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Posts
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Hey all, I’m working on a topic for the site about buying parts, person to person during coronavirus.
Wondering how everyone is managing it? Are you going into a bike shop? Shopping Craisglist or FB Marketplace? Or are you waiting until everything is over?
If so, I’d like to know if you’re taking any precautions during the transactions, and why or why not? This could be sanitizing the parts or shipping boxes, or wearing a mask or keeping distance during transactions.
I may shoot you an email after for more info. Curious to know what everyone thinks.
Thanks!
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Not sure if every shop in Tallahassee is doing this, but we’ve got one place that has set up curbside. You can order online and come by or talk with an employee in a tent by the front door. They’ll even bring bikes outside for test rides, but the public isn’t allowed to come inside. Seems to work okay for now.
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I have seen some shops around Colorado doing that as well. Worked for me when I needed to pick up a tool. Order online, wait outside and someone comes out. Not bad.
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Here are some guidelines for all shopping not just bike parts.
Try to do as much shopping outdoors as possible. Outdoors is much safer than indoors. If you must go indoors, stay for as little time as possible. Businesses should move as much of their activities outside as possible.
Businesses should do as much as possible to encourage the flow of air through their buildings. Open all doors and windows and turn fans and ventilation systems on high. Running recirculating hvac systems does not help. The more air that flows through a building, the safer it will be. Businesses should add more windows that open, if possible.
Avoid touching your face, mouth, nose, and eyes.
Maintain a 6 ft or greater distance from others.
Try not to touch anything or touch as few things as possible.
Wear some sort of mask even if it is just a cloth tied around your mouth and nose. While not 100% effective, masks do reduce virus transmission. (Why do you think doctors where them?) An added benefit is that masks discourage you from touching your face.
Sanitize your hands before entering and after leaving any business. It would be great if all businesses had hand sanitizing stations at their doors.
Gloves only help if you put on and take off a new pair when entering any business and you know how to remove gloves without contaminating yourself. You should still sanitize your hands before and after using gloves.
Under the perfect conditions of temperature, humidity, etc., coronavirus could survive for as much as 2-3 days on the perfect surface. In real life, that time is much less. The longer you wait, the less likely a possibly contaminated object will infect you.
You’re mostly likely to get coronavirus while grocery shopping because conditions are crowded and people touch a lot of things. Grocery stores and other crowded businesses should extend their hours so that stores are less crowded.
We are not going to wake up in a month and have the coronavirus suddenly be gone. Until we find some cure we will likely be living with coronavirus for a long time. If we are going to get businesses open again these are the things we need to do.
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First to answer you question I would deal with others if I found a bike or part. I have sold another non bike item on Craigslist and plan to post a couple more items. I would be cautious sanitizing the item. I would also practice as much distancing as possible.
I appreciate reading this. I assumed with everything being shut down my LBS was not open. After reading VPJ, I checked their site and they are open but only to meet you at the door with parts or to take a bike in/out for service or demo. Been ordering service items online thinking that was my only option. Would saved me some shipping costs had I known the shop was still open. Better to know now so if I do need another item or a service there is an option.
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For parts, I order most everything online (Jenson, Competitive Cyclist, Amazon & others). Despite the incessant fear mongering it is extremely low risk unless an infectious delivery driver coughs right onto the package as they are handing it to you. When the package is delivered, I open it, take out the contents, put them with my bike stuff and wash my hands. If I had to go to my LBS, as others have said, most are open with “doorside” delivery/pickup.
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I have done a little bit of everything over the past several weeks. Suspension service at a local bike shop, carbon frame repair, bought a bike and sold parts through Craigslist, and shipped parts I sold on Pinkbike.
Each of the shops are doing their best – most scheduling appointments, some limiting customers, some curbside pick up, and others offering pick up and delivery.
I am primarily using common sense – meeting outside, maintaining social distance, and washing my hands.
I did travel outside of my county to buy a bike for my son, but fortunately in Colorado bikes are essential. 😀
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I passed up two great bike deals on Craigslist in my local area. I was even in a small bidding war on one but, decided that venturing out to an unfamiliar location meeting a stranger was not worth the risk. I have purchased a few parts and clothing accessories online from stores and private parties and just let them sit for a week in my workshop before opening the package. Of course, I wash my hands after handling the box and the goods inside. So far, I have not had any issues.
