Nico van Loggerenberg

See above. There is a warning system, eventually leading to banning if not resolved. I've been on both sides of it, and it works. 1. In both most recent cases, the seller admitted that in fact we did have an agreement, they just decided not to honour it. Not a case of poor communication, rather a case of poor morals. 2. I would assume it's fairly easy to tell when a user re-registers, using either IP, email adresses, or phone numbers. 3. Not a case of 'offering' - I agreed to pay the full asking price, no negotiation involved. Whether a reseller could make a profit on it or not is irrelevant, because the 'price floor' is set by the resellers, purely from a quantity point of view. A quick look at the volumes of mtbs sold would confirm this. On other platforms, a reseller jumping in and offering the seller more than the asking price, despite there being a pre-existing agreement with the first buyer, would result in an immediate ban for both. Yet, this is exactly what happened to me. If bikehub is an auction website, where the highest offer wins, that should perhaps be made more clear - my understanding was that agreeing to the asking price was binding.

I'm aware of that increase in prices, and happy to pay a 'fair price' as defined by what the majority of things sell for. You might have noticed that many of these inflated bikes are on the hub for weeks, get renewed at exactly the same price, and have descriptions like 'no offers'. As much as I consider the majority of resellers only slightly above molerats, I'm not really talking about that. I'm talking about stalking the hub, getting a good deal on something, and then having the seller go ahead and sell it off to someone else after everything has been confirmed and agreed. This hasn't just happened to me once or twice, it has happened to me every single time I've tried to buy a mountain bike this past year. This behaviour can very easily be curtailed through decent rules. If you've ever used Carbonite, or more intense, AVforums, you'll understand. A complaint or two of any severity and you face being banned, and if you're banned, you can't buy or sell because seller details are restricted to members. It's not a very hard system to imagine, but there is a severe lack of imagination (and understanding of systems) on this platform.

Have had zero issues buying loose items or road bikes. As I mentioned, this is prevalent with mbts - specifically full suspension mountain bikes. It's a very specific problem, related probably to the rise in popularity of the sport and the great ease with which you can make a quick buck by reselling them. Just as many are not. Around half of the mountain bikes for sale by resellers are by people who are clearly not cyclists, and know next to nothing about the bikes themselves - advertising them incorrectly, hell, often not even bothering to wash them. Friends of mine have bought bikes that had unrepairable damage on them from 'well-regarded' resellers on here, because they are beginners and don't know better. There is a seller on gumtree (I'm well aware that's outside the scope of this discussion) that has sold 137 000 items in total, of which around half seem to be mountain bikes. If you think that has zero effect on the price of the sport, you need your helmet checked for damage.

Weird then that it happens seamlessly on all the other platforms I use! Yep. Unfortunately, that requires the seller to enable and want to use Pay, which when I've suggested it before, has been rebuffed. Good for you!

My opinion, yours may differ. Its not against the law, its just anti social. I'd love to see these reasonably priced mountain bikes. I've been looking for around 6 months and there seem to be 3 categories: - clearly stolen bikes - resellers who think an 8 year old aluminium mountain bike is worth R34k - the odd decently priced bargain, that is impossible to buy The solution that works is the one I listed. A rigidly defined set of rules for interacting, that are enforced by the hub. Works on every other forum I'm active on.

Buying on Bikehub has become an exercise in futility. Say, somehow, magically, you find yourself first in line for a good deal, before the leaches (sorry - resellers, apparently some smooth brain hubbers consider this business savvy). You're excited! A new bike to actually ride (not just take rubbish photos of, describe incorrectly and put a R15k markup on). Don't count those chickens - the likelihood that the seller actually sticks to their word and keeps it for you is lower than 20%, if my experience is representative. I am tired and angry of making a deal, confirming it verbally on the phone, arranging to pick up a bike at the most convenient time for the seller, and then having the seller message me and say it's been sold while I'm on my way. This is a serious lack of honesty or sticking to your word. This isn't even a hard system to correct. I've been active on forums for something like 20 years now, and without a doubt Bikehub is the worst of the bunch. Two simple tweaks would fix this: charge resellers a more significant sum to operate, levelling the playing field a bit, and use that money to run the site and ensure there is someone to moderate disputes. Two or three strikes and you're out. How is it possible that there are so many sellers with serious allegations against them and 1 star reviews running free? Yeah, Matt and the other admins are good with outright scams. Good luck getting a response on anything else - emails, direct messages, and the help chat have all so far yielded nothing more than radio silence. I'll throw an aside out here for the trolls that are sure to congregate: this has exclusively happened with mountain bikes. For some reason, the roadies seem like decent bunch in comparison. Perhaps it's because they're so used to huddling together to escape the wind that there's some kind of camaraderie. <new post from off-topic so it actually shows>

This is all very depressing. Looking for a used iPad and it's just 'this is icloud locked' all over the place. Anyway let's not derail the conversation.

