[background music] Mark Threlfall:
Buying a second-hand bike is a great way of saving some money, or picking up a slightly older bike,
more within your budget. Today, I'm specifically going to be looking at triathlon bikes.
I have already trolled the internet for far longer than I like to admit, and I picked up
this beauty. I got this lovely bike for a mere £400 pounds. That's around €450 or a
little over $500. As far as triathlon bikes go, that's pretty reasonable. Don't worry,
I've got a few treats in store for this bike over the coming months. Stay tuned for that.
Now, obviously, buying a secondhand bike does throw up a few more complications than simply
buying a brand-new bike. You could run the risk of parting with your hard-earned cash
over a pile of rubbish. Fortunately, though, bikes are a relatively easy thing to inspect
prior to purchasing them though. Today I'm going to run through a few key areas to look out for.
First off, where do we buy from? Well, the choices are almost endless these days. We've got eBay,
Craigslist, Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, local papers, clubs,
word-of-mouth, and the list just goes on. I think you get the picture. They all require
slightly different tactics but a couple of things that do remain the same or that you must go in
knowing your budget and also your rough frame size. They say rough simply because the sizes
do vary a little bit from bike to bike and brand to brand. Hopefully, though, fast forward through
that searching process, which can take some time, and hopefully, you find yourself in the position
of going to view a bike. I really do recommend going to view before you buy, rather than
simply buying online and hoping for the best. I appreciate that may be difficult
during the current times in some parts of the world. Fortunately, with a bike,
it is a relatively easy machine to inspect, partly because a lot of the mechanics are exposed so you
can inspect them nice and quickly and nice and easily. You must know what you're looking for.
Today, I'm going to arm you with some information and we're going to start off by looking at the
frame and the forks. Now, if either of these are damaged, unfortunately, it means the bike could be
virtually useless. Unless, of course, you've gone for a bit of an investment project, you know what
you're looking for, or maybe you're just hoping to strip the groupset off the frame, then fine.
With the frame and the forks, if you notice any dents, cracks, rust, or bends in the tubing,
that should throw up a red flag straight away. Now, don't be afraid to take a real thorough
look over the frame. Don't just do a quick glance over. I honestly wouldn't be alarmed
if I was selling a bike and someone really took their time and was quite thorough with
it. Logic says just start at the front or the rear, and just work your way along the
tube so you don't miss any part of the bike. On an alloy metal bike, look out for any bends
in the tubing, or on the paintwork if it's bubbled, because that could be a sign of
corrosion happening underneath the paintwork. On a carbon frame, of course, you want to look out for
any cracks in the carbon. If you can, providing the seller allows you to take the bike for a
quick spin, even if that's simply up and down the road. If you feel like the bike is unbalanced or
it's pulling to one side, unfortunately, that can mean that the frame is actually bent or is
out of alignment. It's really uncommon, but obviously, something worth keeping in mind.
If the frame and the forks are okay, now let's move on to probably the next most important part
of the bike, the wheels. Now, of course, these can be easily replaced, but also, if they were
adding significant value to the second-hand bike. Perhaps, they're part of the selling factor of the
bike because maybe they're some deep section race wheels, then, of course, you maybe want
to pay closer attention to them, but of course, you also do want to be paying for a working bike.
With the wheels, start off by just simply spinning them, just to check that they are nicely aligned.
If they run absolutely fine, then great, you're on to a winner. If there's a slight dinking then from
side to side, that can perhaps just be trued and sorted quite easily. If you notice a dink in then
by more than a couple of mil from either side, then that could be more of an
issue and maybe even just truing won't be able to do the job. Also, it makes you question how well
the bike has been looked after anyway. Other bits to check on the wheels are the
spoke tension. You can just run your way around, just grabbing hold of the spokes just gently,
just to check their tension. If you notice just a slight loss in tension on the odd one,
that's normally fine. That could be tightened up and trued. If you notice they're severely loose or
multiple spokes are loose, that is obviously more of a worry. The other bit to check, particularly
on rim brake wheels, is the condition of the rim themselves. If they're really worn or even going
concave, then they definitely need replacing. Now moving on to something we can't actually
visually inspect but we can still certainly feel for their condition and that is the bearings. Now,
these are basically clear in all the moving parts of the bike, so in the headset,
in the bottom bracket, and the wheel hubs. Now, personally, I like to start at the headset,
partly because I feel like they're a good sign of how well someone looks after their bike,
or not, as the case may be. The first protocol is simply just to pick
up the front wheel and try and turn the handlebars from side to side. If it feels really gritty in
that movement, then they could well be on their way to needing being replaced. If they feel like
it's getting stuck, and it's really, really jolty, then they're definitely gone. They definitely need
replacing. Fortunately, though, headset bearings are pretty cheap to replace. In the grand scheme
of things, I wouldn't be too worried about that. The next test is to put the bike down on the
ground, hold on to the front brake, and try shunting or rocking the bike back and forth.
Ideally, you shouldn't feel any play or movement in the front end,
but if you feel a knocking back and forth, then again, they're probably going to need replacing.
