Selling a bike

[steve30]

I want to buy a new road bike, but it will probably have to wait till after christmas.

To free up room, I would most likely have to get rid of my hybrid bike.

I've seen a few similar bikes sell for much less than the retail price on ebay, but they often tend to be in nearly new condition. Mine has had quite a lot of use (maybe around 1000 miles), and despite having had better quality inner tubes, break pads and SPD pedals, it is looking a little tatty due to some small scratches etc and a slightly frayed brake cable.

Is there much chance of me getting a decent price for it? The bike is a Specialized Crosstrail 2009, Extra Large size.

If not I would probably have to build some kind of storage system to fit an additional bike in the garage along side my mother's motor car.

 

[PaulSecteur]

Im in the same position, but just go a road bike and looking to sell my Moutain bike with scwalbe tyres.

I dont want to let it go for peanuts as its a cracking bike and I would rather keep it than accept a low price.

I would say take some photos, advertise it here and any other forums you are active on (not just bike forums), and then perhaps ebay with a reserve if you have no joy.

 

[eldudino]

Keep it if you can. You'll always need to have a bike for leaving outside the shops or going to the swimming pool or in really bad weather. Have you looked at something like this to store the bikes vertically?

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Is there much chance of me getting a decent price for it?

Depends what you mean by decent. If by decent you mean anything more than about 35-40% of what you paid for it, then no. You will have noticed that one year old mint bikes go for around 50% of retail. So your scuffed, higher miler will not attract the same price as you think it's probably worth.

I agree with edudino, keep it if you can. Second hand bikes are rarely money spinners, but they are always useful.

How much is any storage system that you may need? That's one thing to think of.

 

[steve30]

Didn't think it would get much. Keeping it would be handy, but space is at a premium. There is already my Mum's mountain bike, and my Mum's old mountain bike which she wants rid of, and the garage is really a bit too small for the motor car which is kept there. 

Storing one bike above the other would be a good idea, but I would probably have to either find something else or make something of my own. The one eldudino mentions looks good but probably wouldn't fit in my garage and is far too expensive.

 

[PaulSB]

Obviously difficult to comment without seeing the garage but my view is this. First get rid of your mother's old bike, get £20,30,40 or what you can for it - £20 should pay for the wall bracket. Keep your hybrid as it's usually very difficult to get the true value of anything secondhand. With only 1000 miles on the clock this is worth a lot to you.

Halfords sell several different solutions. I have the Halfords Folding Bike Storage Wall Bracket cost me £10 and is more than adequate. You'll need to buy some bigger screws and rawl plugs in my opinion but that's all.

Alternatively go to B&Q or similar and buy some very large plastic coated hooks. B&Q storage hooks Screw into wall and you're done. With this system you will need to turn the handle bars round to store and you may need to mount a block of wood on the wall first the screw the hooks onto that. This is to give sufficient clearance from the wall to allow for the pedals.

If you're garage has rafters think about using hooks in a similar way and hanging the bike(s) vertically from the rafters. We do this with our tandem for winter storage. Turn handlebars to make bike as flat as possible, select position (I find with the wheels tucked into the corner best) fit hooks as appropriate and the job is done.

With a bit of thought and perhaps re-arranging the garage you'll solve this for £20 or so. Good Luck.

 

[Chris S]

Keep your bike until the spring at least - demand and prices fall in the winter.

 

[e-rider]

There are loads of different versions of the crosstrail (eg. expert, comp etc) - which one do you have?

I disagree with Canucks that you'll not get more than 30-40% of the original price. In the days before ebay, you would be looking at 30-40% but I think you could get 50-60% of the list price - perhaps even more, especially if you polish it up and make a good advert and select a decent evening finishing time (not friday evening or weekends though).

Putting a reserve definitly puts buyers off, so it'll be a real gamble - selling it in the summer would have been better.
If you want to be sure of a good price; put it on eaby with a high starting price - perhaps only 5% below what you'd like to get for it and then rely on just one or two bids.

the best way to get a maximum price would be to start at 99p, but you do run the risk of selling it for much less than you want if it just happens to be a quiet week on ebay - which at this time of year is a real possiblity. However, selling in Jan and Feb would be even worse.

You could always do a buy-it-now!

 

[steve30]

I have the Crosstrail Sport.

Producing a good looking listing with a detailed description and good quality high resolution photos always helps in my opinion. But this seems to be much less popular these days.  I even posted about it in another forums rants topic (http://forum.classicamiga.com/forum/showthread.php/1651-Random-Rants?p=43780&viewfull=1#post43780).

I will definitely look into producing some sort of wall mounting solution and will perhaps look int selling it next year. I don't want to sell it without having bought a new bike first as then I would be left with no transport.

 

[eldudino]

The one eldudino mentions looks good but probably wouldn't fit in my garage and is far too expensive.

I agree it's pretty dear, I'd probably knock something up myself to be hones. If you can store one bike, you can probably store one above it so one on the floor, the other up in the air, there are all sorts of cheaper things to do this, as well as a big hook attached to a beam!