used bicycles

We’ve decided to start buying and selling used bicycles. We do have some rules for this though, that we’ll detail below. 

If you are looking to buy a bike, please stop by or email us with a short description of what you’re looking for: ben@fourmountaincycles.com

If you are looking to sell a bike to us, please make an appointment for us to inspect the bike, this is best done by email request. This inspection may take up to 20 minutes. Bicycles are purchased by check only. 

What we’ll buy & why

For bikes that we plan to refurbish and re-sell in the shop, we will generally be looking for bicycles that can economically be refurbished and resold at a reasonable price. Our target sales price range for refurbished bikes is under $500, so our offers reflect that. Here are the basics for what we’ll consider:

  1. Hybrid, youth, or mountain bikes that have no suspension or have only front suspension are what we are primarily looking for. We are not interested in buying any full-suspension mountain bikes, but if you have one to sell look at our Consignment page.

  2. We are generally not interested in drop-bar road style bicycles, but we may consider them as they can serve as platforms for conversions to flat-bar bicycles. We will generally assume that any shifter/brake combination levers on road bikes are worn out and require replacement and our offer would reflect that. 

  3. We prefer bicycles that have an aluminum frame over those with steel frames. We generally will not buy carbon fiber bicycles, as crash damage is difficult to find. 

  4. Dropper posts will generally be regarded as a negative-value feature, as we will assume they need to be replaced. 

  5.  If you believe your used bike is worth more than $500, consider selling it on your own or looking at our Consignment page. 

consignment gear

why our rules exist

the fine print

  1. Suspension systems – front or rear – require regular maintenance. These components should be serviced annually, but even with regular maintenance forks and shocks wear out and will require replacement. Depending on the age of the bicycle, sometimes a suitable replacement can’t be found: the size is no longer available, a component of similar quality is no longer available, or a proprietary design has been abandoned by the manufacturer. This makes full-suspension bikes difficult to resell, as the starting assumption is that the suspension requires at least a full rebuild and possible replacement.
  2. Used rear suspensions on mountain bikes can generally be assumed to need all new bearings. Many suspensions use at least 8 bearings, and some use more. Depending on usage, replacing these bearings also can require replacement of pivot hardware, and on older bicycles (to a manufacturer, 3 years old is “old”) the parts may no longer be available.  
  3. Mountain bikes that were manufactured before about 2018 were built with geometry standards that are significantly different than modern mountain bikes. These long-stem, steep-steering-angle bikes may be considered for resale but will likely be viewed as probable conversions to flat-bar gravel bikes. 
  4. Steel bikes rust, inside and out. Vermont is especially humid, and those beautiful dewy mornings mean that bicycles left in unheated storage are subjected to condensation rusting, whether they’ve been left in the rain or not. Steel bikes that have visible rusty chains, cables, or bolts will be assumed to have rust everywhere. 
  5. Dropper posts are a great invention used in the worst possible way. They are continuously bombarded by the dirt and mud coming off the back tire of a mountain bike, so they are wearing out from day one onward. In addition, the hydro-pneumatic internal mechanisms don’t do a great job of keeping the oil separated from the air, so they require regular cartridge rebuilds or replacements. We wouldn’t want to mountain bike without one, but they are effectively a consumable part. 
  6. Drop bar (road bike) shifter/brake combination levers have several issues. First, the rubber hoods on older levers (3 years old or more) can be hard or impossible to find. Second, the internal mechanisms on these levers wear, so even with all new cables, gears, etc. it can be very difficult to get older shifters to perform well. Finally, replacement of the levers is VERY expensive, as “cheap” shift/brake levers can be $200 for a pair and may also require the replacement of other parts. Since demand for road bikes is already lower than other types of bicycles, we will generally not consider these without assuming the shifters, handlebars, and drivetrain require replacing. 
  7. People looking to sell newer bikes (1-3 years old) generally overprice their bikes when they offer them for sale. As a general rule, online retailers will sell previous-year-model NEW bikes at half of what their new MSRP was, and a USED version of that same bike will have a value of about half of that – so about 25% of it’s new MSRP. This is a hard pill to swallow, so used bikes are generally overpriced, especially when they’re first put up for sale. We will consider these bikes for consignment however.