Where to buy a bicycle in Toronto?

March 16, 2007 2:10 PM

Where should I buy a (used or new) bicycle in Toronto?

I'm planning a long, cross-country bicycle journey in the summer. I'm pretty sure I want a Trek 520, but I'm willing to wait until June to see if I can hunt one down for a good price. However, I don't have a bike at all right now, so I need something, preferably a used road bike for around $200 or under. Where should I look, other than craigslist? And when the time comes to look for the Trek 520, where I should I look?

posted by ori to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

My two favourite bike stores closed, so I don't have a current recommendation. It's been my experience that most of the big bike-only stores are decent.

For used bikes, you can find out when the next police auction is. There's a used bike store on Queen St West across from Bellwood park, can't remember the name.

And Silent Sports in Thornhill has bike swaps - details here:
http://www.silentsports.com/store/content/23/Swaps/
posted by Artful Codger at 2:44 PM on March 16, 2007

I have a 10 year old Trek Multitrack 730 in good condition which you can have for next to nothing! It's cromo frame with Alivio deraileurs... nice bike for training on. Email's in profile. It's in Collilngwood right now. Only thing is it has flat bars and twist shifters so that might be a dealbreaker.

I've got great deals from the Canadian Cyclist classifieds.
posted by unSane at 2:45 PM on March 16, 2007

For a bike to get you through till June you could keep an eye on the Toronto Police Service & Transit Comission auctions on ebay. I have seen bikes on there before, though there are currently none.
posted by jheiz at 3:24 PM on March 16, 2007

I'd recommend SportSwap at Yonge and Eglinton. I asked a similar question almost 2 years back if you want to do a search there were numerous answers thre.

Oh, and UnSane your email is not in your profile. Tried to email you about that Barbershop question a while back.
posted by dobbs at 3:34 PM on March 16, 2007

It may be SportsSwap (plural)--I don't recall.
posted by dobbs at 3:35 PM on March 16, 2007

UnSane, like dobbs said, your email is not in your profile. I've tried emailing you at a mac.com address that google came up with. I hope it's the right one.
posted by limon at 3:43 PM on March 16, 2007

Best bike store I've found for used bikes is Cogs cycle a few blocks east of Gerrard and Broadview. I've bought two excellent used Raleigh bikes there for the $100-130 range.

It's a small store, so what is available all depends on what he's fixed up.
posted by kamelhoecker at 3:55 PM on March 16, 2007

Cyclepath on Bloor at Dufferin was always great, I've bought two bikes there, but I just drove by a week or so ago and I think it's gone. I think there's still one in Oakville.
Curbside at Bloor and Bathurst is a really good, very small but very neighbourhoody store, I've bought some stuff there as well.
posted by chococat at 4:37 PM on March 16, 2007

There is a also a cyclepath round the corner from me on danforth & coxwell, and they've helped me out a lot.
posted by jamesonandwater at 5:49 PM on March 16, 2007

Urbane Cyclist.
posted by poweredbybeard at 5:56 PM on March 16, 2007

There is no good answer to this question, or at least I haven't found one yet.

I wouldn't recommend Curbside, although they aren't terrible. Stay far away from Bikes on Wheels, it might have been a good place 10 years ago, but no longer. Everybody says Urbane Cyclist, but in my very limited experience they are just mediocre.

The guy at La Carrera has been great (or at least pretty good) with me. The only person who was willing to talk about design details with me when I had my wheel problems last year. Too bad about the flash site though..

I would never buy a new bike, except the kind of bike I'm looking for - rigid suspension hybrid/mtn, suggested retail of $500-1000 when new, >=22" frame - hardly ever appears on the used market here. I think it is hard to beat ebay, even with the shipping hassles from down there..
posted by Chuckles at 7:52 PM on March 16, 2007

Oh, forgot to mention.. Rite Auctions are the people running the Toronto Police auctions on ebay. They are great ebay sellers, but part of being great sellers is getting good prices, and that is bad for you :P Also, in my experience, they rarely get anything but department store bikes. Still, could be an attractive option.
posted by Chuckles at 7:58 PM on March 16, 2007