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feature
We hate that everything is so expensive in cycling
Cycling has always been a relatively costly sport to get started in, but why has it become so ridiculous over the past few years? We've taken a look at some of the worst offenders for costing you money and it's also given a great chance to simply have a good moan.
Bikes
First up, is the bike itself. Just how we got to the point where bikes can cost the same as a nice car we don’t know, but many of the top brands now have £10,000 plus models and seem to have no problems selling them. Surely the prices have got to stagnate at some point but would you like to take a guess at how much average bike prices have gone up here in the UK since 2019? What do you reckon - 5%,10%?
Well, the Bicycle Association actually found that the average price of bikes being sold has risen a rather staggering 26%. That is an astronomical amount, though our guess is the cheaper bikes just haven’t been available, forcing people to buy the more expensive options.
We’ll never know for sure, but there are a few things you can do to try and counter the rising prices. Firstly check out our buyer's guides for the best independent advice on where to spend your cash and then head to the DealClincher section. There’s often last season's kit with some huge savings to be had, often just because it isn’t the very latest and greatest.
It’s also worth remembering that as you spend more and more there are diminishing gains to be had, for example, the weight difference between Ultegra and Dura-Ace is the same as a trip to the loo and functionally Ultegra is just as good. Try not to get sucked in by a manufacturer's efforts to get you to spend more if you can’t justify it. Even the Ribble Weldtite race team are using last year's Ultegra on their race bikes and they’re not exactly slow.
If you know a thing or two about bikes then buying second-hand can save you a pretty penny. The likes of eBay and Facebook Marketplace are full of bikes that have rolled out the shop, been left in a garage for a few months when the novelty wore off and are now on sale for half the price. You should be wary of using this tactic though. Look out for scammers and overly worn components, if something looks too good to be true then it probably is.
Nutrition
Next on the list, we have cycling-specific food and drink products. Now don’t get us wrong, some of them are absolutely brilliant, but most of us couldn’t afford to go around guzzling these down every day of the week.
It's the bars for us that really take the mickey. They can easily cost upwards of £1 per bar and you can go to any supermarket and usually get 6 for the same price, surely the cycling specific ones can’t be that much more expensive to make?
> How to eat right for long rides
We save the expensive cycling-specific stuff for race days and rides that are really challenging. If we're just out for a weekend bimble then we'd rather save some money and spend it at the cafe.
You could also try making your own snacks, that’s what a lot of the pros do, rice cakes or flapjacks are very popular and the ingredients cost peanuts. If you've got recipe ideas then leave them in the comments section.
Race/Sportive entries
Want to ride in an organised event? Then you’re going to have to be prepared to pay a tidy sum for the privilege. Local sportives usually cost about 40 quid which is going to add up if you want to do them regularly. A lot of this fee goes towards the events insurance so please don’t think we’re having a go at event organisers. They often work for free and do an absolutely brilliant job especially given the additional challenges of closing roads and pressure from local communities who aren’t always so keen on the events happening in the first place.
We do like the odd sportive though. Our favourite part is getting your money’s worth out of any feed stations and they are a great way of discovering the best roads that different places have to offer.
> 8 tips for getting the most out of a sportive
The same thing applies for racing, you’ll need to purchase a British Cycling licence and a race licence if you’re going to compete regularly so there’s £100 gone before you’ve even got to a start line. A midweek criterium will usually set you back about £15 and a road race is easily £30. Plus you're usually on roads that have oncoming traffic, now that’s something you don’t see very often in France or Spain.
What we can recommend is taking advantage of any early bird entries which sometimes offer a reduced rate and if you do enter a race then put it in your calendar! The amount of people that have a DNS because they’d entered months ago and duly forgotten about it is getting ridiculous. That really is money down the drain.
Clothing
So you’ve got the bike, you’re fuelled up and you’ve entered your first sportive, however, you’re going to be a lot more comfortable if you’re in some cycling-specific kit. Surprise surprise, that’s also going to cost a bomb.
All of the kit soon adds up - helmets, shoes, a nice set of bibs - none of it comes cheap, but it can make a big difference to your ride. We’ve recently had £200+ shorts in for testing and jerseys costing almost the same.
