All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

YT Decoy

 

old guy in SW Fl....long-time biker moved on to modding ebikes but love this thread!

 

Anyone ever used those sites that you can send em your bike as a trade in and they give you cash for it? I imagine I'd take a big hit but contemplating it just to get rid of the bike yk? Plus a little extra cash could be nice if I'm shelling out 4-5k for a new bike soon

 

I got low balled from one of those sites. I had a lot better luck selling on PinkBike

 

Is what I figured. Figure it’s gonna take me a while to sell mine, being now 2 generations old

 

The Pro’s closet is the site I tried. What kind of bikes are you selling

 

I’ve used Geartrade for smaller items but never a bike. You’re for sure going to get lowballed. I believe it’s like 50% for bigger items. Not sure how shipping it in works for bikes though.

 

21 orbea rallon. https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3824354/

listed on pinkbike and marketplace but not much real interest yet.

 

I had been leaning towards gen 5 slash. But honestly I’m really tempted to go firebird. I’d be more inclined to get out and pedal big big rides on the firebird than the slash. And they’ll both handle all my time in park and shuttle riding just fine

 

Man, actually surprised nobody is interested at $2000. I sold my r5 Rallon frame (with no shock) for $1000. Maybe try cleaning it and refining your ad thru Chat GPT?

also, there has been an INSANE amount of scammers on Pinkbike lately. Maybe your username, ad and low price has everything thinking you’re a scammer?

 

Probably lol. After I ride tomorrow Ill stop by my friends house and use his hose rq. Will probably take the 3m tape off thats holding dirt in.

 

It's extremely hard to sell anything right now. It took me months to sell my frame which was listed at a very good price. There is a ton of scammers on PB at the moment use caution.

 

Found this pic from years ago. Probably the most bikes I’ve ever had in the back.

 

I've got some random questions for you guys.

have you ever used a mobile bike shop (service, nutrition, other stuff?)?
has there ever been a time you thought it would be useful to have one near a trailhead (MTB or greenway type trail)?

 

i've used a mobile bike shop only at the events that i've been at that they were at. like at a race, there's a mobile bike shop there.

have one at a trailhead? not really. i've got most of what i need to make minor/medium repairs on my bike at the time. anything major, and i'm usually needing to go to the shop anyways. and my trails are close enough to shops it doesn't really put a damper on anything for me. i'd imagine in other places with less populated bike shops, a mobile bike service might make sense.

 

I think my answers are mostly the same but I do all my own maintenance so I'm thinking it is a slightly biased answer and not as common.

Assuming most of the people here are similar when it comes to maintenance but figured I'd ask haha.

We have like no available retail real estate nearby but tons of gravel and paved roads/trails with some potential mountain biking opening up soon. I'm wondering if a food truck style bike shop would get good business if it was near a common trailhead/ride area.

The two shops we had closed, partially due to rent and the nearest shops are about 20 minutes away.

 

yeah, the tricky thing would be to know wha tto stock in a small space, i suppose. :/

 

One of the shops near me actually started out this way. They had a sprinter van and then finally switched to a retail location. I never saw them while they were mobile but they have pictures in the shop and I’ve heard some of the stories about the mobile days.

I think they did ok, obviously well enough to make the switch to a physical location but we also have a lot of tourist traffic so there are always beach cruisers that needed repair.

 

Ok so heres where I'm at. Spend 3-3.5k on a slash. Or spend 4.5-5 on a firebird, which is more for the whole bike but all of them carry much nicer components as well, not just paying premium for the frame. I do ride 50% bike park, but I'd be much more likely to get out and do big singletrack 20+milers on the firebird. They can both be afforded, but will have to wait a little bit for the firebird (til I sell my orbea and/or my yz250 thats been sitting lol).

Anyone have any tidbits to chime in here? I have this gut feeling that there will be something left to be desired if I DONT buy the firebird. Realistically yes I know they are both amazing bikes. But Pivot just feels different. Like its got some fairy dust sprinkled in.

 

I've never used a mobile shop - I've never actually seen one. I have used a trail-side shop for my wife's bike. We were out riding and her bike wasn't shifting correctly. I messed with the cable tension for a bit, but it didn't make a difference. Since the trail-side shop was only a couple of miles away, we rode there to have them take a look. This place has a bar as well, so it's a pretty good setup. Hand them your bike to check out and grab a beer while you wait. They have a small retail area with clothing, helmets, gloves, etc., but no bikes for sale. They do have rental bikes there, which is probably a big chunk of their revenue. Their main (full service) shop is about 4 miles away from the trail-side shop. There's another bike shop 2 miles in the other direction, but it's just far enough to take a bunch of time away from your ride if you have an issue that you can't take care of yourself.

There's another place that I ride sometimes where a bike shop has an "outpost" at a trailhead. It's a garden shed type thing, it's probably a couple hundred square feet. I've never been there when they're open, so I don't have any details on what they have there, other than bike rentals. Rentals at the trailhead seem pretty convenient, so a first time or casual rider doesn't have to worry about transporting bikes.

I think a mobile bike shop would be useful, but I wonder how the economics work. I could see a lot of people with minor issues where you could charge $20 to get them going. Beyond that, I think you'd need some bigger dollar transactions to make it work.