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BUYER'S GUIDE

5 easy ways to get cycling deals and discounts at Amazon

The secrets of bargain-hunting the world's biggest retailer

Amazon has always been one of the best places to buy books, entertainment and household electronics, but the mighty online retailer is also attempting to make its way into other markets — like cycling. Amazon currently carries brands like Garmin, Kryptonite, Knog, Gore Bikewear, Shimano, Sugoi and Wahoo Fitness and its range is growing.

One of the biggest benefits for consumers when a big retailer wants to get into a new market is that they use discounts to try and get your custom; one of the drawbacks is their stock is generally limited and always changing. That’s because Amazon doesn’t just sell its own stock but is also a marketplace used by bike shops big and small to offload excess stock and to compete with the specialist online cycling retailers.

That ever-changing flow of products means you have to dig to find the bargains. They're there if you have the time to find them, but it's like shopping at TK Maxx: you either love or hate it. We’re guessing you’d rather be out cycling with the wind at your back and the sun on your face.

It turns out there are ways to find those Amazon bike bargains without the slog. We’ve sifted and trawled to bring you the best ways to get a cycling gear bargain on Amazon.

Here are four tips on finding the best deals, discounts, promotional codes and bargains on Amazon.

1 Subscribe & Save

For many products that you'll buy over and over again, you can get 5% or 15% off by setting up a repeat purchase with Subscribe & Save, and many products also have 20% off your first subscription. You can cancel the subscription any time.

If you set up five Subscribe & Save items the on-going discount jumps to 15%, and you can get there by adding individual items to your Subscribe & Save order even if they're identical. Want five tubes of Hydration Tablets? Add them one at a time and you'll get a 15% saving.

The catch with Subscribe & Save is that it's set up to deliver at the end of the month (or at least that's when our multiple bags of dog food arrive), so it's not suitable if you need something right now.

Here are some other handy items that are eligible for Subscribe & Save:

Science in Sport Rego Rapid Recovery, Whey Protein Recovery Shake

WD-40
PowerBar Natural Energy bars
Cable ties
Single malt whisky

2 Check out deals

If you're thinking about buying an item, but it's not mega urgent, like a cycling computer or some other accessories, check out Amazon's deals section daily, and stalk what deals are coming up and how long they'll be live for. This link is for their outdoors section as they tend to have a narrow view of what kind of product can be used for cycling - you can toggle through the available offers at the top to find the cycle specific stuff, you an also click between currently available, upcoming, and missed deals.

Amazon packaging (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Nic Taylor:Flickr)

3 Browse the outlet store

You can pick up all sorts of end-of-line clearance gear and general budget kit in the cycling outlet store

4 Check out the Clearance Warehouse

Not a lot of people know this, but Amazon have a clearance warehouse for returned goods. Their bargain warehouse is where returned stock and soiled or damaged merchandise is sold off cheap, and new items are added to it every day. You can find the cycling section of their clearance warehouse here.

5 Get free delivery

We hate it when retailers give you mega low prices and then stick £10 for delivery on top of your bill. It's even worse if you need the product at a specific time or place. A lot of the stuff you buy on Amazon comes with free delivery anyway, but if it doesn’t there are ways to get around that. 

Here's the Amazon cycling products page, tweaked to only select products that include free delivery. If you can't find the product you want on there then simply sign up for the Amazon Prime free trial and get free next day delivery. Don't forget to cancel it before the end of the trial (we set a reminder on our phone) or you will be charged £79.

Now it's your turn

We're on a mission to find as many cycling deals, discounts and hacks as we can and share them with you, but there are more of you than there are of us. If you find any great deals or hacks please post them in the comments below or mail them to deals [at] road.cc and we will do our best to share them with everyone.

About road.cc Buyer's Guides

The aim of road.cc buyer's guides is to give you the most, authoritative, objective and up-to-date buying advice. We continuously update and republish our guides, checking prices, availability and looking for the best deals.

Our guides include links to websites where you can buy the featured products. Like most sites we make a small amount of money if you buy something after clicking on one of those links. We want you to be happy with what you buy, so we only include a product if we think it's one of the best of its kind.

