Flipping a Trek Bicycle FOR PROFIT $$$ - How to pick the right bike, what to look for and how to fix

hello bike Farmers so a lot of you have been mentioning in the comments that you want to know a little bit more about how I choose the bikes that I flip and how it all works so that's what this video is going to be all about this is a bike I picked up on trade not too long ago customer reached out said their kid outgrew their mountain bike and needed the next size up I said great Bring It On in let's take a look first thing I always ask is what do you want for it and nine out of 10 times they say I don't know you tell me what it's worth which is always a very very difficult thing to answer everybody has a idea of what these things are worth what I do know is what I sell them for so a bike like this it's a 26-in bike with disc brakes a front shock and it says Trek on the side now really cleaned up in good condition I can get $400 for this bike more realistically I'm thinking 350 now A friend of mine told me a while back to use the 1/3 rule what's 1/3 of 350 about 120 so I would say 120 bucks is a pretty good tradein value for a bike like this in my market now there's a little bit of a wiggle room there but that's kind of a starting point the very first thing I look at is going to be tires and I check for bald spots especially on kids bikes cuz you know they're skidding and of course this one's got a really good bald spot right here and I can see right here on the front one so new tires right off the bat the other thing I look at is Saddles I don't sell a bike with a tear in the saddle it's like the first thing that people notice there's something about a ripped saddle but nobody's going to buy a bike with a ripped saddle grips are not a big deal but I always look um you know they're spinning on the handlebars and kind of worn so this one's going to get new grips I think these blue pedals are absolutely hideous so I'll put some new pedals on if you put on new tires new grips new pedals and new saddle all new contact points and this thing's going to pop one thing I noticed on this bike that I don't really like are these older disc brakes now disc brakes sell bikes but older Haze disc brakes can be a little tricky to work on a little tricky to bleed just whenever you have older disc brakes you run into the situ situation where you might have to get parts and I hate having to order parts and have the bike sitting around half fixed it's just such a big pain in the ass I don't like dealing with it one of the very first things I do is I squeeze the brake levers just to kind of feel the brakes this one feels a little weird over here but all in all for older hydraulic brakes they feel pretty good another good thing to check is the chain have yourself a chain Checker tool this is kind of like checking the blood pressure on your bike and this one's good so we don't have to replace any drivetrain parts that's a good thing when I'm dealing with the customer and they just ask me off the cuff I'm can just kind of take a look at a few things and then just the overall condition of the bike to know approximately how much this thing is going to cost me to refurbish it but knowing the tires and finding a bald spot is always a good negotiating point you know say well I think I could offer as much as 150 bucks for something like this if it's really clean but it's going to need some new tires I got to put a new saddle on it grips all that adds up how about a 100 bucks n out of 10 times they're going to say great this time I said how about 100 bucks and she's like I was thinking more like 150 I was like okay how about 120 and she's like sure so we agreed on 120 for this one 120 is right in the ballpark of that 1/3 rule I think I'll be putting on $30 worth of tires $20 for a saddle 10 bucks for the grip so you know 60 bucks so I'll be in 180 probably 200 plus an hour of my labor if I sell this bike for 350 bucks I'm doing all right I really don't even like to put a bike in the stand unless I know I'm going to make 100 or 150 bucks on it so that's the economics let's get [Music] [Applause] [Music] started think it's important to note that I am a bike shop I carry a major brand I'm insured I'm Incorporated so I'm a legit used bicycle shop that's why I can get these prices I'm not comparing the prices I get for bikes for what you can find on Marketplace or Craigslist reconditioned used retail is a totally different game than what you're buying from private party I figure people are going to spend 100 150 bucks on a tuneup for anything they buy on Marketplace anyway and then if they're buying from me they're buying from an expert who makes sure they're getting the right [Music] thing anyone who's been watching the channel at all knows that my reconditioning can be broken down into three main steps cleaning lubing and adjusting one thing I'm noticing right out of the gate is there's no luster to these Rings or this crank or anything you can