I have been posting this ad for a while now on Toronto Craigslist. I have sold 4 other bikes on craigslist… once even on the same day I put up the ad, so I really can’t understand the lack of offers. Is $1000 CAN too much?
Anyone have an idea as to why there is so little response from buyers (except from scammers)?
Levi
I think the problem is your market. Fixie riders are bike nerds who like to build their own bikes (often cheaply.) They aren’t the type to buy a bike that someone else made for them, especially if it cost 1k.
True that. Hence the reason I did so. This season fixed gear hipsters are literally all over downtown TO streets, so I am hoping at least one of them is interested.
The 59cm frame limits the market to tall people. I’ve noticed that many of the urban hipster fixed gear riders are on the short side. This whole urban fixie thing might just be a Napoleon complex.
The gear that is on the bike is also high for urban use. A 46x14 is about an 88 inch gear. I don’t want to find any hills with that gear. Most urban fixies are running a much lower gear than that.
What the heck I know! They do seem to be rather short. And even then some of the regular height guys enjoy small frames for some reason.
There aren’t too many hills in and around downtown Toronto. I always knew the gearing was harder than most fixie riders use in the city, but I just attributed that to my unicycle conditioned legs. In fact, I think riding up and especially down hills in fixed is great unitouring training. It really helps you get your cadences high.
I’d say the reason is because they find whatever frame they can that fits them “well enough” in basements or second hand stores and then build a fixie from it for pennies.
Put some gears on that bike and sell it to the road riding crowd. They’re more into spending money.
I don’t think $1000 CAD is too much.
People have a misconception that fixies are cheap bikes. They’re only cheap if you have connections to get parts all second hand. Otherwise quality bike parts are expensive. The only way to get new bike parts reasonably is to get those parts stock on a bike. And stock bikes don’t have the kind of style your bike has. Once you go aftermarket and custom build the cost balloons.
Start with a quality stock bike and add parts for style and better functional use and you quickly get over the $1000 mark.
There are stock fixies in the $1000 range but not ones with the kind of style yours has. You just have to wait for the right person to notice it is for sale.
I guess what I meant was that although the bike is easilly worth 1000cad - fixie riders are generally younger, have less money, and are cheap. But eventually someone will find it. Maybe ebay?
eBay can be a tough place to sell cause everyone is looking for huge bargains. On the flip side there’s a lot of exposure. eBay keeps changing it’s listing fees around so it’s possible that if you don’t sell it, you won’t get hammered with fees. It depends on your rating and how much you sell though. If you have a a perfect rating with their new 5 star system and you have good history, you can list stuff and if it doesn’t sell you don’t necessarily have to pay any fees. This really isn’t a written thing, but I get that deal because of my eBay history.
We’re not heavy into the bike buying season quite yet, but we’re getting close so don’t be discouraged. It’s possible that as summer gets closer you may be able to sell it for what you want to without having to do a panic sell at a huge loss on eBay.
Yeah thanks for the insight folks. I am not sure about the gearing suggestion though. It has track (horizontal) dropouts so I think the only way I could get gears on it would be through an internal hub… Which gives me a cool idea!
Does an internal hub exist (Rolhoff maybe?) that is fixed like the UNI geared hubs? So, essentially similar, but without the gear buttons and with more gears and diff ratios. That would be an interesting build of a bike.
It is possible to put an internally geared hub in a singlespeed/fixie frame. The problem is with the hub spacing. Track style bikes have a narrower rear hub spacing. You need to be able to stretch the rear spacing wider so it can fit an internally geared hub. So it needs to be a steel frame that is suitable to being cold set and stretched wider.
Harris Cyclery has what they call the Bianchi/Harris San Jos8. They take a fixie Bianchi San José and convert it to an 8 speed. The web page explains how and some of the special parts to make it work (like where and how to mount the shifter).
I was considering building up a bike similar to the San Jos8. Maybe starting with a Redline 925. I’m after a commuter oriented bike with internal gearing and something that can handle a rear rack. I don’t want a derailleur.
Just recently I found that Felt makes a an urban bike called the X:City. That looks like the bike I’m going to get. I’ll have to sell my MTB to make room and to justify another bike. I’ll still keep my fixie.
