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If you’re cheap, like me, you’ll scour the classifieds looking for good deals. Most times that means looking at ebay, Craigslist and MTBR. These options have their advantages, but their disadvantages are very prominent. Ebay transactions can be costly to sell, Craigslist can be VERY hit or miss with a higher population of scammers too and MTBR is not normally local.

One option that rates highly in my book is my local mountain biking forum. Many times the best way to get good used stuff is to visit a local mountain biking forum’s classified section. It’s local and if you live in an area where there are a lot of mountain bikers, there are probably lots of used gear to choose from. But, I know that not all of you live in highly populated mountain biking destinations like Southern California.

What can you do if your local mountain biking scene is still in its infancy? The best course of action to take in this situation is to join someone else’s local mountain biking forum! In fact join multiple forums. For the most part, forums normally don’t require you to be local to join their mountain biking forum. It is not as though the moderator of the forum is going to make a visit to your house to make sure you’re a local. That’d be lame.

The more forums you join, the wider selection of parts you will be privy to. The only warning I’d give is to make sure that you clearly state your location if you make any offers to purchase something and be willing to offer a few bucks more for shipping.