Good places to search for quality 2nd hand bikes?

[Adrian E]

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

[Adrian E]

Thanks all - will keep an eye on Pinkbike for new listings, and I've found at least one candidate FB group to keep an eye on too

Probably the wrong time of year to be looking to pick up a used bike, as everyone's out riding them at the moment!

[Adrian E]

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!

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]

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.....