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The bike shop that I work at is still open – we’re only allowing 1 customer at a time through the service shop entrance, and it’s 1 customer per staff member in the store. All repair bikes are fully cleaned & disinfected before coming in.
We’re also doing a lot more online sales and offering curbside pickup. We also lowered our free shipping threshold.
As for personal sales, I’ve been trying to have as little contact as possible, either shipping things or e-transferring money and leaving the part in a safe place. Seems to be working well so far.
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I bought a hard tail frame used off Craigslist to make a dedicated Zwift rig with the plan of turning it into a winter ride.
I paid cash somImhad to go to ATM to pull out enough. I took a spray bottle of IPA and sprayed they keypad before use, and sprayed my hands after.WhenI met the seller I opened the back of my truck, and placed the money on the tailgate.
The seller came out of his garage and placed the frame and parts on the tailgate and took the money.
We each inspected our items and away I went.
When I got home everything was again sprayed and wiped with IPA.
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I just bought a bike off of Letgo just this week. It seems as though it was allowed in Maryland/Virginia, IF all precautions are followed (aka social distancing and or masks). I was concerned though because there were essential travel restrictions (HMMmm) .It seems as though there people are still buying person to person, maybe even more so. People that may be in quarantine have nothing else to do want to bike, which leads to more bike purchases, etc. It seems most people are still buying/selling on used merchandise apps all sort of things (non bike related). My mother found a free Dyson Vacuum. Big win. I got cleaned to the “T”.
I think my LBS is open on certain stingants, haven checked tho.
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I haven’t needed anything or had anything to sell at the moment but I wouldn’t hesitate to do so if that was the case. I still ride 4 days a week and have a trip booked with 3 other friends in a few weeks.
If you can’t tell, COVID doesn’t scare me. It’s not the plague.
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Aloha in ‘Bonedale, CO is doing one custy in store at a time as well as door service which is working very well. I stopped by for a couple parts, the sign on the door explained the rules so, I opened the door and asked for assistance at which Darin was glad to conduct our business in front of the shop. Was spot on!
Disclosure: No cooties were harmed during this transaction.
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I’ve sold a couple parts since the pandemic started, and I’ve always just left them on my doorstep and had people leave money under the mat. Is it safer that way? Probably a little (one guy did put two twenties in a ziploc bag). Am I at risk of being ripped off? Definitely. But no one has yet — including people who bought some non-MTB stuff I sold. For items over like 80 bucks, I ask for prepayment via Venmo or PayPal, just to be sure. It’s gone pretty well so far, all considered.
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I am buying online or in person as I would anyway, to the extent the states are allowing it. I am more cautious in terms of hygiene, washing up after touching stuff, etc. In Ohio the bike shops were allowed to stay open and are using hygenic practices to minimize risk. Clearly the disease is very serious for some people, my wife’s cousin who was older but otherwise healthy, died from it. Other people never knew they were exposed. It seems to have random victims, with some comorbidity factors contributing to worse results. On the other hand, we need to get back to work, we need to live while we are alive.
I think the collective freak out is because human beings have learned and conquered so much with medical technology, it has skewed our perception of risk. Nature will never be completely defeated. We remain mortal, so the question is not “if” we die, it is “when”. Get outside, ride your bike and enjoy the time you have. I hope I don’t go soon, but when I do I have no delusions that the world will (or should) stop turning. I just hope I convinced a few people to ride their bike along the way.
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I recently sold my bike. I just wore a mask and used gloves during the transaction. But I haven’t gone for a ride even though I got a new bike.
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Just sold a set of Thule rook racks yesterday. Met the guy in person in the local BevMo parking lot and had my mask handy just in case he was one of the paranoid types….but he wasn’t. We didn’t shake hands but he did handle the racks after I did and I did take money from him w/o spraying sanitizer on it. Oh, THE HORROR!!!!
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That is just hilarious, mtnryder! The media has been frothing at the mouth since day one and were nowhere to be found during Ebola, SARS, MERS, H1N1 or any other panepidemic in history.
Thank the media for playing the panic card 24/7.
