WWJVD....

There's a Cycle2Work scheme we have at work where you can purchase a bike without paying tax.  You basically pay the value you borrowed minus the tax, so for example if you borrowed £1,000 the maximum you pay back is £780 or there abouts.

So last year I did this and spent a lot of money on a mountain bike... just to discover that I didn't like mountain biking.  With hindsight, I really shouldn't have bought that mountain bike.  It was handy for about 6 weeks where the Gidds had to Frankenstein the Dawes so his bike would work for last years SBS Challenge ride.  However - I've only used the mountain bike three times for it's actual purpose and hated most of it.  So it's fair to say it was a very stupid buy so I'm a bit weary of doing something as silly again.

The thing is though... and this is the crux.  We were discussing this in work and I thought that I had another 6 months or so on the scheme so we were talking about what kind of bike we would get... And I said I'd get a Brompton - I could still get the car into work with the GB in the morning, and then cycle home without having to wait on him.  They're designed so you're not going to mangle your work trousers in the front cog, and if I really couldn't face it I could still get the bus.  Same as, I could cycle out to the pub, stay 'till past closing and still get a taxi home - me and the bike.  You can even rig them so you can pull them around like a trolly into shops and stuff.  Then I e-mailed the lady who organises these things and she tells me that my last payment was this month...  That the new schemes payments comes off in August... and I'm still in nice time for ordering now...

So I'm asking myself What Would Jens Voigt Do? Does he even own a Brompton?  Would he even care? And why did he call his dog Lynda?

Jx