Last Updated on April 29, 2023
If you have read many of my other posts on Veloballs, you will know that while I’m mainly a healthy guy in his fifties, I have had a few health scares. Type 2 Diabetes (now under control), Sepsis (TWICE!) an eye infection and a dog taking me off my bike….
I now find myself requiring a new commuter bike as my current steed is approaching the end of its useful life, I do have a bestie carbon bike that comes out when the weather is good, but due to the cost of drivetrain components (eleven-speed so 40 quid chains and 70 quid rear cogs) I don’t ride it in the rain and its nothing to do with the carbon dissolving.
Under normal circumstances, I would save up, look for a zero per cent credit deal or perhaps buy on Credit card and balance transfer to a zero rate etc, but bills rising month on I’m finding it hard to find a few spare quid and don’t want to commit to any new payments.
I do, though, have a reasonably large pension pot, and I asked my provider if I could access less than a sixtieth of it, eighteen months before my fiftieth-fifth birthday to spend a grand on a new commuter for health reasons.
No, I can’t. I even offered to get a proforma invoice from a bike shop to pay direct so they knew I was doing what I said I was doing… medication details and Strava data to support my claim held no sway.
If I stopped cycling and put the five stone back on I lost through cycling, went nearly blind and lost my feet to gangrene due to type 2 diabetes, I could retire early on health grounds and get the lot to buy an 80-inch plasma TV to sit on my arse in front of. An odd anomaly, don’t you think?
If I don’t sort a new commuter bike and have to drive to work, my finances will suffer even more an ever-spiralling vicious circle.
The answer? I suppose it’s fettle and mackle the commuter past the finish line of October 2023 and access a small amount of my own money!
I have emailed The Chancellor and Health Secretary to say how bizarre I think the rules are.
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