Buying second hand downhill bike

Is there any websites apart from eBay and pink bike that people advertise downhill for sale

pinkbike, does southern DH exist still?

Though check and inspect

Southern DH is Ride.io these days, not sure how popular it is though.

eBay and Pinkbike are probably the best options though

They’re definitely the big ones. Some facebook bike sales groups too.

oh and watch out for steveh he’s always flogging bikes 😉

Are you looking for anything in particular or have a budget?

I posted my M9 on here a week ago 😆

No-one replied 😳

Here’s a thought,

Pinkbike – kids, gnarly kids, senders, mostly kids. selling some haggard looking 5 year old bike for 90% of it’s original RRP because it’s ‘custom’ (by adding a pair of Brendog Deathgrips).

Ride.io – Adults, Downhill Adults, it used to mostly be the starting list of every UK DH series on there, yeah they’re always skint (because racing is life) so they’re selling something that looks cosmetically good because it’s been wearing bits of cut up tyre and tube over all the usual bits since day one, but it’s been ridden to within an inch of it’s life and the frame is about to crumble.

or

eBay, STW and dare I even mention the name… bikeradar.

Tends to be older riders, maybe people who threw a bit of a ‘middie’ and bought some 10″ travel monster 20 years too late, rode it twice on the blues at BPW thought they were Peaty, then crashed it once on Fifty Shades, quietly limped as they rolled it back into the garage mumbling about ‘going back to real mountain biking for a bit’ AKA riding their trail bike through the woods to the pub, CAMRA approved lunch and back again. Fast forward 18 months and their Wife is demanding it’s sold.

I know which one I’d want to buy.

I miss my pampered, barely broken in DH bike, it really was a great centre piece for my living room.

I bought a lovely 2013 Norco Arrum on Pink bike last year with great spec for 900 quid. Mot all the Pink bike stuff is thrashed.

I bought a Mondraker Summum off Pink Bike in late 2015. Its was in great condition and I thought a bit of a bargain. As tpbiker says,as long as you can sort the wheat from the chaff (and I would recommend looking over the bike in person before committing to buy) there are some good deals on DH bikes on Pink BIke.

If I was buying a bike, it would be Pinkbike.

DH bikes are seemingly worth buttons these days.

Does SDH Or whatever it’s called even exist these days? That place fell of a cliff.

Most of the old SDH crowd frequent here these days. It went to ride.io and with the rise of Facebook for organising events etc it went very ghost town. I used to moderate on there and really enjoyed it as a forum for years.

Pinkbike usually has loads of interesting stuff. You’ve always got to be careful because a pretty good proportion of it has been flogged to death and is just being dumped because it’s beyond economic repair, though.

The price of 26 inch dh bikes is getting silly

Ye there’s definitely a lot of crap out there, there’s a couple of bikes on eBay but they don’t seem to realise the amount and bike loses people expect to £2000 for £3500 that they claim to is a year or so old when in fact it was bought the previous year because bike companies release their bike 6 months earlier, and the bikes have been raced bought and sold a few times among friends because when you ask for the original receipt there a long bull shit story, I’m looking for a 2 year old bike with highend air fork 27.5 wheel ally frame medium size original receipt service history.

Avalanche forks, bos shock, £700! http://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/2116499/
(not mine, but seriously tempting)

The price of 26 inch dh bikes is getting silly

Yup, `bit like trail bikes really, just a year or two later. Although 27″ stuff does seem to be silly money as a result because all those looking for s/h bikes want them. Ditto air forks. So;

I’m looking for a 2 year old bike with highend air fork 27.5 wheel ally frame medium size original receipt service history.

Isn’t going to be cheap.

Service history? Good luck with that on any bike, especially a DH bike where the likelihood is that the shock is the only part that’s ever been worked on by anyone but the owner

Shock service because it can only be done tf or mojo for high end stuff,because their the only ones with the tools , linkage bearing change etc, I always keep receipts it pays to be able to prove that you looked after it, if you bought a s/h bike with out it your mad

There’s loads on pinkbike, nothing else has the choice and the administration are really good at banning scammers. Plenty of bikes being bought cheap then being relisted by chancers trying to make money so check history and use the search. Avoid anyone without good timely history. Be careful with anything that’s been resprayed. Build money into the cost for different springs and fork / shock service. Without proper receipts assume no service has been done. Don’t buy anything unseen. You’ll get a decent 26inch bike for under a grand, about 1.5k gets a good bike. Newer bikes 2013ish onwards will have better geometry, some of the older bikes are short and steep and won’t be as confidence inspiring when riding. Don’t buy one too small, this is a common mistake.
I looked for months with a 1.5k budget, found a few repeated sales of the same bike from different sellers, reported 2 scammers which PB dealt with straight away, narrowed it down to 3 local bikes but ended up buying a brand new YT Tues for £1600 plus delivery.

Shock service because it can only be done tf or mojo for high end stuff,because their the only ones with the tools

I can see the point in checking/asking, but unless you weigh the same as the previous owner and ride similar trails, you’d be better off sending it off for a service/tune anyway, and who in their right minds has a recent service (which could be north of £250 for forks and shock) on a bike they’re about to sell?

