Where do you shop for bikes?

[feynman]

As my cycling identity crisis goes into full flareup, I'm on the hunt for my uniquely cool do-it-all bike long distance road-trail bike.

Until now I've made all my better purchases here on Paceline. Local sources seem to rarely have interesting bikes. My few ads on Pinkbike have been 80% scams.

I know about radbazaar.

Anywhere else I should be looking?

Thanks.

[BrazAd]

I just bought a high-end bike that is 2 years old and in as-new condition. Found it on PinkBike… bought it for 40% of original price.

I’ve bought and sold high-end acoustic guitars for years.

My transaction with the PinkBike seller was the best, most professional and easiest transaction that I’ve ever had with a stranger.

Point is - PB (and other sources) has good and bad, like everything else in life.

Be patient. Vet everyone and everything. In the end your bike will come to you.

Good hunting!

Gary


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lorenbike]

Pinkbike, Paceline for bikes or frames. Occasionally eBay for parts. Occasionally craigslist but there's usually not much in my area. I've never had an issue on Pinkbike.

To be honest I haven't bought a bike from a bike shop in years.

[Likes2ridefar]

Locally I’ve purchased from rage cycles and bicycle haus. The latter might have some gravel pinarellos, specialized, and one ups to see on the floor. Regroup has a nice allied gravel bike built up now ready to sell but I think it’s one size too small for you and it’s around 8 or 9k as built. They also had a few 3t and orbea gravel bikes on the floor. One had campy ekar build, which surprised me as I had never seen that brand on a retail bike for sale there.

Stevebay is a private group on Facebook that is a local marketplace to our area I’ve used a few times with success.

Otherwise I buy everything here since all you have to do is ask and almost always it’ll eventually arrive.

[jamesdak]

Well, as someone who buys too many bikes I've got a few "usual" sources.

The main is a local classified site. I honestly find a lot of deals there that are within an hour or two drive from the house. This is also my primary sell source as I don't like shipping and possible problems with it. I want the buyer to see things with there own eyes and be totally happy. Even if it means a loss for me. There's a few other Paceliners that sell stuff on KSL as well as here. The mint Pinarello I bought from a KSL ad was also listed here for a long time before I pulled the trigger.

https://classifieds.ksl.com/search/Cycling

Then there's here and the C&V classifieds over on Bikeforums.net. I also picked up that special Lemond from a Wisconsin seller on the Retrobike classifieds.

A few have come from facebook. Like the Paris Brest Paris bike I bought directly from Bob Fourney. I'm still leery of Facebook purchases though and need to really be able to confirm things before I buy something long distance off of there.

And of course Ebay occassionally. Usually something a bit obscure, or classifed weirdly or something. Like the NOS Trek Y77 Y-Foil frameset I found a few years ago listed under vintage steel or something like that. I was the only bidder and got it at around 1/2 the price of other recent NOS sales. Or the lovely Losa built Krapf frame I nabbed. Not listed as a Losa build and I actually watched this frameset sit on there for 5 years until the price got to where I got it. I've nailed several good deals on NOS vintage steel on Ebay with just digging deep and deep into the sales, especially sellers in like Holland and Belgium.

And.... try hitting up distributors to see what old stock they could still have sitting around in their warehouses. I got a NOS mid 90's top end Giordana XL Super frameset from Gita around 2015 just by emailing them to see what they had. At the time they still have several of the Giordana frames available and a fair amount of other NOS Italian bikes they had distributed over the years.

For the heck of it. Here's all the current rides and the last column has the source.

[DeBike]

jamesdak is one who's advice on purchasing I would pay attention to. It is not just the experience and number of bikes, it is also the quality and assortment of those bikes. He flat out knows how to put together a fine bicycle.

[jamesdak]

And these are the sold bikes. Shows a lot more KSL purchases there. One note is that for years I've been in the habit of buying cheap local bikes, refurbing them, enjoying them, and then passing on at a loss. My way of trying out a lot of bikes while still "paying back" for the good fortunes I've had over the years.