Or as I found, because I did experience this knocking back and forth when I got this bike,
then it could well be that just the bearings in their little cups
aren't aligned correctly. I just need to take the stem off, realign them,
and pack them back in better, tighten it all down, and that sorts the job for me for free.
Then the wheels, obviously, firstly, you just check that they're securely fixed into the frame
but nice, easy, and simple test this one. Grab hold of the wheel and try and move the wheel from
side to side. If you feel a significant play in the wheel, then yes, the bearings could well be
gone and need replacing. Unfortunately, only costs around £30 but it's a relatively technical job.
You may want to factor in dropping into the bike shop and the additional cost that comes with that.
Then moving on to the bottom bracket bearings, Now, this allows the crank arms and pedals to
spin freely. You've probably guessed the test for this one yet. Just spin the crank arms,
spin the pedals. Ideally, you want them to spin nice and freely. If they don't, or they
slow down very quickly, then, unfortunately, the bottom bracket may need replacing. Again,
not that expensive, normally around £30 to £40 for a bottom bracket bearing.
If you feel significant play in the actual crank arms from side to side,
then that could be something more sinister, and something you want to be careful with.
Whilst we're down here, we may as well talk about the drivetrain. Now, this part of the bike,
essentially, as the name suggests, helps to drive us along. It's made up of numerous
parts which do all wear out with times, that do need replacing, which is absolutely fine,
but because they're all interlinked, they do quite often all need replacing at the same time. We're
going to start by checking the chain. You want to pop into the big ring and then grab a link of the
chain by the chainring. Try to pull it away. If you can pull it more than a few millimeters off
or expose the tip of the chainring teeth, then it most certainly needs replacing.
It's also good practice to replace the cassette at the same time as the chain, so they bed into one
another. If the chain is worn out, then it's worth also checking out the chainrings and the chainring
teeth. Ideally, we don't want any uneven wear on the teeth, so one side more worn than the other,
or a shark tooth-like effect on those teeth. If they are then, they'll need replacing.
Fortunately, you can replace a chain without actually having to replace the whole cranks,
they can be taken off individually, but prices for chainrings do vary considerably.
Then on to the actual gear, so does it shift from the small ring to the big ring, and vice versa,
and runs through the rear cassette, nice and happy? Now, if it's struggling on any of those,
and it's the actual mechanisms, both the front and the rear that are causing that, then that can be a
costly fix. More often than not, it's actually just the cables running to those mechanisms.
They're either slightly rusty, corroded, they're sticking a little bit, or the gears just aren't
set up at all. Now, a nice way to check this is by actually manually pushing on the front
of the rear mech gently to see if they'll move. Now, you should only do this on non-electronic
groupsets, not the electronic groupsets. The front mech, just push that with your thumb. It
is a little bit more stiff than the rear mech, but it certainly shouldn't be a workout to move it.
If it is more stiff than you expect, then it may just need simply a bit of TLC.
Same on the rear mech, just be more gentle with that one to push it through the gears.
Again, if that's stiff, it may need a bit of TLC. If both are overly stiff,
and you're struggling to move them, then, unfortunately, it could be a replacement too.
Last of all, are the brake which are, obviously, very important. We want to check them first of
all, both on rim and disc brakes by pulling the levers in quite firmly and just checking that
they work. On rim brakes, if they're not working very well, well, again, this could
simply be the cable running down to the brakes. If that's corroded or rusty, then it's not going
to move that freely through the outer cable, it might get stuck, et cetera. Go straight to the
source and by hand, try pushing the caliper in letting go. What you should do is just push in
quite easily and when you let go, spring back out which it does on this bike which is good news.
Next thing to look at is the pad wear which, actually, is a very cheap and easy thing to
replace if you need to. I won't worry too much about that but if they're overly worn, then again,
that could be a sign that it's a bike that hasn't been that well looked after. Disc brakes, a little
bit more tricky to look at when you're inspecting over the bike, but things to look out for if they
feel spongy or you can pull the lever all the way back in, then they could need bleeding again.
If the pistons are moving in and out from the actual caliper itself
happily, that's something to look into and also the pad wear. If they're all fully worn out,
they'll need replacing but if they are fully worn out, then you also may want to check the actual
disc, the rotor itself because that may mean that you've had metal on metals they've
been scored and that's going to affect their performance going forwards. That, obviously,
ends up being a little bit more costly and again, makes you wonder how well
that bike's been looked after in the first place. Now, from experience, having been on both sides,
don't be afraid to ask questions. It's really, really important. Also, do try and look past
some of the minor things like bar tape or saddles because those are relatively easy
and simple things to replace. Anyway, hopefully, I've armed you with a lot of information there.
If you have any more questions, please drop them in the comments section below or
any advice having sold or bought second-hand bikes in the past. We'd love to hear them.
I'm sure many others would love to read them too. I hope you've enjoyed today's video. If so,
please do give it a thumbs up. Don't forget to give us a follow and a subscribe because we've got
some treats in store for this bike coming soon. [00:12:16] [END OF AUDIO]