As far as possible that means recommending equipment that we have actually reviewed, but we also include products that are popular, highly-regarded benchmarks in their categories.

Here's some more information on how road.cc makes money.

You can also find further guides on our sister sites off.road.cc and ebiketips.

road.cc buyer's guides are maintained by the road.cc tech team. Email us with comments, corrections or queries.

road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.

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13 comments

Avatar
WeLoveHills | 2 years ago
2 likes

Do NOT buy from Amazon. Support your LBS and, above all, BOYCOTT a company that exploits their workers and dodge taxes (and consequently steal money from you and me and road.cc staff). 

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Mybike | 4 years ago
0 likes

If my local store asking a little bit more then the online store I'll still buy from him. Why not If there a big saving online then I buy online. But bar tape, tubes Co2 clothes shoes always from my local store easier to size them Amazon in Canada is not that cheap and kills you on shipping fees so I'm forced to join prime then cancel it

Avatar
RoubaixCube replied to Mybike | 3 years ago
0 likes

Sometimes, some retailers are willing to pricematch to just to get the sale.

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Nick T | 4 years ago
0 likes

Amazon is great for bike gear because you can get a cheap knockoff from aliexpress, buy the real thing from amazon then return the knockoff for a full refund and the underpaid, overworked and undertrained staff won't realise the difference. 
 

don't buy your bike gear from amazon, let some other mug buy the restocked knockoffs 

Avatar
kevvjj | 5 years ago
5 likes

I've never ever, ever found any cycling stuff on Amazon cheaper than elsewhere such as eBay, CRC etc and God knows I've tried. Don't waste your time.

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to kevvjj | 5 years ago
0 likes
kevvjj wrote:

I've never ever, ever found any cycling stuff on Amazon cheaper than elsewhere such as eBay, CRC etc and God knows I've tried. Don't waste your time.

it's rare but there have been a few things, replaceable gear hanger £4 posted, got a decent branded powerbank for less money than elsewhere and managed to use my amazon vouchers that I get for free by doing web searches.

I've purchsed less than £100 worth of stuff in 15 years from them and that includes a £38 box set of 'Cold Feet' DVDs for the missus

Avatar
Shouldbeinbed | 7 years ago
1 like

Caveat Emptor though, particularly on parts. I got what looked like a very good deal on a SA hub gear from Amazon. Turned out to be far from perfect internally and unusable as-was. Amazon would take it back and refund me the purchase but not the cost of building it into and dismantling the wheel.

That and the continued lack of that bike while sorting out and cost of building another into a wheel, it was all round easier in the end to bite the bullet and pay (local trader)for their faulty one to be fixed.

Avatar
Bradfasta | 8 years ago
4 likes

why do Road.cc keep advertising "the cheapest" of everything, and pointing out where you can buy stuff online?  Have they not heard of independent bike shops?  Can you get your bike fixed online?  SUPPORT YOUR IBD

Avatar
Chris James replied to Bradfasta | 8 years ago
1 like
Bradfasta wrote:

why do Road.cc keep advertising "the cheapest" of everything, and pointing out where you can buy stuff online?  Have they not heard of independent bike shops?  Can you get your bike fixed online?  SUPPORT YOUR IBD

My LBS advises its customers to buy their parts from Wiggle and pay the shop to fit them. Wiggle are cheaper than the price they have to pay to get stock from their distributor. The owner was reduced to doing this when he was building up a bike for his son.

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melliott | 8 years ago
0 likes

If there is something you'd like but are in no rush, you can use http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com to track prices. It provides a history of prices and allows you to set an acceptable price then emails/tweets you when Amazon reaches that price (if it ever does).

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don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
11 likes

Or use your LBS for more than a coffee and a chat.

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dottigirl | 8 years ago
4 likes

Join Amazon as an associate to get money back when people use your links to purchase items. It doesn't cost any more, and you could work with a friend to swap links.

That's what road.cc have done above - if you use the links, they'll get a percentage. Small, but they add up.

Or, just click on this before you go shopping:

http://amzn.to/1JQctej

*cheeky grin & wink*

 

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MrWigster | 8 years ago
0 likes

Don't forget the great deal they have on cycling books too.

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