take this furniture polish I get the cheap stuff just spray it and leave it and it'll soak in and then that'll be shiny in a little bit these 9 mil night trial gloves from Harbor Freight are fantastic and you can reuse them I mean these might last this whole bike they might last me all week up until I tear them on something but they're really durable big [Music] fan [Music] [Music] all right the initial wipe looks good I think this thing's ugly [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so it felt like this cable wanted to be cleaned and lubed and replaced just wasn't slickered and snot on a doorknob and I like them to be this is full housing all the way up to the lever which I think is a double-edged sword because yeah this cable is frayed right there it's going to be really tricky to get this thing all the way through that housing through this feral again if I pull it out so I think I'm just going to replace it with a new cable I don't do this very often but I'm doing it now so I'm going to trim closer cuz that'll come out way Slicker then I won't get any frayed material inside that housing either cable is going to come right out of here this little plastic screw comes out oh dropped the screw there's your cable there we go take my piece of housing here and just going to get some [Music] lube [Music] oo that's [Music] slick all right these cable guides are an issue not a big one we just have to rezip tie [Music] them got a few cosmetic issues here with the paint I'm going to use some Goof Off [Music] just oh yeah that helped a [Music] lot then again that kind of made things dull just spray it with the Polish and let the Polish [Music] sit give these wheels some attention here so it looks like we got a press to valve and it's a press to valve bike I don't know generally speaking in the if you got somebody that's wanting to buy a bike for 300 bucks they're not going to want Pressa valves but I always leave them you can I could bore that out and make it a shraer it's actually something that I should probably do start doing to all the bikes press Dev valves are a problem in my life you know I like selling decent bikes to regular people but regular people are completely baffled by the Press [Music] Val [Music] so I have a reamer this is how I do it I suppose a drill would [Music] work so after I remove a little material I check to see if a valve fits through and it's barely coming through here but the rubber part isn't hit it from the other side here which is trickier cuz the spokes are in the way anyway that's a weird angle but you get the picture it's way harder to get up from this side take my rat tail file grind some edges check your tire orientation make sure things are pointing the right direction [Music] there now we got a Shader [Music] Val [Music] let's clean these wheels and check the rims for [Music] True a cookie [Music] n this one's really straight not a lot of timer effort needed there take this little wobble out of the wheel that looks [Music] [Music] good all right this hub feels a little loose and a little dry I'm going to open it up squirt a little Lube in there and then adjust it properly let smush some grease down in there good and [Music] gunky [Music] yeah that's way better way better I like [Music] it it's another reason I don't like disc brakes especially with quick release Wheels is the rotors are really never in the same place twice you're always having to readjust the [Music] caliper so the hydraulic part of these brakes feels good but the levers are a little little crunchy so I'm just going to squirt some One Step Up in there and yeah it feels way better oh yeah the pivot were just all dried out but those brakes feel good as new yeah so we've got all kinds of rubbing make sure the wheels in straight skewer is [Music] tight [Music] okay so I just loosen up the bolts a little bit and then I'm squeezing the caliper and that theoretically will Center the caliper on the pole close now I'm just going to go fingertight back and forth just a little bit I'm not putting a whole lot of pressure on these kind of work it a few times it's rubbing just a little bit I think it's good enough though so now we'll tighten these guys down that always moves things a little bit man it's just barely rubbing so I'm looking straight down down through there to find where it's rubbing and I'm just going to that's quiet I did it that was easy is it's not always that easy folks here's the front one it's pretty quiet leave well enough alone can see those chain rings are nice and shiny put some petal washers on these are new [Music] petals just a little one step in these shifter pods [Music] [Music] Cheapo Hairspray the front derailer cable is feeling pretty grimy too so I got to pull that one out and clean it it's the same deal yeah yeah there's corrosion right here wonder how that got in [Music] there all right through the shifter then into the housing feed it through it's going through real clean came