Bargainacious Ultegra 10 Speed Cassette

Every now and then some great offers appear and they are too good to pass. An example of this was my Scott (here and here). This week it was an offer from Halfords that I found out from a post on BikeRadar in the Commuting Chat section in the long running thread "Tell People About the Bargains you've spotted". This was for an Ultegra Cassette for £20 - but only  a 12-25 and not any of the other ranges.

After a little bit of deliberation (well not a lot) I decided I'd get one as a spare. I knew that for the Scott I'd not be able to put it on and just leave it - I need the 11-28 I have on for any big hills or long rides - but for a lot of riding it would be fine and when I needed lower gears I'd refit the 11-28.

The Giant has a 105 12-25 cassette fitted for most of the year and I manage fine on that and have used in the winter for some rides. I am on the 34-25 for some (slow) climbs but I can live with it.

I wrote about cassette sizes here and here

Unfortunately our local Halfords did not have any in stock  - there were some in Castle Bromwich and also in Stratford upon Avon. We decided that I'd cycle down to Stratford whilst my wife would drive down. We'd meet at Halfords, I'd put the bike in the car and we'd go into Stratford proper for a walk round and some lunch. About 30 minutes before I left I had a polite call from the store confirming that it had been put aside. 

I set off on my bike and did a meandering route criss-crossing the A3400 on this route:

It was pretty cold and some of the smaller roads were still icy so care was needed but I still arrived within 10 minutes of my wife and within 5 minutes of the planned arrival time.

We went to the Costa where I also got changed, had a coffee, and then strolled over to Halfords.

Compared to the Solihull store the experience was really great. I handed over the emailed ring and reserve confirmation. The assistant recognised the order and observed that she'd spoken to me earlier. She went to get it and found it within 30 seconds. I asked for the 10% British Cycling discount which was accepted without any issue which brought the price down further to £18. I was asked for my membership card which I had and there was a short conversation about needing to check as people had been asking for it without any proof. I also offered up an Electron gift card as payment that I had for Christmas and that all went through OK as well. So all in all a good deal and a good experience.

Here's the proof:

When I service the Scott for this year's riding I'll weigh the cassettes I have and compare the weights (105 12-25, 105 11-28 and Ultegra 12-25).

Then we went into Stratford and had a very pleasant (late) lunch in one of the many eating places in Sheep Street and a walk around. Despite it only being 40 minutes drive I don't think that I have been to Stratford for a number of years - we'll have to go again when the weather is better - although a cold winters day certainly kept the crowds down and made it a pleasure to walk round and park!