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Bike to Work scheme - the Megathread - Read post #1 before posting

Beasty

Firstly this thread is not about which bike should you get under the BTW scheme – there are too many variables to try and cover this in a single thread. It is to provide a summary of the scheme, some do’s and don’ts and act as a single thread for all technical aspects of the scheme.

Any new threads created covering the rules and application of the scheme will either be locked or transferred to this thread. Please ensure you review the whole thread before posting a new query

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CramCycle

TychoCaine wrote: »

Quick release wheels went out of style a few years ago. They're not stiff enough for disc brakes, so we've got thru-axles now.

Not out of style, just only for rim brakes, just saying.

TychoCaine

CramCycle wrote: »

Not out of style, just only for rim brakes, just saying.

Yeah, but rim brakes went out of style too. Same difference

adrian522

quenching wrote: »

I’m due to pick one of these up this week, curious about the pricing. Can I ask did you use a third party company for the BTW scheme or pay them directly? The €1660 pricing shows for my VIP membership alright but there’s a note that if using BTW vouchers they won’t give the full VIP discount and “ A claw back of 8-10% on Bike to Work Voucher payments or 6% will be made.” so I’ve no idea what I’ll really pay.

Didn’t notice the lack of quick release wheels until you pointed that out!

I just paid the balance, so 1250 went through the company and I paid €410 I think. I don't think my company uses a 3rd party though.

CramCycle

TychoCaine wrote: »

Yeah, but rim brakes went out of style too. Same difference

I think this deserves another thread because, well mainly, you are wrong.

TychoCaine

CramCycle wrote: »

I think this deserves another thread because, well mainly, you are wrong.

quenching

adrian522 wrote: »

I just paid the balance, so 1250 went through the company and I paid €410 I think. I don't think my company uses a 3rd party though.

Thanks for that. I believe the likes of TravelHub take 8% or so of the voucher value so it costs the shop if you use them, so there’s €100 of the VIP discount gone straight away I suppose.

DaveyDave

Canyon seem to have misunderstood my question, but it seems like there's no issue with split payments, financed bikes aren't available with the scheme though which is fine.

"We are happy to hear you are interested in a purchase with Canyon. It is not possible to use Splitit in conjunction with the Irish Bike to Work scheme. The only option is to select Pre-Payment as the payment method then an invoice will be generated and sent to you by email. Please then pass the invoice to the HR department of your company for payment. They can then pay the 1250EUR for a normal bike, and 1500EUR for e-bikes, for the scheme and you can pay us the remaining balance via bank transfer. Bank transfer is the only method we can accept."

Time to submit some paperwork...

insert name here 123

https://shop.independent.ie/pages/electric-bikes

€1,500 + free delivery in Ireland.

Came across this on the indo website. I know nothing about the bike nor do I work for the indo:)

It mentions a saving of a €1,000 (€2,499 RRP) and it is offered on the Cycle to Work scheme.

Might be of interest to someone here?

TychoCaine

insert name here 123 wrote: »

https://shop.independent.ie/pages/electric-bikes

€1,500 + free delivery in Ireland.

Came across this on the indo website. I know nothing about the bike nor do I work for the indo:)

It mentions a saving of a €1,000 (€2,499 RRP) and it is offered on the Cycle to Work scheme.

Might be of interest to someone here?

That was never a €2,500 bike. You'll get bikes like that for €1,500 from any bike shop. The Indo shop is full of products like that with inflated RRPs so they can advertise crazy discounts

insert name here 123

TychoCaine wrote: »

That was never a €2,500 bike. You'll get bikes like that for €1,500 from any bike shop. The Indo shop is full of products like that with inflated RRPs so they can advertise crazy discounts

https://www.veloci.be/nl/veloci-spirit-dames

Seems to be 2,500e on the above site? But yeah probably inflating prices, sure they not the only ones...

iwillhtfu

TychoCaine wrote: »

That was never a €2,500 bike. You'll get bikes like that for €1,500 from any bike shop. The Indo shop is full of products like that with inflated RRPs so they can advertise crazy discounts

I don't think you would with that battery and motor combination. Everything else on it is budget. You could certainly spend €1500 on something worse that's for sure.

TychoCaine

insert name here 123 wrote: »

https://www.veloci.be/nl/veloci-spirit-dames

Seems to be 2,500e on the above site? But yeah probably inflating prices, sure they not the only ones...

https://www.independent.ie/business/technology/veloci-spirit-ebike-is-a-good-ride-but-on-the-pricey-side-40104027.html

Here's an review in their own paper saying it was expensive @ €1,499

:D:D:D

At the end of the day e-bikes fall into 2 price categories: Ones with Chinese built motors are all in the €1,500 range. The Bafang motor in this bike is one of these Chinese ones. The bikes with Shimano & Bosch motors are all €2,500+

DaveyDave

Christ 28kg, wouldn't want to be bringing that up some stairs in an office or apartment.

FromADistance

Am looking for a hybrid bike under the BTW scheme. Any good recommendations for around the 1k mark?

MojoMaker

Someone on here got a very nice Boardman hybrid from Halfords in the last couple of weeks - surprised a few people.

JimmyCorkhill

Workplace is using cyclescheme.ie and I think you need to use the retailers on the site.

Was looking at a Boardman Road Bike with Halfords but seems Halfords is not one of the retailers.

Is Boardman generally only stocked with Halfords?

Thanks

iwillhtfu

JimmyCorkhill wrote: »

Workplace is using cyclescheme.ie and I think you need to use the retailers on the site.

