Are 2nd hand ebikes pretty much worthless?!

[Rotwilder]

We sold my wife’s Cube ebike and made a £700 loss over 2 years. It would cost more to hire one! New cost £2.200, sold £1500 with just over a 1000 miles on. On my Rotwild I’ve replaced the battery and motor(trice!) and the drivetrain 4 times now. Plus seat; brakes; tyres. 22000 miles since 2017. I bought a Specialized Creo gravel a couple of years back and still ride both in different ways. At 73 I don’t need a new bike yet, although I know I don’t ride the way most on here do; being held together by rods and pins nowadays

 

[irie]

The only thing(s) original on my 2020 Rail 9.7 is the frame, motor and battery. I’m not even going to consider selling at this time.

I’m satisfied with the feel and geometry of the Rail. I’m not sure if a newer model or different manufacturer would make much of a difference.…

Same with our alloy Rails on which only frame, motor and battery is standard*, and are set up for our riding conditions.

Edit: I tell a lie, wife's MT420 brakes are standard but will probably be replaced in 2025.

 

[steve_sordy]

New for old on my house contents policy. I had to specify the bike as a separate item because the standard cover was £300 for a bike. My premium did not go up. My garage is not proof against a determined burglar prepared to make some noise, but it will deter everyone else. and then he has to steal the bike! It is really well secured.

 

[Truckee Robert]

I’m looking for a trail bike used right now. The prices are really low. Here’s some things to consider. First with the new motor services available $200-400 you may not need a “new motor” after all. Second where has the bike been ridden is important. I’m in N Ca and bikes here don’t see a lot of water encounters but winter weather is a big consideration, did they store the battery at a proper level indoors?
Many of tbe bikes I’m seeing are coming with big upgrades. I also converse with the seller to get a sense of the type of rider he is. I almost pulled the trigger on a trek rail but after talking to the owner I realized he’s a really good rider and likes big jump and a lot of HD at N Star bike park.
My other option is to buy new carbon wheels for my Reign and run it with no inserts and my smaller battery for trail riding.

 

[kevtp19]

I was going to sell my Rise to buy a DH bike, but you then find things like this

Pardon our interruption...

www.ebay.co.uk

I'm not convinced mine is worth selling lol. That's a bargain!

Yeah that does look a great deal tbf! I think I will just keep mine... hasn't missed a beat yet... but no doubt it will at some point, I will have to bite the bullet and (try) and get a new motor / battery. I was thinking, you could in theory buy a motor and battery on the cycle to work scheme, I may do that!

 

[Gareth]

Morning all, I am coming to the end of my c2w scheme on my 2022 H30 Orbea Rise. Was thinking of selling it and getting a new one, on a new scheme. But watching a few bikes on FB marketplace, nothing appears to be selling. There is Rise the same as mine, but with hardly any miles (300 or something), and some tasteful upgrades (XT 4 pot brakes). They can't seem to get £2400 for it, it looks new! Mine is in great condition, but must be worth barely £1500 on that basis (2500 miles, will go up). That's a £2500 loss in 2 years! Has anyone else noticed 2nd hand ebikes are hard to sell / very low re-sale value?

Not sure what you are worrying about. At the end of the day you bought the bike on the C2W scheme, so how much did it actually cost you?

So, say the bike was £5 retail when you bought it, and you saved 45% through the scheme, your bike cost you £2750. So, if you sell it for £1500, your bike has cost you £625 a year.

Frankly, considering the reliability issues with ebikes (failing motors etc) and general maintenance required, the cheapest option I’d say is to trade in or sell for £1.5 ish and order a new one for 3K on the cycle to work scheme. A new bike is only gonna cost you a few 100 quid if you can manage to get 1.5K for your current bike.

Happy days.

 

[High Rock Ruti]

Yup!…and that sucks. The only thing(s) original on my 2020 Rail 9.7 is the frame, motor and battery. I’m not even going to consider selling at this time.

There’s nothing out there that could replace this bike (or money pit) for a reasonable price. So I’m doing a full rebuild and service. The motor, forks and shock will be an outside service. I’ll do the rest of the service myself. I expect a service to my motor, shock and fork to cost me about $1000.

I’m satisfied with the feel and geometry of the Rail. I’m not sure if a newer model or different manufacturer would make much of a difference.…other than bottom bracket clearance.

