i’ve been out of work a long time due to health issues but would like to buy a few older bikes to service/fettle and sell to keep me busy and make a small profit to give me some income . Just wondered whether anyone can advise me about buying the common consumables that often need replacing at a trade price? being such a small venture would i be eligible and if so how would i go about it ?
thanks in advance .
Bill

Buy them from merlin/CRC/bike24 etc.

Most of the time as good as trade

Just shop around. Plenty of offers online. You can get good deals on tubes or cables buying in small batches.

Talk to Windwave, you can buy BBB parts from them. Buying through a wholesaler usually attracts postage costs, thoug, unless your order is large, so as others have said it frequently works out cheaper to buy through the internet. Not true though for cables, brake pads etc!

What nickjb says. Don’t expect trade price to be lower than the cheapest deal you can find online. The German shops/Acycles/Rose Bikes are good sources.

For the quantities you will want the Internet sounds about right or a friendly lbs who would be willing to help you out. 50 gear inners is basically 25 bikes so how many will you be fettling?

+1 you’ll need to be shifting huge volumes (or sleeping with the rep 😉 ) to get sufficient trade rates/discount to match the cheapest of the internet shops.

It’s also worth looking for bulk offers.

I usually get things in multiples and store them. Or sell them on at a (small) profit. Cables, pads, bar tape, tubes, chains (got a deal on 12 bagged chains a couple of years ago, as in 12 chains in one bag. €120. Instead of €360 in retail packaging. Even got 11 and a half quick links 😕 )

No need for trade accounts.

Inners & outers in bulk & most consumables: eBay.
Black dog bikes & Woolly Hat Shop are great sellers.

Chains (£5) & inner tubes (£2.50) & cheap tyres: get BC membership and reserve&collect from Halfords.

Worked for a couple of years Purchasing for UK cycle company, trade (from UK distributors) is often more expensive than the big guys (CRC/ Wiggle etc), especially with delivery factored in. Savings can be made going direct to factory but only an option if you’re thinking of buying 200 group-sets for example.

As above, I was chatting to one of the guys in my LBS at the weekend and he has just bought a Garmin from Amazon for less than they could get it at trade from the distributor (Amazon must buy direct from Garmin and so not pay the distributors cut while making very little profit)!

I service/fix bikes for friends/friends of friends/neighbours/locals etc. One or two bikes a week, seldom more, often less. I do it for a hobby rather than to make money; most of the time it’s quite enjoyable, and I can afford to tell people to take their piece of crap to the tip if I want. 😀

Your biggest margins will be on stuff like cables, inner tubes, brake pads etc. As above, eBay for such things.

Eg Jagwire brake cable outer:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/p/jagwire-brake-outer-cable-cex-black-5mm-x50m/1823121752?_trksid=p2047675.l2644

In order to make anything, you’ll need to charge something close to what a bike shop does. I charge between £10-15 for a complete set of brake and gear inners and outer (many bikes won’t use that much cable outer, so you’re costs are quite low on this stuff). £3-5 on a pair of brake pads. £2 and up for an innertube. And so on. Unless you’re really good and quick, you’ll be working for minimum wage in terms of labour time, if you’re lucky.

Other parts, just buy as cheap as you can find, CRC/eBay etc are the best sources. If you’re doing up old/commuters bikes, the lower end stuff is fine. You can find deals like £15 for a 7-speed cassette and chain from Halfords, stuff like that. See if you’ve got a bike recycling place near you; you might find they do old serviceable components etc fairly cheap.

Don’t try to do people ‘favours’. You’ll just end up costing yourself time and money. Learn when to turn a bike away (if it’s going to take several hours to sort it out, and they only want to spend £30 on getting the whole bike sorted, then it’s simply not worth it). Many won’t realise that their beloved trusty old banger will need £120 to properly sort out. Just be honest with folk. People can be extremely

Work out what you can realistically achieve, and how much work you are likely to get (as opposed to how much you’d like to get). You might only get one bike a week. Or less. Always work on the assumption that this is the case, and anything else will be a bonus. If you have the enjoyment of doing at the root of your motivation, then you have a great foundation from which to build.

Good luck. I wish you all the best. I hope things work out for you.

I made a few quid a while back by buying a bulk supply of mixed cable ends, some little plastic bags and then sold them on flea bay in 10’s for a reasonable price but still clearing a profit.

Consumables like that (especially) bling I think are the way to do it

I’ve done up a couple of old eBay bikes that I’ve then used for work commuters. As I enjoy fettling, I wondered about doing up a couple a month and selling on eBay for a bit of beer money.

However I came to the conclusion that unless you can secure a load of second hand parts, or get old bikes from the tip for free or very cheap, then the margins would be very thin.

The bikes I bought for about £30 (were reasonable MTBs back in the day, just old and neglected) both needed the needed cables, pads, cassette, chain, various bearings etc. One needed a new chain rings too. If you add on other comparatively expensive parts you might need like tyres, then you could easily spend about £30+ on thoroughly renovating it.

You then also have the hassle of selling/eBay fees/hassle if person buys it and then encounters some unrelated problem two weeks that they think is your problem)

Even if you then added on modest profit, I suspect the majority of buyers looking to buy a cheap bike would then just think they may as well just go to Halfords/Argos etc. and spend a bit and get a brand new shiny BSO.

thanks to all for the input ..some useful ideas and advice .
much appreciated

I don’t know if you have a dedicated/suitable space you can do your tinkering, but it’s pretty much essential if you’re going to be doing repeated work. A well organised tool board is a godsend, and can save so much time because you’re not faffing about hunting for tools. Obviously a workstand is essential. Some sort of wheel truing stand is very bloody useful too. But consider things like a sturdy workbench and a decent vice; using one to remove a stubborn BB can make things a lot easier. Then there’s things like a decent drill, a bench grinder (surprisingly useful), and good lighting. And don’t ignore health and safety; have a decent first aid kit handy. Better to never have to use it, than to not have one. And work on organisation; a tidy, well organised workshop with everything to hand, is so much more efficient and pleasurable place to work in.

Brother in law did this for a bit

A bit of money can be made but its hard work per £. But I think you know that. Tips from watching him

You’ll need some space, to work, store bikes and store bits. I think part of the skill is knowing when to cannabalise and when to fix.

In the end he found selling via a local auction house was surprisingly cost effective. That is for selling bikes to get people around, not things of interest

He bought from local “Tidy Tips” but prices went up when they realised he was making money

Look for the right niche. He found that classic old road bikes were not considered valuable by sellers but had a reasonable specialist market. I’m talking buy for £10-£20 sell for £70-£80. But for that money you are probably moving the bike twice (once to buy it once, to sell it), fixing it, photographing it and paying fees.

All the best with it

If it’s anything like IT stuff it’s not worth it – we’re small fry, but we still shift £1m a year in hardware and have a trade account with the biggest channel supplier and get a discount based on our turnover. Ebuyer and Amazon are usually noticeably cheaper, but we can’t use them because they’re a real pita dealing with returns etc.