Six ways spending more can actually save you money

Sometimes spending a bit extra can actually save you money in the long-run.

Liam Mercer

Jan 9 2024

In terms of bike technology, we’re living in one of the best times for off-road cycling as mountain biking on a budget is becoming ever easier. Brands are offering products that perform impressively for comparatively little cash, whether that’s a mountain bike or a pair of riding shoes. That said, some things on the market are well worth the extra spend as they’ll heighten the fun factor and potentially save you money in the long run.

The world of budget friendly cycling kit is vast and there’s plenty out there that’ll get you riding and having a great time. It’s clear that you no longer have to spend your life savings on the best gravel bike to have fun and get started. However, once you dive deeper into the off-road cycling rabbit hole, you might start to look at making your time on the bike easier and that’s where spending a little more money on certain products can get incredibly rewarding. Here are six places in which to best invest some extra cash.

A set of good quality tools

Every rider should carry one of the best bike multi-tools and at least have a solid set of Allen keys at home. With a multi-tool, spending more money will get you more functions, thus more opportunities to fix your bike when out on the trail. Pricier multi-tools also come built better as they edge away from a plastic-framed build to chrome vanadium and similar.

I’m not suggesting you should go out and kit yourself out with an Abbey Tools workshop setup as there are loads of tools that you’ll rarely need, in which case, it’s perfectly fine to save money and get a cheaper cassette tool, for example. But it’s very wise to invest in a good quality set of workshop Allen keys at the very least.

Any budding home mechanic will have been there, having destroyed an overtightened bolt’s Allen head after using a cheap Allen key. An Allen key set of better quality comprises harder metal and will have been built to much more accurate tolerances. Wera’s Allen keys are even shaped to engage with a bolt even better than their regular counterparts.

Plus, buying a pricier tool will mean that it’ll be more durable and likely to last you a lifetime, making it an investment that’ll more than pay you back in the long run.

Pricier pedals offer better longevity

Your bike's pedals are one of the contact points on the bike that see the most abuse, whether that’s through constant pedalling along gravel roads or being whacked against rocks during poorly placed revolutions. Even though many cheaper pedals are very good, such as Deity’s Deftraps, a lot of MTB flat pedals under the £50 mark come built with nylon pedal bodies with moulded pins. Often, cheaper pedals, flat or clip, aren’t user-serviceable, either.

If you were to spend a bit more money on your pedals, you would be investing in easy serviceability, a stronger alloy pedal body, and replaceable pins. This all results in a pair of pedals that’ll last you much longer, fending off rock strikes and remaining smooth for miles to come.

Invest in a quality bearing setup

Even though bearings can be picked up for pence on eBay, not all bearings are built especially with cycling in mind. Bearings come in standard sizing for the most part, with many of the same size being used for other kinds of machinery in different industries. While these will work in your mountain or gravel bike they’re simply not designed for the rigours of cycling, so they might be less efficient or unsuitably sealed, leading to premature wear.

Bearings from brands such as Enduro Bearings are built for bikes, so they come with proper sealing and they’re designed for particular areas of the bike, such as the headset, wheels and pivots. Picking your bearings from a brand that specialises in bike bearings will reward you with a greater bearing life, meaning that you’ll be buying bearings and visiting your local mechanic less frequently, saving cash.

If you’re not confident and don’t have the tools to replace your pivot bearings or to install a fresh bottom bracket, get a mechanic involved. One wrong move could spell the end of your frame, costing you upwards of a thousand pounds, rather than a hundred and a bit on a pivot service.

Regularly service your suspension

It’s all too easy to forget about the service intervals of your suspension components but neglecting a suspension service can lead to dire consequences that’ll do nothing but hurt your ride and your wallet. Skipping the odd full-service interval means that any dirt that’s found its way inside your fork and shock will form an abrasive solution when mixed with the bath oil which will work to ruin your stanchions and speed up wear on any bushings. These are both very expensive to replace, so keeping on top of your service intervals will potentially avoid any excess wear and tear.

If you’re a competent at-home mechanic, servicing your fork lowers and shock’s air can is a great start as it’ll keep things clean and dirt-free. However, when it comes to the more extensive full servicing of these components, bite the bullet and have a professional suspension mechanic do the job. These people will be qualified to do the job at hand, meaning that you’ll have a shiny, perfectly performing suspension component in return for their asking price.

The likelihood is the guy down the road who’ll sort your suspension for a tenner and a six-pack won’t treat your valuable Fox Factory suspension fork nearly as well as someone who knows what they’re doing. We’ve all seen the horror stories on the internet.

A better helmet is the biggest upgrade to quality of life

You should be spending as much time in a helmet as you are riding your bike. Because of that, throwing a little bit more money on a higher-end helmet is one of the most worthy investments you’ll make in your riding career.

Not only will a spendier helmet come with better protection, such as dual layer EPS and EPP foams, as well as a rotational impact reduction system as standard but it’ll also offer better comfort and ease of life features. Helmets at the £150 mark and above often come with Fidlock magnetic buckles and uber adjustable cradles, so it’ll offer more opportunity to adjust the helmet to your head for comfort and make life a little easier through quick removal. Spend even more and carbon shells come into play to reduce weight, reducing neck fatigue, especially with weighty full-face MTB helmets.

Something that’s often overlooked is that the rotation impact system that’s built-in, such as Mips, Koroyd or Bontrager’s WaveCel will be more refined and fit better with the helmet. As such, the helmet’s vents will be clear of any rotational impact reducing the cradle, and freeing up valuable airflow. Pricier helmets will also feature more advanced versions of Mips or similar with claims to boost the available protection.

More expensive helmets also come with more features. Whether that’s more adjustability in its visor to store eyewear or boosted safety tech such as a RECCO reflector or twICEme NFC chips as seen on POC’s Kortal Race.

Top-quality gloves can heighten any ride experience

Having a full range of motion on the bike is important in many ways and that applies to dexterity. For those who wear gloves, riding with a pair that doesn’t fit properly can make for a frustrating time on the bike, and picking a cheaper set with sub-par fabrics could lead to the age-old tale – ‘buy cheap, buy twice’.

Cheaper gloves often aren’t built as hardily as those that cost a little more so, at the very least, they’ll fray as you whip through overgrown sections. With time, this can wear through the fabric leaving you with unwanted holes in your gloves. And over the time of a ride, your hands move far more than you expect, with muscles tensing and stretched movements putting pressure on a glove’s seams which will soon break, so it’s a good idea to invest in gloves that’ll cope with those stresses.

Finding a good set of gloves isn’t hard, and it won’t cost you too much money in the grand scheme of cycling kit prices but spending an extra fiver or £10 will reward you with a high-quality pair of gloves that’ll last much longer before breaking at the seams, while fitting properly and being much more comfortable. A pair of the best MTB gloves will pay you back in dividends.

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Liam Mercer

Since beginning his mountain biking career while working as a resort photographer in Greece in 2014, Liam became a freelance contributor at off.road.cc in 2019. From there, he’s climbed the journalism job ladder from staff writer to deputy technical editor, now finding his place as technical editor.

Partial to the odd enduro race, heart rate-raising efforts on slim-tyred cross-country bikes, hell-for-leather e-MTB blasts or even casual gravel jaunts, there’s not a corner of off-road cycling where Liam fears to tread. With more than 40 bike reviews under his belt and hundreds more on MTB, e-MTB and gravel parts and accessories, Liam’s expertise continues to be cemented and respected by the industry.