jpaschall

Now in the midst of my second rehab, I'm looking through my cost spreadsheet and thinking to myself, "how do these other forums members do this with any regularity?" Of course, it is one thing to invest in a bike for long-term use, but I wonder how those flipping can make any profit.

Replacing just three components (shifters, brake levers, and freewheel; these account for about $70) on this current project, plus normal things like cables, grips, chain, and tires is going to set me back around $200. Add in the cost of the bike as it came to me, and I'm at $250 total cost. As I said, I'm comfortable doing this because I know that I'm getting something I can use long term out of this investment, but I would be very weary of accruing this much overhead on something for sale.

All that said, I'm curious as to how everyone keeps their costs in check. Not just the flippers, but those who just like to have large fleets as well. Are you just more selective with the projects you take on, making sure you don't have to do too much part replacement? Do you utilize co-ops in your area for cheap parts? What other strategies do you employ to save money on this somewhat expensive hobby?

iab

If I am sure it is something I want and it doesn't take food out of my family's mouth, cost doesn't matter

lord_athlon

On a flip, I have to get it cheap, and it has to be 99% functional. Walmart cables along with a roll of bulk housing I purchased.

On my own bikes, I bought a 200 dollar seat for a 150 dollar bike.

eschlwc

co-ops and donor bikes, absolutely.

lord_athlon

Its just like with cars, junkyards and parts cars.

nesteel 

Investing in good parts for a keeper is acceptable in my book. If it's a flip, it all depends on the price target of the finished product, and the local market. Utilizing co-ops can keep costs down.

Sir_Name 

That's about it. Do I want it? Can I afford it? Might have you trim elsewhere for a very short duration, but after that...

Steve Whitlatch 

My LBS has parts bins as well as take off or good used tire bins. At $5 a piece the tires are a great value as most look new. So for flip bikes I have parts at my disposal cheap, freewheels, cassettes, stems, bottle cages, handle bars if I need something that is not in my parts bin.

smontanaro 

You have a spreadsheet???

wrk101

1. Donor bikes, some of which I get for free. Recent POS free bike, a Sears Free Spirit, supplied me the North Roads bars I needed for a project (actually I got a pair of Free Spirits, so I got two sets of bars, and the co-op got the rest)

2, LEFT OVERS FROM PART OUTS. I have parted many bikes over the years. Invariably, I will be left with parts that have very little value: saddles, seat posts, used HS, even tires and tubes. I never buy stems, handlebars, shifters, pedals, derailleurs, brake calipers, seat posts, wheels, cranksets, chain rings. Those come from either donors or left over part outs. And of course, anything on that list with value gets sold to help pay for this obsession.

3. Bulk consumables from Niagara.

4. Bulk consumables off eBay or from LBS that have closed.

I like challenging myself to be resourceful. Sure its easy to just go to the LBS and get what I want. But how do I do a credible job restoring a bike, while still keeping the cost low enough I can do OK when I sell it. Of course, my labor on flips is free, if not, I would be upside down on 90% of them. Its a lot easier to make a profit on a part out. No consumables needed. But the parts have to be ones that the market wants (pretty decent stuff).

OldsCOOL

For me, if necessary I sell something....or just be very patient until I figure a way through it.

lasauge 

There are plenty of tricks to keeping costs down: always shop around and never pay full retail prices, buy consumables in bulk when possible, always have your eyes open for deals - even on parts or donor bikes you don't immediately need, attend swap meets, and befriend other enthusiasts who share the hobby that you can trade/gift parts with. Also, when I'm aiming to build a really nice bike without spending much, I don't try to finish it to perfection on a fixed schedule - I'll get the bike rideable with whatever parts I have on hand to start and then gradually make it 'perfect' when the exact parts I want become available at good prices.

jpaschall

Haha. I should have mentioned that I am a student on a pretty tight budget. Keeping track of the costs is important to me (and my wife ).

I'm also trying to challenge myself to keep things under control this time and in the future. I went WAY overboard on the Trek 720, and I would like to maintain a stricter budget in the future so that I can do this with more frequency.

These are all good tips. I'll actually go ahead and get some bulk cable and housing now for this project. My eyes have begun to turn more toward donor bikes on CL instead of complete bikes, so developing a stronger parts bin is a goal.

oddjob2

I buy in bulk and buy enough to get free shipping. Flip enough bikes and you will have sufficient cash to support your N + 1 habit. You can see in my signature line, I have picked up some nice bikes so far this year. i think the purchase costs of these have been covered via the gross margin on the sold refurbished.

eschlwc

^ a ti merckx?

meh.

jpaschall

How about tools? I have slowly been gathering a fair number of bike specific tools, and I have easy access to some more general tools through my father-in-law, but a need for a new tool always seems to arise. Membership at my co-op is $30/year, which is great, but open shop hours are rarely scheduled when I could make use of it.