Usually a forum or Ebay purchase is one I'm planning on keeping a long time. Ebay is just really hard to find deals on anymore. Even with my habit of paying too much for something I want. Local sources are the best overall for real deals in my book.

[Clean39T]

Well........

Paceline - 100% of the time, it works every time.

TheProsCloset - some well-priced bikes, frames, etc. pass through there, next to a lot of overpriced stuff.

BicycleBlueBook - a lot of major brand bikes in their own listings that take "best offer", and kind of an odd platform for peer-to-peer sales.

PinkBike - 90% good, 10% awful, proceed with caution.

Facebook Groups - the platform stinks but the communities are decent.

Facebook Marketplace - the need for due-diligence abounds, a worse platform than craigslist but you can find good stuff every now and then.

Craigslist - can be excellent, can be annoying. Use the search by map function to scan the country.

eBay - people love to hate it for some reason.. I have nothing but good experiences there as both a buyer and seller.

Canyon - occasionally their outlet bikes are excellent deals, though with the price of groupsets and wheels falling off a cliff, 30% off a new bike is not really a deal anymore - and certainly not for a new bike.

CyclingUpgrades - pricing is a bit high when something is first listed but drop precipitously once it's sat for a bit, and they split up complete bikes they buy to get max returns - which I kind of appreciate because you can get the build you want.

BuyTheMojo - another ebay seller that also sells from its own site.

ElevateCycling - some good framesets and used parts, like what TPC was years ago.

InCycle, ExcelSports, MikesBikes, CompetitiveCyclist - lots of 20-40% off MSRP deals on major brands and no hiccups, and some demo bikes and parts at great deals.

That's all that I've got for "deal hunting" or finding fun obscure bikes ------ but far and away the winner here is taking the time to find what you want and buy-once, cry-once to get it.

Someday I'll learn

[dsimon]

Originally Posted by jamesdak

And these are the sold bikes. Shows a lot more KSL purchases there. One note is that for years I've been in the habit of buying cheap local bikes, refurbing them, enjoying them, and then passing on at a loss. My way of trying out a lot of bikes while still "paying back" for the good fortunes I've had over the years.

Usually a forum or Ebay purchase is one I'm planning on keeping a long time. Ebay is just really hard to find deals on anymore. Even with my habit of paying too much for something I want. Local sources are the best overall for real deals in my book.

Sorry, Just curios as to why you keep a tracker..the less anyone knows the less I get into trouble

[Waldo62]

In order of orders: eBay, custom builders, Classic Rendezvous, PL, CL, FB Marketplace.

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by dsimon

Sorry, Just curios as to why you keep a tracker..the less anyone knows the less I get into trouble

LOL, well for one I don't have to justify to anyone. So, I'm safe there.

For various reasons I started a simple spreadsheet years ago. Mainly tracking as built weight for the fun of it. Then I added the components part. Then when I started the silly 19 mph game I added that column.

Then this morning when this post came up I just added the source column 'cause I was hopped up on 4 mugs of coffee and bored. 17 degrees outside so I didn't want to go riding yet. I was also curious about how many I really did get as local finds.

I started trying to remember to put down the selling cost as a point of reference to help other nuts like me on the forums trying to figure out a true value on an old bike.

[feynman]

Thanks, all.

Lest I sounded too negative about Pinkbike, I've only had good purchases and sales there. Most of the scammers, and there do appear to be so very many, are fairly obvious.

Once I figure out what I want, I may just make a WTB here and wait. I know there is no shortage of cool PL inventory.

I appreciate the replies.

[rnhood]

I get mine at the dealer, where I can test ride one for a few days. So far it's always worked, and a nice warranty comes with it.

[duff_duffy]

All but 2 were Facebook, craigslist, eBay.
https://tibikes.wordpress.com/

Sold 95% of them and only lost money on one, basically entire collection free

[Likes2ridefar]

Originally Posted by duff_duffy

All but 2 were Facebook, craigslist, eBay.
https://tibikes.wordpress.com/

Sold 95% of them and only lost money on one, basically entire collection free

That is a nice journey of beautiful bikes you’ve owned.