Places to look?

[Sam Kennedy]

I'm looking to get a used road bike, I've tried eBay and Gumtree, and in a few weeks will probably check my local bike recycling scheme, but where else can I look to get second hand road bikes?

 

[Norm]

Have you tried Freecycle? Or there is Recyke-y-bike, which looks annoyingly useful.

 

[Sam Kennedy]

Recyke-Y-Bike is my local bike recycling scheme. Do you reckon I could pick up anything there which doesn't use downtube shifters?

 

[Norm]

No idea. The reason I think it's annoying is that it's at the other end of the country from me and there's little equivalent within a million miles. Oops, I've just realised that it was you who started the thread in which I found out about them!

"Hey, Gran, let me show you how to suck eggs..."

 

[threebikesmcginty]

Do you reckon I could pick up anything there which doesn't use downtube shifters?

Most old bikes are going to have down tube shifters. You can change them though.

Keep an eye on classified ads in your local paper too.
Also garage sales and jumble sales - jumble season's more a summer activity but I got a nice Raleigh 531 bike for £20 earlier in the year - way too big for me but couldn't resist at that price!

 

[swee'pea99]

What's wrong with downtube shifters?

 

[andyfromotley]

Theyre not a patch on indexed gears?

 

[Arch]

Theyre not a patch on indexed gears?

Downtube shifters can be indexed, you know, certainly the rear sprockets.

I have them on my Galaxy, and I'll be swapping to bar mounted shifters of some sort once I've settled on the right bars. But there's nothing wrong with them, you just have to get into taking a hand off the bar to change. It's one more skill to learn. I'll be changing because I've got used to bar shifters, but I'll manage perfectly well with them in the meantime. All you need to change are some downtube cable end-stops, available from any good retailer or online.

Anyway, any guy who can learn to handle friction shifters well obviously has a degree of dexterity and finesse that bodes well.

And I suspect there are plenty of second hand bikes out there without downtube shifters, the alternatives have been around for some time.

 

[jasonmccullum]

what sort of bike are you looking for and how much do you want to spend?

 

[gbb]

Have a look at Friday Ads, then search your area or surrounding for bikes. You occasionally get a bargain, not often road bikes are in there, but they do show up once in a while.
3 years ago, i saw a brilliant condition Orbea roadbike with sora go locally for £130 . I rang as soon as i saw it...already gone

The guy sounded gutted...'i think i undersold it' he said.

I didnt tell him and make his day worse than it already was

 

[normgow]

look in "Cycling Weekly" or as some might say "weakly".

 

[annedonnelly]

Are you still cycling with a club, Sam? Have you asked any of those guys? They'll probably know best places locally - and someone might even be selling one!

I reckon with second-hand stuff you've got to be prepared to look regularly and expect to wait. The right bike for you might not appear for a while, but when it does snap it up, because if you don't someone else will!

 

[jimboalee]

Go into a LBS who run their own team.

It is about this time of year when the team guys are building next year's bike and this year's bikes go up for sale.