Second-hand bikes: false economy?

jonny_trousers

Having recently spent well over 300 quid fixing up the Fuji Track I bought from Ebay for about £250 I'm wondering if I should give up on buying second-hand bikes in future. I was always of the opinion that there were bargains to be had in the used market (let's face it, once we've been bitten by the bug, we cyclists simply cannot stop upgrading and therefore wanting to sell on old bikes), but now I'm starting to wonder if I am wrong.

The Fuj is one of three bikes I have bought second-hand and all have needed work shortly after purchase. I don't even think any seller intentionally tried to rip me off, but bikes can be fragile things and we have no idea how they have been treated in their pasts.

So, any thoughts? Can you buy second-hand safely or is it just not worth it? An extra £500+ on a 0% interest loan to buy a bike that will have a warranty and follow up servicing from the retailer make better sense in the long run?

cjcp

I've bought one second hand frame - my Kona. It's been terrific.

In all other cases, though, I've bought a new frame and forks and stuck second-hand or hand-me down groupsets and other bits.

pastryboy

The cost of components is wrong compared to what a new bike costs. I've got a bike that cost me £400 six years ago. It needs about £100 worth of new bits. That's on top of the £60 for a new wheel last year.

If only it was possible to buy the cheap no-brand components that bike manufacturers use...

suzyb

I bought a second hand bike last year and it's been great.

It's even spent some of this winter serving as a clothes horse and been good at that as well

meanredspider

I bought a Focus Cayo - it had just been serviced and less than a year old - perfect nick - loads of upgrades (saddle, carbon bars, CatEye Computer, Look Keo pedals, spare tyres, inners) already on it - all for less than half the price of a new one. Bargain.

I think you need to buy carefully but there are great bikes out there

nation

I bought a nice steel frame on the cheap because it had a seized seatpost.

I've sorted that out, and had the intention of building it up as a runaround that I wouldn't have to worry about people nicking, but by the time I've gone to the expense of getting the parts I need to build it up the money and the time invested would mean that I would worry about people nicking it.

So I thought about buying a cheap hybrid for a couple of hundred quid and using that instead, but then I have to justify another bike to the wife...

You see where these things lead?

wgwarburton

Hi,
It costs more to build a bike from parts, so if you buy parts new then it doesn't take many to offset the savings on a used machine.

If you pick up a bike that isn't heavily worn, you shouldn't need to do many replacements but it'll only be good value if there's enough life left in the parts to justify the cost- no point getting a bike half price if it's only got a quarter of it's "life" to run...

Buying used makes most sense if you do your own fettling and have access to inexpensive replacement parts. If you want the latest & greatest it'll cost more but if you are happy running older kit it can be cheaper, especially if you know what to look for on eBay, the local recyclers etc.

I can build up a winter hack from ebay, The Bike Station and my parts bins for fifty quid, but most people wouldn't be seen dead riding it. Buy a classic Italian frame and put collectible Campy parts on it and you'll be out of pocket by double what a useful road-bike would cost...

If you include the time you spend doing it in the cost, it will probably never be worth it. A new bike will be built by machines and Far-East sweatshop workers that charge a lot less then you do... and they're given a pile of parts that all fit together when they start, so they don't need to research, source and modify them to get a working bike.

If the fettling is part of the fun ("time you've enjoyed wasting....") and you can get the bits you need cheaply then you're sussed.

Cheers,
W.

Fireblade96

I bought a 2nd hand rigid steel MTB some 6 years ago to use as a runabout after having 2 good bikes stolen. I paid £40 for it, plus approx £100 for new parts to make it useable.

I then ran it daily for about 5 years, with only consumables needing replaced. As value for money goes it was the best bike ever ! Even the quick-shifter held on by a jubilee clip has lasted!

At the start of winter I realised it needed a lot of work, and adding up the cost of the parts required came to about £200 - so I bought a new Pompino for £400. The old steel MTB's still in the shed though, for upgrading as I acquire suitable parts. Anyone got any 7-speed compatible MTB wheels ?

stuaff

Buy carefully, and there's nothing wrong with second-hand, plus you save a packet. Got all of mine on eBay, best buy of the lot definitely the Viner. New, frame and fork (2009 price for revised model frame) £1400 or thereabouts. My complete bike (2008 model frame), originally with Veloce, Khamsins etc: £785. When it got repaired last year, I ended up putting everything that fitted on the Squadra (another eBay snip), so fully rebuilt and upgraded with £1000 or so of parts (Athena, Zondas, etc). Simiar spec bike on the Viner stand at the Cycle Show 2009 was £2600.

welkman

I bought a kona Jake from ebay and so far have replaced the following to keep it on the road over the last 1000miles:

Chain
Cassette
Cables
Brakes
Pads
Bottom Bracket
Bar Tape
Headset
Wheels


Thats about 280 quid without the tools needed to fit it. I think the guy I purchased it from had a fetish for jet washing!

My other option was a new Tifosi CK7 which would have cost about twice the price of my jake before adding the replacement parts into the bargin, and there is no way of knowing if that would have survived the winter without needing some of the bits that the Jake did. So I think overall I have done ok.


