payment when I left that meant I 'only' saved £250...current employer couldn't give a toss. Evan's let you have all the discounts including sale etc plus give you £60 worth of accessories.

I bought my winter bike on C2W and if you make the voluntary final payment that means they'll never ask for it back, it doesn't save you any money at all. Waste of time.

Cycle commuter for the past 33 years, in the past 23 years there were only 2 days that I did not use the bike to get to work.  The Cycle to Work scheme has never been for me, I've looked into it, and it has become better, but it never seemed about how I rode, maintaining my bicycles.  The barriers and hoops that had to be negotiated, the time limits and constraints, the low amount generally offered, the seemingly opaqueness of the final payment, and the lack of savings, especially for the lower rate tax payer, these all pushed me away from the scheme.  Some people I know have done very nicely from it, and some of those, as they may have only ridden the thing a handful of times in the year still have nice enough bikes.  Not for me.

Did once think about the Cannondale Hooligan or getting something for the better half, neither for the ride to work, but the rules would have allowed either, but neither seemed right.

Good if you can of course, but the people who really need help, the proper poor and hard up, they ride 2nd hand and require cheap as possible repairs, would be nice to help them a bit too.

I looked into the B2W scheme for my last bike and, in the end, didn't use it.

It only get the advertised savings if you stay with the same employer for 5 years and the bike is not yours until you've fully paid for it. If you move employer, you can't take it with you, so I'm out mainly on that.

Just get a good bike in a sale - you'll get most of the savings and none of the hassle.

If you buy a bike through C2W the scheme takes a cut.  It looks like Dolan are passing this on to the consumer in this case.

Last time I bought a cycle to work bike I was offered a discount on the bike when I asked for a quote.  Unfortunately the retailer backtracked quickly when I mentioned I was going to use C2W.  It didn't upset me as I just recognised he couldn't afford to give away much of his profit marging to me when he is giving some of it to the scheme.

You regularly see sale bikes excluded from C2W offerings.

The reasons (or excuses) I was told from Ribble/Plnaet X/Dolan etc. was their low margins and costs of running the scheme mean they 'have' to do it. It does either wipe out a huge chunk of the C2W saving or the internet brand competitive pricing though...