Originally Posted by HerrKaLeun

I just started. Main motivation is because I like to work on bikes, learn things, want to see a bike being ridden as opposed going to landfill or just dusting in an attic. I have no delusion on making lot of money, my only hope is I could make some money to pay for shop supplies, and tools etc. If I was retired I may volunteer at a bike coop etc., but with child and a professional job I need to be able to do things on my own terms of scheduling.

I first put a CL ad up offering bike repair, upgrades, built of online bikes etc. but my wife got all nervous and talked about needing insurance etc. so I tabled that idea for now. So the next best thing would be to get old bikes, fix them or upgrade and sell... except I do it literally the way I want and no customer who will later claim I made a scratch on his bike etc. and no one will want it to be done the next day.

Problem is getting old bikes at reasonable cost.
1. Police auction seems bad here since they do that online through a NY company (I'm in WI!) and looking at that website they only had bikes in NY.
2. CL seems bad because there are the several thousand $ bikes (more expensive than similar bike from an online retailer), or the bikes that seemingly lived on university campuses but allegedly still should fetch $80 LOL. I also don't want to spend $ and time going to multiple people and deal with their price expectations for heaps of garbage. One potential issue with CL are stolen bikes - if the bike is relatively new I would ask to see a receipt or some other proof they bought it. Oh, and people think having mis-matched tires is an upgrade worth a lot of $ :-)

I put up a post on the neighborhood facebook site and got two paired (male and female of same type) 26" rigid fork MTB for free. Well, those are old, steelframe and rims, rusty, 5-speed freewheel, but seem to work. So I can clean, lube, repack bearings etc. and hope to get $20 or so. I realize this isn't really worthwhile, but will be a learning experience. the only thing making those bikes better than CL bikes is that they seem to have lived in a garage much of their life (still some rust, though).

If I'm lucky I come along some interesting bikes my size or my wife's size that I can upgrade and keep, or just keep for a while to see how i like it and sell if not. For example I never owned a drop bar bike and would need several long rides to see if i like one (no LBS test ride would tell me if i should buy a drop bar bike). One problem i have we only have a 2-car garage with little room to spare.so between our own bikes i'm limited to having 2-3 project bikes (and that is not convenient)

Not sure if the market changed, but it seems from older posts it used to be better for flippers. If I was in the market for a used bike, I would compare it to a new bike from bikesdirect, or Canyon etc. That kind of puts pressure on LBS brand used bike prices. Nowadays you get a lot of new bike for relatively little money and new bikes have all the things I want (hydraulic disc brake, tubeless etc.). All the old bikes Obviously don't have any such options, so even upgrading them will never make them nearly as good as new ones.

If anyone has good ideas to get inexpensive bikes in Madison, WI area, let me know.