On all the kit we review, including helmet and shoes, we rate it out of 10 for value so be sure to give that a nosey.
Just like with bikes you can save a lot by buying last year’s stuff, keep an eye on sale sections, especially if you fit in the less popular sizes and also consider buying out of season.
It's always sensible, for example, to buy winter gloves in the spring. While it might be annoying not to be able to try them out straight away, but as soon as late autumn comes around and you actually need them you’ll see the prices skyrocket as everyone else rushes to cover their frozen fingers.
Components
And finally components, we thought we’d quickly take a look at some of the more ridiculously priced equipment out there.
First up, an Absolute black oversized pulley system. It’s very controversial and at £519 it’s easy to see why. We think it looks awesome and when we reviewed it we did find it was quieter than a standard setup. However, the gains are marginal at best making this a very lavish purchase.
How about a £700 handlebar? That’s how much a Deda Elementi Alanera will set you back. In fairness, you do get a stem as well. And if you’re getting the bar you might as well go full Italian and finish your bike off with a £440 Selle Italia saddle.
Want this bike that you're building to be even lighter? Check out these Lightweight Meilenstein wheels that will cost about 7 grand.
Latest Comments
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It's Haigh in the long coat.
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97 comments
If a flapjack contains similar amounts of simple carbs (particularly sugars) then it is likely delivering the same number of calories in a very similar way and you shouldn't really find yourself so short of energy. Plenty of people have competed and even won races with foods such as Mars bars and flat coke.
Could it be that you simply prefer the flavour of the energy bars?
I shall be making my own very shortly, found a recipe on YouTube. If you want to know how it turns out, get back
80g of carbs per hour? I suspect that is guidance for racing. The vast majority on here will be leisure cyclists, yes some very serious leisure cyclists, but they won't be riding at their heart rate threshold like in a race everywhere they go...
Nope the whole nutrition thing really is just snake oil. But don't take my word for it spend £10 on a copy of 'Good to Go' by Christine Aschwanden. It's a smashing read and, as I've said before, still hasn't been reviewed by road.cc.
Thanks for the tip I'll get myself a copy
Surely that must just be in your head? I do 250mile rides and dozens of 100mile+ rides each year at an average of 16-19mph, so not hanging about for a 55yo. I only eat normal food - cafe stops and things like Nak'd bars in between. I do carry Bulk Powders energy drink powder in 'single scoop' seslable plastic bags to top up my bidons every now and again.
Last summer over 250 miles with 15,000ft of climbing I consumed about 6000 calories and drank 7litres of fluid (half water, half energy drink). I never bonked at any stage and certainly never felt like I needed some expensive energy bars or worse still gels. I also lost 2lbs on the day.
Gels are for racing when your heart rate is up at or above threshold and you simply cannot chew normal food. Seeing cyclists riding 50 miles slurping gels by the side of the road or even outside a cafe makes me laugh - what a complete waste of money.
And if you do bonk, a can of coke and a mars bar are just as good at getting your legs working again within 15 minutes...
I havent done cafe stops for two and abit years now, most were closed that time anyway, but cafes can be difficult to find, let alone good ones. And the biggest issue is you can say if you bonk just get a can of coke, from where ? a nearby shop ? there arent many of those in lots of parts of rural East Anglia, there are literally routes I can be on where I could be the best part of 40mins ride from anywhere I could find a shop, assuming when I get there its still open. So I have to be prepared to take what I need with me and not rely on cafe stops or shops and things like gels or energy bars, they easily fit in a jersey pocket, easy to carry and they just work, yes they are increasingly expensive, but Ive struggled so far to find good swaps, and that dont simply exchange cost for more faffing about. Im not someone who is going to start baking flapjacks just to save £1.
Fair enough. I must be lucky. Even in rural Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and North Wales I never struggle to find cafes/ petrol stations/ convenience stores. And then on our annual cycling trip into the pretty remote hills of the Algarve we have never struggled for supplies and only carry a couple of bidons each...🤷♂️
FTFY
I've had the same sturmy archer town bike for 30 years!
I think a lot of it is to do with the demographic of cyclists. There seems to be fairly strong contingent of relatively affluent (in the grand scheme of things) white males who enjoy cycling and the marketing people are just doing their thing going after them.