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Just sold a bike this weekend via Craigslist. Neither of wore a mask nor social distanced. We didn’t shake hands but talked casually several minutes about biking as he was buying one of my kids bikes for his son. Time is the only factor that kept our conversation from not going longer. I am also coordinating buying another bike once again via Craigslist for my son since he outgrew his last. Not sure how that transaction will go. I am not sweating it but since writing this I am thinking maybe I should inquire of the seller if they have any concerns.
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I just sold my Marin San quentin on PB Buy/sell and bought a Yt Jeffsy Cf 1 on offerup. The preconscious we took include wearing masks and social distancing. Also have ordered parts online but didn’t do anything special for that.
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I go into my LBS. purchased both of our new bikes in April instore. We just use appropriate PPE… good precautions taken by the team there and everything is still sort of open where we live anyway.
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A revisit from my prior post. I just purchased yet another bike from Craigslist. I just can’t pass up a good deal! Anyway, we corresponded prior to the meeting on the rules of social engagement, we both followed the rules and everything went very smoothly. I felt the more comfortable with the social distancing. We never came within ten feet of each other, I used a bleach wipe before I got in my truck and wiped down the bike once I got home. That t was 2 weeks ago. Maybe it was an overkill of precautions but, is was worth the effort for prevention and a good transaction.
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Local shops have been letting people in for about 2 weeks now.
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Since the pandemic I sold wheels, forks and my giant Reign Advance, which had been on sale and not ridden, except for maintenance, since October 2016. The Pivot Mach 5.5 also generated a ton of interest, but I have decided not to sell.
All sales were in person and were cash transactions. All money was laundered and dried.
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I sold a bike through another forum like in a matter of hours. We social distanced and did the transaction through PayPal. No issues as we were safe about it. I would do it again.
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Matt, sometimes I prefer to go in bike shop, but sometimes if I need only certain parts for my bike – I can buy it from a person….
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And talking of which, few months ago when I was trying to find the Continental Tour Ride urban bicycle tire, I’ve asked plenty of my friends if they had them for selling, but no one had, as well as no one had them on the web, and the only option I had – it’s to visit original site of manufacturer to order and to get those bike’s tires.
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Hey folks, just an FYI on buying parts online. I have been buying and selling bike parts for years online. In the last few months, I have experienced a big increase in fraudulent sellers and sellers that plain just do not ship the parts they are offering once to pay for them. I am not selling anything here however, I would strongly suggest you stay away from Craigslist type sites and use Paypal for payments when you do make a purchase. Ebay still is pretty good. Just check out the sellers rating before you waste your time on refund processing.
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In purchasing a bike, I always look for the best quality, good color combination, and the comfort riding it. After looking at many bikes, I like Boomerbuggy 2 Seater electric bike as it has all the qualities that I am looking for.
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I recently sold my bike but excited to buy new one now.
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I haven’t changed my method of purchases to keep me riding, that being Amazon and eBay.
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i still go to the lbs but i also use amazon. i’m not much for buying used bike parts but i just got a great wheel from lbs $25 tubeless ready thats pretty straight. but the hub makes NO NOISE!!! it’s a tragedy
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I have not changed my purchase method
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I haven’t changed my method of purchases to keep me riding, that being Amazon and eBay.
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I didn’t change anything. If I want to go to a store that’s open, I go.
Been all over the globe serving active duty before retirement and been around some nasty stuff. Have situational awareness and practice good hygiene.
@Bike Nerd – quote “Wear some sort of mask even if it is just a cloth tied around your mouth and nose. While not 100% effective, masks do reduce virus transmission. *(Why do you think doctors where them?)* An added benefit is that masks discourage you from touching your face.”Doctors wear masks to prevent the transmission of bodily fluids during surgical procedures or during a procedure where the body is opened up either exposing a natural or created orifice to the environment where it wouldn’t normally or intended be. Masks “can” reduce virus transmission, however there are too many factors and variables that exist. N95s are only as good until you know that they are contaminated and then they should be immediately disposed of. Most of the face coverings out there that are being worn by the public aren’t sufficient to stop a virus or even many bacteria.
This Medical journal article was published in Jun 2015, before all the covid matters. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4480558/
More people are touching near their face to adjust their mask, so I’m not sure that it’s safe to conclude that it mitigates the average person from touching near their face. However, as a community, we have learned much from this.
Glad to see that people are out more and riding. Where I live, there has certainly been an increase in trail traffic.
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