buying second hand bikes

hennypenny_2

Hello,

Me and hubby have been thinking about taking up cycling but never quite got round to it. Just read an ad in my local for Harlem Minnesota bikes for sale - never used @ £60 each or both for £100. I have tried looking on internet for these but have had no luck. Can anyone say if this is a fair price? Believe they are new but have been sitting dormant for a couple of years. Going to see them tomorrow but would like an idea of a fair price before I make any offer.

Having read previous posts about getting what you pay for, it is cheap bikes we are after, incase we find cycling is not for us.

Any help appreciated.

mchale

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Harlem-Minnesota-/330506191960


Bear in mind a cheap bike may well put you off cycling, I only had cheap ones and then I spent a few
bob and got a decent bike, the difference in ride/comfort was unbelievable.

rev_henry

If they have full suspension then this is largely pointless (unless you're actually going up mountains on them) and make the bike very heavy. You want a simple bike without suspension ideally.

hennypenny_2

oooh, quite a bit cheaper than price seller asking, but a great tool to bargain with. Thanks very much.

Am hoping we will decide we like cycling and in which case we will then go to our local independent bike shop and invest in decent bikes, but it's too expensive to splash the cash at the mo if they just end up sitting in our shed.

hennypenny_2

@rev, think he did mention they have a spring at the back - is that what you mean? There's a wee trail throught the forestry at the end of our road that we were planning on using - hopefuly should be okay for that.

rev_henry

hennypenny wrote: »

@rev, think he did mention they have a spring at the back - is that what you mean? There's a wee trail throught the forestry at the end of our road that we were planning on using - hopefuly should be okay for that.

Yes, look at the pic on ebay, has a big spring thing in the middle - that's what I mean, you don't want this - very heavy. Unless your spending hundreds or thousands on a proper serious mountain bike. Personally I don't think there's ever a need to spend much more than £100 or so on a bike unless you're doing some serious commuting or racing etc.

See here:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3080010

Almost this exact same conversation was had last week incidentally...

HardWorker2010_2

Cheap bikes with suspension are a disaster! A friend and I decided to get some exercise last year and cycling was our chosen method.

He used a cheap/newish suspension bike, I used a 16 year old Raleigh mountain bike. His was a lot less enjoyable to ride. When pedaling he seemed to put a lot of effort into compressing the suspension rather than moving down the road. My old 'bone shaker' was like a rocket by comparison.

A bike with front only suspension doesn't suffer in quite the same way from what I've observed.

mchale

Yeah your better with a "hardtail" bike, front suspension is good

rev_henry

HardWorker2010 wrote: »

Cheap bikes with suspension are a disaster! A friend and I decided to get some exercise last year and cycling was our chosen method.

He used a cheap/newish suspension bike, I used a 16 year old Raleigh mountain bike. His was a lot less enjoyable to ride. When pedaling he seemed to put a lot of effort into compressing the suspension rather than moving down the road. My old 'bone shaker' was like a rocket by comparison.

A bike with front only suspension doesn't suffer in quite the same way from what I've observed.

I commute daily on a similar vintage raleigh bike, today I rode 15 miles on it lol. Don't see the point in getting anything better really.

poontang

hennypenny wrote: »

@rev, think he did mention they have a spring at the back - is that what you mean? There's a wee trail throught the forestry at the end of our road that we were planning on using - hopefuly should be okay for that.

Hello that bike is junk. If you are going on a 'wee trail' you don't need suspension.

Full suspension is for people going high speed over large rocks.

The thing is it's very expensive - 250 pounds and up for the rear and the same again for the front.

If you don't have much money to spend it's worse than useless, you want something simple. Also avoid no-name brands like Harlem. If they don't have a web site you probably don't want it.

Carrera (Halfords) are ok, also Trek, Specialized, Giant, Kona, and some others

hennypenny_2

Thanks everyone for some very useful advice. Will give these a miss I think and just get a very basic model for starters. Appreciate all your help, a knowledgeable bunch in MSE forums as usual. Glad I asked. :-)