Cheap commuting bikes, did Covid shunt the prices up?

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Location
Rammy
I'm looking to start cycling to work from time to time, and looking on eBay, Facebook marketplace etc for something complete, or complete-ish that I can use to commute on. I'm wanting to keep the cost down so that if it does go walkabouts from work, it's not a huge loss and hopefully an old looking road bike won't be attractive to theft.

But where have all the cheap bikes gone?
I can't seem to find anything in my, admittedly low, budget in the local area.

anywhere else to go hunting?
Nearly got one from the local cash-converter which had 'broken brakes' that just had the release lever on the calliper in the released position but it'd gone before I was allowed out again from having Covid.
 

Gunk

Guru
Location
Oxford
Cheap bikes disappeared about a year ago, pre-covid my son and I were buying a couple a month off Gumtree, we’ve bought two over the last 12 months, we just can’t buy them for the right money anymore. Stuff we were paying £30 for is now nudging £100
 
It might vary by area. I thought it was improving around here with a few more deals. At some point those people who bought bikes but ended up not regularly using them will want to sell them. So the high sales caused by covid will surely have a reversal at some point I would of thought. Also with a lack of new parts available, poor condition bikes maybe less desirable if fixing them will be more difficult and expensive.

What with freecycle, gumtree, facebook marketplace, ebay, schpock etc I'd say I could probably get a usable bike for less than £30 within 2 weeks where I am in Somerset.
 
'bout the only cheap stuff I've seen there is the 'bike for parts' search. Some of these are heaps of bikes as a job lot, so bit of a lucky dip really. As stated, bike prices in general are a leetle bit crazy right now. Also think it's perhaps a UK thing, we have Decathlon here, and the same bikes are half the UK prices.
 
Good morning,

I was like you earlier this year, I needed something to commute on that might be nicked, but I am not sure what you mean by cheap.

I did look at cheap new but availability was a real issue, so I probably slightly overpaid for this (post 45) https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/bike-sales-boom.274195/page-3#post-6385257 but it was local and I was in a hurry. Alu/CF forks and Claris for £190

For me the problem with going too cheap was that I don't have a collection of spare parts, so if I bought something that needed a replacement chain, cassette and brake blocks then they would have to be new and possibly a bit of a hassle to obtain quickly outweighing any cost savings.

There is an almost unused Steel 501 on post https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/e...you-see-something.93126/page-484#post-6581864 post, 7,260 that is still for sale, okay this may not be cheap, but it is quite a lot of bike which screams old school and not worth much so let's not nick it. It's collection only though

New there is the the Halfords Paradox, drop bars, at £230, that is starting to be available again https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road...road-bike---48cm-51cm-54cm-frames-601204.html again unattractive to thieves and every thing is new, as would be a Decathlon hybrid at https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/hybrid-bike-riverside-120-metal/_/R-p-300806?mc=8405304&c=GREY at around the same price.

More generally steel bikes with racks and mudguards seem to be going quite cheaply if you are prepared to travel a bit and you can end up with a lot of good components and a well loved bike as there is little demand for older touring bikes, yes there is also some junk.

Bye

Ian
 
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'bout the only cheap stuff I've seen there is the 'bike for parts' search. Some of these are heaps of bikes as a job lot, so bit of a lucky dip really. As stated, bike prices in general are a leetle bit crazy right now. Also think it's perhaps a UK thing, we have Decathlon here, and the same bikes are half the UK prices.

I was watching a video series on youtube about touring in Thailand on a $100 bike and I reckon that bike would be pretty much 2x the price over here. freewheel based hybrid with 27.5" wheels and aluminium frame but pretty poor components. What looks like a pretty dodgy poor quality suspension fork actually gets a good review in a later video in the series. The EU puts quite high tariffs on bike imports and the UK has carried on with the tariffs despite leaving the EU but now those tariffs are paid to our own exchequer rather than into the EU. So no surprise that there is a huge difference in price between here and over there which surely a huge chunk will be taxes and tariffs.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq165mQlshY
 
Good morning,

I was like you earlier this year, I needed something to commute on that might be nicked, but I am not sure what you mean by cheap.

I did look at cheap new but availability was a real issue, so I probably slightly overpaid for this (post 45) https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/bike-sales-boom.274195/page-3#post-6385257 but it was local and I was in a hurry. Alu/CF forks and Claris for £190

For me the problem with going too cheap was that I don't have a collection of spare parts, so if I bought something that needed a replacement chain, cassette and brake blocks then they would have to be new and possibly a bit of a hassle to obtain quickly outweighing any cost savings.

