How we make money

Sledgeback is free to read and reader-supported. When you use one of our discount codes or click through to a retailer and buy something, we may earn a commission — at no extra cost to you. Usually you also pay less than you would have, because of the code. That's the whole business model, and this page spells out the parts that matter.

What an affiliate link actually is

An affiliate link carries a tag that tells the retailer we sent you. If you buy within their tracking window, they pay us a percentage of the sale. It costs you nothing — the price is identical whether you use our link or type the address in yourself, and a discount code applied through us usually makes it cheaper. Outbound retailer links on this site are marked up with rel="sponsored nofollow", which is the technically correct way to declare a paid relationship to search engines.

Every brand we earn from

Rather than a vague "we may have relationships with some retailers", here is the complete list, generated automatically from the deals on this site so it can't fall out of date:

We currently earn a commission from every brand listed above. If we ever write about a brand we have no relationship with, nothing changes about how we treat it — and if we recommend a product we earn nothing from, we won't hide that either.

What commission does not influence

This is the important part. A commission is why we can afford to do the research; it is never an input into the research itself. Specifically:

• Rankings. Position in a guide is decided on range, motor, components, warranty and value. We do not sort by commission rate, and no brand can buy a place.
• Verdicts and scores. Cons stay in the article. If a bike is heavy, poorly supported or overpriced, we say so on the same page that carries its affiliate link.
• What we cover. We add brands because readers search for them, not because a programme pays well.

Things we refuse to do

• No paid or sponsored reviews, and no brand previews a page before publication.
• No invented urgency — no countdown timers or fake expiry dates on codes.
• No claiming to have tested a bike we haven't ridden. See how we research.
• No leaving dead codes up to farm clicks. Stale checks are labelled, not disguised.

FTC & disclosure

In line with FTC guidance, we disclose our affiliate relationships clearly and close to the links themselves — there's a disclosure banner on every page that carries one, not just buried in a footer. If any of it is ever unclear or you think we've fallen short, tell us and we'll fix it.

Supporting us without spending a thing

If you're not buying anything, sharing a guide that helped you, or sending us a correction or a code that's stopped working, genuinely helps more than you'd think — it keeps the site accurate, which is the only reason anyone would trust it.