Just a quick bargain hunter update.
Wiggle are gearing up nicely for Christmas with some impressive offers. £100 off baskets of £1000 or more - good if you are in the market for a new bike obviously.
£50 off baskets of £500 or more, £25 off baskets of £250, an odd £16 off baskets of £100 and £6 off baskets of £50.
The offer codes are UK100, UK50, UK25, UK16 and UK-6 - just add them to the magic box at checkout.
These offers expire on Monday so get shopping.
Incidentally, Wiggle are also offering up to 25% off all dhb merino base-layers. As someone who owns both short-sleeved and long-sleeved flavours of these I can highly recommend them. Supremely comfortable, high-wicking and terrific value all round.
Planet X have some terrific deals on Giro kit at the moment, so if you need new shoes or a new helmet, check out their website first.
I love the Giro Factor shoes with their piano black gloss finish, and you can pick up a pair for £157.49 reduced from £224.99. Stock levels are pretty good right now too.
The Giro Trans offer good value too and these are down from £159.99 to £109.99. That's a lot of shoe for the money.
The range topping Giro Ionos helmet, a perennial favourite, is reduced from £169.99 to £99.99 and includes the Livestrong special edition.
The Atmos helmet is down to £77.95 from £129.99 and this looks to be exceptional value as it's a great helmet.
Even at the budget end there are good savings to be made; the Monza helmet, normally retailing at £74.99 is reduced to a very tempting £49.99. Well worth checking out.
Finally, as the temperatures promise to fall away - well, it is November after all so it was going to happen, there are worse ways to keep your head warm than with the Giro Merino Winter Cap. This is almost Rapha-esque in appearance, but is available for £19.99 after a price drop from £27.99.
All told there are some excellent savings to be made on all Giro kit at Planet X. Grab it whilst it lasts...
The bargains are still coming thick and fast, which is just as well as I am struggling to keep my motivation going as the days get shorter, the temperatures cooler and the winds stronger.
I was out on the road yesterday morning after a weekend away and boy was it a struggle. Into a strong headwind for the better part of 30 miles, it was the first run along one of my usual winter routes since last year. I was even tempted to stop off and check for brake rub so leg-numbingly difficult was I finding it. I wish...
So, maybe a little retain therapy will ease the pain? Always Riding are offering 10% off for orders in excess of £100, not bad if you have a blue chip purchase planned. Simpy use OCTOBEROFFER at checkout before October 23.
Wiggle, bless 'em, are also offering an extra 10% off site prices - use code EXT10-SPECIALS at checkout. They also have massive discounts on a whole bunch of kit they want to clear, including bikes. The never ending sale continues...
If you fancy glamming your bike up for winter on a budget, new bar tape is an easy and effective way. PBK are offering 50% off Deda tape at the moment - use DEDA50 at checkout.
Bikes You Like are offering 50% off Altura Night Vision gloves, both yellow and black, bringing them down to £19.99.
Finally, Parkers International are offloading Michelin Pro Race 3 tyres for a oh-so-tempting £20.95 - that's a saving of 38% off the usual £33.99.
Grab 'em whilst you can...
Would you believe it? I go away for a weekend and the cycling retail world goes bargain crazy!
Where to start? Well, in the words of Julie Andrews the beginning is a very good place usually.
ChainReactionCycles are offering 25% off Mavic wheels - the pick of the bunch, in my eyes anyway, are the Ksyrium Elites in silver at a tyre popping £165 - that's £55 off the usual retail price. And a very nice wheel - too good for winter really. Note, this is not for a set - no, CRC aren't that crazy - this is per wheel i.e. front and back...
There's also 25% off a load of Mavic cyclo-cross wheels too, if that's your winter thing...
Moving on... Primera are offering 15% off anything and everything for one week only, excluding existing offers. Just use NL-OCT-15 as the code at checkout.
Those crazy guys over at Merlin cycles are offering VAT free bikes this weekend only - so be quick. Use the code NOVAT at checkout to get a 17% discount. Merlin obviously missed the memo putting VAT up to 20%, but hey let's not be too picky...
On top of this Merlin are also offering 10% off all Cateye computers and lights - it's the not-so-cryptic CATEYE10 as the checkout code this time.
Fancy spending £50 with Always Riding? If so, take a fiver off courtesy of the code SUB5LOYAL at checkout.
Tredz are offering 20% off Altura kit - especially useful for us cycle commuters. Ends Sunday night though, so again - be light on your feet for this one.
ProBikeKit are offering 15% off turbos - hate the things since using one for my broken hip rehab, but each to their own. After weeks of one-legged training sessions I vowed NEVER AGAIN!
And finally, cue drum-roll... PBK are also offering up to 60% - yes 60% people - off cycle clothing. Craft and Gore kit appear to have the best savings on offer, but there are lots of bargains hidden away on the site.
I'll finish with a link to the Evans cycles competition to win a set of Exposure lights. How cool would that be? Top prize is a set of Exposure Six Pack with enough illumination to burn out your retina, plus 10 sets of the uber-cool Exposure Flash and Flare lights.
Good luck! But not too much...
It's Timeout Tuesday at Cycle Surgery again today. This week they have 40% off a small selection of wheels.
Fulcrum Racing 7s are down to £111 which is a bargain for a solid winter training wheel. I have a pair of these, and although not the lightest by any means, they are robust enough to take whatever the lanes of North Norfolk can throw at them through the winter.
