sometimes people act as if it is super easy to buy a used bike for $500. It isn't. A couple years back, I spent a month or two trolling craigslist trying to find a decent bike for $500 in my size. It was a waste of time. Most of the bikes were either sold before I called, the wrong size, or too close to MSRP for a new bike. I ended up just buying a low end $700 bike from performance bike--at least I got rollin'.