How are we finding used prices?

[chris667]

[In three pieces with knackered batteries and loads of broken bits that can't be replaced because they're some weird propriatory standard that went out of fashion 10 minutes after it was introduced..]

Exactly! Made to not be fixable.

 

[PaulSB]

There's too many variables.

I'm sure if I felt like I was doing all the "right" things for speed I'd go faster. I'm not convinced how much of that is in my head though.

The other week, I was on holiday in Lincolnshire. I went for a bike ride for about half a mile with an owl sweeping through a field alongside me. He wasn't threatened by me, but obviously clocked me. After a couple of minutes he saw the next thing and was off! That's the kind of riding I want to do now. I don't really care how much I spend, I want that sort of experience more than the knowledge that I'm riding a bike that's somehow optimised.

Each to their own of course! I am not throwing stones at anyone's choice of what they spend their cash on, and fair play to you for fixing your bike rather than chopping it in because all the new bikes have disc brakes.

I understand this entirely and it's very similar to the experience I enjoy when riding. Where I think you, and many others, go wrong is you seem to believe those of us who like to ride newer more modern bikes sacrifice this pleasure in the pursuit of speed.

Yes, I know plenty of riders who see cycling as largely about speed, distance and climbing but I'd assure you there are many who, like me, chose to ride expensive bikes and take more from cycling than this. I'm 68 and a better rider today than 30 years ago, my bikes influence this. Just last week I knocked 21 seconds off a PB and took a KOM on a 3.6 mile climb. I was very pleased. Two days earlier I was out gravel riding with a buddy, found new trails, carried a picnic, found a new cafe, chatted with a few folk on the way. We did 70 miles averaging 11mph. A few weeks ago I rode 💯 in 5:09, on Friday we're off on a 110 miler which will take around 7½ hours.

I've many experiences similar to your owl, things I can still visualise many years later, and I take as much pleasure from those as I do in grabbing a local KOM.

Overall I find cycling embraces a huge range of pleasures to be enjoyed in a variety of ways. Just because some of us choose to ride fast on occasion doesn't mean we lose out at least in my merry band of pensioners we don't. There are days for performance and days for banter and rambling all are equally good.

 

[chris667]

It's a good thing we're different.
You are missing one of my points though. How much of the performance increase is shiny five year old bike, and how much is you? You yourself say you're a better cyclist than you were as a younger man.

 

[Brandane]

I'm 68 and a better rider today than 30 years ago,

You yourself say you're a better cyclist than you were as a younger man

What exactly is a "better" rider/cyclist? In the context used it seems to mean faster, which IMHO does not necessarily mean better. Safer, more confident, better equipped to fix a bike.... all these things make us a better cyclist. All these things are learned through experience, so I'm sure we are ALL better cyclists than we were 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, no matter what we ride.

 

[PaulSB]

It's a good thing we're different.
You are missing one of my points though. How much of the performance increase is shiny five year old bike, and how much is you? You yourself say you're a better cyclist than you were as a younger man.

Sorry didn't mean to miss that one. I know from my experience when I moved from the previous bike to the Cervelo I got an immediate increase in speed to the extent people remarked on this and one good friend in particular jokingly pulled my leg over it for weeks. It was something I was unaware of until friends commented, as far as I was concerned I was riding as usual but was in fact riding faster for the same effort. On the same bike I upgraded the wheels with another significant increase in performance. I think we would all acknowledge upgrading wheels is the single best improvement one can make to a bike

 

[PaulSB]

What exactly is a "better" rider/cyclist? In the context used it seems to mean faster, which IMHO does not necessarily mean better. Safer, more confident, better equipped to fix a bike.... all these things make us a better cyclist. All these things are learned through experience, so I'm sure we are ALL better cyclists than we were 10, 20, or even 30 years ago, no matter what we ride.

With the exception of the highlight I agree with you. I have no mechanical aptitude or skill whatsoever. I do include the ability to ride further, faster, longer and climb better, each when appropriate, in my description of "better." I'm thinking only of myself with this description and not trying to imply anything.

My every day experience adds to my view of the impact a bike has on the rider. I mentioned earlier I achieved a local KOM last week. I ride three bikes, the Cervelo (2017), a Cannondale CAAD (2015) and Kinesis (2020). On the last two I cannot get close to the PB I hold on this segment or any others. I also know when I ride with my regular buddies if they ride their summer bikes and I choose either my Cannondale or Kinesis I have to work extremely hard just to keep up and can't even consider putting in a shift on the front. There is no doubt in my mind the choice of bike has a direct impact on how quickly one is able to ride, corner, climb and so on.

I should say I'm not someone who chases speed but I do want to improve every aspect of my riding. I embrace many of the elements others here enjoy but don't feel choosing to ride fast on occasions detracts from this.

 

[FishFright]

Of course a £3000 bike can be designed to last a long time.

But most £3000 bikes aren't designed to last a long time. Technology moves on and most cycling enthusiasts are foolish enough to care.

One at £2999 on the other hand is going to last long ages. It's amazing how much trouble a Pound can cause.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Good for us further down the food chain though. Just think of all the Di2 equipped carbon aero framed stuff you're going to find in skips at some point down the line!

The thing is though, I don't want carbon framed Di2, not even for free. If you set aside the inherent ugliness of the vast majority of carbon fibre road bikes, there's no way I'm going to trust a frame and forks with possibly invisible accident damage, and any Di2 unit would almost certainly have a knackered battery by that stage, so could not be considered reliable.
I'll settle for manual shifting that actually works every time, even if the cheaper stuff is a bit agricultural.

