Another government scheme, another mess. My employer has just joined the Cyclescheme whereby you can pay for a bicycle to cycle for work out of your tax-free income, spread over one year.

So I have in my hand a “cheque” for a bit more than I would probably otherwise spend on a bicycle, and I’ve found a bike I really like the look of, a Fahrrad S20 at Bikefix on Lamb’s Conduit Street. But, no, they no longer do the scheme (as they did when I checked about a month ago before initiating the whole process) since the middleman who manages it takes too much of the cash. And they can’t even be talked into taking more money for the bicycle, since to use this middleman they have to pay an annual fee.

(And I’ve already found at another shop that bikes effectively have two prices – the Cyclescheme price and the normal price, and there’s a serious difference between them.)

So, it seems, the government has managed to make money for a call-centre somewhere — until that is they realise the faults of the scheme and give it up suddenly, throwing the call centre people out of work. Somehow I don’t think that was the aim.

So anyone know any other stockists of Fahrrads in London or vicinity? What I liked about it are hub gears, very low step-through but light frame, friction lights front and rear, and a clever little spring designed to ensure that when you stop the bike and are locking it up, the handlebars don’t swing around – the sort of thoughtful European design that doesn’t seem to be very easy to find.