The first thing I recommend you do as a person looking to buy a bike on craigslist is to consider where your priorities lay. This is an undertaking onto itself because it’s asking you to consider your bicycling goals, your taste, and your budget. You may not know a lot about bikes. The secondary bike market is indeed a curious mix of frugal first timers, opportunistic scammers, noble entrepreneurs, hobbyists, traditionalists, antitraditionalists, internet trolls and curmudgeonly veterans. It, like bicycling, is a spiraling vortex of obsession and tantalizing variety. It is the unholy union of a toy store and a litter of puppies. Your goals will tell you what kind of bike you’re looking for. If this is a mountain bike you’re lucky, because they are cheap and plentiful. Unless you start using words like “suspension,” in which case you have given yourself over to some other alchemy.
Your taste and your budget will be at odds with each other, battling for supremacy. One will master the other, but that all depends on what kind of person you are. To some people the satisfaction of owning exactly what you wanted has no equal. Can you put a price on that level of contentment? On the other hand, if you’re prone to buyer’s remorse, a good deal is intrinsic to your satisfaction. An overpriced purchase burns like a scarlet A, and your relationship with your bike will be contentious. This is a liquid market. Prices are determined by relative value, perception, and personal whim. That is to say, they are borderline arbitrary. I have a sense about what things are worth and am entirely biased, so are we all. Value is a philosophical question about you, the seller, and the market. The only real value is are you happy with the price you paid and the product you received? We all reserve the right to have unrealistic expectations. If you set your budget in the wrong place it just means you will wait forever for the bike that doesn’t come. Will you learn to adjust your expectations or will you erode all of reality before the power of your will? That’s a more personal question than what are you willing to pay for a bike.
I recently helped a woman buy a bike. She was completely enamored with Celeste Green Bianchis, and she found one near her in her rare size. Her budget evaporated and I knew that every other bike would be a let down. I would not argue with love at first sight, and the best bike for you is the bike you will develop a personal relationship with. I myself am cheap. I was completely enamored with the Cannondale Black Lightning. It took a fair amount of canvasing, and then a fair amount of driving, but I plucked that bastard out of a Jersey Shore garage at a price I could live with, and we enjoy a friendship until this day.
But eventually you’re going to actually go look at some bikes and have to decide if you want to buy them. If you’re in a store you enjoy some level of buyer’s protection, but person to person bikes are sold as is. You may find this intimidating, but it shouldn’t be. So finally, here is what you should be looking at:
Rules of Thumb: First and foremost, do not buy a bike you cannot test ride unless you really know what you’re doing. Riding a bike is the only way to be sure it is a good fit. Second, any money spent to make the bike rideable needs to be considered as part of the cost of buying. Any unadvertised issues with the bike should be counted against the asking price, and you should get a discount. You didn’t mention the bike needs new tires? I’d like $50 off in account of that. Does the bike do what you want it to? If it doesn’t, and you’re not insane, wait it out. The bike you want will come along. Finally, do not be pressured into buying or discouraged in your evaluation of the bike. A lot of ads mention ‘tire kickers’ and while it is bad form to jerk someone around on a sale or just show up to look at something you don’t intend to buy you also need to consider that some of these people are just flipping bikes in a relatively unaccountable setting and it is in their best interest for you to buy impulsively. You should simply walk away from any situation you do not feel comfortable with.
The Frame: Give the frame a good once over. It should have no unadvertised dents or other major damage. Paint chips are normal and cosmetic rust is ok, but the rust should not feel especially rough and you should treat it if you buy the bike. Paint chips can often be covered with nail polish. A dent can be ok if the bike is priced accordingly (a cheap bike for rough applications) but only if the tubing is still straight and the dent will not compromise the safety of riding. Overall I would stay away from dented bikes, because if you know what dents are ok you probably know enough not to be reading this. Anything bent in a way it should not be is a deal breaker as it most likely compromises the safety of the bike. I would only trust dents on steel bikes. Does the frame fit you? If you don’t know you should stand over the top tube, which should treat your crotch more or less like a friendly dog. More modern bikes have sloping top tubes and wont be as aggressive in this department. Take a ride, do you feel comfortable? Can you reach the bars, brakes, pedals, shifters, and water bottle cage? Do you think you look cool?
Wheels: Wheels are the most deceptively expensive part of your bike. I often see wheels needing repair referred to very casually in craigslist ads when they have the most potential to add cost to your buy. A bike that is a reasonably priced but needs new tires adds $50, and may not be so reasonable anymore. If it needs a new wheelset it’s more like $200. When you are looking at wheels you are looking at:
The Rims- this is the metal hoop that makes up the structure of the wheel. The rims should have no damage and only cosmetic stains/rust/decay. If the rust/damage changes the shape of the wheel or has eaten into the metal and will not scrub off I would consider the wheel lost and walk away from the buy. Lift one end of the bike and spin the wheel, watching where it passes through the brakes. Using the brakes as a reference you can tell how much the wheel wobbles. No wobble is ideal, and it means the wheel is ‘true.’ A slight wobble in one or two places is normal for wheels that have been ridden on. This can be fixed with minor maintenance, an inexpensive tool and a little practice, or it can be left alone. Eventually it will need to be addressed but many bike shops include minor wheel truing in their tune ups. A major wobble, especially one that causes the wheel to contact the brake, needs to be addressed. Call your local bike shop for prices on tune ups or wheel truing to get an idea as to what this ads to the price. To some up, all rims need some maintenance and you’re willing to put up with that, but if you have to replace a rim you are doubling the price of most used bikes. Also, the more you’re paying for a bike the less you should expect to have to correct on your own.
