Complete Bikes
Browse used city bikes for sale from riders across the UK. This category covers six kinds of complete bike built for everyday journeys: Dutch bikes, hybrid bikes, vintage bikes, cargo bikes, folding bikes and lowriders. It suits commuters, students and anyone replacing short car trips, where practicality matters more than weight.
Which type of city bike should I buy?
Work backwards from the journey. Under three miles, flat, in ordinary clothes: a Dutch roadster, upright and fully equipped. Five to fifteen miles with hills: a hybrid, lighter and geared for it. A commute involving a train or a flat with no storage: a folder, which is the only type that solves that. Children or a weekly shop: a cargo bike. Weekend riding and something you enjoy looking at: a vintage machine or a lowrider, the latter built for style and low-speed cruising rather than distance.
Dutch bike or hybrid — what is the difference?
Weight and position, mostly. A Dutch bike puts you fully upright with swept-back bars, weighs 18-25kg, and arrives with mudguards, chaincase, rack, stand and often hub gears and a dynamo. A hybrid weighs 11-14kg, has flat bars and a slight forward lean, and usually needs mudguards and a rack adding. The Dutch bike is more comfortable and better protected; the hybrid is faster and far easier on a climb or up a flight of stairs.
How do folding and cargo bikes compare with the rest?
Both trade riding feel for a specific capability. Folders use 16in or 20in wheels, which feel twitchier and hit potholes harder, in exchange for fitting under a desk or onto a train at peak time. Cargo bikes — longtails, and box bikes with a front load area — are long, heavy and need somewhere to park, but carry 80-100kg of child or shopping. Neither makes sense unless you need what it does; both are excellent if you do.
What should I check on a used complete city bike?
Start with rust, because these bikes live outdoors: look under the bottom bracket shell, inside the fork crown, and at the seatpost junction, and check whether the seatpost turns at all — a post seized in a steel frame can end the bike. Then work through the drivetrain. On hub gears, ride through every speed and reject anything that slips under load or misses a gear, as internal hub rebuilds are seldom economic. On derailleur hybrids, lift the chain off the front of the chainring; more than a few millimetres of gap means a worn chainset. Check rim sidewalls on rim-braked bikes for a hollow wear groove, and on folders check the hinges and clamps for play and cracking, since those bear the whole load. On cargo bikes, check the steering linkage rods and joints on a box bike for slop, and the stand for a bent leg.
What is a fair price for a used city bike?
Hybrids from Specialized, Trek, Giant and Cannondale depreciate steeply and are the best value here — half of new after two or three years is common, less again for supermarket-brand machines. Dutch bikes, Brompton folders and quality cargo bikes hold value hard, because they last and demand stays high; expect to pay closer to two-thirds. Buy new when you are carrying children, where brakes and frame integrity matter, or when you want a warranty on a hub gear. A bike needing a wheel rebuild, a hub gear overhaul and new tyres has usually passed the point where it is worth reviving. Individual city components are often the cheaper way to bring a sound frame up to standard.