How To Save Money When You Buy A Bike

Here's our bike buyer's guide – seven ways to save a bit of cash when you buy your next bike. It's win/win: cycling more is a great way to save money, too!

1. Buy a second hand bike
There are lots of ways to buy a second hand road bike. But, what we'd recommend is buying a bike from a local cycling club or cycling forum website. This way, you're likely to be buying from someone who knows what they're talking about and who is known to the local cycling community.

2. Build a bike
This is a great way to save money on your bike purchase and get the road bike of your dreams. Hit thumbs up if you build your own bikes!

3. Buy last year's model
Many local bike shops or online stores have last year's model for sale – and cheap. The build on these bikes is often similar to this year's. It's a great way to get a little more bang for your buck.

4. Buy an (ex) pro cycling bike
Our partners Canyon sell ex-Movistar and ex-Katusha road bikes. Yep, pro bikes have a hard life, but they are well looked after and have top of the range components, like SRAM Red eTap.

5. Government schemes
In certain countries around the world, you can save money on your bike by signing up to a government scheme.

6. Police Auctions
Now, I hadn't heard of this, but, sometimes the police auction off unclaimed goods. Give a good bike a good home!

7. Local bike shops
DO NOT neglect your local bike shop. A good local bike shop is to be treasured and is a fantastic local business – one that keeps bikes and cyclists of all types out on the road.

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Leave us a comment below!

[BrandonScales]

as someone who works in a very successful but very small local bike shop I can tell you with 100% certainly these tips will save you money:

1. ask for a discount. if we think we're getting a lifetime customer or even a new riding buddy, we will be more inclined to drop the price. 20% is not uncommon simply by asking.
2. ask about maintenance. my shop and many others offer free maintenance or discounted parts si only for buying your bike from us. this is long term savings.
3. getting accessories. another "just ask " situation. I throw in bottle cages and hand pumps with new bike purchases all the time. buying lots of other accessories at the time of bike purchase is another sure fire way to get offered a discount.
4.support the shop. writing a nice online review of the shop on apps like yelp or Google is a great way to get a few bucks off your purchase as well as supporting the possibility of more business for the shop. putting their sticker on your car and brining your mechanic food and drink is another way to score lots of discounts.

in general, be good to your local bike shop and they'll be good to you.

[seanmeager]

Support your local bike shop!

This video was proudly brought to you by Canyon Bikes.

[manavmanavchhuneja]

Speaking of building a you guys make a video about assembling a bike from scratch.

[Pienimusta]

"If you spend a bit more you get this and this and if you spend just a bit more you also get this"
"Whoops, budget got doubled"

[debidousagi]

These tips are spot on! Buying a used but well taken care of classic steel road bike is exactly how I got my first road bike at a very reasonable price. Then my 2nd bike some years later was a previous year's model heavily discounted at the local bike shop (saved over 30% off of the MSRP).

[matthewbradshaw]

Building your own bike tends to cost a fair amount more than buying a new bike. But it is nice to build it up exactly the way you want

[jasonb]

Built my own bike all from parts I bought on eBay, new frame, new wheel set, and a mixture of other new and used parts. Cleaned up the used parts, watched all the gcn "how to" videos and i had my bike. spent a little under $600 and actually had it appraised at around $1500

[MrPoldekrosmol]

2 years ago I bought a alu trek domane with 105 groupset, the frame was dented and only payed the price of the components. I fixed the frame, rode it for 2 years and now bought a nice carbon frame on a bankruptcy auction. Only need to change the front derailer and bought new barings... this thing is going to be great!
Next year I'm going for some secondhand deep section wheels and I'll rebuild the alu frame to a "normal" bike.

[novamondal]

I got a brand new 3 year old bike model and it is awesome, especially because i got it from a bike shop that gives free tune ups for the life of the bike, AND it was $50 off even though it was virtually the same as the 2018 model

[shoverbj]

Bought a previous model year frame, saved nearly 65% off the MSRP. And now I'm building it up myself. Benefits of building your own bike are not only being able to build exactly what you want and finding the best price for the individual components, but you will learn about how to repair every single bit of your bicycle. Save money on service because you can do your own overhauls!

[thomasnewton]

In professional cycling magazines some times there are professional bikes for sale that are in really good condition but you can save a lot of money

[Cortes]

Or get a savings account and put money in it until you get enough for the bike you want. Thats how I got my Emonda. It took 8 months but it was all worth it.

[GabrielBeddingfield]

Seems like the best time to get last year's model is usually August, since that's about the beginning of the bicycle model year. The LBS is often more eager to move their old stock.

[SeargentFirestone]

I just bought a Fuji Roubaix 1.3 (model 2015) with a 400€ discount on it's original price tag as my first road bike. With the discount in place it was well within my price range, offering high quality parts for it's price. I'm quite happy with it. :D

[gawainsmith]

over the years, i found the easiest way to save money on a new bike is simply to buy last years model (30%+ in many cases). It's pretty much the same as the latest model, but comes in a different colour (and occasionally the component quality is higher).

[beeble]

Who's the hairy guy? Did you get a new presenter? He's pretty good -- hope to see more of him.

[louiekidd]

What kind of discount would we get on ex-GCN presenter bikes? Asking for a friend.

[DeanPunchard]

I picked up last seasons, ex-display Boardman road sport at a real bargain price after I went into the shop and spoke to the guys there. I had a set budget, and they bent over backwards to find me something that fitted my budget. Much cheaper and easier than buying online.

[bringingtherukas]

In Australia, buy a bike in winter June-August is best.
Business is so slow at that time of year most bike shops just want a sale and new models are also arriving so getting rid of last years stock is appealing. You should be able to save atleast 20-30%
Try to avoid buying bikes in October to December when people have christmas on there mind, shops are less likely to offer those great deals when they are selling 2 or 3 bikes a day.

[mugenslasher]

thank you for your tips hugh jackman;-)