As far as the battery(625w) goes …maybe I got lucky. I charge each ride (250-300 a year) and have completely submerged the bike several times. (River crossings)

High Rock Ruti

Twice I've had new bikes 700 ish miles disassembled completely, rebuilt suspension, brakes pad/rotors reassembled. It would be hard to over describe what difference it made, cost $1200 not just better like a different bike altogether. Just about to have my 23 orbea wild ltd rebuilt. They're expensive to buy, expensive to maintain, but having them perform the way they're supposed to is worth it.

Warm Regards Ruti Robart

 

[DieBoy]

From the comments and tone of everyone replying here, I'm assuming everyone here also only buys cars brand new? lol

I don't own a car, and aside from a 1973 camper van decades ago, I never have.

At the risk of being Captain Bloody Obvious, an ebike is not a car. While lots of things can go wrong with a car, the 2 things most likely to go wrong with an ebike are also the 2 most expensive parts, and you can't tell by casually looking at them if they'll be fine for 2 years or die 2 weeks later.

Incidentally, as I tried to illustrate in one of my earlier posts in this thread, a low mileage on a ebike for sale is not automatically a plus point (unless it's only a couple months old).

 

[Stihldog]

I always thought that a visit to the LBS or a computer printout could be helpful when buying or selling an eBike. Some of that information could be useful. Bike shops, in our area, will not take a trade in but they may be willing to print out that information for the sake of a new sale.

Selling privately on Pink Bike, or whatever, can be a nightmare. One friend had his eMTB stolen at the time of sale, and my neighbor has dropped his price by thousands (overpriced imo) and still hasn’t sold.

 

[Tetley]

Secondhand LevoSL buyer here.
From the comments and tone of everyone replying here, I'm assuming everyone here also only buys cars brand new? lol
I've only ever bought used cars, and I've had good luck over 11 vehicles. And because of people's fears of a scary used car/bike, if you buy new you take huge depreciation, especially in the first couple years.
I have owned my used Levo SL for a couple years now. It has been perfect in every way, and I bought it at a ~50% discount to new.
But yes, bikes do depreciate, you got your use out of it, and new tech comes along that makes your older bike less valuable.
Also consider it's probably the worst time of year to sell a bike, and the best time of year to buy one... normal riding season is over, retailers are discounting to get rid of unsold inventory, and prices will have some downward pressure until April or May.

There's a big difference between cars and EMTB's - Cars are massively more reliable than the bikes! You don't expect to have between one and five new engines and transmissions in a car in the first handful of years of ownership, but this seems pretty normal with EMTB ownership. And don't forget, cars are usually used for daily transport, most bikes only go out at the weekends, so the hours of use is a lot less than cars, making the failure statistics even more horrendous. Most cars will do 10 years / 100,000 miles, or more, without needing a new engine or transmission.

 

[harrysmalls]

I got my $6k Fantic on sale for $5k in the end of 2021. Put $1.5k in upgrades on it. I have no bites at $3k currently. It's still on original tires. Maybe 20 charge cycles.
I wanted to sell it for a year now. Suspecting no one would buy a used eMTB, plus the collapsed market, I couldn't be motivated to take pics and click buttons. But then my buddy has just sold his Husqvarna eMTB for $2.6k in 2 weeks. He paid $3.5k 5 months earlier. And it's a low spec. I thought that was a remarkable escape on his part. No such luck for me, apparently.

 

[whitymon]

Crazy that he succeeds to sell the Husqvarna as since summer I can see them nearly free at 2-3k max.

I finally after 1 year on marketplace succeed to sell my bike, 6 months at 1.3k, 6 months at 1k, tons of offers at 600 or less bucks which I just refused - at that price better keeping it to me - and by miracle a guy just came home and just said I take it for 1k. Sometimes it happens.

I also think that it depends on where you are located, if you are ready to ship it far away you will sell it faster. All long travel bike in my region are f... hard to sell.

What is also important to note is that all custom part you can place on a bike are nearly irrelevant when you sell it. People look at the stock price and use it for comparison between other bike, your parts are just a bonus unfortunately.

You are always better off selling the parts alone, you can definitely sometime succeed to sell it as a whole but from my tiny decade of experience it does not bite as much.

 

[harrysmalls]

Crazy that he succeeds to sell the Husqvarna as since summer I can see them nearly free at 2-3k max.

I finally after 1 year on marketplace succeed to sell my bike, 6 months at 1.3k, 6 months at 1k, tons of offers at 600 or less bucks which I just refused - at that price better keeping it to me - and by miracle a guy just came home and just said I take it for 1k. Sometimes it happens.

