How to Buy a Riese and Müller on Cycle to Work

Cycle to Work is the single biggest way to reduce the cost of a premium e-bike. Most customers who ask me about it have two questions. First, is it really available on a £7,000 bike, or is there a cap? Second, how much do I actually save?

The short answers: yes, it is available on any standard pedelec we sell (so not the HS or speed pedelec variants, more on those below), with no cap, through the right provider. And you save between 21 and 42 per cent depending on your tax bracket and which scheme your employer uses.

But that range is wide, and the reason matters. The provider your employer offers makes a real difference. This guide explains how the scheme works, why Green Commute Initiative (GCI) is our recommendation for premium e-bikes, and how to buy a Riese & Müller or Moustache through ebikeist using it.

How Cycle to Work actually works

Cycle to Work is a salary sacrifice scheme. Your employer buys the bike (or rents it from a scheme provider), and you pay them back out of your gross salary over 12 months. Because the payments come out of your pay before Income Tax and National Insurance are taken, you save the tax and NI on the full amount.

In the 2025/26 tax year that means:

• Basic rate taxpayers save 28 per cent (20 per cent Income Tax + 8 per cent NI) on the gross sacrifice.
• Higher rate taxpayers save 42 per cent (40 per cent Income Tax + 2 per cent NI).

Your employer also saves on employer National Insurance (currently 15 per cent), which is why many businesses are happy to offer the scheme. Since the rise in employer NI in April 2025, the scheme has become even more attractive for employers to set up.

Technically you are hiring the bike from your employer (or from the scheme provider) during the salary sacrifice period, not buying it. At the end of the hire period, you take ownership. How that final step works depends on the scheme, and this is where the provider choice matters.

The £1,000 cap myth

You will still read online that Cycle to Work is limited to £1,000 per bike. It is not, and has not been since June 2019.

The £1,000 figure was never a scheme cap. It was a Financial Conduct Authority licensing threshold that applied to employers running their own small scheme. When a Department for Transport update in 2019 clarified that FCA-authorised third-party providers are not bound by that limit, the cap effectively disappeared for anyone buying through an authorised scheme. Cyclescheme, Green Commute Initiative, and other major providers are all FCA-authorised.

For our customers, that means a £7,000 Charger5 Pinion or a £9,379 Superdelite5 Rohloff is fully available through the scheme. The upper limit is set by your employer, not the scheme itself. Most employers who have been briefed on it are happy to approve higher values.

Two schemes: Cyclescheme and GCI

ebikeist works with the two main providers in the UK: Cyclescheme and Green Commute Initiative (GCI). Your employer will typically offer one or the other, and the choice is effectively theirs.

Why only these two?

Every Cycle to Work provider charges the retailer a commission on each sale. On some schemes that commission runs as high as 14 per cent of the bike’s value, which on a premium e-bike is simply not workable for us at the prices we charge. Cyclescheme and GCI cap their commission at around £300 per sale. That is still real money for us, but it is workable, and it lets us keep offering the scheme without raising prices to compensate. We have had good experience with both providers and between them they cover many UK employers, so for nearly everyone the choice is simply a question of which one your employer offers.

The ownership fee

At the end of the hire period, you need to take ownership of the bike. HMRC publishes a valuation table that determines what you should pay to avoid a benefit-in-kind tax charge. If you try to transfer ownership after 12 months at a nominal amount, HMRC treats the difference between what you paid and the “fair market value” as taxable income. On a £7,000 bike at year one, that fair market value is 25 per cent, or £1,750. Nobody wants that.

The two schemes handle this differently.

Cyclescheme uses an “Own it later” arrangement. You pay a deposit at the end of the 12-month hire (7 per cent of the certificate value for bikes over £500), then continue using the bike for a further three years at no cost. After four years total, ownership transfers to you and the HMRC valuation is down to a negligible amount. The 7 per cent deposit is what you effectively pay to own the bike.

GCI uses a much longer single hire period of five years and nine months. At the end of that period, you pay £1 and ownership transfers. Because the bike is nearly six years old by then, HMRC’s valuation table puts it at negligible value, so there is no tax charge.

For a £7,000 bike, that is a £490 ownership fee with Cyclescheme versus £1 with GCI. On a £5,649 Charger5 Touring, it is £395 versus £1.

What this means for your net saving

The 42 per cent figure for higher rate taxpayers is the gross saving on the salary sacrifice. It is before the ownership fee. Your net saving after the ownership fee is what you actually have in your pocket.

