Well I'm completely new to biking and wanted a little help in knowing things I should be on the look out for when shopping for used bikes. Besides my new job of bike delivery my last esperience was 8 years ago when my bike was my means of transportation. I'm going into the local pawn shop tomorrow to find a used bike and since I've been out of the loop for a while I'm sure technology has advacned alot in terms of bikes so a little help would be great like what are good models for commuting about (10min by car) guessing about 6-7miles one way. After much research today I found the Kona Dew Deluxe as my ideal bike, but chances are that wont be there so what should I look for, materials, brakes wheels, gears, models, and so on?

Thanks in advance
Kevin

might want to try ebay before pawn shop. In my experience most pawn shops just have stolen bmx bikes and "10-speeds"

I would just suggest being a bit wary of pawn shops - first of all, the proprietor is likely to have no idea on how to correctly price a bicycle. This can work against you, but it can also work for you. More likely against you. Second, they're not likely to have much of anything. Finally, there is the disturbing possibility that they could be selling stolen goods. It wasn't a pawn shop, but I was greatly creepified by a few guys I saw selling a bunch of bikes out of a van during a trip to NYC. I had my doubts about the legitimacy of their business.

A local bike shop might sell or might be able to point you in the direction of a shop that sells used bikes. Look at classifieds in the newspaper and on Craigslist.

As for what you should look for, well, it's pretty much the same as any other bike you might be looking for, with a few special caveats. First, something that has or can take a rear rack to carry stuff on. Second, a bike that can take what you throw at it. It doesn't need to be bombproof, but if you're going to riding on beautifully paved streets in sunny weather year-round, or on the streets of Hell itself in freezing, blustering blizzards, shop accordingly. Generally, the more variable and rough the conditions you'll be riding in, the more you'll want to err toward "tough/indestructible/comfy" as characteristics and the less toward "fast/light/aggressive." I've personally found that my touring bike makes a nice middle ground - pretty tough and pretty comfy (I've taken this bike on gentle off-road trails in the woods, and it does fine), but also reasonably speedy on smooth roads, and not a hundred pounds, although it is considerably heavier than most would consider acceptable for a road bike. Lots of folks tend to agree with this assessment, and so you'll find a lot of commuters on touring bikes, and on various flavors of hybrids. In fact, I'm fairly certain that hybrids came out narrowly ahead in a recent poll taken in this forum.

The problem with giving advice on what to look for is that there are nearly as many commuters bikes as there are bike commuters! There are folks that commute on hi-tech carbon fiber road bikes, and folks that commute on bomb-proof, 15 year-old steel MTBs, and plenty in between. There appears to be only two points on which there appears to be some degree of consensus, and even these are not universals by a long shot:
1. Full fenders. You're just gonna need 'em. Look for a bike that either has them, or that you can install them on.
2. Some way to carry your stuff on the bike - either it has a rack, or braze-ons so you can install a rack.

Everything else - gears, frame material, bike style, tire size, whatever, is pretty much according to your taste. There are a lot of people here that like gears, steel-framed hybrids or touring or cyclocross bikes with medium-width tires (28-32mm), but there are also a lot of folks riding single speed or fixed-gear bikes, aluminum or carbon fiber-framed racing bikes and using skinny little tires, even on nasty roads. The best advice I can give is to try and determine, to the best of your ability, what your needs are, and then try to meet them. If you tell us what your specific needs and requirements are, we might be able to help you out with more specific advice, but until then, this is all I can think of. Good luck!

Some years ago I scored a very nice XT equipped Scott that got me around town for...some years. Pawn shop had little idea what it was worth (stickers over the model decals helped) and it took up a lot of space so it'd been lowballed well to my advantage. Go with your gut. Worked for me.

I've had great experiences with pawn shops in this area. They have nice selections of decent bikes at good prices. They do not sell stolen goods. I bought my favorite bike at a pawn shop for $100. It had obviously never been ridden, and went for about $450 in the LBS.

OP--if you don't know much about bikes, it might be best to stick with well known mass market brands, such as Trek, Giant, Specialized and a few others. Look for bikes that are in new or excellent condition. Check all components, tires, wheels, bottom brackets, head sets, frames and forks. Take it for a test ride (very important). Make sure it fits and feels comfortable (most important). Ask the sales person if they can do a little better on the price and they often will, especially in the winter season. Good luck!

If you have a military base near you, check out pawn shops around there - I have found some good deal from military people that pawn stuff before rotating out to there next assignment. I agree with the above comments about creepy/sleezy pawn shops - if it feels wrong it probably is. You need to pick them carefully and stay away from the shady ones. Good luck.

I live in a college town that does have its fair share of stolen bikes, but the first place it usually goes is to the pawn shop and the police and the pawn shop have set up a data base that links them to stolen merchandise. I found this out the hard way when my car was broken into and the stero stolen I did get it back through this system. Also the pawn shop requires I.D. to sell merchandise, and the college will engrave a serial number in a descrete location on the bike for free so to identify it later, so I'm confident that I won't be buying stolen merchandise. Thanks for the hints and can someome direct me to a good site for reviews of bikes or maybe a good mag?

