Absolutely free.

Craigslist is RSS enabled, and the searches are reached by changing the url address. If you use a RSS reader (like google reader), you can perform a search on Craigslist once, then save that search as a RSS feed.

Example: Going to
http://newyork.craigslist.org
I choose "bikes", which takes me to
http://newyork.craigslist.org/bik/
I do a search for "folding", which brings up
http://newyork.craigslist.org/search...min&maxAsk=max

This last page's url is static, but the results will always be fresh if you go there. You could create a static bookmark for the page and check back every day. You could also use Firefox's RSS bookmarks feature to create a "live" bookmark, which will always show (in your bookmarks dropdown menu) the latest results to appear on this page.

Even easier is to simply grab a RSS feed of this page and integrate it into a RSS reader. For purposes of illustration, scroll down the Craigslist search results page until you see the orange RSS icon. Right-click on this and choose "Copy link location." This will copy the following url address:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/search...max&format=rss
And this link can be put into any RSS reader, which will automatically bring up the latest, newest results for "folding" in the NYC craigslist's bicycle section.

If you repeat this process for each of the areas/searchterms that you'd be willing to travel to, you can quickly build up a series of RSS feeds that you can scan once per day, and only concentrate on the ones that are interesting to you.

sfbay Vintage Moulton British Bike - Rare -

sfbay Dahon Hon Solo folding fixie -

sfbay Xootr Swift Custom Folding Fixed/Fixie - Peter Reich -

seattle bike friday tikit -

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/bik/924195386.html
Two six speed boardwalks for @$200!

portland Bike Friday Pocket Llama -

The ad doesn't have much info, but: Fuji touring bike, central NJ.

newyork Schwalbe Stelvio Light --fast tires for Dahon folder, recumbent -

boston Raleigh Twenty folding bicycle 931.741. -

dallas Bike Friday folding mountain bike, fits 4'10-5'6" -

sfbay
Three wheel Trike! Workman Cycle! (Reduced) -

portland Park Tool Full Bike Tool Kit -

newyork Schwalbe Marathon K Tires 20 x 1.5" (406) 30-100psi -

sfbay Schwalbe Stelvio recumbent tire 20 x 1 1/8 (406) New, never mounted -

austin Ride like a pimp, on a Dahon folding bike! -

portland Bike Friday Tikit - Folding Bike -

newyork Never used BMW Q3.S Folding Bicycle - $900 (Harlem / Morningside) -
portland bmw mountain bike -

sfbay Dahon MU P24 Folding Bike - Excellent Condition -

22lb Folder :twitchy:

portland

Bike Friday Llama full suspension folding bike -

portland Tikit Model T folding and Packing bike - Ridden less than 20 miles -

seattle vintage folding bike - Kombi Delux - made in Norway -

sfbay Mobiky Genius Folding Bike -
Practically NEW BIRDY Folding Bike - Silver -

sfbay Xootr Swift FOLDING BIKE w/ 9-speed SRAM grip shift, tektro brakes -

New York
Worst of Craiglist (a stolen Swift)

http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/bik/966877880.html

Awesome! This was my first bike when I was 6 years old - except mine was purple with white flowers. Yes, it was a little embarrassing as a young boy, though now I consider it excellent theft prevention ;). It still lives on at my dad's and is an excellent bike for round town, errands and late nights out. It doesn't really fold, it separates into two pieces. There are no cables to separate, it has a two-speed hub that changes gear by back-pedaling lightly (and works as a coaster brake if you step hard on it backwards). I bought a slightly longer seat post, and it still works well for me at 6'3". It is quite heavy, but I always wondered if it was a candidate for tarting up like some people do to Raleight 20s....

The same idea crossed my mind when I saw the bike; it ought to be a very nice bike once tarted up :) And it would be cool if those two-speed coaster-brake hubs came back into vogue, especially if they fit narrow rear spacing.

Regards
T

Isn't that the sort of gearing that is on the Pacific Carry-Me DS?

The Fichtel & Sachs Torpedo Duomatic two speed hubs with coaster brake only fit narrow rear spacing. I have one of the Norwegian bikes with the 2 speed hub and it is a pleasure to use with a 36% upshift to the higher gear. I also have the hub on my 1980 LeJeune Track bike with 120mm spacing. The hub is actually a 110 mm spacing by my crude calculation.

Hardly .... the Carry-Me hub is, hmmmm ... "revolutionary" :)

Regards
T

Timo, any good way to cache some of these listings? It's a shame many of these will disappear as it makes for a good archive for what was being sold / prices / photos, etc.

I can think of no good way, only a bad one. One could nick the photos and store them here on the forum together with the descriptions.

The postings on craigslist are ephemeral by nature -- they expire -- and are not archived anywhere, though I could be mistaken about that.

Internet archives such as the waybackmachine will show you what the bike page on craigslist new york's bike page looked like on a given day in, say, 2005, showing all the for sale hyperlinks, but the links themselves lead nowhere when you click on them.

http://web.archive.org/web/200501010...slist.org/bik/

Regards
T

P.S. Here's the Bike Friday website as it looked ten years ago. The prices may make you cry.