Was looking at a Boardman Road Bike with Halfords but seems Halfords is not one of the retailers.

Is Boardman generally only stocked with Halfords?

Thanks

Yeah I think they did an exclusivity deal years ago. On the upside they're only average bikes and plenty of nice alternatives. Take a look at some of the orbea and cube bikes. Also I'm not sure if they deal with voucher schemes but decathlon have some nice bikes.

JimmyCorkhill

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Yeah I think they did an exclusivity deal years ago. On the upside they're only average bikes and plenty of nice alternatives. Take a look at some of the orbea and cube bikes. Also I'm not sure if they deal with voucher schemes but decathlon have some nice bikes.

Thank you.

Kamu

Hello everyone.
I'm going to finally get a new bike through b2w.

Any recommended stores around Dublin city centre to work with?

Also, any recommendations for a road bike? I'll be looking to spend the full 1200.

Seth Brundle

Whereabouts in Dublin are you?
Also the limit for non-electric bikes is €1250 rather than €1200 (if you spend any more than this, there is no relief on that amount).

Kamu

Seth Brundle wrote: »

Whereabouts in Dublin are you?
Also the limit for non-electric bikes is €1250 rather than €1200 (if you spend any more than this, there is no relief on that amount).

Ah nice, I be spending the 1250 so! (Or there thereabouts)
I live in Dublin city centre near temple bar. I know of cycle bike, cycleways and p&k cycles. Not sure of they're reputable or what kind of stock they have though!

MJohnston

I like Rothar, although I'm not sure if their Fade Street branch is gone now? They deliver anyway, so might not matter. I've also had many repairs and services done at Penny Farther cycles and have found them to be solid too.

podgey1992

Hi All,

I'm a civil servant and want to get the VanMoof S3 bike as part of the cycle to work scheme, I emailed VanMoof for a quote and they got back to me with an invoice for 1500 and another for the remaining 500 that I'd have to pay myself (I'm cool with this). However - on the government websitehttp://peoplepoint.gov.ie/hr-for-employees-managers/employee-schemes/cycle-to-work-scheme/] they request that the invoice be made out to the specific department. When I said this to the VanMoof sales rep, they replied with

'In Ireland we only work with Bike to Work (Travelhub) and Cyclescheme IE, we can't process an order if your employer doesn't participate in either of these schemes'.

Does anyone have any experience of getting the VanMoof when employed by the government? Would really appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

iwillhtfu

podgey1992 wrote: »

Hi All,

I'm a civil servant and want to get the VanMoof S3 bike as part of the cycle to work scheme, I emailed VanMoof for a quote and they got back to me with an invoice for 1500 and another for the remaining 500 that I'd have to pay myself (I'm cool with this). However - on the government websitehttp://peoplepoint.gov.ie/hr-for-employees-managers/employee-schemes/cycle-to-work-scheme/] they request that the invoice be made out to the specific department. When I said this to the VanMoof sales rep, they replied with

'In Ireland we only work with Bike to Work (Travelhub) and Cyclescheme IE, we can't process an order if your employer doesn't participate in either of these schemes'.

Does anyone have any experience of getting the VanMoof when employed by the government? Would really appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

I'm not sure how the civil service one works but it looks as though they just use a list of vendors which they provide https://ogp.gov.ie/cycle-to-work-scheme/

If your employer doesn't use a voucher scheme and the seller is happy to take a split payment then it is a simple matter of a bank transfer it doesn't matter what schemes vanmoof allow as it's basically a cash sale.

It does appear as though you're out of luck though but some other public servants may know a loop hole or have been successful in requesting a direct payment.

magicbastarder

yeah, i don't know why vanmoof are limiting themselves in this way. strange decision - especially as those middlemen take a cut.

iwillhtfu

magicbastarder wrote: »

yeah, i don't know why vanmoof are limiting themselves in this way. strange decision - especially as those middlemen take a cut.

I think a lot of the mainland European companies mistakenly think when asked about the bike to work scheme what voucher companies they allow. It must be common for European business to use voucher companies only

CramCycle

Double check your own local scheme, the civil service seem to have a different set of rules dependent on what department and what location.

rotharrage

podgey1992 wrote: »

'In Ireland we only work with Bike to Work (Travelhub) and Cyclescheme IE, we can't process an order if your employer doesn't participate in either of these schemes'.

Try biketowork dot ie slash vanmoof

podgey1992

Thanks for this - my department isn't on their list of departments, but I've asked them to fill out a supplier form for the civil service and hopefully they'll respond!

JimmyVik

Why have they made this so hard now.

Both myself and my other half went in and priced up bikes and gear in 2 different shops who said they do the bike to work scheme.

We both approached our employers.

Mine uses cyclescheme as the "middleman" and i cant remember who my other halfs uses.

So neither of the middlemen deal with either of the shops we priced the bikes in.

Went to another shop for mine and I noticed that the bikes were very overpriced compared to what id seen the exact same bike for up the north a few months ago.

I pointed this out and was told they could do a deal if i wasnt going through bike to work, but if going through bike to work that was the price.

In the end we drove up the North one day, and got the 2 bikes and brought them home that day.

We paid less than we would have paid for the exact same bikes and gear through cycle to work, even including the tax we would have saved.

The only shop that had the same prices of the same bikes here as in the North was Halfords. And cyclescheme wouldnt let me buy a bike in Halfords either.

This scheme is a ripoff to the tax payer.