Saturday Newspaper and neighborhood signs for garage sale. US$20.00 to US$100.00 for Treks, Giants, Canondales with little or no use. You have the "moving sales", you have the "my motivation dropped after the first 3 miles" sales, you have the "my husband left me so his $h1+ is out of here for a penny" sales, you get the idea.

I've seen nice US$600.00 bikes for less than US$50.00 because "the tires were bad".

Good luck, and please come back and let us know what you get.

Rafael

I see that you are in Charleston, which means you have the big Air Force base and a Navy base out in Goose Creek. You should be able to find great deals at yard sales in military housing for reasons listed above. Also , if you have access to the Air Force base (or know someone who does), you can try the thrift store.

FWIW

What size Dew Deluxe you looking for? PM me as I'm thinking of letting mine go.

Pawn shops can't just turn over stolen goods. They have to take some ID, and they have to log everything. Unless they're patently dishonest, it's not in their best interest to deal in stolen goods. That said, unless you know exactly what you're looking for, you should probably look elsewhere.

Looking at bikes in a pawnshop shouldn't be any different than shopping for used bikes at any other store. Most bikes at pawnshops are pretty subpar though, because the good ones get cherrypicked pretty quick. At the same time, I 've seen some really nice bikes at pawnshops. Nicest I found was a titanium Hercules Cycle Works mountain bike- beautiful head badge- a lot of tri bikes, etc. Looking in suburban areas instead of downtown cores usually guarantees a better quality of goods but it isn't guaranteed.

You should have some clue as to sizing, the style of bike you want, and have a little knowledge of bicycle components. The ability to discern quality helps too.

Even though many pawn shops have a lot of safeguards against taking in stolen goods, (many municipalities require ID collection and reporting to the police department, and serial ##'s computer crosschecked) pawnbrokers are NOT engaged in a morality play every time possibly stolen goods are presented for pawn.

With a half a decade of personal experience as a pawnbroker, I know the industry pretty well from the other side of the counter.

if it's a nice bike at a pawn shop, it's probably stolen. A legitimate bicycle owner has many ways at their disposal to sell a bike for more than any pawnshop will give them.Pawn shops offer as little as possible, a tenth (average)to a third (high plunk gold) of used value on something brought in for pawn. So, if you brought in a two year old lemond poprad, for example, a fair pawnshop might offer you $60 to $100 dollars and try to sell it for maybe $350. No pawnshop worth its smoke is going to offer you more than $100-150 bucks even on a relatively nice bike. One school of thought on bikes in pawnshops is offer no more than $40 bucks and sell for no more than $200. I know one pawnbroker, she's the devil incarnate, will offer no more than $20 regardless of the quality of the bike. She knows if that person is desperate enough, they'll take the 20.

A crackhead who just stole a bike, however, is less concerned about fair market value.

You haven't been following the scandal here in Portland Oregon. Even if you prove it's your stolen stuff in the pawn shop you still have to buy it from them. The police haven't charged any shop owner with any crime in the last four years no matter what goods were found there.

I picked up Trek 930 for next to nothing, took it LBS -- got a 'tune-up', new cables all around and new tires... great bike. Only now I realize it is way too long for me! Oh well, altogether I spent $200 on the bike -- if I was taller or the bike was shorter it would be perfect.

Yeah, being in Australia right now, I don't really follow Oregon news.

I'm guessing you were stationed here or lived here before? No I don't know anyone in the base anymore. but I'll check out the houseing.


I went to the pawn shop and found nothing I was hopeing for the diamond in the ruff senerio, but nope. The guy was really helpful and took my name and number in case something comes in. He said just last week he sold a specialized rock hopper for about $200 USD. So there is hope. He has a chain of Money Man pawn shops in the Charleston area and got on the phone and checked all of the one he could think of with alot of bikes. I also found out that there are a Jamis and Kona dealers in my area too. So my weekend is going to be fun.

That's only fair. Most of what I know about Australia comes from forums like this one.


Oh, and maybe the Paul Hogan movies.

Does your town have a tourist trade? Are there places that rent bicycles to tourists in the summer? If so, now is the time for them to dump their inventory. I pass by a rental outlet here that currently has a rack of very low mile 'hybrid' and 'mtb' ( basically city ) bikes outside. Last year I bought an mtb for commuting there. It cost me $200. Msrp was $600. The tires still had those hairy thing from the moulds.

Not sure but I'll check, thanks for the heads up.

Pawn shops are evil-- if you're bike gets jacked, it will be pawned for dope money.


Pawn shops actively support drug addiction, alcoholism and crime. The crappier the 'hood, the more pawn shops. Please don't support this trash.

I used to be a bigger fan of used bikes, but ebay has really raised the prices. In Seattle, good used bikes sell are often a rotten deal -- keep in mind that you can get a new Kona Smoke for $350 or less-- plus tons of bike shop support.

Not that I wouldn't turn down a good used bike at the right price, but buying a used hardtail MTB for $200 is not a good deal-- not when you would have to buy street tires , fenders and a rack. I'd rather just get a new Kona (or Trek 730 maybe).