I would recomend finding some bike forums local to Toronto, and trying to sell it there. I think because a fixie is such a small market it will be even harder to sell it on Craigslist.
Even though you may have sold bikes there before, its still a fixie which although trendy still aren’t super popular yet.
Untrue. The “Rule of Mark” states that the amount of bikes and unicycles that you need is n+1, where n=the amount of bikes and unicycles that you currently have.
Hahaha, agreed
Yeah good call, I used to post on bikeforums.net which is a very good frequented forum as I’m sure you know. I have stopped posting there, though, and begun posting even my bike questions here. I like the community here far better. For some reason everyone seems seriously helpful, insightful, and friendly.
But yeah, I will do that. For anyone in a big city I’m sure you have noticed the excess of couriers and fixers in the last few years. There is this one spot where the couriers hang out, maybe I will ride it by there with a for-sale sign.
John, you just solved all my bike problems. I am selling my bike now to get something a little more practical for touring. I hate derailleurs so much but wouldn’t mind trying out gears again for touring. That San jos8 looks perfect. Oh but of course, you must actually go to Newton, Mass to get it. Also, do you know how much that Sanjos8 goes for?
I’m sure you guys are starting to see me as a wet blanket, but I wouldn’t tour on an internally geared hub for two reasons: The hub won’t be as strong as a traditional touring hub (you can get around this by pulling a trailer and not having panniers) and because if/when your gearing brakes it’ll be super hard to find parts in the middle of bumfook nowhere.
That being said, I’m sure someone out there has done it succesfully.
Rohloffs are getting more popular for touring purposes - fans of them claim they’re pretty bulletproof, enemies say they’re overpriced and noisy. I’ve never used one so I can’t comment.
I’ve been running a hub-gear on my winter commuting bike and it’s excellent for that. Not a Rohloff, a Shimano Nexus I8. Very low maintenance, easy to clean and not expensive. It’s even quite efficient in most gears (4th is pretty nasty: noisy and more draggy than the other gears) but a clean, well-looked-after derailleur is noticeably nicer IMO. I won’t be going to hub gears on my “nice” bike.
As for multiple fixed hub gears, the only commercially produced one I’ve heard of was the old Sturmey Archer ASC 3-speed fixed. They’re pretty sought-after by collectors now. There are various articles around explaining how to convert a normal Sturmey 3-speed into a 2-speed fixed gear with a bit of hackery, but apparently they end up with a fair amount of slop, which sort of defeats the point of a fixed gear in the first place.
Back on topic… I don’t think you’re asking too much - it’s just a bit of a specialist bike, like others have mentioned, and might take a long time to find a buyer. You’d obviously sell it faster if you lowered your price though.
Rob
This is always a worry for me. However, we all really enjoy exploring the niches of cycling so it is inevitable. I’m not fully sold on that nexus though.
My Dad has a Rolhoff on his Tour EZ Recumbent. That’s the only pic I have of it, and for the 1000 or so that it would have been new, it shifted as well if not smoother than derailleur. I think it needs to be emptied and refilled with lubricant every so often, but it has worked really well for him.
That would be a good solution but for the money I would rather a Guni.
That reminds me. On one of my tours I met a guy running a recumbant that had a standard 7 speed derailer setup on a 3 speed hub. This gave him the effective 21 speeds without having a front derailer. It was pretty interesting. Maybe this setup is common, but it’s definately the first I’ve seen it.
I don’t know anything about the price. You can take a guess by adding up the cost of the extra components and guestimating how much it would be for a frame builder (or suitable bike mechanic) to widen the rear spacing.
I’m on a quest to go derailleurless on my commuter oriented bike just because. Derailleurs have disadvantages for city style riding. You can’t shift while stopped, the derailleur hangs down and gets in the way when trying to fit the bike in some bike racks, the chain gets unnecessary wear from contorting in strange sideways directions, it’s more difficult to fit a reasonable chain guard on, and I think a bike without a derailleur just looks better.
For a performance race oriented road bike I’d still go with a derailleur setup.