Best (cycling) thing you ever bought?

[honesty]

Bar bag. Ok I don't use it on training rides, but every other ride I have it on the bike carrying stuff and its so easy to pop on and off.

[landsurfer]

Brookes B17 saddle. All 3 bikes now fitted. Joy to ride on. I'm 6' 3" with a 38 inch waist.
Sorry Sella Italia . Brooks works for me.

[PH]

Have to agree with club membership, CTC for me, though more to do with the local member group than anything from National Office.
For the bike, the only thing I've ever bought that I haven't considered upgrading or changing has been the Rohloff hub, so it would have to be that.

[geocycle]

Very difficult. I agree that things like track pumps are excellent when you've been using a hand pump. I love my Rohloff and the brooks has taken me beyond the need for padded shorts and the horrors of Lycra. Howev, I think I'd nominate my Dynamo hub. Completely reliable lighting whenever you need it. I've been benighted many times or caught in bad weather when the ability to just flick a switch and have light has been very reassuring.

[luminova11]

My recumbent trike. I had an accident in 2009 which left me with restricted mobility and chronic back pain. This meant I was unable to get on a bike, let alone ride one. I discovered recumbent trikes about three years ago and finally got one in October last year. Its been life changing, enabling me to cycle again when I thought I never would.

[iandriver]

Sorry to be a bit of a dull bunny, but it's quality puncture proof tyres for me. Changed my experience of commuting beyond anything else by a long shot.

[Stradageek]

I'd have to say my Bike Repair Stand, no more crawling around or hunched over a cold garage floor.

[Heltor Chasca]

I'd have to say my Bike Repair Stand, no more crawling around or hunched over a cold garage floor.

Hmmm that's what a neighbour said about my work stand which I leant him a while back! Better go and bang on his door. Thanks for the reminder [emoji106]

[maxcherry]

My Garmin 800.

I like the company on rides and recording where I have been, how long it took.
I'm not a speed demon, but knowing how many calories I burnt perks me up (even if it ain't true)

I call him Wade....all my bits and bobs have names

[BigFoz]

Corny, but my 1995 Colnago Super Piu frame, has lasted well, with one refurb in 10s of thousands of miles and 20 years. Still makes me grin when riding it, it's taut, handles beautifully and is comfy as an old sofa. It's been a race bike, a tri/TT bike, a fair weather bike, a training bike, a commuter, and since refurb, is again the fair weather bike. It's the one bike I would not like to part with, and on a nice day, first out of the shed. A dear old friend that I hope will be with me for many more years.

[RRSODL]

I'd have to list a few I guess
Repair stand
Set of tools
Garmin 800
Quality truing stand
Assos bibs
..... and more.

[dc]

A Primus Stove.

[661-Pete]

The OP referred to a track pump. Set me thinking. Yes the one I bought (or, more accurately, my wife bought for me as a birthday pressie) - Bontrager Charger - is certainly a godsend! No more sweating, puffing and blowing to get a tyre up to 120 psi (impossible with many portable pumps anyway)! I usually stop at 110psi because that's what gives what I feel is the best ride quality for me, but I have plenty in reserve to reach 120 if I want to. And it performs really well, easy to use. So I'd class that as one of the best cycling things ever bought for me!

I have another track pump, bought on a separate occasion, which I keep in France. It's a Park Tool product, can't remember the exact model, but it's nowhere near as good nor easy to use. Should have bought another Bontrager....

Incidentally, there was an odd downside to my getting the Bontrager pump. A day or two after I received it, noticing my wife's tyres were rather soft, I gave them a top-up from the new track pump to the correct pressure as embossed on the side of the tyres. This was undoubtedly the first time they'd been inflated to the proper pressure, for some time. Unfortunately her rims were rather worn down, which I stupidly failed to check, and about a mile further on her front wheel went bang dumping her on the road. She wasn't badly hurt, just bruises but it could have been really nasty! Lesson learned!

[Slowroad]

The CTC Route Guide to Cycling in Britain and Ireland, Christa Gausden and Nick Crane. I bought it at Brockhole Visitor Centre in the Lake District when I was on holiday aged 19, in 1981. It opened up a world of fascinating and almost exotic places to visit, to a rather sheltered youngster from the Midlands! Not long after I had a 5-speed Raleigh Winner, a cheap tent and a pair of rubbish panniers and was off on my first adventure. I still have the book, battered and totally superseded though it is.

[Vantage]

My Spa Nidd saddle. It needed butchering to get things just right and now it's perfect.
As I look at it, if I can't ride the thing in comfort, it's useless.