Cycling is the new golf
And this has happened because the cycling press, Road CC included, are fixated on making money, and not telling people 'you don't need this bling, you just need to ride more, and intelligently'.
I'm a high earner and I build my own bikes. Sure, I don't need to spend £10k on a bike, but it's my passion and proportionally I'm just spending some of my disposable income in the way I choose too. I don't get into debt doing it, and I love the tech and building and maintaining my bikes almost as much as riding them.
I've ordered an Enigma titanium frame in a limited run of Reynolds tubing, ENVE fork and sourced last generation Dura Ace 9170 to match my other bikes. I wanted Hope Hubs which I love, but they have stopped doing them in gold. I looked at other options and have settled on significantly more expensive Chris King hubs/ BB and headset all in the gold colour I wanted.
Extravagant? Every non-cyclist and most cyclists would say yes. Of course they would. Will it make me go any faster? No, but I'm not building it to do that - I have a Colnago Concept road bike and a Scott Plasma TT bike if I want to try to go fast (for me).
So why the extravagance? Because I love the engineering, the quality and craftsmanship of the frame and the Chris King components is superb. I know it will be a sublime ride. I know it will look fantastic. I know I will love riding it. And all in it is no more expensive to me than a £2k bike to soneone on a significantly lower wage. That's not meant to come across as arrogant, but I am sure many will read it as such.
It doesn't matter if it doesn't make me faster, it doesn't matter if a 16yo can ride faster than me over 25 miles. What matters is that when I do century after century it will not only perform phenominally and feel sublime, it will look great and I will have a beaming smile. I know that I will have specced and built it.
Will I be happier than I was aged 14 growing up on a rough council estate with an unemployed father saving up pocket money and doing odd jobs for two years to buy my Raleigh Rapide? Probably, because although I loved that bike and rode everywhere, I had no idea what I was doing, had no access to a club or anyone who could teach me, couldn't afford cycling magazines and thus just 'messed around' at cycling my racer thinking I was a great cyclist. I did maintenance but didn't have the right tools so damaged parts. I had very little as a child, but now I have a successful, well paid career I enjoy the finer things in life. And cycling is now my passion, so I don't really care if anyone is jealous or thinks my bikes are a waste of money. I could easily say someone's two grand bike was a waste of money if they earnt peanuts and spent their rent on it...
It's horses for courses. Live and let live.
Then it was worth every penny (and I'm very jealous).
Woah, you can't say that. This is road.cc!
Too right - you want hack.eq for horse chat.
Chris King stuff is ace. The headsets seals are worth the cost.
You do have the angry beeness on the freehub, but Hopes are quite noisy too.
Enjoy your dream machine.
Cheers! Well the R45D rear hub is almost silent out of the box - not fitted it with a cassette (or even spokes and a rim!) yet though,
Hope do noisy or quiet(er) these days, depends which freehub you buy.
And yes, the in-house made bearings to exacting standards which 'wear in' rather than out, service and adjustability etc all really appeal with the CK stuff. Expensive? Yes, comparatively and all my other wheels have Hope Hubs which are superb quality, but there is something about this CK kit which is just 'another level', and that gold finish...😘
I went for a rasta ahead for my good bike (Ti xc MTB) over a decade ago, blingy as. Did a full stripdown a couple of years ago, good as new in there.
Ultimate commuter got one in black, Soto Voce, looks anonomous, but I know. Went for a full set of his spacers too, they don't shout either.
I dropped 5k on a Trek Madone Jan 2021 and it's been the best 5k I spent in cycling. The bike is significantly faster and it's been a joy every time I went out. Yes, I have fun with much cheaper bikes too (winter bike is still going well after 9 years and 17k miles) but I don't regret buying a bike that puts a smile on my face every time I put some power down - like being a kid again! So I understand the complaint but you're also paying for some outstanding tech.
This is just the sort of nonsense that perpetuates the myth that expensive bikes go faster. Let's see the actual data in scientific tests that shows 'expensive bikes are faster'. Why? Is it weight? Plenty of light bikes about and most riders are ten times heavier than the bike. Is it the wheel bearings? Let's see the data on loaded bearings. Is it aerodynamics, again, let's see the data with a 75/95kg rider onboard. The truth is it's all in the customer's head, like expensive golf clubs make you a better golfer, it's bling. And it's killing cycling for young people.
