Selling your bike can be a monumental hassle.  The first part isn’t too bad – getting your bike ready to sell, taking photos, and creating a listing online. But then you have to deal with the seemingly endless back-and-forth with potential buyers. 

To make the process easier, we asked experts who’ve successfully sold many, many bikes for their best tips to get a fast, smooth sale.

Those of us with spare bikes to sell were spoiled in 2020, when new bikes were almost impossible to find and everyone wanted to get into riding. But now the market is flooded, and your used bike probably doesn’t command the same value as it did four years ago – especially now that manufacturers are offering big discounts on new bikes.

You love your bike, we know. But that doesn’t mean it’s actually worth a fortune. And an almost-new bike isn’t the same as a new bike bought from a bike shop, especially because many brands won’t transfer a bike’s warranty to a new owner. In this way, bikes are like cars: the minute you drive off the showroom floor, the car drops in value.

Fortunately, checking the bike’s value is relatively easy to do using bike-specific classified sites such as BikeHub. See what similar bikes in your area have sold for, and cross-check on more general sites like Facebook Marketplace. 

Prep Your Bike

Before taking photos of your bike to post, give it a little TLC: wash it, clean the chain carefully and re-lube it, pump the tyres, charge your electronic shifters, and generally try to make it look as clean as possible. Small tweaks can make a big difference to how the bike looks, so consider putting on new bar tape if yours is looking a bit haggard, or swopping to a newer, cleaner saddle if yours is getting old.

If you have a premium bike and you plan on listing it for a substantial sum, you may want to get it serviced at a bike shop so that it’s running smoothly. The higher the price point, the more flawless the buyer expects a bike to be.

Take Great Photos

This is the buyer’s first impression of your bike. Take clear, well-lit images of your bike. Even an inexpensive bike can look more expensive when shot in sunlight with a nice background, versus against your wall of junk in the garage.

“Take good pics – lots of them – and make sure you get the drive side”

You want to highlight all the important components, from a full bike shot down to the drivetrain details. “Get to the level of the bike for the best shots. Take good pics – lots of them – and make sure you get the drive side,” says Andrew Yee, editor of Cyclocross magazine in the US.

Decide On Your ‘Best Offer’ Price

If you’ve ever posted something for sale on Facebook Marketplace, you’ve probably received lowball offers for half the value or less of what you’re asking. It’s usually advisable not to engage with these kinds of buyers; but it is important to decide in advance on the lowest amount you’d be willing to take for your bike.

Besides the open classified sites, there are many private WhatsApp groups in South Africa for enthusiasts of certain brands, and many cyclists are on groups to arrange rides. It’s often worth testing the waters there before you go to the open market; but again, decide on your price, and don’t get into fights with potential buyers – it’s not worth wasting your time arguing. 

 “When I posted my bike on my riding group, one guy told me I was asking way too much for it,” says a cyclist who prefers to remain anonymous, lest he risk his group’s ire… “I replied with data supporting my price, and the bike ended up selling on a classified site for even more than I was asking on the group.”

Write Your Listing

When listing your bike on a site such as Facebook Marketplace, be as detailed as possible. The more you’re asking for, the more detailed you’ll want to be, to avoid a lot of back-and-forth messaging with potential buyers. “Bikes with detailed descriptions tend to sell faster,” says Theo Golditchuk, CEO and co-founder of buycycle.com.

Include information such as the make, model, and year; size (and wheel size for MTB); a full list of components, including drivetrain, wheels, tyres and saddle; and whether it includes pedals/water bottle cages, etc. Also mention any damage or major crash history, and include a link to the bike on the manufacturer’s website, if it still exists – this can answer questions about geometry and sizing for potential buyers.

BikeHub, our local bikes-only classified site, make this relatively easy – when you list your bike, you’ll be prompted to fill in a form with all the details.

Assess Your Selling Options

For a quick turnaround and no shipping costs, selling locally on a classified site is your best option. This is especially true of more inexpensive bikes, because packing and shipping costs time and money.

As mentioned, if you’re friends with a lot of cyclists, make sure you also post your bike to your own social media channels and WhatsApp groups. 

If you don’t know the person you’re selling your bike to, always meet in a safe, neutral location that isn’t near your house, and consider taking a friend along. Use all the tools at your disposal to assess the buyer. Ask for an introductory video call and agree to one if the buyer asks the same. Chatting to someone in person instead of via text message will usually give you a good idea of their intentions. If you have that nagging feeling in your gut that something isn’t right, don’t risk the sale.

For expensive bikes, or if you’re selling your bike to someone in another province, consider using BikeHub’s clever BikeHub Pay system: for a small extra fee, the seller pays the asking price into a neutral trust account managed by BikeHub, and the money is only released once the goods have been received and both parties are happy. 

Consider Using a Dealer

If the bike you’re selling is in great condition and you don’t want the hassle of dealing with potential buyers, consider selling to a dealer who trades in second-hand bikes, like Sandton-based Bike Market (bikemarket.co.za). You might receive a slightly lower price for your bike, but the sale process will be much easier and safer. 

Also, remember that many – if not all – bike shops accept trade-ins. If you have your eye on a shiny new bike off the dealer’s floor, chat to that dealer about trading in your current bike. You never know, they might just offer you the same as you were planning to ask for on the classifieds… 

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