Here is the worked example on a £5,649 Charger5 Touring:

	Basic rate	Higher rate
Gross saving (28% / 42%)	£1,582	£2,373
Cyclescheme ownership fee	−£395	−£395
Cyclescheme net saving	£1,187 (21%)	£1,978 (35%)
GCI ownership fee	−£1	−£1
GCI net saving	£1,581 (28%)	£2,372 (42%)

On the same bike, GCI saves a basic rate taxpayer £394 more than Cyclescheme, and a higher rate taxpayer £394 more. The higher the bike’s value, the bigger the gap.

This is why GCI is our recommendation for any Riese & Müller or Moustache we sell. If your employer offers both schemes, choose GCI. If they only offer Cyclescheme, the scheme still saves you significant money, but you are leaving 7 per cent of the bike’s value on the table.

Worked example: £5,649 Charger5 Touring

Here is what the whole arrangement looks like for a higher rate taxpayer buying a Charger5 Touring through GCI.

• Bike price: £5,649
• Gross salary sacrifice: £470.75 per month for 12 months
• Net salary impact: £273.04 per month (after 42 per cent tax and NI saving)
• End of hire fee: £1
• Total net cost of ownership: £3,277 (42 per cent saving on £5,649)

For a basic rate taxpayer on the same bike through GCI, the monthly net impact is £338.94 per month for 12 months, total net cost £4,068, a 28 per cent saving.

For a lower-priced bike like the Moustache Lundi 27.3 at £2,799, the same percentages apply: roughly £2,015 net cost at basic rate, or £1,624 at higher rate through GCI. The scheme works equally well at every price point.

What you can include beyond the bike

Cycle to Work covers more than just the bike. You can add any of the following to your application:

• Helmet
• Lock
• Lights (front and rear)
• Mudguards
• Pannier racks and bags
• Reflective or high-visibility clothing
• Bell
• Pump
• Tools and repair kit
• Replacement tyres and inner tubes
• Child seats
• Cycle cameras

These all attract the same salary sacrifice saving as the bike itself. There is no separate accessory cap, they go into the total certificate value.

What is excluded: GPS units and cycling computers, turbo trainers, car racks, and children’s bikes. If you want a bike computer for routes, the Kiox 500 display on most Bosch-equipped bikes will do the job without needing a separate purchase.

Who can use Cycle to Work

You qualify if:

• You are a PAYE employee of an employer that offers the scheme.
• Your remaining salary after sacrifice stays above the National Minimum Wage. If the monthly sacrifice would push you below NMW, you cannot participate.
• You intend to use the bike mainly for commuting or part of a commute (for example, to a train station). HMRC does not require a logbook. The 50% rule* is only enforced if there is clear evidence the bike is not being used for commuting.

*On the 50 per cent rule. HMRC’s tax exemption requires the bike to be used “mainly” for qualifying journeys, and they define “mainly” as more than 50% of all cycle trips. A qualifying journey is commuting between home and work, travelling between two workplaces, or part of a commute (the ride to the train station, the school run on the way to work, and so on). Weekend leisure rides are not qualifying journeys, but they do not invalidate the scheme as long as commuting is still the majority of the bike’s use. You do not need to keep a logbook. HMRC only investigates if there is clear evidence the bike is not being used for commuting at all, for example a fully remote worker with no workplace to commute to. For anyone with a normal commuting pattern, the rule is essentially never challenged.

You are not eligible if:

• You are self-employed. There is no gross salary to sacrifice from.
• You are a contractor paid outside PAYE (umbrella company contractors usually are on PAYE and can use it).

Limited company directors are eligible if paid through PAYE and remaining salary stays above NMW. Many of our customers run their own businesses and use this route. If you own the company, you can set your own business up as the scheme employer and use GCI as a single-director scheme.

If you own a UK limited company that is VAT-registered, there is another route worth knowing about. The company buys the bike as a capital asset rather than you buying it personally. The business reclaims the 20% VAT, writes the full purchase price off against profits under the Annual Investment Allowance (so it reduces the company’s corporation tax bill in the year of purchase), and the director rides the bike personally without a benefit-in-kind charge, provided it is used mainly for commuting. The net saving for a higher-rate director can be 30 to 50%, often beating Cycle to Work. It does not suit everyone, but if you run your own VAT registered limited company, it is genuinely worth a conversation with your accountant before defaulting to a salary sacrifice scheme.

One important warning: Speed Pedelecs do not qualify

Riese & Müller’s HS variants, marked with “HS” in the name (for example, Charger5 Touring HS, Nevo5 Pinion HS, Delite5 Rohloff HS), are Speed Pedelecs. They assist up to 45 km/h (28 mph) rather than the 25 km/h (15.5 mph) cut-off of standard pedelecs.