Buy expensive, buy once.
A lot of my outerwear, including shoes, is heading towards 10 years old. £10 per year for shoes seems an OK investment. £7 for a jersey. Bibs have been replaced more frequently but kept on rotation which helps with wear.
Yes, I've spent a lot on bikes in that time but nearly always it's been a secondhand frame. Once again, quality components, well-maintained, and passed on for minimal losses.
Generally I've run Apex/Tiagra with just a short foray into Di2-land. Pre-pandemic consumables were cheap for those groups.
As with anything, I think cycling is only as expensive as you make it. Personally, I love buying quality kit off riders with more money than sense. For example, I got a basically unridden Racing DB4 wheelset, including tyres, for £150 because the Bianchi they came with got upgraded to some expensive carbon hoops.
The other option to learn to mechanic and buy a high-end frame with a low-end group and upgrade using secondhand parts. Although given that even Claris routes cables under the tape these days the point of upgrading is moot, unless you're racing. There's loads of manufacturers playing that game - Focus Izalco was a good example from a couple of years ago, and Trek do it too. I've got a Defy Advanced with Claris which cost under £450 used.
The problem we all have is that to the more money than sense brigade a couple of hundred quid here or there is nothing. Cycling is still a cheap sport to them, compared to golf or watersports, for example. That undoubtedly leads to inflation. The cost-conscious among us need to learn to mechanic and pick up their discarded kit and bikes. Used £10k superbikes really don't hold their value after a couple of years, if you know where to look.
Does this include ultegra cranks ?
Oh snap!
100g molasses
100g almond butter
160g chopped dried fruit
40g mixed seeds
80g mixed nuts
120g rolled oats
20g chia seeds
Warm the molasses and nut butter until runny. Mixed with chopped dried fruit, broken up nuts, etc. Press into a small baking tray and put into fridge to set. Cut into bar size segments. Freezes well.
Started mixing my own energy drinks this year. Basic shorter sessions just mix varying weight of caster sugar with pinch of sea salt and splash of baking lime juice to cut the taste. Longer and more specific stuff and long racing I do DIY Maurten/beta fuel/STYRKR with bulk bags of maltodextrin, fructose and electrolyte powder. These stronger 90g+ per bottle mixes means you can ditch the gels. Works out about 50p a bottle rather than £2 plus.
Buy Bulk Powders energy drink rehydration powder. I buy 5kg bags when it's on offer (there is always a discount code, I just wait for 40%+ off).
Last lot worked out at 28p per 600ml bidon. Cheaper than yours and simpler - I just put one scoop in a bidon and fill with water. It mixes perfectly (unlike some) and I find the taste just fine.
If you just want to commute, it is not that expensive, a hybrid bicycle with drop bars, a no name softshell jacket and decent gloves, while keeping all the rest of your casual clothes will be a great cheap way to move around.
If you see it as a hobby or training, well then the sky is the limit, as in all hobby sports. And this is good even for people who aren't willing to pay that much, as eventually nice technologies like disc brakes (I would love having disc brakes, but back then when I bought my bike there weren't any cheap options), reach the basic models.
But it is all about memory, if you can remember how horrible was your first kid bike (a steel MTB with friction shifters, canti brakes and rim dynamo lights for me), then even the most basic bikes today seem great.
I mean yeah prices have gone up and yeah it costs a lot if you want to get 'the look' but otherwise.... keep your bikes until they break, take up Audax and buy things that are good enough (and exceptionally good compared to the old days) like 105. I ride a lot and have a decent income and I could drop 5k on a bike but I refuse to, I buy second hand where possible and with the price of the Tube I still come out ahead every year... Mainly it's down to how much you want to look like a cyclist versus how much you are a cyclist. FWIW people who don't ride can't tell the difference, so really all you are doing is trying to impress other riders, which is a bit, ummmm...
I have a lot of cycling clothing for all seasons , most of it is at least 10 years old, some of it 20 years old and still in good wear and use. Unless its crashed and torn there is little to wear out clothing wise. A couple of pairs of good bibs and some summer gloves are that I have purchased in recent years.
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