You read that right.
Thanks to so many things:
-- The Covid pandemic
-- an aging bicycling demographic
-- too many kids who live too far from school to ride their bikes there and back
-- parents who would prefer their kids not ride anywhere beyond their own street anyway
-- the rise of e-bikes
-- the decrease in the number of adults who can or will repair their own bikes
-- the rise in not only automobile usage, but aggressive automobile usage across the country since the pandemic
... we now have a bicycle landscape where used bikes and parts are nearly worthless to the majority of bicycle riders in this country, including collectors.
Photo: Currently on eBay. These sold for nearly $150/pair as recently as 2021
Used bike and component prices were already on the way down a year into the pandemic, and with few exceptions their prices have continued to fall. A pair of Taiwanese-made friction thumb shifters that I might have paid ten dollars for in 2020 is now nearly worthless. I have a small box of 5- and 6-speed freewheels, all refurbished and ready to use on my bikes when needed. I can't get any money for them, and they will more than see me out.
There have been a few rebellious noises from the margins; a number of my bike buddies are rediscovering the joys of 26"/559 mountain bike wheels and tires and they can be found at bargain prices. Older mountain bike frames that take that wheel size can be had in good used condition for as little as five dollars on craigslist. And while e-bike sales are rising, those of us who ride older mechanical bikes are still riding them and have no immediate plans to "upgrade."
The local bicycle racing scene that I participated in nearly twenty years ago has shrunk in participation numbers and the number of local race events being promoted.
Bicycle shops are merging and closing as the market shifts underfoot.
And while component companies are still pushing new technologies -- or reworked versions of existing technologies -- on consumers, I read every week in Bicycle Retailer News of another buyout or takeover as larger-scale bicycle companies consolidate or fold.
I am sitting on a small mountain of bicycle parts, left over from my days working in the business. I can no longer work on bikes extensively due to arthritis and other health issues, and I cannot find a buyer for all this stuff.
I tried to sell off some of my parts to local bike mechanics, but the last such interaction left a horrid taste in my mouth when the young woman who came to my house balked when I asked for forty dollars for a Brooks saddle, and glibly offered me ten.
"You'll flip it for over a hundred," I said.
"Yeah, but I'm here to make as much money as I can, and I don't do that by spending it," she replied.
I gently took my saddle back, told her it wasn't my job to make her profits for her, and wished her a nice day. She walked off in an angry huff, got in her truck and drove away. The following week, she listed a saddle very nearly like mine on her web store for $150. Whatever.
So starting next week, I'll be dropping off bags of parts and tools at bicycle nonprofits and giving them away at local bicycle events, in small batches. I no longer need them, and I cannot make money from them. So I will stop worrying about it, and just keep what I need to keep my two bikes going for a few more years.
There's an arc of existence to everything. And while I sometimes miss my stronger, healthier days in the saddle, I'm not devastated by having arrived at this point in my own arc.
Happy riding, and maybe I'll see you at a local Coffee Outside soon.