Rules for Selling your Bike

This morning I found this ad on Calgary Craigslist. Very well put, and needed to be said. Good for a laugh too.

PLEASE NOTE: This probably doesn’t apply to you. But some sellers need to have a good long look at this. Everyone has the right to sell their bikes for whatever they want, but those who do not know what they are talking about need a sanity check. Granted, I know the economy is bad and you might have found a “jewel” in the rough - but for crying out loud, do some research beforehand. The following is an elementary guide for those of you who are absolutely clueless about your garage sale or thrift store finds:

1) Just because your bike was made in Europe doesn’t mean you’ve got a winner. They made a lot of junk, too.
2) A low end bike that was $97.00 in 1976 is not, magically, worth $400.00 now.
3) Adult bikes do not have goosenecks.
4) If the chain is conspicuously rusty and kinked in the picture, nobody is going to fall for your claims of “mint condition.”
5) If you get asked how many speeds it has and do not know nor care, pull your ad. Immediately.
6) Telling us that you found it in a barn is not a rationale for overpricing it.
7) Take OFF the $10 price tag from Goodwill before you take your Craigslist picture and ask $250 for it.
8 ) “Light and FAST!” . . . Ok, if you say so.
9) Not everything with those kooky, curvy handlebars is a race bike.
10) Neither is a race bike “improved” by flipping those curvy handlebars upside down.
11) Don’t be offended if someone offers you an insulting amount that is far less than you want for your bike - they’re just smarter than you.
12) Don’t get ticked off if someone low-balls you when you state “make offer” in your ad. You asked for it.
13) Tires are tires and wheels are wheels. These terms are not interchangeable.
14) Breaks should be referred to as “brakes”, petles or petals as “pedals”.
15) Your bike was not made by Shimano, Suntour, or Campagnolo. I know you saw that name somewhere on it, but just trust me on this one.
16) Vintage implies it was worth something when it was new, otherwise it’s just OLD.
17) High tensile steel - yeah, they put a sticker on the bike that says it but I wouldn’t be bragging about it.
18) Go ahead and repost that 10 speed Huffy every week - no one will tire of its charm. If you’re willing to endure the humiliation, we’ll be there for you until you reach your target market.
19) ALL CAPS DOES NOT MAKE IT A BETTER BIKE.
20) Pictures of the LEFT side of the bike aren’t worth much of anything, nobody can see the drivetrain. All things considered, perhaps you’d rather want to hide it anyway.
21) Blurry pictures add a negative symbol to your price tag.
22) If you steal someone else’s photos (not the manufacturer’s) from the web and use them to represent your own bike, you are absolute scum.
23) “Suitable for fixie conversion” doesn’t make a POS frame any more valuable. For that matter…WHAT makes it suitable?
24) If you think your bicycle is worth a four figure sum ($x,xxx), the LEAST you could do is to spell the brand and component names correctly (eg. Trek, not treck; Schwinn, not shwin; Campagnolo, not Campagnola; and Shimano - not shmano, shimono, or shamano)
25) Include the size of the bicycle! No, it’s not the tire size. It’s measured from the center of the cranks (the big sprocket) to the top of the seat tube (before the silver or black post that holds the seat [saddle].) It needs to be in either inches or centimeters. Both if you are nice.
26) NEXT, Magna, Huffy, Roadmaster, and Murray are NOT highly-respected brands. Get over it.
27) Taking a nice multispeed road bike that was posted here two days ago for a reasonable price raping it of all good derailleur parts, making it a single speed with a $22 Chinese bmx cog from performancebike.com does not double or triple its value or make it a “race bike” or “fixie”.
28) There is no such thing as a road mountain bike
29) Just because you are selling it for a friend doesn’t make you an expert if you are not
30) If you don’t list the brand and it is unreadable in the photos, we will assume it is a POS
31) Research the going price of your bike before posting
32) Just because it cost a lot 10 years ago when it was brand new and you have barely rode it, doesn’t mean it is worth 50% + of new price (see #31)
33) Just because you bought it within the past year doesn’t mean someone is going to pay close to what you paid, especially if the new model years are coming out and yours is now discounted
34) Don’t use terms you do not understand - if it does not have rear suspension, it is not full suspension
35) Proofread - I have never seen a bike measured in feet but I’ve seen a lot of 26′ bikes posted
36) If it is a *mart bike and you just paid to have it “tuned up”, you probably just wasted your money as the tune up was probably more than the bike is worth
37) We don’t want to call for basic information you should have posted or to have you send us pictures
38) Don’t sell a used helmet unless you really did just buy it, otherwise it may have been crashed and is a safety hazard

I hope this has cleared up some things for the cycling-challenged sellers .

The memory of the bikes gone by

I was reflecting today on the bikes I've owned in the past. Some of them I wish I still had, some I'm glad to have sold, but I'm glad that I was able to own every single one of them, regardless of how long they were in my possession.

The list of bikes I've owned will continue to grow as time goes on, and the above listing is not every single bike that I've sold.

I still have 6 bikes and 4 frames in my garage, but the above pictures are bikes that I no longer own. What's more interesting is that I've sold all of the above bikes in the past year with the exception of the red and white fixed mountain bike (1st photo). That one went to a dude in Tennessee (if I remember correctly) who bought it for playing bike polo.

The more bikes I ride, the more about bikes I learn.

Give me education!

Tour de FAT seems to be nothing new....

Bikes at work

There are 6 bikes at work right now, 3 of which are mine. We are now up to 4 and sometimes 5 people here who regularly commute by bike. Cool.

