Good places to search for quality 2nd hand bikes?
Discussion
As title really, in the market for a high end XC/trail full suspension mountain bike, but aside from eBay finding it hard to locate any decent forums or websites to keep an eye on for a shiny new bike that someone else has paid the initial depreciation on!
Suggestions/recommendations welcome
Suggestions/recommendations welcome
Facebook Marketplace is worth a look, although the "user experience" is terrible, eg. it seems to be sorted by the last time the user received a message, there's no way to sort by newly added items. The default view (which is based of your previous searches) does sometimes pop up interesting stuff though.
Gareth79 said:
Facebook Marketplace is worth a look, although the "user experience" is terrible, eg. it seems to be sorted by the last time the user received a message, there's no way to sort by newly added items. The default view (which is based of your previous searches) does sometimes pop up interesting stuff though.
FB Market place is a good shout. Think we will be seeing some big changes on FB Marketplace as it has become very popular. Some very big car dealers are advertising on there now and they are introducing their own in message payment methods which will offer a bit more protection to buys and sellers.
We have sold quite a bit of stuff on there with minimal hassle. Had one fraud incident, but to be honest that was my own fault.
I am never convinced on used bikes. Factor in the below and are you actually saving anything
- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
Gareth79 said:
Facebook Marketplace is worth a look, although the "user experience" is terrible, eg. it seems to be sorted by the last time the user received a message, there's no way to sort by newly added items. The default view (which is based of your previous searches) does sometimes pop up interesting stuff though.
Beware, if they're stupid cheap, they're stolen.bakerstreet said:
I am never convinced on used bikes. Factor in the below and are you actually saving anything
- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
When looking at bikes costing £5-8k new, I'd much rather someone else take the hit for having bought it on a whim, and then barely used it!- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
I have a fairly short list of candidates, and as per other poster I am doing my due diligence to ensure I'm buying something 'genuine' rather than removed from its previous owner without their permission (such as you're able to do so, of course!).
Adrian E said:
When looking at bikes costing £5-8k new, I'd much rather someone else take the hit for having bought it on a whim, and then barely used it!
I have a fairly short list of candidates, and as per other poster I am doing my due diligence to ensure I'm buying something 'genuine' rather than removed from its previous owner without their permission (such as you're able to do so, of course!).
How you going to check they aren't stolen short of a bike register mark? They don't exactly have a VIN number and a MOT I have a fairly short list of candidates, and as per other poster I am doing my due diligence to ensure I'm buying something 'genuine' rather than removed from its previous owner without their permission (such as you're able to do so, of course!).
bakerstreet said:
FB Market place is a good shout.
Think we will be seeing some big changes on FB Marketplace as it has become very popular. Some very big car dealers are advertising on there now and they are introducing their own in message payment methods which will offer a bit more protection to buys and sellers.
We have sold quite a bit of stuff on there with minimal hassle. Had one fraud incident, but to be honest that was my own fault.
I am never convinced on used bikes. Factor in the below and are you actually saving anything
- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
If you're patient and do your research, the above comments are guff. There are tons of great bikes out there that have hardly been ridden 5 miles. We had a cycle to work scheme and in the first year they sold about 25 bikes most of which haven't been anywhere. They were bought because some people genuinely wanted to try it, to lose some weight and be more healthy, but they were also bought by some folk who thought they were getting a bargain, and some of those thought they could sell them on at a profit. Think we will be seeing some big changes on FB Marketplace as it has become very popular. Some very big car dealers are advertising on there now and they are introducing their own in message payment methods which will offer a bit more protection to buys and sellers.
We have sold quite a bit of stuff on there with minimal hassle. Had one fraud incident, but to be honest that was my own fault.
I am never convinced on used bikes. Factor in the below and are you actually saving anything
- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
I've bought several bikes off eBay, and have been very happy with bikes and the price I paid, and the sellers have all been genuine. But if you think it's too good to be true or the seller only seems 90% genuine, walk away.
Having said all that, a high end downhill bike is perhaps the most likely to have hidden problems, and if you are parting with thousands, can you risk it?
bakerstreet said:
Adrian E said:
When looking at bikes costing £5-8k new, I'd much rather someone else take the hit for having bought it on a whim, and then barely used it!
I have a fairly short list of candidates, and as per other poster I am doing my due diligence to ensure I'm buying something 'genuine' rather than removed from its previous owner without their permission (such as you're able to do so, of course!).
How you going to check they aren't stolen short of a bike register mark? They don't exactly have a VIN number and a MOT I have a fairly short list of candidates, and as per other poster I am doing my due diligence to ensure I'm buying something 'genuine' rather than removed from its previous owner without their permission (such as you're able to do so, of course!).