I guess this is an area where getting to know some fellow enthusiasts in my area could help as well.

3alarmer

.
...I don't flip bikes. I have done quite a few renovations/restorations (maybe a couple of hundred over the years.) I just try not to keep track of the hours and costs too much, because I think it would be too much of a downer. I do have the advantage of working Saturdays at our co-op here, so on those days, if I'm not too busy doing other stuff, I run into stuff I need or am looking for from time to time, and we price stuff pretty aggressively because of storage space limitations.

Honestly, if I did spreadsheets and added up the costs of everything, I think I'd enjoy doing it less. But I'm retired, and money is not so much of an issue as it was for me at your stage in life.

3alarmer

...most of the more expensive and specialized tools we have here would probably make it worth your while to figure out a weekly session when it works for you. But all co-ops are different, and yours may be more limited in the tools they have and the work you can accomplish. Our memberships are 50 bucks annually, but we do frame and fork alignments, stripped pedal eye threadserts, can rethread forks to a couple of standards, have BB threading tools for both Standard and Italian, can chase Raleigh BB's, and some other stuff I'm forgetting.

There aren't a whole lot of other places here that will do some of that stuff. Steve Rex does it, but he charges the going rate.

gugie 

Cars. Now that's expensive.

I'm guilty of spending too much per bike. But I do have some ways to keep costs down.

1. Bought a bike recently-loved the frame, parts, eh. Stripped it down, cleaned, polished, and lubed the parts, sold them as a group on eBay. Sold the HS separately. The wheels were mismatched, regreased the hubs, cleaned them up, trued them, and sold them at a swap meet for $20/ea. The frame ended up being better than free.

2. You've got your eyes on some parts. You see them on eBay, but the bidding goes high. Look elsewhere. Sometimes you see what you want as part of a lot for sale, much of what is crap. Flip the stuff you don't want, keep what you like. A $50 lot of derailleurs included a deer head Deore and a couple of other usable chain slappers. ]

3. Co-ops? Heck yea! Wanting (needing?) a set of wide handlebars for a bike, I found some 44cm Modolo's for $10. Gunky tape residue that came off easily after soaking in some orange based degreaser.

4. Sometimes you buy the bike for the frame, sometimes for the parts.

5. eBay (different country). Make a connection with a seller. Some would rather just deal directly with you rather than get screwed by the occasional overseas customer.

6. For the wheelbuilders out there, spokes from childhood dreams.

7. Roll your own. I bought a torch set a while back and learned how to use it. There are tons of double butted, chrome moly, lugged "sports touring" geometry bikes that are just ugly ducklings in need of some fork reraking, brazed on bits, and other mods to become a cool low-trail, 650b bikes. Just my personal niche, but a growing one...

crank_addict

I buy from Mister Whitlatch....lol

smontanaro 

Something occurred to me the other day. Perhaps this thread would be a reasonable way to poke holes in the idea. If you think I should start a new thread, I'd be happy to. Sometimes prices from European sellers on eBay are quite good, but shipping costs can make the total cost, ummm, unattractive. If there are sellers across the pond people have had good luck with before, perhaps we could do a "group buy" something like this.

I bid on something Ettore in Italy has for sale, and win the auction. I put the word out that I have a pending sale, and ask Ettore to hold off on an invoice for a couple days (or I pay him just for the parts, sans shipping). Others look to see what else Ettore has, and perhaps one or two other auctions get won. They pay Ettore for their stuff (auction only). Ettore computes a total shipping cost, I pay it, he ships everything to me. I then distribute the other people's stuff once the package arrives. They PayPal me their fraction of the original shipping plus the US shipping, which I think would often be less than what they would have paid Ettore.

This might work best for more commodity-like items, such as repop brake hoods or tires. Rims maybe (not much more to ship six than two, I would think).

Ettore benefits, because he sells more stuff. We save on shipping.

Thoughts?

oddjob2

^ Pennies if anything in savings. The reship costs would negate any savings in most cases. Maybe you could buy enough of one item, say hoods, that selling a few extra sets will give you a free set.

top506

I don't have access to a co-op, but I do have access to the dump.

Top

plonz 

Hard to be in this for the flip. Like another poster said, compare it to cars and we've got it pretty good. My plan to keep costs in check was to but cheap parts bikes. Hasn't worked out too well though. I either want to build the POS or I'm lucky to get a pair of usable crank dust caps off the thing.

Delete the spreadsheet is probably the best solution.

iab

What's your end game? The accumulation of stuff? Profit? Enjoying different types of bikes?

Different priorities will require different techniques.