My Xtra: stays at work for errands My Volae: Left it here. it's either my car or this bike here all the time. I ride one home, ride back to work and switch, or something like that. Varies week by week.

My pink bike, beer bike. For lunch time trail rides and Tim Hortons runs. When I left it at home it was for beer runs, however I'm not allowed to drink beer at work, so it's no longer used for that. It still has a beer sticker though.
Ken's vintage Kuahara. Actually a nice little bike. In the summer time he either rides this or his horse. Seriously. Murphy, his horse had been a commuter a time or two. Deep secret: I've ridden his horse to work a few times myself. I like bikes better. Especially crossing the #1 highway.
Ian's Gazzelle. His father in law brought this over from Holland, rode Vancouver to Calgary and left it here for Ian. It's for days when he's feeling racy. His other bike is a heavier, older touring bike. This is one bike I wish I owned.
Terri's bike. She decided to leave it here today for errands.

I've got to leave some of my bikes here at work, as I've got a garage full at home too. I think there are 7 bikes hanging in my garage. 5 are mine and 2 are my wife's. My boys each have a bike and I've got 4 project bikes waiting behind the shed. I've got a bike problem and I love it.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

I did something I've never done before....I sold one of my bikes! Oh the humanity!!

In wanting to expand my bike collection into a more purpose-built style of bikes - read snowbike - I sold my trusty Iron Horse Warrior. This was the first bike I ever bought new. Why would I sell it? Well, last year I used it once and that was camping with the family. I think I rode it to a Lions meeting last fall too. I don't ever get out to single track, ride gravel or role long excursions in the mountains. The truth of the matter is, I didn't use this bike anymore. So, why not let someone else enjoy it?

I put it up on Kijiji (the greatest classified site ever!) and I had emails and calls like crazy. Had to email 4 people back to tell them it was gone!

I sold it to one of Calgary's finest, a firefighter! Chris is a really great guy who will be using the bike to commute 17kms to work and back! Sweet!

He came out to our shop in Strathmore and we went for a test ride in the shop. I was all going good until about 80ft. snap. What the heck???? The derailleur hanger snapped off! Oh crap. Talk about feeling bad. I had no idea that it was even fatigued at all. I've never hucked, or trashed. But snap! I can only think it was because of maybe having pressure on it while riding in the back of my truck, or the kids stacking logs against it while camping?? I have no clue. But, in some ways, I guess that the beauty of the replaceable derailleur hanger. I could see this thing getting hammered if I were jumping, or grinding handrails. I wish I could do that stuff, but I can't. Weird.

Anyway, I knocked 100 off the price and we loaded it into his truck. I hope he can find a new part easily in Calgary. I told him that if for any reason he can't, just let me know and I will fully refund his money. Man I feel bad. Anyone have any experiences with these derailleur hangers snapping??

I'm gonna miss that bike!

Get Bent! no...I mean it, get bent!

The recumbents are under attack! What's new? Nothing. I think I just notice it more now that I actually ride, and like riding a bent. Why are they not considered bicycles by so many cyclists? I've only recently owned one, but I've always given them credit. They are bikes, just a different style of bikes.

Tim had a crack on his recent post. Very last sentence. I think it's kind of funny. Bike Snob of course is the usual cynical yahoo. These are what he posted for comparison for recumbents to what's found in nature:


I think it's kind of funny too.

Anyway, I think it's stupid when cyclist draw a line and segregate themselves from other forms of the sport. I used to be really into trials, and then downhill. I remember reading an article in DIRT magazine on the merits of full suspension bikes and the vast leaps and bounds in the use of technology they have over the roadies. They were knocking road bikes all over the map. Why then are you so hard pressed to find a mountain bike over 3k, when 3k only buys you a decent road bike? 10k on a roadie, 14? I see them in local shops often. Mountain bike technology, is just different. Who gets the best materials first (carbon fiber, titanium, etc)? Roadies. I'm not knocking mtb riders either, I've got two mountain bikes. It's just really stupid for cyclists to act this way.

There's the whole thing with fixies, how they're just a fad, cruisers, they're just a joke. I own 1 of each of these style bikes also.

I think that one of the reasons I am so open to all different types of bikes, is because I've ridden them before passing judgment on them. Cruisers have a place that can't be filled by a fixie and visa versa. Recumbents have a place that can't be filled by roadies and visa versa. That's one reason I give when people hound me about having so many bikes. Not one is a duplicate in it's purpose. You can't single track on a carbon road bike, and you're wasting time commuting 26 miles on a mountain bike or cruiser.

I think that we all ride bikes. You may not dig what I dig, and I might not be as cranked on what you're riding as you are, but we are all riding bicycles. Plain and simple.

And yes, a recumbent has two wheels and you peddle it. It's a bike.

People First, what a concept

All may not be lost

Well, I just happened to catch this on video. It's a class from one of the shcools here in Strathmore out for a bike ride to Eagle lake. Seeing many of the riders had fishing rods in thier packs, I assume that they were going fishing. The route they were taking is actually an abandoned rail line that starts about 1 mile from where I work. It's a really nice little ride.

Seeing this almost gives me a faint glimps of hope in our education systems. Public education is a different topic for a different day, and is something that I'm quite passionate about.

Great to see young people having fun on their bikes. I know it's the end of the year and important stuff is winding down in schools, but I am glad to see teachers taking kids out on rides like this. One of the girls that rode by (you'd have heard her yell hi to me if I'd left the audio on) is the daughter of Ido, who works with me and in the past year has been riding his bike very regularly to work. Dig it.

Added a song that I thought worked. Sound quality sucks.

Jerome