Still going to treat myself to a 'weekend' bike in march though!


W

Gazzaputt

I've sold a few corkers of bikes in the past.

Best being a C'dale CAAD9 with SRAM Force and Mavic Kyrisum Elites which was all brand new off a Focus I'd bought. £900 that went for.

As said just have a good hard look at what your buying. There are genuine bargains to be had.

gtvlusso

Both of my steel frames are secondhand.

Allot to be said for research on components and knowing what you already have / can make do with.

Generally, if I see a frame I like, I will also research parts that would go with the frame and analyse the total costs against buying the same thing new....

E.g with my Barron steel racing frame:



The bike had 7 speed friction shifters, shimano crane rear mech and tubular tyres on old 105 hubs - basically, it was a 1980's build. Still useable, and in full working order - but I wanted to modernise it.

I already had most of a 6500 Shimano ultegra groupset, so, I kept an eye on ebay for what I needed secondhand. The bars, stem and adaptor are from the USA - very specific. The wheels were cheapish on ebay, not great for climbing, but great for flat road speed.

Total:
£185 for working bike
£24 to finish off Ultegra groupset (stayed with Tiagra brakes for now)
$50 for stem, bars adaptor
£226 for wheels (but they also go on other bike)

Already had saddle, seatpost, brakes and so on.

I now have a lovely vintage set of rigida tubular rims ion 105 hubs, which I will refurb for racing and a vintage groupset to sell on.

Add this to the fact that I actually enjoy building bikes......

My next project will be a single speed mountain bike - On-One are doing some deals at the moment!!

Greg T

gtvlusso wrote:

E.g with my Barron steel racing frame:

UndercoverElephant

@Greg_T

Let's face it, the Fuji track isn't really the quality end of the market in the first place. You are going to find that if you buy a well-used bike you're going to have to do a bit of work, even if it's been well maintained.

I bought the Orbea in May last year. The only thing not really fit for purpose at the time was the shifters, a known problem with Shimano RSX is that the grease solidifies after a number of years meaning that they sometimes just didn't work. Anyway, I fixed them a few times and have recently moved some parts (shifters, mechs and wheels) from the BeOne to replace them. This gave me a great opportunity to upgrade the BeOne.

gtvlusso

Greg T wrote:

gtvlusso wrote:

E.g with my Barron steel racing frame:

Flan.....I reckon thats a flan..

*I may be diverting my tartishness....

rjsterry

Flan or tart, it's still very pretty, which reminds me...

jonny_trousers

There is a pattern emerging with you guys above in that you all enjoy fixing up your own bikes. I wish I had the necessary skills to do so too, but alas...

The other thing to consider, I suppose, is knowing what you are buying. The Fuji looked like a great bike on paper - upgraded carbon fork, 105 brakes, decent rims - but since buying it it has required a new fork, headset, bar tape, bottom bracket, crank (I did manage to nab the last two from my crash damaged Pearson), tyres, and, if I went back to the noriginal rear wheel, that would need retruing too.

Looking back I should have thought, ex-courier bike, home repairs (possibly botched), probably been thrashed. It's actually a great, little bike now, but it has cost me a lot to get it there. I'm on the look out now for a nice, steel frame to remove the final Fuji element.

Butterd2

I bought my Pace frame second hand 15 years ago, that turned out to be a pretty good buy.

My general experience of eBay (and this includes bikes) is that the real bargains are at the top end of the market. Trying to save pennies on cheap tat is a false economy but if you spend big and are careful you make real savings.

gtvlusso

Philosophers Axe......

flicksta

I bought my Litespeed frame/forks second hand last year from ebay, for between a quarter and a third of the price of a new one. It's a few years old, but I gambled successfully that someone that had spent that much money on a bike would be honest about its condition. Obv no corrosion but crucially no crash damage. I had to buy a new seatpost (an excuse to get a Thomson Elite), but groupset, headset, stem, wheels, bars, saddle all came from my existing bike, the frame of which I then sold. Selling my existing frame covered the cost of the seatpost plus the new forks I had to buy as the rise was too low and they were cut carbon. So, in the end, I had to shell out net for a band for the front mech, plus the work to transfer the groupset over which was too much for me to do. All in net about £700 for a titanium frame plus groupset that's done about 5k miles. As the groupset still works really well, I may upgrade wheels this year.

The main thing was being judicious in choosing the frame, I passed up a few Van Nics as the price just went too high, and a Silk Road that in the end I didn't think suited me as it was the race version.

However, on the other hand, my fixed bike was a total money pit. £100 to buy, £25 new bars, £10 new brake lever, £125 new wheels, £10 new chain, £30 new tyres, £14 new cog. Sold for £125.

mudcovered

Fireblade96 wrote:

Anyone got any 7-speed compatible MTB wheels ?

Nope but assuming its a freehub rather than a freewheel I might be able to fish out the magic little spacer that allows you to use a 7spd cassette on an 8/9speed wheel. Or you buy the wheel from your LBS they would probably throw in the spacer for free as they only cost about a quid.

I'm not ever going to use it again so assuming I can find it I'd be happy to stick it in a jiffy bag and post it to you.

Mike