through in the other end clean slicker than snot on a doorknob that's what we want forget that little plastic screw back there so with two new cables the front one's really close got a lot of rubbing in the small and small and we expect a little bit of rubbing okay so middle and small it's rubbing so I'm going to tighten the cable with the barrel adjuster and that handlebars it's a little better there we go that's acceptable check the granny gear looks to be about right things are straight that looks good all right that rear cable is loose I'm using the barrel adjuster on the lever right now to tighten that cable a bit clean Lube then a just I forgot to lube it always helps to lube it okay let it come down there we go all right so I'm going to check that hanger a lot of you guys are commenting just check the hanger right away in the beginning it's probably a good idea can't believe I haven't learned my lesson after all the EAS ear that's okay I just broke it I hate it when that happens there's so many different kinds of hangers too I found one here that looks like it might be close maybe I'll get lucky today otherwise we have to order one that is really dumb I had to Rob one off my son's bike but that's okay cuz he just turned 16 and he driving now and if he's anything like me won't ride a bike for 3 years until he gets to college and has to get around I just order them on Amazon it's so much easier and I always order two and then throw one in the drawer I got a bunch of the regular Trek ones but this is an older bike frustrating but we're out of the way Woods as they say unless I do something dumb again oh boy going to have to adjust the brake now this is why I don't like disc brakes folks all we did is take the wheel off and put it back on again I got the skewer set the same tension I do it pretty much the same every time shouldn't make that much of a difference but for whatever reason it does I know like with through axles it's fine it's just fine with through axles it was quick release they just shouldn't even make them you have to do this exercise just just about every time you know they're going to howl and cause me all kinds of problems I know it g let's recheck that indexing [Music] now little sluggish right there I'm going to tighten the cable a smidge there we [Music] go going to have to find a happy medium yeah it's loosening up there just might be some grit and grime in that derailer we have ourselves a tuned bike it's been reconditioned couple new cables new tires new grips throwing on a new saddle quick good good spot for Creeks nice to just throw some lube in there to prevent future Creeks everything's Shifting the brakes feel pretty good good enough at least where I don't have to bleed them or you know pads look okay I think we got ourselves a bike I guess I'm not sure if I mentioned that I'm doing this bike because I had a mom reach out they 11-year-old needed a a bike for bombing around town with his friends and I think this one's perfect be a Christmas present you know I sell at least a bike a day during the bike season from my little shop my little town is 10 Mi south of track headquarters so anybody who's really into cycling in this town is generally associated with Trek everybody's riding TRS that they get from their neighbor who's an employee and whatever um Trek is a very strong brand here it's a very strong brand everywhere I have nothing against Trek but uh it makes it hard to have a cycling store so that's why I have a bike shop and I do used bikes for people I say I uh I try to give regular people bikes the trekkies as they're called around here can handle all the Enthusiast level stuff out of their garages that's my biggest competitor but anyway I think I do pretty well I sell at least a bike a day during the bike season um in the spring it's 2 or three a day um new and used I have some Saturdays that are really good and then I do a bunch of tuneups every week too and uh you know like I said I try to make 100 150 bucks a bike and it's enough to make a living this one's ready to go I'm going to give it a quick test [Music] [Music] ride there we have it a reconditioned shop quality used bike ready for sale at Gibbs Bike Shop in Lake Mills Wisconsin it's always nice when I kind of have a buyer lined up I don't know we'll see if she comes through for it if not I'm going to take it and put it in with the rest and we'll sell it in the spring this one will go fast these smaller used mountain bikes just get snatched up right away by the kids thanks so much for watching this far if you like this and want to see more content you got to support the channel and you can do so by clicking all the buttons and especially click that notification Bell so you and your bike can stay [Music] [Applause] [Music] tuned

Channel: BikeFarmer

Views: 29,338

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Id: IJh3yC9bdhY

Length: 24min 16sec (1456 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 30 2023