Questions to Ask When Buying Used DH Bike?

mtnman

What are some questions to ask the seller when buying a used DH bike?

cooldad

What the seller says is not important. Check the bike out.

kajjal

cooldad wrote:

What the seller says is not important. Check the bike out.

Very true, also are you sure you want a downhill bike, it is not really suitable for anything else.

rockmonkeysc

Carefully check the suspension and bearings. Ask for any proof of suspension servicing. Downhill forks and shocks are very expensive.
Check the rims for dents.
What bike is it? There are some which are best avoided.

cycleclinic

Suspenion pivots must move freely and be without play. To be honest any proof of servicing is useful but does mean an awlful lot. You should check it out. I have worked out a really easy way of getting these bearings out. A small gear puller can be turned into an effective press to push the bearings out using a socket and a bolt through it so the end of the gear puller screw has something to push against. Do the reverse to press them back in. So even if it is ropey you can do the job in a hour. I discovered this last week when working on a cube where the bearings would not knock out (seized) using coventional bearing pullers.

rockmonkeysc

If bearings are badly worn it's a sign of neglect. Some DH bikes have quite complex linkages so a set of replacement bearings might not be cheap. My DH bike is a single pivot frame but even that has six bearings and changing them is a fairly big job.
Gear pullers don't always work. I know there isn't enough room to use one on some of the bearings in the linkage on my Scalp and the Device Wilson needs a special tool.