I also think that it depends on where you are located, if you are ready to ship it far away you will sell it faster. All long travel bike in my region are f... hard to sell.

What is also important to note is that all custom part you can place on a bike are nearly irrelevant when you sell it. People look at the stock price and use it for comparison between other bike, your parts are just a bonus unfortunately.

You are always better off selling the parts alone, you can definitely sometime succeed to sell it as a whole but from my tiny decade of experience it does not bite as much.

I've recouped the parts already. Only an attraction point, not a line item to mark the bike up.
The funny thing is, GasGas bikes, as well as some Huskies, were given away by a dealer, with a purchase of a dirt bike

 

[kevtp19]

Morning all, I am coming to the end of my c2w scheme on my 2022 H30 Orbea Rise. Was thinking of selling it and getting a new one, on a new scheme. But watching a few bikes on FB marketplace, nothing appears to be selling. There is Rise the same as mine, but with hardly any miles (300 or something), and some tasteful upgrades (XT 4 pot brakes). They can't seem to get £2400 for it, it looks new! Mine is in great condition, but must be worth barely £1500 on that basis (2500 miles, will go up). That's a £2500 loss in 2 years! Has anyone else noticed 2nd hand ebikes are hard to sell / very low re-sale value?

Ironically, although all doom and gloom on this thread, the Orbea @ £2400 has now sold! I guess a bit like a car, ideally you would buy new, but if you can't afford to, you buy 2nd hand. The new ebikes out now certainly don't offer any better value than ones from 2 years ago, worse if anything, cheap forks and drive trains at the lower end. So even at this awful time of year for selling, a few are out there still looking to buy.

 

[steve_sordy]

if you can, keep the original equipment (OE) parts when you upgrade. When you sell, replace the OE parts and sell the bike. The OE parts will be newish and make the bike look good. Meanwhile keep the upgraded parts for your next bike or sell them on.
The most common upgraded parts must be tyres and a saddle. Obviously new tyres and a saddle make the bike look smarter.

 

[Gareth]

Ironically, although all doom and gloom on this thread, the Orbea @ £2400 has now sold!

So how much did the bike actually cost you, if anything at all?

I can understand people who have to pay the shop price may well be taken aback at the plunge in value of their fancy new ebike over a couple of years. Yes it is a bit of a hit.

But as you bought on the C2W scheme, well I don’t know how much you paid for the bike, but it can’t have cost you much, if anything at all in real terms.

Or another way of putting it, as the bike you have just sold for 2.4K (somebody just gave you way too much cash for your bike) is available new at 3K, and presumably you can purchase it again new on the C2W scheme. Well you’ve just sold your bike for considerably more than you yourself can buy it today new on the scheme!

 

[kevtp19]

So how much did the bike actually cost you, if anything at all?

I can understand people who have to pay the shop price may well be taken aback at the plunge in value of their fancy new ebike over a couple of years. Yes it is a bit of a hit.

But as you bought on the C2W scheme, well I don’t know how much you paid for the bike, but it can’t have cost you much, if anything at all in real terms.

Or another way of putting it, as the bike you have just sold for 2.4K (somebody just gave you way too much cash for your bike) is available new at 3K, and presumably you can purchase it again new on the C2W scheme. Well you’ve just sold your bike for considerably more than you yourself can buy it today new on the scheme!

I haven't sold mine, that was one I was watching on FB marketplace (much lower miles than mine). Don't know what they actually agreed on, but it was up for £2400. Yeah C2W salary sacrifice does swallow up some of the depreciation for sure. Only thing is, you can only buy from a few different places as the scheme (the Halfords one) takes 10% commission, so wipes out most of the profit for smaller independent shops so most aren't in the scheme (the ones that have some of the great deals!).

 

[Gareth]

I haven't sold mine, that was one I was watching on FB marketplace (much lower miles than mine). Don't know what they actually agreed on, but it was up for £2400. Yeah C2W salary sacrifice does swallow up some of the depreciation for sure. Only thing is, you can only buy from a few different places as the scheme (the Halfords one) takes 10% commission, so wipes out most of the profit for smaller independent shops so most aren't in the scheme (the ones that have some of the great deals!).

Whoops. Ah, sorry.

Many bike shops will sign up to a scheme just to get the sale. At full retail price, yes, they tend to absorb the scheme fee, but on discounted bikes they will ask you to pay the fee.

