Walking past Cash Converters at lunchtime and I spied a couple of nice guitars in the window so I popped in to see them. Had a browse around and spied a few bikes so I sauntered over.

Mainly junk apart from what I think was a 2009 Trek Fuel EX5.5. It came with Toras up front as standard but this had maxle u-turn Revelation 426 forks and some uprated bars. Standard Fox Float RP2 at the back. Sticker on the downtube indicated it came from Alpine Bikes originally.

Had it been bog standard I wouldn't have given it a thought but with the upgrades it reckoned it must've belonged to someone with a stronger interest in mountain biking than someone that bought it on an impulse buy and got bored after a few months. An enthusiast would probably have found somewhere else to sell it than cash converters and would probably have got a better price, unless they were really desperate.

It's on sale for £599.

No I wouldn't.

Unless I really wanted some heroin as quick as possible.

I bought a proflex form cash generator once, reasoned that if it had already been stollen, then cash generator had paid for it so I may as well have it rather than some scrote just buying what looked like any old cheep ful sus bike for £100.

Sold the frame for £127 on Ebay

Rebuilt the 'zocchi bomber z4's with new bushings for £40, rode for 2 years and sold for £50

LBS rebuilt the hope C2's for £25, sold 3 years later for £60

The wheels (XT hubs, mavic xc317 rims, the really thin DT butted spokes) lasted a good few years but are beyond reasnoble use now.

Pretty much paid for my mountainbiking through uni 🙂

NEVER, bet its been taken from someones shed in the dark of night….

Surprisingly, Cash Converters keep details of where they get them from, so if it's stolen it can be traced back to whoever sold it. The ones in Bristol used to regularly have nice bikes outside!

Don't they operate like a pawn shop, someone could have put it in there to get some cash for a couple of weeks, then not been able to afford to get it back.
I think that they are (forced to be) quite strict with proving ownership these days.

i would have thought it was as a pawn shop.
Like what MSP said.

easy enough if your sure your going to be able to pay it back, and then, all of a sudden, you cant and have to watch your beloved bike go to some scrote.
boooo.