An alternative is a set of Charge Dish wheels, about which I confess to knowing very little, but reduced from £200 to at a penny under £120 they would appear to be another set worth investigating for winter. The reviews certainly suggest this is another solid wheelset.
There's little worse than suffering from cold extremities once the mercury dips. Riding a bike with cold hands or feet is not fun at all, so it is nice to see Rutland Cycles are offering 20% off winter gloves and overshoes.
There are some particularly good deals to be had on Seal Skinz kit which is guaranteed to keep you warm and dry regardless of how cold it gets this winter...
Evans Cycles are offering a mighty 50% off some of their end of season kit. They have split the offers into clothing and accessories and there are some good deals to be had.
There is an odd collection of stuff in there - real bargain bin stuff - but take a look. There might be something you want...
My favourite? The Charge Oven gloves for under a tenner. That's an impressive 70% off RRP...
Wiggle have some additional discounts available online at the moment which could be useful for those with come cash burning a hole in their pockets.
Spend £100 and you will get £10 off by using EXTRA10-100 at the checkout. Not bad if you have a blue chip purchase to make.
If it's energy goodies you're after, there is an extra 10% off if you enter EXTRA10-NUTRI at the checkout.
On top of these codes Wiggle have also got some pretty impressive discounts on autumn and winter essentials so it's worth checking out before you buy elsewhere... My pick is 25% off the already good value dhb Aeron bibshorts, down to a wallet friendly £29.99.
It's Timeout Tuesday at Cycle Surgery again and this week lights take centre stage. Actually, it has to be said that a lot of bike retailers are discounting lights at the moment, cashing in on the shorter days.
Still, if we want to keep up our momentum on the road a decent set of lights is a must, and as I have said before, now is the time to buy.
Cycle Surgery are offering 40% off a fine selection of lights - simply pick the ones you want and use TT105 at checkout to see the price drop.
ProBikeKit are getting in on the act too, and I especially like the 20% off Mule Bar goodies offer that they have at the moment. I used Mule Bar on the Tour Ride in July, and they helped fuel the 200km from Bury St Edmonds to Sandringham. The gels were lovely and even the bars were a cut above the rest.
Finally, if like me you're a bike commuter, a top quality lock is an essential piece of kit. PBK are also offering a 25% discount on their range of Kryptonite locks - some of the best around. The standard Evolution comes in at a touch over £37, down from £50.
I took a trip out to the Queen's 'favourite residence' yesterday to watch the finish of stage 7 of the Tour of Britain. Sandringham provided the perfect back-drop to the end of an amazing day's racing. We were all expecting the bunch gallop with Cav pocketing another win, but the break-away managed to stay away all day, holding an impressive advantage all the way to the finishing line. It was a shame Ian Wilkinson jumped a little early, missing out on the stage win.
After the stage my eldest son Joe and I managed to see Geraint Thomas, who was tirelessly signing autographs and chatting outside the SKY bus. We also had a chat with the nearly man of the day Wilkinson, and with Dean Downing, who although not riding was there promoting Rapha-Condor-Sharp. We had a good chat about Rapha kit...
All in all it was a great day and I am sure the TOB will be back to Norfolk again in the near future. And as we were leaving I am almost certain I saw Liz herself heading off on her bike for a quick reccie of the finish...
Still, on to more prescient matters. Much like the stage finish yesterday, that Planet X BOGOF offer ended quite abruptly in the end. There's just a 'you're too late' message on their website now. I am sure it will be back...
There are, however, plenty of new deals coming through thick and fast. Worth a mention are BikesYouLike (the web arm of the rather excellent Thatto Cycles in St. Helens and my dad's LBS). They have some great deals on jackets from Altura, Polaris and Funkier - up to 75% off in fact. The best of the bunch is probably the Altura Night Vision at half-price, a great commuter jacket. They are also offering some good deals on Cateye light sets - up to 50% off.
If you missed out on the Planet X BOGOF deal, you might be interested in their wheel deals. They are shifting out Shimano Dura-Ace carbon clinchers at a healthy discount. A pair of Dura-Ace 7850 50mm rims are being let go for a penny under £800, from £1250, and the budget Dura-Ace 7850 CLs for £500 from an already reasonable £700.
Shame I am a Campag boy!
It's that time of year where there are some excellent savings to be made on cycling kit. It seems that every day I come across a bargain buy that is too hard to resist - not that I ever need much encouragement! All the big names are fighting it out amongst themselves to catch our attention with big discounts - Evans, Wiggle, CRC, Cycle Surgery, Primera...
The list goes on. Even the boutique names, and I am thinking mainly of Rapha and Shutt VR here, seem to get caught up in the excitement and there are some real bargains to be had.
The smaller online outlets also have amazing savings on kit right now - the Merlins, BikesYouLike and Shinybikes - and it is here that perhaps the best buys are to be made.
So, watch this space for the low-down on the best deals to be had over the coming months, and don't even think about paying full price for that new piece of kit you crave.
Let's face it, as the days grow shorter and those dark mornings and evenings loom, we all need something to cheer us up. Knowing we just bagged ourselves a bargain is a good way to do just that.
Incidentally, Wiggle are also offering up to 25% off all dhb merino base-layers. As someone who owns both short-sleeved and long-sleeved flavours of these I can highly recommend them. Supremely comfortable, high-wicking and terrific value all round.