I’d put more trust in a quick ride than I would any amount of paperwork, even in a car park you can tell if a shocks working properly or blown. A bit of paper just tells you that the shock was fine 12 months ago.

Shock service because it can only be done tf or mojo for high end stuff,because their the only ones with the tools , linkage bearing change etc, I always keep receipts it pays to be able to prove that you looked after it, if you bought a s/h bike with out it your mad

There are plenty of people other than Mojo & TF who can service all manner of shocks.

It’s pretty obvious whether a bike has been looked after or not. I’ve never asked for any ‘service history’ on a bike i’ve bought & there have been a lot over the years.

I’ve never been asked for it either. To be honest if I was, i’d probably avoid selling it to that person – from experience they are the buyers expecting a new bike for used money. I.e. aggro.

Ye nice one scruff good few tips, and at least someone thinks the same as my in regards to service. I’m in no rush at the moment the right bike will turn up I’m shore

got my last dh bike on PB, at a price i was happy with, Knew what i was looking for and just waited till right one came up,i prob still be looking if I was after paying min price… it is and has been great,,,agree with others 26″ dh bikes are going cheap and are mint…
also commencal were doing good deals on older 26 models from there site, s’pose depends on your budget

Quick bounce on a bike in a car park with some wd40 sprayed on it might be enough for some but spending £2000 in a car park with no receipt or service history is madness, and as for shock service these days fox only supply certain workshops like mojo and tf not saying there the only ones, bike prices are higher now more technical components, but each to there own

Quick bounce on a bike in a car park with some wd40 sprayed on it might be enough for some but spending £2000 in a car park with no receipt or service history is madness, and as for shock service these days fox only supply certain workshops like mojo and tf not saying there the only ones, bike prices are higher now more technical components, but each to there own

Yes, but a receipt from MOJO for a service and tune to someone else weight 12 months ago (because who gets a service if they’re thinking of selling?) followed by 12 months of use is worth a bit less than the paper it’s printed on. Even if it’s freshly serviced, it’s not (likley) setup for your weight and riding so to get the best out of your £2k purchase you’re going to have to send it away for a service anyway.

A quick bounce in the car park on the other hand tells you the seals haven’t blown (oil on shaft, or air in the oil giving inconsistent damping). Followed by quick check the adjusters do what they should. That tells you that everything is working on the day you actually buy the bike.

To paraphrase your own statement, you’re mad if you trust a piece of paper over what your senses tell you about the bike in front of you!

Quick bounce on a bike in a car park with some wd40 sprayed on it might be enough for some but spending £2000 in a car park with no receipt or service history is madness, and as for shock service these days fox only supply certain workshops like mojo and tf not saying there the only ones, bike prices are higher now more technical components, but each to there own

I bought mine second hand a couple of years back via Pinkbike

No issues with it – decent condition when I bought, only replaced wear and tear items on it

I don’t think there is much point buying a new one with so many decent second hand ones about

My 3 year old arrum came with Boxxer teams, cane creek DB, hope v4s, sram x1, fat bars..

Took it to the alps and it was flawless. Bought for 900 quid off a bloke having never seen it and no service receipts

Intention was to sell it for same price when I got back, but I can’t bear to part with it, even though its still got the Morzine mud on the tyres 8 months later 🙂

No point in spending more than a grand on a second hand one IMO, the choice for under that is pretty large

If I was going to buy a two year old bike and the rear shock had been serviced it would tell the bike had been looked after to the point someone was willing to pay £100 plus. And I’ve never mentioned tuning thats setup a different thing completely. And no one would buy a bike in a car park with oil pissing out of everything that would be madness, but don’t agree that a quick bounce would tell you any more than it goes up and down.

scuff321 – Member

If I was going to buy a two year old bike and the rear shock had been serviced it would tell the bike had been looked after to the point someone was willing to pay £100 plus.

This is actually really true. I wouldn’t necessarily worry about a lack of a suspension service, but if it’s been done it’s a very good sign because nobody services shocks regularly while neglecting the rest of the bike. Unless of course it was a repair job.

Pink Bike isn’t too bad these days to be honest.

There is some shite on there that’s either a nail or nicked, but it’s pretty easy to weed out. I bought my Demo from there and it was mint; the guy was good to deal with too. Just sold some Boxxers on there and again it was sound.

DH bikes are cheap secondhand that’s for sure, especially 26 inch jobbies.

As said do watch out for people buying cheap and try to sell on at a higher price (I missed out on a cheap SC Jackal frame and out a WTD add on here and the dude who bought it tried to sell it back to my for more than double using the photos from the original ad!).

Recently sold a well specd nukeproof scalp for £790 took about a month to sell, due to fees I would have had to get about £900 on ebay.
Sometimes the same bikes are on eBay so you can cross reference the two and offer less on pinkbike.
Purchased a 650b v10 locally from pinkbike a few weeks later.