C2W Scheme - Proof of 50% worth of commuting??

[KneesUp]

Wow, must be a hell of a view from that high horse.

Not seen as much tripe posted here for a while.

I presume you mean me? Which bits are "tripe"?

 

[w00hoo_kent]

The C2W scheme all seems a bit weird any way really as what about the people who decide to use it, get a bike and then get fed up (or put off) by the journey and use a different method of transport? surely you cant give the bike back to your company as they aren't going to want a second hand bike clogging the offices up are they?

You take out a contract for a year during which you agree to hire the bike. Our place, like a lot of organisations, sub-contracts out so you are actually buying from a third party that just does C2W although your work still forks up some of the money. If after 12 months you are done, you can just give the bike back and that's it. No more costs, nothing to show for it but a healthier 12 months commute if you've used the bike (or 12 payments missing from your pay packet if you haven't.). The company you hired it from then has to decide what to do with it, I presume they auction off the tiny number they get given back.

You also get two other options (with the sub-contractor anyway) you can either buy the bike back there and then (costs around 20% of the asking price I think) or you can rent it from them for another three years at around the cost of one more monthly payment and then it gets written off at the end. This is all to 'get around' the final cost bit with the tax office, it's easy for them to write off a 4 year old bike, harder a 1 year old one. The scheme I'm with is very insistent that the 3 year option is the one to go for. They don't quite say 'don't choose this, are you insane?' but it's pretty close.

I'd imagine most people who think they are going to use it but then don't just buy the bike at the end and sell it on to recoup money. Of course they probably also went for the cheaper sub £350 option in the first place so weren't particularly out of pocket...

 

[DCLane]

but he does deny that the behaviour is unethical.

Possibly unethical - but I commute by bike 5 days a week, including today.

Except today I used the 1986 Raleigh Team that I bought for £40 because it's going to rain heavily.

So maybe I should've left it at home and brought the MTB / Globe Daily 2 in instead just to be 'ethical'. Pah!

 

[dexter101]

@w00hoo_kent Thanks for clarifying, that makes much more sense!

 

[KneesUp]

So maybe I should've left it at home and brought the MTB / Globe Daily 2 in instead just to be 'ethical'. Pah!

If you wanted a bike that isn't suitable for commuting, you shouldn't have used a tax-payer subsidised scheme for people to buy commuting bikes to buy it. That would have been the ethical thing to do.

 

[mcshroom]

Someone has a chip on his shoulder

 

[DCLane]

If you wanted a bike that isn't suitable for commuting, you shouldn't have used a tax-payer subsidised scheme for people to buy commuting bikes to buy it. That would have been the ethical thing to do.

Not true - ALL my bikes are suitable for commuting, from this which was my first C2W purchase in 2012;

through this, which I re-built this Spring from a £10 Viking MTB and an old frame, so not C2W. It's my 'happy to dump anywhere' bike:

and this, which I bought the frame from here and built in April/May and is my current daily 'commuter', oh - and isn't C2W scheme:

to this, which wasn't a C2W purchase:

In fact, all bar the first have been used to do so! As long as it has wheels then I'll ride it.

Today's is this, which cost me a total of £120 including the re-build and not a C2W purchase - and I worked out last week I'd done 14 commutes on this one = £20 up @ £10 a day saved;

And to add the final one; my 'winter' bike - the C2W MTB I bought last year on an 18-month C2W agreement:

@KneesUp - tbh if you've a problem with the fact I use a range of bikes to commute to work and/or that I earn enough to be able to use C2W to help Child Benefit payments, you need to deal with it. It's the government system - and I pay about £1500 per month in direct taxation, let alone all the indirect taxation. Saving about £400 over 18 months, which is what you're moaning over, is small change by comparison.

 

[400bhp]

D

Not true - ALL my bikes are suitable for commuting, from this which was my first C2W purchase in 2012;

through this, which I re-built this Spring:

and this, which I bought the frame from here and built in April/May and is my current daily 'commuter':

to this, which wasn't a C2W purchase:

In fact, all bar the first have been used to do so! As long as it has wheels then I'll ride it.

Today's is this, which cost me a total of £120 including the re-build - and I worked out last week I'd done 14 commutes on this one = £20 up @ £10 a day saved;

And to add the final one; my 'winter' bike - the C2W MTB I bought last year on an 18-month C2W agreement:

@KneesUp - tbh if you've a problem with the fact I use a range of bikes to commute to work and/or that I earn enough to be able to use C2W to help Child Benefit payments, you need to deal with it. It's the government system - and I pay about £1500 per month in direct taxation, let alone all the indirect taxation. Saving about £400 over 18 months, which is what you're moaning over, is small change by comparison.

Dont rise to it mate.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

And to add the final one; my 'winter' bike - the C2W MTB I bought last year on an 18-month C2W agreement:

That's pretty, I'm considering an MTB for a mix of trail riding and winter commuting. Maybe I'll hold off getting a secondhand one and go that direction instead. How is it to ride?

 

[KneesUp]

D

Dont rise to it mate.

Or, in other words, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

 

[DCLane]

That's pretty, I'm considering an MTB for a mix of trail riding and winter commuting. Maybe I'll hold off getting a secondhand one and go that direction instead. How is it to ride?

It's a Whyte 805 650b, which I've found is fine on the flat and downhill but is slower uphill than a standard 26" wheel MTB.

It rides well; I've done about 500 miles on it and found it be a compliant ride.

My only gripes are that the matt white paint marks too easily and the disc brakes squeal too much for my liking.

 

[dexter101]

Lovely selection of bikes there @DCLane!

 

[MisterStan]

Or, in other words, when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

Would you like salt and vinegar to go with your chip? You are talking some carp today.

 

[DCLane]

Lovely selection of bikes there @DCLane!

Thanks. I didn't include the one that isn't that nice at the moment, which is my Benotto Paris-Roubaix 'project':

It does now have a back wheel but still has a stuck seatpost and I've given up with it tbh. I can see why the previous owner was going to set fire to it so the Benotto's being left in storage until September - 3 weeks away from the carbon-bonded-to-steel Italian and I'll probably want to tackle it again. Or burn it

 

[KneesUp]

Would you like salt and vinegar to go with your chip? You are talking some carp today.

Nothing I have said is incorrect.