Buying Sketchy Bikes in Melbourne

Since we're having a chill afternoon here in Chiang Mai to avoid the heat, I thought I'd play a little bit of catch up with some blog post writing. Here I have a story to still share from our time in Melbourne. 

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Within the first few days of being in Melbourne we realized it'd be awesome to get a hold of some bikes. There are a ton of trails around to take advantage of, and Altona especially had some nice paths right along the beach. And then on top of that we knew that one the best ways to get to a climbing gym in Altona North was by bike.

Our first thought was to rent a bike. But the only bike rentals we found were either really costly road or mountain bikes, or they were the public bike share stations downtown Melbourne. None of those options were what we were really looking for, so we turned our efforts to finding cheap used bikes to just buy. We figured it would still be cheaper then renting if we used them enough. And our Airbnb host had mentioned how she was considering getting a couple used bikes anyway for her guests to use. So if we found nice enough of ones, she might be willing to take them off our hands for us when we were done.

We first looked to our go-to sight, craigslist.com. But there weren't a ton of options, which was a little surprising. But we later learned that the website gumtree.com is more popular in Australia. And sure enough, we found a lot more options. 

Katie worked her research magic and sent out lots of messages to people to figure out availability of some of the cheaper options. She eventually narrowed it down to this guy on the other side of town that wasn't the cheapest of them all, but at least had several bikes to choose from, so worse case if we didn't like the specific bikes we thought we'd like based on the pictures, there was a chance there would be some others to try. This later proved to be very valuable. We also picked this guy because it was relatively easy to get to his place compared to some of the other cheaper options. But I emphasize the "relatively" part given that it still took us two train transfers, a bus ride, and a 10 minute walk to get there, totally over an hour and a half of travel.

So we made our way out there on a late weekday morning, not quite sure what to expect. Upon arriving we found a house with a car stall filled with random bikes and parts, some working, some not. The bikes we had inquired about had been moved out to the yard along a couple other bikes too. It was little sketchy. This guy either just liked fixing up old bikes, or this was some kind of bike theft/scrap shop thing going on. But we trekked on. 

We navigated our way through the mass of bikes and parts to a door to see if we could talk to the seller. He came out, showed what bikes he thought were his best bikes for the price/our size, and let us ride them around. It was immediately obvious that these bikes were not in any kind of new condition. The first bike I tried had trouble shifting into at least half the gears. The brakes had a terrible squeak. And it just wasn't comfortable to ride. I wondered if he had even tried out the bike himself at all. Katie had a similar experience with her bike but kept it to herself thinking that it was at least working enough.

At that point we almost just bought those bikes because... well, that was the plan. We wanted bikes. These were kind of working bikes. Its difficult to move away from the plan. Plus we are the types that aim to please and take the path of least resistance. This is a very bad mentality to take when dealing with this type of transaction. We needed to know what we really wanted, be firm about it, make quick decisions, and be willing to walk away if we didn't find something we really liked.

Well I came around to my senses just a little bit, which was surprising considering I had started out the day already not feeling well and was nervous about our task for the day. And when I get in that kind of "just feeling out of it" mode it is really difficult for me to be bold and quick with decisions. But I at least felt compelled enough to ask if we could try a few more bikes. 

So we did just that. I probably ended up riding 3 or 4 other bikes, all with their own quirks. Katie rode a few as well and learned how bad her first bike really was. But still none of the bikes we tried met the standard I thought we were going to get. Despite that feeling though, we still moved forward. We looked through his collection of bike helmets, which also added to the sketchy/stolen bike ring vibe, and picked out a couple that were at least functional.  

At this point I was really feeling nervous about buying these bikes. But at the same time I could tell that neither of us wanted to go through this again. It felt like a high pressure car sale situation. Like I said before, this is not the right mindset to deal with this situation correctly. We didn't want to disappoint or frustrate our new "friend". The path of least resistance was to pick one of the bikes, pay what we agreed to via email (which was 90 AUD for both bikes and the helmets), and ride away. And that's what we did.

We couldn't take the bus back to the train cuz they don't allow bikes on the bus. So right away we got to give our bikes a more true test run. Of course during the entire ride to the train station my negative feelings about the whole situation went into overdrive. I started to think about all the things that were wrong with the bike I was riding, some of which weren't even real problems. I was just hyper aware of every little noise or vibration. I was playing through in my head the conversations we had with the bike guy, regretting almost every thing I both said and didn't say. And then the train ride back to Altona wasn't that pleasant either. It's not fun standing on a moving vehicle while trying to keep a bike from hitting other people. 

So this whole situation spun me into a bit of a depression for the rest of that day and probably part of the following day as well. I just couldn't get past how dumb and used I felt. I felt like every time I was going to ride my bike, it would remind me of the whole negative/regretful experience. 

Luckily I was wrong. I eventually got out of my slump. We gave our bikes another try a few days later, and they weren't actually that bad. Don't get me wrong, they still didn't meet the standard I thought we were going get. They are as used as used can get. And I still wish I had negotiated a slightly lower price or at least addressed my concerns with the bikes to the bike sellers face instead of holding it in. But in the end they served us well for the 3 weeks we had them for. We rode them three times to the climbing gym and several more times on various paths around Altona. It ended up being a worthwhile purchase. Plus then it felt pretty good to be able to help our kind Airbnb host out by selling her the bikes for real cheap, knowing that her and her future guests would benefit from our efforts and not have to go through a such a negative experience themselves trying to buy their own bikes.

Our sketchy, but functional bikes

Lessons learned:
1. When making a big purchase or decision, especially for used items, know what you want before you get there. If you have to, make a list of things to check and test.
2. If it doesn't meet your expectations, be ready to express verbally (but kindly ideally) why you think the value does not match the price or be ready to walk away.
3. If you make a mistake during the whole process (and you probably will), don't dwell on it. Learn from your mistake by all means, but what's done is done. There is no need to live a life of regret.
4. When you can't seem to follow lesson 3 and it spins you into a bit of a depression, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Time is the ultimate healer. Eventually it won't feel like as big of a deal, and you might even be able to laugh about it when re-telling the story to friends and family.