Gear will probably be one of your biggest investments - its a soory fact that, with one or two exceptions, you get what yous pay for. Having said that, I saw some damn fine gear in AMPS recently made by XION, its french and has a good name for itself in europe, look in alot of the brit bike press and you see plently of examples, Lou only have fabric gear in at the moment, but it looks bloody good and best of all its WELL affordable.

Good gear should last you a few years, so look at it like that, when you spread the cost over, say, 3 years its not so bad.

If you are buying a new bike and they offer you some gear as part of the deal, you'd be better off pooling the gear value and taking ONE good bit of kit, rather then several bits of crap that you'll want to replace in 6 months.

Bikes are ecconomical, but not neccessarily cheap and the associated costs can be heavy, buy quality and a couple of items bought at the same time should get you a discount from any good shop.

cheers