The C2W scheme market is massive. Most bicycle shops can’t afford to ignore it.

I just bought a Mondraker Crafty RR. The retail price was £6500, but it was discounted to £4500, but I had to add on 10% for my scheme, so it came to £4950. I put the fee on the scheme. I estimate the total cost of the bike to me as £2720 Happy days.

To be honest I should have just bought the Craft R, but hey its on the scheme and I couldn’t resist the lovely blue paint job and the extra bling on the RR – factory suspension, kashima coating and all that.

There’s no end of fantastic deals out there, and if you have access to a C2W scheme, the deal at the end of the day is phenomenal.

Punt your bike for whatever you can get and bag a new one. And at the end of the day, it could well cost you more to keep your old bike (out of warranty issues, maintenance etc etc) than to sell it for a song and bag a new discounted one.

 

[timo2824]

Yea I was kind of in the same boat with an Aventon Adventure I bought in '21. I've moved to a real eMTB and it was taking up garage space. After paying $2500 I would have been lucky to get $500 for it and that's after dealing with Marketplace Shenanigans so I ended up just giving it to my sister's family to ride around the neighborhood.

Pricing to sell I would add the cost of a new battery then compare to the price of new bikes and set expectations from there. Anyone buying 2nd hand should expect to need a new battery, however I do not recommend buying a new battery before selling to "sweeten the deal" as the buyer most likely won't believe you.

When selling motorcycles or anything else like that I also take the aftermarket stuff off and put the stock parts back on, buyers don't want to pay a penny extra for better parts even if it doubles the value of the bike and will often pay more for a "stock" bike assuming you didn't ride it as hard.

Aftermarket parts aren't always better than OEM. You have the "I paid x for these parts so they must be better" placebo effect.

 

[timo2824]

if you can, keep the original equipment (OE) parts when you upgrade. When you sell, replace the OE parts and sell the bike. The OE parts will be newish and make the bike look good. Meanwhile keep the upgraded parts for your next bike or sell them on.
The most common upgraded parts must be tyres and a saddle. Obviously new tyres and a saddle make the bike look smarter.

What's the point of a new bike if you're going to put used parts on it? Just keep the old one and use the money saved to pay for ride trips and wear items!

 

[steve_sordy]

What's the point of a new bike if you're going to put used parts on it? Just keep the old one and use the money saved to pay for ride trips and wear items!

A two-year old top of the range fork is a far better piece of kit than a brand-new bottom of the range fork. That was what I meant.
I agree that keeping the old bike is a far more sensible policy, but who makes sense when making a decision to buy a new bike? Shiny!

 

[Stihldog]

Aftermarket parts aren't always better than OEM. You have the "I paid x for these parts so they must be better" placebo effect.

I think I’m afflicted with upgrade-nitus. It started when I purchased my Rail. I’ve since recently added a Fuel EXE 8. But I noticed something was different …especially the braking. The Rail has Magura MT7’s and the Fuel has SRAM DB8’s. IMO, those are night and day. I now tolerate the SRAM DB8’s but those have got to go bye-bye.

Over time I’ve made upgrades and improvements. The similarity and feel between the two bikes is important to me.…even though both bikes are, and can be, used differently.

 

[Rando_12345]

What's the point of a new bike if you're going to put used parts on it? Just keep the old one and use the money saved to pay for ride trips and wear items!

Many of us buy the entry level spec bike and put our top of the line wheels and suspension on it. This way as Steve said you can get more for the bike when selling it with effectively new original components, but keep your better performing parts onto newer frame with another entry level spec.

 

[steve_sordy]

............................ The similarity and feel between the two bikes is important to me.…even though both bikes are, and can be, used differently.

I once had two completely different bikes; different wheel sizes, suspension travel, tyre widths, bar width, transmission brand, brake brand, ride intention etc. I could live with all that. What I could not live with was having one dropper remote on the left and one on the right. In fact, it nearly bloody-well killed me!

 

[Stihldog]

I once had two completely different bikes; different wheel sizes, suspension travel, tyre widths, bar width, transmission brand, brake brand, ride intention etc. I could live with all that. What I could not live with was having one dropper remote on the left and one on the right. In fact, it nearly bloody-well killed me!

Yeah, geometry matters to me. Suspension settings …not so much. Braking matters to me when I need to brake.

 

[harrysmalls]

To my surprise, my bike sold for the asking price. A unique customer though. Just the right place and time.