Aussie here for price and market context,
Been hunting secondhand first mtb. In the hardtail range and notice a lot of adds for used are only $200 or so difference to new bike sales.
Most Merida, Scott, Norco, Avanti, Trek etc..
Are entry level on sale between $600-800aud.
And second hand anywhere from $300-500aud for similar models, if not a year or two old models.
Found a couple dual suspension second hand, got both down to $350 atm.
On a tight budget as an apprentice renting alone( F the cost of living in Australia haha)
-First pics are Hasa Comp SL 2018(Large), kid used to ride to school and creek trails. Easy to communicate with seller and local too me for inspection.
-Second pics are Merida carbon fibre Ninety Six 3500(medium) , guy obviously looked after and liked riding trails/racing. Said recently serviced and knows his stuff. Seems very genuine. But lives an hour away.
So can’t really spend more than that (300-350 tops)
And don’t really wanna settle for something second hand entry level at $200-300 when these two have popped up.
( been hunting for weeks now)
Need a healthy hobby to get into after getting sober recently, and used love bmx riding/dirt jumps back in the day.
Both frames are medium or large and suit my 179cm bracket, I’m only 75kg and 30yr old.
After all that rambling, any advice is greatly appreciated.
Once again in Adelaide, South Australia for price and market context.
Thanks 👍
by Wide-Focus2755
4 Comments
Adding comments to follow community guidelines,
I plan to ride every other day on creek trails, flat path, just generally getting out the house.
Weekends looking at beginner to intermediate tracks and trails, some light jumps.
No drops or crazy downhills speed demon stuff till I build confidence.
Not sure what professional terms are but yeh.
Also my first mountain bike since owning bmx as teenager, 15 or so years ago.
Just looking to get in second hand and bang for my back. Don’t have budget for new and just want to see where the hobby goes.
Thanks
if the Merida really is looking good, get that. The coil will probably be overkill to start with. Having said that if you plan to ride like a manic with a back ground in BMX it could work as well.
Thew questions is where will you ride it? Can you pedal the bikes up hill to bomb down?
(Check the frame! for cracks or anything.)
honestly, I think you should be looking for a hardtail at that budget range. Old beat up full suspension bikes are a pita to maintain and those two are very old.
neither, both are old af and be prepared to service both shock and fork and all linkage bearings which if you’ll have shop do it is gonna cost you probably around like 100-150 for fork, 150-200 for shock and 200 for bearings. I there is also a chance the both suspensions are so worn out that service is not possible and you are more out of money. hardtail is gonna be a whole lot cheaper to service as there is no shock and linkage bearings so it’s almost 1/3 less in yearly service costs as the proper maintenance interval for shock / fork is 125miles riding or atleast yearly