Unfortunately there is essentially zero control on Facebook marketplace. Have a look at the phones section. Filled with sellers who are very clearly fences. Nothing gets done about it.

I tried this too and loved it. A gravel bike with 3 wheelsets: narrow, aero road with road tyres 700c gravel with 40mm tyres 650b with 2" XC tyres BUT I have enough space and patience for 3 bikes, so why wouldn't I have them? I love bikes. The more the merrier. There is no point restricting myself to just one when you enjoy the maintenance and the variety

I'm in the same boat and picked up a cheap and tight fitting long sleeve shirt from Mr Price Sport. It's a bright red, very visible, super thin, and blocks the sun fantastically. I carry my gear in a small top tube bag to offset the lack of pockets.

Sure, but they're the same sellers, and it's the same culture, and the same forum with essentially zero application of any rules.

Absolutely. The other commenters on here who believe that this scalping is a victimless crime are missing the fact that items are sold that haven't been checked properly and resellers (many of whom don't even ride) do not have the skill to properly analyse or fix. I have a few friends now who have bought or almost bought broken items advertised as being in good condition. It's all fun and games until that part is a fork or a frame. The total lack of accountability or oversight on this forum means that there are zero repercussions.

There are many ways to improve the system, but the admins (and judging by the responses in this thread, the average hubber) don't care enough to want to. Fundamentally, it's a question about whether bikehub is a community of cyclists, or purely a marketplace. Seems many are happy with it being a marketplace, with very few rules in place governing behaviour. Simple test - have a look at how many 1 star sellers are still out there doing business with no repercussions.

We live in an era of rentier capitalism. Extracting profits without adding value. That's the way the state runs, the way many big corporates run, and way down the scale, the way the majority of resellers operate. They add nothing in value and push up prices, but hey, "it's a free market" right.

Danger: you might grow a little petri dish of microbes inside that you can't see. Worth it for the aesthetics.

It's been said before, but a lighter bike will make only a very, very negligible difference. A lighter bike feels nicer to ride, but on a ride of any length, even with extensive climbing, other things such as aerodynamics and rolling resistance are far more important than weight. Here's a great article. Pull quote: "Decreasing the total weight by 5 kg would make the average speed increase by just 0.41 km/h" https://ridefar.info/bike/cycling-speed/weight/

Resellers definitely drive the prices up. The internet means that it is very, very hard to score a bargain, and there are plenty of 'resellers' / leeches that flip anything on 2 wheels with zero understanding or care for what they're selling, creating a pretty high floor for prices.

I would recommend an older aluminium bike like a Cannondale or any of the big brands like Trek, Giant etc. Shouldn't cost more than R5k. You'll be absolutely fine on something like that. Probably around a 52cm would be the right size.

You don't need carbon fibre or 11 or even 10 speed. You can have a great time riding a 20 year old aluminium frame with a good 9 speed groupset and it'll cost you somewhere in the region of R3000. Unless you're in the top 5% of riders, I doubt a bike like that would be the limiting factor.

Cotic Escapade version 2, steel fork, 650b wheels, Ultegra hydraulic shifters - love this bike.

Rebuilt my Cotic Escapade with Ultegra hydraulics and 650b tyres. It's way too plush now.

Lezyne is never a bad idea, I also have a Topeak RaceRocket which works great.

@Nick Not sure if anybody has spoken about this, but is there any way to get in touch with the owner of an expired ad? Some way to send a direct message or is this purposefully disabled?

Don't. But no, my recent experience was that the normal larger road style tubes don't work at all. I know there are thicker enduro / DH tubes that might be better. I got 6 flats in one ride, despite pumping up as hard as possible to protect from pinches.

Wolwespruit has bikepark-like sections, including a nice jump line. If you what you want is more DH style stuff, there is also the line under the Hartbeespoort cable car.