My bike is like 16 years old - an Avalanche AX250, and it has spent the last 10 years in storage, because I got clipped by a car and was too scared ride again after that. I've only now taken it upon myself to start riding again....so I figured start off with a 2nd hand bike, but man, 60% of the deals on FB look dodgy AF. To the point where I'm wondering if buying 2nd hand is a good idea at all - even off the hub. I agree with you guys that the market needs to be shut down, but here's another perspective: Everyone has a cellphone - not because they can afford it, but because there's so many stolen ones floating around. My gardener and domestic worker, for example, have probably each been robbed of their cellphones at least 3 times this year, only to buy another shitty smartphone (with a cracked screen, most of the time). And smartphones are pretty indispensable - they need it. If all of these stolen bikes ended up actually being used to commute, I wouldn't mind so much. But where do these stolen bikes actually go? Who buys them? That end of the market needs to be squeezed as well.
