buying a used bike

steel city pimp
steel city pimp Posts: 5
edited March 2012 in MTB buying advice
Hey guys n gals, i'm just getting back into mtbing again, i built a bike up spending about £1800 a few years ago, got sick downstaiars with Testicular C so didnt ride it...at all.
I sold that bike for the princely sum of £250 after it sitting in the shed for about 5 years. :cry:

So...alls well now, and im itching to get back in the saddle, tho i dont have the kind of funds i had when i built the last bike. I'm going to take advantage of the depreciation of used bikes and look for a bike for the grand sum of £300 and im gonna stick to it....lol !

Any recommendations on what i should be looking at for that budget ? as its a bit of a minefield out there, what was good to me 10 years ago are now like just entry level stuff

I'm going to be riding the south east of uk mainly sussex, so hardtail, with shock forks will be fine.

So many new brands out there now and components..... geez !

Help me shop..please

Nick

Comments

  • tommy-leg
    tommy-leg Posts: 48
    Nothing to do with mtb's, but i had Lady cancer take my right nut a few years back! well done on getting through it!
  • It's not fun is it ... That treatment after , oh my days, sick as a dog for weeks !
    At least we're still here to tell the story tho .

    Been on gumtree today and being a bit old school I'm coming up with 90s avalanches, old Gary fishers etc. maybe one of you lot could sell me an old dust collector out of your garages, just seen a Jekyll 700 for £300 !!!!
  • concorde
    concorde Posts: 1,008
    Gumtree is the place to look I find or obviously eBay. There's classifieds on here too. Well done on the beating the Big C too.
  • tommy-leg
    tommy-leg Posts: 48
    Yeah its tough, chemo is defantly the hardest part! I found that these's quite a few on pinkbike
  • Concorde wrote:
    Gumtree is the place to look I find or obviously eBay. There's classifieds on here too. Well done on the beating the Big C too.

    Cheers for that :)

    Yes, I've been looking in the right places, it's just being out of touch, I'm not sure what brand and models to look at
    I.e what was a good bike 5-10 yrs ago is now just an entry level bike.

    I used to race many years ago as a progression from BMX, had alpine stars, a trek, cannondale, the last bike which I built was a DDG Axis XC, It was soooo wrong when finished, just wanted to throw me off at the slightest opportunity.

    Seen an Avalanche 96 model local in really good condition, it's 225which seems a lot for such an old bike, but the parts are good on it, a newer same bike now seems like a cheap entry level bike, same with specialized stuff to.
  • The Rookie
    The Rookie Posts: 27,812
    Well done on getting back to health....

    Bike wise, for £300 used you'll have a massive choice, personally I'd look for something 2-3 years old which retailed for about £600 ish, Hydraulic discs and damped with rebound adjust forks as a minimum.

    Alternatively the lad bought a £120 Spesh (P1 AM) and then spent about another £200 (net, after selling on the take off stuff) doing it up (better wheels, much better fork, tyres, bars and stem, shifters and mechs etc) as you clearly know how to do that, at the end you'll end up with a bike tailored to what you want rather than a good £300 bike needing some tweaks to get it to what you want.

    Simon
    Currently riding a Whyte T130C, X0 drivetrain, Magura Trail brakes converted to mixed wheel size (homebuilt wheels) with 140mm Fox 34 Rhythm and RP23 suspension. 12.2Kg.
  • bartimaeus
    bartimaeus Posts: 1,812
    eBay... set up a search on 'bike' and make it local to you (e.g. 25 miles) so you can do a local pick up. I'd also look for bikes which are poorly described with no spec list and with poor pictures as these *may* be great bikes that will get few bids. Quite a few people buy MTBs for commuting, so you should come across stuff that's only a year or two old but which has seen little or no use off road. You can always email the seller for more details and better photos.
    Vitus Sentier VR+ (2018) GT Grade AL 105 (2016)
    Giant Anthem X4 (2010) GT Avalanche 1.0 (2010)
    Kingley Vale and QECP Trail Collective - QECP Trail Building
  • God... It's so consuming, thanks for the tips everyone.
    Seen some ex hire 2011 hardrocks for £250, still tempted by this old Avalanche with nice bits for 200 tho. He's local too :)
  • bartimaeus
    bartimaeus Posts: 1,812
    GT Avalanche - great choice!
    ( see my sig :) )
    Vitus Sentier VR+ (2018) GT Grade AL 105 (2016)
    Giant Anthem X4 (2010) GT Avalanche 1.0 (2010)
    Kingley Vale and QECP Trail Collective - QECP Trail Building