How to find a second hand bike in Maastricht

Even if I moved from Maastricht I still have plenty of useful advice :D

The Netherlands it's a bike-friendly country and in a small city like Maastricht you absolutely need a bike!
New bikes can be really expensive and, especially if you are planning to stay only for a short period, the best solution are second-hand bikes! But where you can find one? Here I will give you some advice.

Facebook groups
There many Facebook groups for buying/selling a bike and one of the most popular is Buy/sell a bike in Maastricht .

The bike that you can see on Facebook groups are generally not so expensive (the average price is 40/60 euros) but there are many pro and cons that you have to take into consideration.

The main advantage is that you can really save money and make a great deal because sometimes the sellers are people that are leaving Maastricht and they sell their bike for a really affordable price. But you have to be lucky and this situation is not really common...

What happens really often is that, even if the bike looks great in the picture, at the end you will discover a pile of rubbish...  Some people are honest and they describe in the advertisement that something in the bike is not working but other no, so you have to CHECK CAREFULLY the bike!
As explained before, many of the sellers are people leaving Maastricht, so what could happen is that:

1.  You buy a bike
2. After some days you realise that is half broken
3.  You contact the original seller for having your money back

But at this point is too late because probably he/she already left the country!

Furthermore, there is the problem of  the stolen bikes: some people don't care about this problem and they have absolutely no regrets in buying stolen bike but I have a different point of view.
In Maastricht, there are a lot of bike's thieves and they continue to steal bikes because there are customers that will buy them. If you happy with you stolen bike, I wish you to be equally happy if your bike will be stolen for selling it to people like you :)
Of course is not easy to know when a bike is stolen but if you have some doubts please don't buy it!

So, let's summarise pro and cons about buying a bike on Facebook:

Pro

• Cheaper that the shops!
• You can find an occasion
• Youn can meet nice people :)

Cons

• Be careful about stolen bikes
• Be aware of not buying broken bikes (it happens more for the bikes sold on facebook)

Shops
The prices of the bikes into the shops are less cheaper than Facebook, but mostly of the shops check the bikes before selling then or they offer a warranty of 2/3 months.
If you will stay in Maastricht for a long period (like 1 year), I advise you to take into consideration the bike shops. Maybe you will pay more but will spend less money in repairs.

I bought my bike in Jules in the city centre. You can find it at Bouillonstraat 12 and all the bikes cost 75 euros (or 70 if you have the Jules card). I had absolutely no problems with my bike and it worked great for six months :)
Another shop that sells second-hand bikes (and is also good for fixing problem) is TMN-Bike in Scharnerweg 86.

Pro

• Bikes are (I hope!) not stolen
• Bikes are usually checked and not in so bad condition
• Stress-saving: you don't have to contact  people, schedule an appointment etc etc

Cons

• Price
• Paying more doesn't imply better quality. Even if is a shop always remembers to check the bike

General advice
If you decide for Facebook or a shop remember ALWAYS to check carefully a bike, especially if is expensive. You don't have to be a bike expert for discovering big issues, here is a little list of things that you can easily check by yourself:

1. If the seat doesn't fit you, is it adjustable?
2. Are both lights working? 
3. Check the condition of the wheels
4. Remember to try all the gears
5. Rember to try both the brakes

Most of the time, cheap bikes has always some problems, try to understand it and maybe ask how much will cost the fixing. For example, here the prices of Jules: link

Take into consideration that there are problems that could be easily fixed.  Take a look, for example, at the shop Action: they have cheap lights, seats and accessories for the bikes. So if the bikes are in good conditions but lights are not working you can buy them for a cheap price.

The last small advice: especially if your bike is with lock included and you receive only one key take into consideration the idea of buying another lock.

Why? Usually, a lock has 2 keys and if you receive only one means that could be someone else that maybe has the other key :)

And, always remember to lock your bike: Maastricht is full of bike thieves so please pay attention!

Have fun with your bike!