Bicycle Status at Coco's

Bunch of cool stuff right now, like that 1992 Robinson BMX bike and the 2004 Cannondale Tandem.

Now that prime summer bike season is over, our inventory builds. Most bike stores do big business during the holidays, but since we traffic in used bikes, our opportunities for gifts are limited. I think a used bike with a warranty, a return policy and easy future trade-in is a great gift, but opinions vary on this subject.

The Cannondale Los Dos is a really cool bike. Matte black with high end components, it rides beautifully.
The tandem comes equipped with the legendary hydraulic Magura caliper style brakes. They work superb! Four years ago, this bike was $1800. Coco's price is $650, after tune-up. Want it now? Before we start working on it, $575. Doesn't need much.

Probably the cleanest vintage Schwinn we have ever had. Usually, these sell for $150-200 depending on condition, but this one is priced at $250 as we paid more for it because we fell in love. The only thing that is not original is the shifter which was upgraded at some point to a more modern thumb shifter.

Keep in mind, for $250, this bike is DONE. Completely disassembled, bottom bracket disassembled and repacked with grease, same for the headset, wheels trued, brake pads replaced, dérailleur disassembled/greased/reassembled, gear cable and housing replaced, brake cables and housings replaced, brand new tires/tubes and everything adjusted and tuned to spec. This is pretty much our standard used bike refurb. Generally, for this level of service a bike store will charge $130 plus parts.

2 Tires - $28
2 Tubes - $10
Brake cables and housing - $5
Gear cable and housing - $3
Brake pads - $4
We did not need to replace the saddle, grips and nothing was broken, so that saved us some bucks.

So, we paid $50 for the bike, labor would be $130, parts another $50. So, that is up to $230. Credit card company takes 4%, so that would be $12 (I know! Right?! $12 for a credit card! If you like your local small businesses, pay them in CASH!) So, that is $242 and we are charging $250.

The used bike business is funny. In some ways, we are giving away bicycles for free and just running a repair business.

Some people say we charge too much. Ok. $250 is a lot for a vintage Schwinn. I understand.

Works! Cool!

Times are tough. So, Coco's is adapting.

Repair Business - Previously, we did not do repairs as we were too busy building our own bikes. As bike store veterans will tell you, we were leaving a bunch of money on the table. Now, we do repairs.

Project Bikes - Before we start our refurbishment, we will have project bikes out on the long line of bikes. These bicycles are as-is. No promises. We don't know if they work today, we can't guarantee they will work tomorrow. They will have two prices: Project and Post-Refurb. The delta between those prices will be considerable.

We tried this once before with extremely mixed results.

Knowledgeable, mechanical individuals scored awesome bikes for well under $100 and brought them back to various levels of refurbishment as their needs required and budget allowed. That was good. We were happy, they were happy.

Then, there were the disappointed individuals that thought a 30 year old used bike that had not been touched in 25 years should be able to be jumped off curbs. And, since we were a store, they should be able to bring it back in for a refund when it broke. Then everybody felt bad. They felt like they got a bummer bike. We felt bad because the bike broke and we lost a bunch of money on the deal.

So, we are going to try to communicate better the difference between project bikes and refurbished bikes. We will see. Maybe the project bike policy will last this time but not if everybody feels bad. I don't like doing business that makes me feel bad.