Buying used bikes

[rickyruffle]

I'll be living in Osaka for 9 months, going to school in Kobe so I think it would be a good idea to get a bike for when I'm not taking the train. There are soooooo many old bikes but I can't find a place that sells them. I've heard you can buy them used so I walked down the main roads, through the arcades and a few back alleys. But with no luck. Any suggestions? I'm looking for something like... 5,000-6,000 yen and under.

[becki_kanou]

You could try a recycle shop, they sell just about everything used. You could also check the Kansai Flea-market; they have listings for 'sayonara sales' which may contain bicyles. Or for not much more (about 8,000-9,000) you could buy a new bike.

Also, welcome to the Kansai!

[weirdo36]

hum did you looked at youre school yet? Maybe there are some people selling them? I myself have not bought a bike here yet as there is a second hand bike shop nearby where I can get a decent bike for like 10.000 yen and people in my school are selling them for around 5.000 when they go back to there home country again. Anyway I suppose that once youre there you should ask one of youre senpai's where they got there bike from as I suppose it's not only my language school that has students also leaving again who try to sell there stuff.

[chikara]

You could try a recycle shop .....

LOL

[Harisenbon]

You could try a recycle shop .....

LOL

I don't get what's funny....

[becki_kanou]

You could try a recycle shop .....

LOL

I don't get what's funny....

Me either... Wanna let us in on the joke?

[chikara]

"bike" comes from "bicycle". Where else would you buy a second hand bicycle but at a recycle shop.

[Harisenbon]

"bike" comes from "bicycle". Where else would you buy a second hand bicycle but at a recycle shop.

*groan*

[becki_kanou]

"bike" comes from "bicycle". Where else would you buy a second hand bicycle but at a recycle shop.

Re-cycle, eh? That's so bad it's almost physically painful. Nicely done!

[two_heads_talking]

"bike" comes from "bicycle". Where else would you buy a second hand bicycle but at a recycle shop.

If bike comes from bicycle (and we know it does), doesn't that mean you would get a reke from a recycle shop? And no one wants a reke do they?

Here's another odd one.. If bicycle becomes bike, and tricycle become trike, then why would motorcyle become motorbike? Shouldn't it become mike?

(edit for grammar purposes)

[thesettingsun]

Back to the main topic...

You have to be a little bit careful when buying a second-hand bike. Obviously this is a fairly rare occurrence, but someone I know borrowed a bike from the school she worked for, and a few weeks later she was arrested for being in possession of a stolen bike. Apparently the school received the bike from the city council, and they hadn't bothered to check whether or not it was registered to anyone.

[chiisu321]

At least where i live, there are plenty of bike shops near the station with reasonable prices. After i bought my new bike and saw how much a used bike was.......i felt a little cheated.

But, how long are you planning on using the bike? You might want to invest in a new one if you'll be here for a lot longer or a rental if you only have a short time left. (i wouldn't know, but i hear that many people rent bikes during long term travel) They come with auto lights for night time, attached bell, attached basket, all that jazz. My bike was rather expensive (my mom wanted me to have a nice one =/) but the cheaper ones at your average Apita were around 20000-30000yen

I don't know what a recycle shop is exactly, but I've seen plenty of used bike shops.

[becki_kanou]

Chiisu-
You might want to check the dates on the posts. This guy posted once in September and never came back. So he's probably not around to reply to you.