Hubs/Spokes- the hub is the center of the wheel and the spokes radiate out from it. While you’re testing how true your wheel is also remark on smoothly it spins. It should be pretty smooth even on old bikes. When you put the bike down check out the spokes. They should be clean, and the same rules for the rims apply here. No damage beyond cosmetic. Rusted spokes are especially prone to braking and a broken spoke often makes your bike unrideable by throwing your rim severely out of true. (spokes put tension on the rim to keep it true and give it strength) Give each spoke a little wiggle. There should be very little play in them. Loose spokes aren’t doing your rim any good. Again, a bike shop and fix these generally as part of a tune up. Replacement spokes are cheap BUT you’ll be paying labor costs.
Tires/tubes- The tires are the tires, you know what tires are. The tubes are the rubber hoses inside of the tires that when filled with air make the tire rigid and rideable. A flat tire is a function of one of these two things, and flat tires are common when you go to check a bike out. You should bring an air pump just in case, because the truth about tubes is even the good ones are only holding their air temporarily. If you have to pump your tires frequently you need to replace the tubes. Tubes are cheap and easily replaced, it’s the first thing you should learn how to do. Bad tubes we’re gonna let the seller slide and not ask for money off. But, tires are another issue. A damaged tire causes blow outs in your tubes, which is loud and scary. Your cats will freak the eff out. There should be no damage to the tire, which should not be bald (amirite ladies?) and should have no dry rot or cracking. Especially check the side walls for this. New tires vary in price but they’re probably more than you think, like you’ll probably have to shop around to get a set for $40. They last a decent amount of time so don’t worry so much there, but factor that into your price.
A quick word on tire size. 700c is the current standard road bike tire size, 26” is the standard mountain bike size. Hybrid bikes may use both, and tires in a wide range of thicknesses are available. Lurking around is the old standard 27” size. These things are not equal. Because 27” is obsolete it will limit your replacement tire options. They tend to be cheaper but fatter. So if you want skinny, speedy tires consider staying away from 27” wheels. Likewise if your bike has the original skinny 27 inchers in need of dire replacement you are not replacing them easily.
The components: Basically everything that’s bolted to the bike. Components do the most to control the perceived value of a bike, which is ironic because the frame and wheels are always in use by the rider when the components are selectively in use. Ofcourse when you do select them, they’re very important. But I suggest this is somewhat lopsided, and great frames can be found and upgraded to suit you. Components are a world unto themselves so for the time being concern yourself with condition only:
Brakes- you should try the brakes both gradually with control and suddenly with force. Do you feel confident that they will stop you in both scenarios? Can you reach the brake levers comfortably? This is vitally important to your safety. If the brakes feel mushy, like there’s a lag between applying them and the pad contacting the wheel, then the cable needs adjustment. Cables stretch over time so brake adjustment should be included in that tune up you’ve already called to check on the price of. It’s also easy to do at home. Cables are cheap and easily replaced, no fault to the seller. If the pad contacts the wheel firmly with immediacy but still don’t stop well the pads most likely need to be replaced which will cost more.
Shifters- Your shifters should work smoothly, gear by gear, and hold their position after shifting. Poor shifting can generally be fixed or at least improved with adjustments, but that doesn’t mean there are no lost causes. There are a plethora of used replacements and upgrades both new, old, and NOS (new old stock, a sobriquet very popular with sellers/bullshit artists.) But if you’re buying a bike with the intention not to fix it up these should be in relatively good repair.
Cranks- The crank set is what you’re probably calling the pedals. They’re where the power of your legs is transmitted to the chain to turn the wheels. The chainrings should be straight with no gnarled teeth. The crank arms should be unbent with no major damage beyond scuffing, which is common. Cranks are one of the higher ticket items on your bike, so it doesn’t pay to replace them. When you turn the cranks they should be smooth, with little or no clicking. The arms should not have any back and forth play. They should not feel gritty or sandy when they turn. These are all signs that you have issues with your bottom bracket (your bikes axle more or less) which is fun to play around with yourself but not worth paying to fix on your entry level used bike.
This is thorough, but it actually wont play out this slowly when you're looking at the bike. The truth is things that are wrong with a bike will jump out at you, and when a bike is right it's going to grab you. Some bikes wont seem worth your time and some bikes will seem imperitive. This is just a way to get comfortable with your bike spotting skills.
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