There is an almost unused Steel 501 on post https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/e...you-see-something.93126/page-484#post-6581864 post, 7,260 that is still for sale, okay this may not be cheap, but it is quite a lot of bike which screams old school and not worth much so let's not nick it. It's collection only though

New there is the the Halfords Paradox, drop bars, at £230, that is starting to be available again https://www.halfords.com/bikes/road...road-bike---48cm-51cm-54cm-frames-601204.html again unattractive to thieves and every thing is new, as would be a Decathlon hybrid at https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/hybrid-bike-riverside-120-metal/_/R-p-300806?mc=8405304&c=GREY at around the same price.

More generally steel bikes with racks and mudguards seem to be going quite cheaply if you are prepared to travel a bit and you can end up with a lot of good components and a well loved bike as there is little demand for older touring bikes, yes there is also some junk.

Bye

Ian

Argos is always worth a look if you can do your own bike maintenance. They do this model for just under £200 and a similar model that doubles the number of gears for £220. At a later date you could replace the rear wheel of either model with a 7 speed freehub wheel and cassette to get a improvement in gear range (i.e. 11-34T cassette), strength and shifting accuracy.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9456473?clickPR=plp:2:3
 
Good morning,
Argos is always worth a look if you can do your own bike maintenance. They do this model for just under £200 and a similar model that doubles the number of gears for £220. At a later date you could replace the rear wheel of either model with a 7 speed freehub wheel and cassette to get a improvement in gear range (i.e. 11-34T cassette), strength and shifting accuracy.

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9456473?clickPR=plp:2:3
I never even considered Argos, which is a bit odd as a few years ago they were selling a carbon frame/fork bike for something like £700!

That link is actually a better specified bike than I would have expected, Alu/steel fork, weigh of 12.6kg is okay too considering, 1x7 and in the picture it looks a bit like titanium.:smile:

The only thing is that I have done about 6k miles on the Norco and they were quite enjoyable in a relaxed sort of way, it is effectively a 1x7 for me and my area, I suspect that the really cheap new bikes might have ended up as commute only, especially the hybrid.

Mustn't forget


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MurHt7Sxhyk&ab_channel=GlobalCyclingNetwork
a £300 bike.

Bye

Ian
 
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Good morning,

I never even considered Argos, which is a bit odd as a few years ago they were selling a carbon frame/fork bike for something like £700!

That link is actually a better specified bike than I would have expected, Alu/steel fork, weigh of 12.6kg is okay too considering, 1x7 and in the picture it looks a bit like titanium.:smile:

The only thing is that I have done about 6k miles on the Norco and they were quite enjoyable in a relaxed sort of way, it is effectively a 1x7 for me and my area, I suspect that the really cheap new bikes might have ended up as commute only, especially the hybrid.

Mustn't forget


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MurHt7Sxhyk&ab_channel=GlobalCyclingNetwork
a £300 bike.

Bye

Ian


I think that GCN video was to keep their sponsors happy. At £300 they could have chosen many better road bikes but they went for that monstrosity to try to manipulate people to buy higher end bikes. There are easily better bikes available from Halfords and Decathlon for that sort of money and even on ebay and Amazon you can typically find better.
 
I was watching a video series on youtube about touring in Thailand on a $100 bike and I reckon that bike would be pretty much 2x the price over here. freewheel based hybrid with 27.5" wheels and aluminium frame but pretty poor components. What looks like a pretty dodgy poor quality suspension fork actually gets a good review in a later video in the series. The EU puts quite high tariffs on bike imports and the UK has carried on with the tariffs despite leaving the EU but now those tariffs are paid to our own exchequer rather than into the EU. So no surprise that there is a huge difference in price between here and over there which surely a huge chunk will be taxes and tariffs.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq165mQlshY

Thanks for the heads up, enjoyed the vid, will watch some more later. As much as I like cycling here, could not imagine going touring on a bicycle, the heat alone would be too much. I cycle in the morning and late afternoon for about an hour each time, and that's just about all I could tolerate, even in what is now the 'cool' season. Guess we all have different comfort zones, have a friend who stays here in Thailand for 6 months each year, and he's cycled the 4 corners of the country, and its near neighbours. I break into a sweat just thinking about it 🥵
 
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