Cheap and second hand bicycles

Just moved to Sydney and want to try out the streets for cycling? Or maybe you're a university student and need a cheap bike. Or you have the coolest bicycle in the world and need a pub bike, a bike that you can thrash around, lend to your friends, leave locked up at night and not attract attention. Maybe you just like the simple, low-tech things in life. Whatever the reason, it seems a lot of people want second hand bikes and don't know where to get them in Sydney.

Sydney is hard compared to other cities. Part of this is due to geography and urban planning and the effect that cars have had on making the city hard to get around on. Getting a second hand bike in Canberra is easy, takes a few hours of garage sales and following classifieds ads and a trip to the tip shop. One theory about why Sydney is hard is because it's bigger - you can't go take test rides on all the bikes you see in the classifieds. Others are that in the inner city people are short of space, so they don't keep bikes they don't want for long - they just throw them out. Probably the biggest reason why second hand bikes aren't usually seen in bike shops is that a member of the public can buy them at the same price as a bike shop can. The situation is quite different in the Netherlands, where you can buy hundreds of second hand bikes in one lot (as seen in photo). This means a bike shop can buy wholesale quantities of used bikes at good prices and sell them to the public at a higher price. In Sydney we can only buy them for what you can buy them for and then try to sell them to you for more, so it's a bit of a losing game all around, other than the occasional trade-in. However, it is possible to find good second hand bikes in Sydney and here are some tips. This is focused around the inner west because that's where our bike shop is.

Whatever you do, don't buy a cheap new bicycle. I don't want to say how cheap is too cheap but beware of anything new below $400. Stay clear of anything sold in a department store or bikes packaged with gym memberships and clothes purchases etc. These bikes often appear in the second hand market and are junk. Watch out for brands like Huffy, Cyclops, Royce Union (K-mart), Crane (Aldi), some Repco models, Industrie and pretty much anything cheap with dual suspension. Another giveaway is a bike that writes 'Shimano' on itself bigger than its own brand name.

Omafiets Dutch Bicycles has a huge range of used bicycles imported directly from Holland.

UNSW Bike Club has a page about getting cheap bikes. Some of the stuff is repeated below here because well, I wrote that page too, many years ago.

Bike Club in Waterloo. You can build your own bike here from bikes rescued from the waste stream. Anyone is welcome and you dont have to know a thing about bikes. You will when you leave though! Every Monday night from 5-9pm at 1 Phillip St Waterloo. Free!

The Bower - The Bower at Addison Road Community Centre. The Bower has second hand everything in varying condition. You'll find bikes there are in two categories - bikes outside that generally are not ready to ride away - they need some work done. Those go from $10 to $50. You can fix them up at Bike Club (aka Nunnery bike workshop and now cycle recycle club) and make some cycling friends while you're at it. Or just wheel them over to our shop across the road for a once over. Then there are bikes that the Bower keeps indoors. They are usually in very good working order. They aren't the best value that you can find but they are bikes, they're nice, they work and when you add all that up and the time a Bower volunteer has spent on them, they're worth the money and the money is going to a good place. You get a discount if you become a member.

Mitchell Road Auctions - On Mitchell Road, Erskineville is this general auction house that auctions its bicycles every Monday. You can view the items in the days beforehand and give them a good looking over. They usually have at least some fully working, nice bicycles for auction. The prices are hit and miss, depending on the crowd and the bike stock. I've seen some average bikes go for $150 and some great ones for $50. Have a budget in mind and go along. You can place absentee bids if you want on the day that you view them. Most bikes are ready to ride away but would need $50-$250 of work to get them in what we would call perfect working order.

The 'Garage Sale' shop - This shop on Agar St, right next to us, is only open on weekends including Fridays. These days we see up to 10 bikes on display, from kids bikes to old racers. Normally these bikes need some work before they are ready to ride but they sell very cheaply - $20-60 gets you something that often only needs a service and a few parts or around $100 to get a reliable ride. They're happy for you to wheel the bike to our shop to get a quote on full repair before committing to buy from them.

Ebay for Bicycles - Ebay has a lot of bicycles and many of them are great value. I only really recommend this for people with a good eye for quality bikes and preferably some experience buying them on ebay. There are plenty of crap ones, you need to know what kind you would like and what size you need etc because you don't always get to test ride them. Same goes for buying bicycles from Gum Tree and Cracker.

Newtown Hub. At the Newtown Hub (opposite Newtown train station, where Hare Krishna serves food) there are often bikes chained up with a price or phone number. Usually above $80 and always in good condition. Tendency towards 10 speed road and city bikes from the 80s and 90s. I think this might be one of the phone numbers to call: 0415560590

Western Sydney Cycling Network recycles bikes. You can get a bike on 'permanent loan' from $25. The bike shed is at Fairfield City Showground, Prairiewood. Give Doug a call on 02 96042221.

Bike Brain Cycle Clinic in Pyrmont has been rumoured to have some reliable and well-loved ex-hire bicycles for sale at reasonable rates.

Wonderland on Alice is at 104 Alice St, Newtown and is open Saturdays only. I see great looking steel road and retro bikes through the window. I think they're $100-500, please comment below if you have some experience.

Stallion Bikes, a new bike store in Redfern specialising in restorations, has great second hand bikes for sale and fully functioning and can also put together a bicycle to your specific size and style. Well worth a look.

Glow Worm Bicycles (us) usually has a few second hand bikes for sale at any one time, mainly from trade-ins or from our own personal collection(s), starting at $200.

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Maurice