Cheap bikes?

[Downward]

Plus however much for mudguards, some kind of pannier rack, lights, reflectors. How can they sell that as a 'commuter' bike when it's missing half the bits to make it usable? It would be a bit like buying a car for £10 000 and then being handed an extra bill for £5000 because they have decided that lights, windscreens, doors, passenger seats, etc are optional extras.

So £220 for the bike, £110 to make it usable, £20 at a real cycle shop to get it set up properly. Just stormed through the budget and then some!

I have just lights on my commuter. The others are not necessary

 

[PpPete]

I read that as ASDA at first

And that is a place to avoid for a cheap bikes !

 

[swee'pea99]

I have just lights on my commuter. The others are not necessary

+1. And for city riding, £5 lights off ebay will do you fine. So that's £225.

 

[jnb]

Take a look at other bikes and you will find most don't come with all the kit you have mentioned (if any).

Which would be OK if it was being sold as a toy, but that example is being sold as a commuter bike so it seems reasonable to assume that anyone using it for commuting would want to use it in the dark, would want to use it in the wet and would want to carry stuff. Perhaps that's why I was more interested in the touring style than others/

I would say that it is useable without £100+ worth of none essential items personally but hey ho, each to their own. Mudguards are perhaps the only real essential for now - lock yes, if you've nowhere secure to park it. So maybe £50. That's 270... Go try and find a bike with mudguards and a lock thrown in for that kind of money and I think you will come back empty handed!

Well in my case I would be using it on country lanes not city riding so that's no street lighting and horseshit, so yes bike lights and mudguards seem a good idea. Could I get that lot for £200 new, probably not, second hand? maybe but then I don't know enough to know a donkey from a racehorse.

 

[wafflycat]

If you're riding on ulit country lanes, you need decent lights. A relatively cheapie solution is to use the Tesco 3w LED torches fitted to the handlebars.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.203-8191.aspx

There's been much discussion about lights on the forum, so a swift search will get you loads of information.

If money was no object (alas it is..) I'd be buying some AyUps

http://www.ayup.com.au/index.php

The general consensus from those wot have them is that, for the price, they are the dog's danglies.