I think most of the time you'd figure out if the person seems genuine by their living situation, how they talk about the bike etc. Obviously gangs may well use knowledgeable people to flog on their stuff, or the seller may have unwittingly bought it themselves, but I think most "professionally" stolen bikes are shipped abroad these days. (And sold on eBay from Eastern Europe by the looks).
bakerstreet said:
I am never convinced on used bikes. Factor in the below and are you actually saving anything
- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
As mentioned, the actual savings are massive if you look carefully. You'll save at least a third on the new price for something current, and half on something 2+ years old, for mid-high end stuff. Last year I picked up a Felt AR1 with Ultegra Di2, Hope hubs, Mavic rims, Rotor 3D cranks: £620. It's older parts but has been a great starter bike for me, and something brand new at a comparable level would be £3k.- Bike will need a service. That's anything from £25 upwards
- Travel to go and view/collect?
- Knackered consumables (Tyres/bar tape etc etc)
- Faff factor. Discussions on price, poor seller communication
- Judgement call on sizes. You have to know what you are looking for.
Edited by Gareth79 on Tuesday 21st May 16:48
I quite enjoy the hunt.
Sure, there are some really bad bikes on sale second hand (and in fact 'new' if you see my post on the specialized roubaix thread). But there are some very lightly used examples at considerable savings
Patience balanced with a degree of flexibility on exact spec that you will consider helps and it is far better as an option if you can do your own fettling rather than pay bike shops to titivate anything purchased
Sure, there are some really bad bikes on sale second hand (and in fact 'new' if you see my post on the specialized roubaix thread). But there are some very lightly used examples at considerable savings
Patience balanced with a degree of flexibility on exact spec that you will consider helps and it is far better as an option if you can do your own fettling rather than pay bike shops to titivate anything purchased
I almost always buy second hand, but it’s from a relatively small circle so generally we’ll have mutual acquaintances or frequent the same forums - so someone else could vouch for the person. This often means bargains can be had because we’re selling within a community and people just want to move on to the next shiny thing instead of make a buck out of it.
If you know what you’re looking for, second hand can be a bargain, but factor in the parts you’ll need to replace sooner than if you’d bought new.
Bikes with poor descriptions and an appealing price are either stolen or owned by the ‘more money than sense’ brigade, but it’s usually quite easy to tell which is which.
If you know what you’re looking for, second hand can be a bargain, but factor in the parts you’ll need to replace sooner than if you’d bought new.
Bikes with poor descriptions and an appealing price are either stolen or owned by the ‘more money than sense’ brigade, but it’s usually quite easy to tell which is which.
Yep, missed out on a Cannondale Scalpel Si on ebay which I couldn't get over to see last weekend, which was being sold by someone who seems to sell an awful lot of bike componentry. Bit evasive about usage, and suggested the spec had been changed at time of purchase in 2017, yet all the bits were shown in his completed auctions within the last couple of months! At the right price, the spec still made it worth consideration even with the carbon wheels and Di2 stripped off it. I suspect he buys bargain bikes and then maximises the return by stripping high value components from them and fitting vanilla bits to replace. His house looked v nice in the pics, but my spidey sense was tingling, all the same.....
I always register my bikes with bikeregister and any bike with an obliterated frame marking would not be considered, nor anything being sold by someone whose circumstances quite clearly couldn't afford the purchase price. I'd also always travel to view and never trust a description as gospel. Invisifilm from new would be nice, but any knocks in the carbon would rule it out - the odd scratch would be fine. I intend to use it until I'm too old and slow and decide an e-bike is for me!
I'm looking for one of those high earning, slightly overweight, but inherently lazy when it comes to physical exercise types who will spunk major cash on a bike to look at, until they get bored with that and look to move it on. There are a surprisingly large number out there! I'm an engineer by background and do my own maintenance for most things short of refacing a headset and new fork install, simply because it's cheaper to pay someone to do that than buy the tools to do it properly. I rebuilt my commuting MTB from a 3x9 to 1x11 setup with road bias and quite enjoy a bit of tinkering. Got enough tools to do most jobs.
Got a SC Tallboy 2 C to look at, but think it's going to be on the heavy side. Another 'dale will pop up, or an Intense, or maybe a Scott.....
I always register my bikes with bikeregister and any bike with an obliterated frame marking would not be considered, nor anything being sold by someone whose circumstances quite clearly couldn't afford the purchase price. I'd also always travel to view and never trust a description as gospel. Invisifilm from new would be nice, but any knocks in the carbon would rule it out - the odd scratch would be fine. I intend to use it until I'm too old and slow and decide an e-bike is for me!
I'm looking for one of those high earning, slightly overweight, but inherently lazy when it comes to physical exercise types who will spunk major cash on a bike to look at, until they get bored with that and look to move it on. There are a surprisingly large number out there! I'm an engineer by background and do my own maintenance for most things short of refacing a headset and new fork install, simply because it's cheaper to pay someone to do that than buy the tools to do it properly. I rebuilt my commuting MTB from a 3x9 to 1x11 setup with road bias and quite enjoy a bit of tinkering. Got enough tools to do most jobs.
Got a SC Tallboy 2 C to look at, but think it's going to be on the heavy side. Another 'dale will pop up, or an Intense, or maybe a Scott.....
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