Speed Pedelecs are not Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycles under UK law. They require registration, insurance, and a motorcycle helmet. Cycle to Work only covers EAPCs, so HS variants cannot be bought through the scheme.

This catches people out. If you were drawn to an HS purely for the faster assist and the standard 25 km/h version would work for you, the saving on the standard version through Cycle to Work often justifies the swap.

All standard (non-HS) Riese & Müller and Moustache e-bikes we sell qualify for Cycle to Work. That includes every CX, Vario, Automatic, Pinion (non-HS), and Rohloff (non-HS) variant across the range.

How to buy through ebikeist using Cycle to Work

Here is the process from start to finish.

1. Check which scheme your employer offers. Most HR teams will know. If they do not currently offer C2W but are open to it, we can point them at Cyclescheme or GCI and help them get set up. GCI, in particular, is straightforward for smaller businesses because it does not require the employer to hold its own FCA authorisation.
2. Choose your bike. Use the Bike Finder or give us a call on 03330 151 979. We will talk you through the options and can arrange a test ride on real roads and bridleways around our Dartmouth workshop.
3. Get a quote. We provide a written quote including any accessories you want to include. This is what goes into your employer’s scheme application.
4. Apply through your employer. Your employer logs into their scheme portal, enters the quote value, and issues a certificate or voucher in your name. Most applications are approved within a few days.
5. Redeem with us. You forward the voucher to us. We validate it on the scheme portal, hold the bike, and arrange delivery or collection.
6. Free delivery and handover across the South West. We personally deliver bikes along with set up and handover across Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Bristol and South Gloucestershire. If you are further afield, we can arrange courier delivery.
7. Salary sacrifice begins at the start of the next pay period. Over 12 months, the sacrifice is deducted from your gross pay.
8. End of hire. With GCI, nothing to do for five years and nine months, then a £1 transfer fee. With Cyclescheme, a 7 per cent deposit at month 12, then the bike is yours to use free for three more years, then ownership transfers automatically.

We handle the paperwork on our side. You deal with your employer’s scheme application and your own monthly pay slip. It is not a complicated process, but if anything is unclear at any stage, ring us.

Common pitfalls

“You save 42 per cent” is a headline you will see everywhere. It is only true at the higher marginal rate, on the gross sacrifice, before the ownership fee. On Cyclescheme, real net savings are closer to 21 per cent (basic rate) to 35 per cent (higher rate). On GCI, real net savings match the headline because the ownership fee is £1. Always ask which scheme and always ask about the ownership fee.

Leaving your job mid-hire is the biggest sting. Any outstanding balance on the salary sacrifice is deducted from your final net pay, which means you lose the tax relief on whatever is left. If you are planning to move jobs within the next 12 months, factor this in.

Theft or damage during the hire period does not pause your salary sacrifice. The bike is still being rented to you and the monthly deductions continue. This is why I strongly recommend Laka insurance on any premium e-bike. A decent policy covers theft, accidental damage, and liability.

Full market value at month 12 is a trap to watch. If an employer or small scheme transfers ownership at a token amount in year one, HMRC applies its valuation table and you could owe tax on the difference. Both Cyclescheme and GCI use extended hire agreements specifically to avoid this. Do not let anyone convince you to take ownership early at a nominal fee unless they can explain how it avoids the benefit-in-kind charge.

The “any price” thing. Some employers still cap their internal scheme at £1,000 or £3,000 because they have not updated their policy since 2019. If your employer does this, ask them to review. GCI in particular is designed around uncapped higher-value bikes and can help HR teams update their scheme.

What about 0% finance if C2W is not available?

If Cycle to Work is not an option, either because you are self-employed or your employer does not offer it, we also provide 0% finance through Novuna. The terms are 10 per cent deposit, then ten monthly payments at 0 per cent interest, with no fees. It does not match the tax savings of C2W, but it spreads the cost without adding any.

For the full five-year cost picture including finance, insurance, and running costs, read What Does It Cost to Own a Riese & Müller?.

What to do next

If you have a Riese & Müller or Moustache in mind and you want to check Cycle to Work numbers for your specific tax rate and bike, call us on 03330 151 979 or email hello@ebikeist.com. We will put together a written quote you can take to your employer, and we will walk you through the scheme choice.

If you are not sure which bike yet, the Bike Finder will narrow it down in a couple of minutes.

Cycle to Work is the best way to get into a premium e-bike if you are a PAYE employee. Done through the right scheme, it is simple, honest, and saves you thousands of pounds over the alternative of paying up front.