I'm looking to turn an old 1982 Schwinn Super Sport of mine into a single speed. It's a beautiful lightweight right now - 22 pounds, 14 speeds. However, I am a cyclist operating on a tight budget, so I feel most secure when I know I can resell my equipment at a moment's notice without taking a huge loss.

How easy is it to sell a single speed or fixed gear on Craigslist? Do people purchase them? My belief was always that half the fun of one gear was the conversion or build process in the first place, and it didn't make sense for me to buy someone else's bike which had already been customized to their unique tastes. If I were to one day sell this future single speed, would I have to settle for a loss?

Your experiences appreciated.

By converting your Schwinn to a single speed, you'll almost definitely increase its resale value, at least for the time being. People are paying out the nose for fixed gear and single speed bikes on Craigslist, just check out our Craigslist thread, or the bikesnob blog, or your local Craigslist.

I know personally that thrift store/garage sale bikes I used to sell on Craigslist for $50 two years ago, get $150 now, and these aren't even converted yet! So I think you'll do well to convert it, even if I personally feel that a good bike should be left alone.

I think a lot of that depends on your location. In certain areas you can sell a SS/FG easily on CL. I live in a college town that is fairly bike friendly and most of the conversions I have sold sell within a week of being listed on CL. Some of the geared bikes I fix up and sell on CL have taken longer to sell.

My experience so far has been excellent. I just sold the back wheel (sans cog and lockring) from my Fuji track for a quarter of what I paid for the bike. All the advice I got from bikeforums was to list high and see what I could get, and it couldn't have worked better. I got my asking within hours of posting the ad, with several buyers lined up as a backup.

So, don't be nervous about selling (unless you live in the middle of nowhere or in an area where you know the market can't support your hobby). Estimate what you think the bike is worth, then come up with how much money you would like to get for it, add the two numbers together and list.

The demand is out there

most, if not all ppl that shop CL are uber cheap! imo.

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Looking at your build spec in the other thread, it will be messy with that wheel setup--- since it would be relatively difficult to convert that spaced SS wheel to fixed. Why not lace up a proper hub? If you work in a shop, it should cost next to nothing.

Thanks for the advice. I guess I'm not sure what you mean, filtersweep - I'm going freewheel, not fixed-? So a road wheelset with spacers should be fine by my estimates. Though if I'm missing something, do let me know. What are the problems you see?

things sell on craigslist just fine...

for cheap, they sell in days, if not hours. for a good, no-hit price, they take weeks... maybe months.

i sold a wheelset for 25 bucks in 15 minutes
a frameset w/bb seatpost chain and stem for 50 sold in a day
some cranks/chainrings handlebars and a bottom bracket for 50 sold in a day
tried to sell a complete flip flop conversion bike with brand new wheelset for 350 in socal, i had a bunch of emailed interest but no one actually came through. after 3 weeks of callers not coming by when they said they would i gave up.

you can get a pretty good return but it might take a while. ebay is best if you're in a low-demand area... if you can cheaply ship.