 

[Falsesummat]

Ideally I'd like to sell a17 year old bike I had made to measure by George Longstaff. Primary reason for selling it is that I seldom ride it anymore. My new bike has hydraulic brakes which are definitely much more efficient, the gears are functionally far better , bike handles better.
The only reason I've not got round to selling it is because it's worth more than the sum of its parts. Its still a good bike, and it has become slightly iconic in its own way, ie triple chainset, bar end shifters and most people haven't heard of Shimano RX 100 brakes. To summarise, many old bike bargains to be had if you know what to look for.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

The market is still not back at the value level of the late noughteens though.
Mint 531 Raleigh hybrid for £20, slightly neglected looking Raleigh 531 Tourer for £30, similar 531 sportier Dawes for £40 and an unusual Ian May all-531ST tourer for £43. It's definitely getting more sensible, but w're not generally in absolute bargain territory again yet.

 

[DCBassman]

Thinking about my recent retro MTB purchase:
At the local tip, prices got really silly for a couple of years as the pandemic bit. Tip bikes with three figure tickets if the brand was half-decent. Utter madness.
Now, it's a fiver for tiny bikes, tenner for kids bikes, fifteen for adults, regardless of whatever brand it is.

 

[wafter]

The used market still appears to be all over the place (at least for old steel road bikes and tourers); I think typified by a lot of people who don't realise / refuse to accept that the bottom has well and truly fallen out of it.

ebay sales seem to be split down the middle between low-start auctions that often complete for reasonable money and ridiculous kite-fliers / profiteers with silly-high BIN or reserve prices that don't get touched and are just repeatedly re-listed.

A few "gems" include this Raleigh Castorama - which looks nice but has failed to even attract one bid on the £250 start (let alone reaching the seller's presumably very optimistic reserve) for the past three or four times I've seen it listed; yet the same old listing continues to be re-posted.

There's also this Raleigh Rapide - which again looks lovely but I think this guy's been trying to shift it for literally years; while the price bounces around all over the place - having recently gone from £500-800 and back again with seemingly no reason or buyer interest.

The last decent looking Raleigh Randonneur I saw sell on ebay went for a shade over £200, yet people continue to ask £400-500; which unsurprisingly they seemingly rarely get. Same with Dawes Galaxies - I've seen some pretty well specced modern offerings go fo around £200, yet there are still many tired, tatty, low-spec '70s examplies up at £300+.

Facebook seems a bit better in this regard but sadly I'm not finding much on there that appeals currently..

 

[alex_cycles]

The used market still appears to be all over the place (at least for old steel road bikes and tourers); I think typified by a lot of people who don't realise / refuse to accept that the bottom has well and truly fallen out of it.

ebay sales seem to be split down the middle between low-start auctions that often complete for reasonable money and ridiculous kite-fliers / profiteers with silly-high BIN or reserve prices that don't get touched and are just repeatedly re-listed.

Agree ebay is all over the place. I picked up an almost unused (still moulding flash on the tyres) Specialized Allez a year ago for less than £300. Saw another, much more used one on eBay this week for £700. I think if you're patient and willing to search regularly for a few weeks, you can usually find something worthwhile. For me, the risk of buying second-hand needs to be acknowledged in the price.

 

[wafter]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread off the back of @Cycleops' Giant thread, since that's caused me to take a look at what's about on the used market - quite the eye-opener!

I recall looking at Giant's entry-level Contend model in 2018 (after which I eventually went with a used Boardman). Back then I think the least expensive (the Contend 2) was about £600 RRP, now it's about £750. I imagine you could knock 20% off either of those figures for end-of-season-clearances so £480 and £600 respectively. While granted there are a few going for more, I'm seeing some on ebay for as little as £150ish - including one of the same vintage as I was originally considering... so ostensibly it's lost around 75% of its value in four years.

Not that I'm a huge fan of Giant (nothing wrong with them per-se, they just don't make anything that interests me - i.e. steel) that's a hell of a lot of bike for someone just starting out, and a stark contrast when compared to new prices. £150-200 for a four year old versus four-five times that for a new one has to be a pretty strong incentive for those on a budget.

Similarly there are 4-5yr old Contend SLs on ebay for similar money (typically £150-300 maybe); earlier variants of what's now around £1250-1300 RRP.

Residuals of the Contend "AR" ("All Road") are better; presumably because gravel's more trendy / has more marketing focus and is relatively young, so there's probably less choice. AR3s appear to be going for maybe £450-550 for 2020 models, when the current RRP is £1200 - so that's around 50-60% lost value over a couple of years.

This illustrates nicely that the Covid froth at this end of the market is gone and we've maybe pushed a bit below pre-Covid prices.

Moving onto more interesting metal, Dawes Galaxies seem to be coming down a bit, while the price of Genesis Croix De Fers appears to have maybe drifted a bit lower, with older, middling examples at typically around £350-450, the odd outlier below this (cheapest full bike recently sold on ebay was £270!). More recent CdF 20 models are maybe £550-750 without a huge correlation to age and placing them at significantly less than half their current RRP of £1700 - somewhat eye-watering in itself as this was £1350 when I was looking in 2020... although granted the latest ones are a slightly nicer spec.

So, unsurprisingly seems increasingly to be a buyer's market, although moreso for the more mainstream and entry-level road stuff than more niche offerings..

 

[fossyant]

Trust me to be looking at Gravel - some high prices still. That said I have refurbed my workhorse, so don't need a new bike.