Buying a Good Bike, or What I Did

I love magazines like Bike. Dirt Rag, and Mountain BikeAction. Especially in the former two Mags, the stories about hidden or not so hidden Trails all over the country, the brotherhood of Mountain Bikers, who build, ride and compete on the trails is what I look forward to reading.

 And I don’t want to trash the magazines I do enjoy reading the articles as well as reviews, Hell I have a subscription to two of the three magazines above there. But most reviews and or ads are for High end bikes I could only wish to afford. Hey I get it, you are not going to advertise the 300 dollar bike, that has low dollar components, you want to showcase the sports car of bikes, the pictures that are going to look pretty and make most of us foam at the mouth wanting to ride the newest toys out there. The problem is if you are like me, and have multiple hobbies (all of which my wife thinks are too expensive) you can’t afford a $5,000 dollar or even a $2,500 dollar bike to rip through the trails. Hell if I only had this as a hobby I still have two kids, a mortgage, and other bills and would still not be able to afford a high end bike. But What I could afford was a $400 dollar bike to start with and slowly upgrade as was needed. Do I want a higher end bike? Yes! I would love to own one. And with some of the bike shops around the bike I am riding could be that stepping stone to cut some money out of my next ride. But I will explain that later.

First question you have to ask yourself when getting into this sport is what kind of bike will I need? This can be answered by what will you be doing with the bike? Are you going to live in the woods with the bike? Pretty much just racing through the single tracks in your area, and the bike never seeing the asphalt or the side of the road? Are you going to split the time on your bike? This is the category I originally fell into I felt that most of my riding was going to be with my Wife and kids on the various bike trails, while trying to get off road whenever I could. Figuring initially a 90-10 split, 90 percent trails and 10 percent off road.

 

Well since then I ride about 30 percent of the time now off road now. So I went for more of a hybrid Mountain bike that leaned a bit more to the Mountain Bike side. 

Yep! That is it, a stock pic of my bike

 

Coming in with no experience as to what was out there and not being on a bike since my BMX teenage years, there was a mountain of advice and info out there. This is my experience through getting my own bike as well as some advice on how you may be able to get a less expensive or even a better bike out there by being patient (which I am not) and searching around a bit.

I started with a simple question to some fellow co-workers. “What is it going to cost me to get into Mountain biking?” The answer “how much you looking to spend?” I was hoping not too much over $500 bucks. And since I had picked up different magazines from the local bookstores and looked on line I assumed that was not getting me much (compared to the $1000 to $5000 dollar bikes I saw in the buyers guides) Word of advice. Do not buy the buyer’s guides they are only higher end bikes, unless that is what you are in the market for, or want to look at the expensive bikes and accessories to pass some time, save yourself ten bucks. So I will break down what I did. One there was craigslist, second was looking around the local bike shops for something to come in used, and finally looking new. All of these have their advantages and disadvantages.

First let’s look at craigslist. You can find at any given time a deal in your local area. At the time of this writing there was a GIANT WARP DS2 Full suspension mountain bikes for 400 bucks or he is willing to trade a compound bow for it.

 

Not The exact bike for sale but a similar pic

 

I looked up it’s “worth” online and came up with about $770 bucks.  Also there is a 2013 Trek 3700 for again 400 bucks.

 

Not The exact bike for sale but a similar pic

 

This one seems to have a worth of about $550. Sometimes there are less expensive bikes with better components other times there are more expensive bikes with less.

 The up side is you can find a really nice bike that fits your needs, you may be able to counter the offer, or in some cases trade a Compound Bow. Sometimes you will get more in components than your money pays for. But it is all about timing and you get no warranty or maintenance plan with a used bike from the internet.

Next in my case I looked at buying a used bike through one of our local shops. I had heard through a co-worker Gary that there was a $300 dollar used Trek I can't even remember the model anymore, but it was worth a good $1000 dollars. Buying from this particular shop that gave me free tune ups once a year. But a good deal does not stick around long and the day I got there to see if it was a good fit, it was gone.

I put my name on the list that if anything similar came in in my size to call. So the up side again I would have gotten a bike worth a grand for a third of the price, it would have come with the same maintenance as the new bikes from the shop and he was local so I could always go in if there was an issue. The down side good deals do not last, if you want it jump on it, I waited a day or two before deciding there was nothing on Craigslist and this may be an excellent deal. And patience as I said before is not my strong point I wanted to start riding.

A friend as well as my wife’s uncle pointed me to another local shop called BigShark. My wife and I went there and after talking to the salesperson for a few minutes he showed us a higher end of our price limit and a few others. I tried a couple of bikes in the parking lot and I found my Raleigh Talus

 

 Ride as many bikes as you can, this particular bike may not have been my first as far as little things like color or even worrying that the cheaper price was going to mean an inferior  product to the slightly more expensive bike that was a close second choice.

 

If you are buying new you have a little more le way as far as time, even if they do not have that bike they can order it in. Also you will be the first to ride it. If they are a good reputable bike shop as Big Shark is, they will help match you to a bike, with size, price and what you will be doing with it.

 

And finally I have lifetime tune-ups and they give me great deals maintenance wise whenever I come in to do something.

 Now the down side is not everyone can afford even a $400 brand new bike, and again my bike was a very basic Mountain Bike for that $400 bucks. I had to upgrade as you will see in a future post. So going the used route will save you money and may get you more for the money you spend.

In the end I spent a little less than $400 bucks (it was on sale) then another 60 in better off road tires with another 50 bucks on new shifters and new handgrips. That included them putting the shifters and grips on the bike. So for a bit over my original price of $500 dollars I have a bike I love to ride. No it is nothing compared to some of the high end Giant, Marin or Trek bikes that I would love to own and read about in my monthly magazine subscriptions, but I am not putting a second mortgage on the house to buy a bike.

And Although I already want to upgrade to a 29er I will use this bike to improve my skills on the trails and maybe in the future get some money on it at one of the local shops toward a slightly higher end bike. As I said earlier this is a choice. How do those local shops get great used bikes? Well they want to sell you a more expensive bike, so they will give you X amount for yours toward a new one. If I went in and they wanted to give me say $200 bucks toward an upgrade for myself maybe in the $700 dollar range, well I get a new bike for about $500 again. But when that happens you guys will be the first to know, for now I am going to enjoy my Raleigh Talus…Next Post.....My First Ride