Helmets, gloves, pads, shoes, lights, bags – you get the idea. Good mountain biking gear can get pretty expensive. And while you can get by with the cheap stuff for a while, eventually you will find yourself wanting to invest in quality gear. But where do you find deals that won’t ruin your wallet?
Here are my favorite ways to save money on mountain biking gear.
1. Buy when you find it, not when you need it
If I stumble on something that is on my wishlist and has a massive discount I try to buy it right away if I can. I’ve been banging my head against the wall so many times for having missed 60% off on something I had to purchase a few weeks later anyway. This is especially true of basics like tires, tubes, brake pads or tools I’ll need.
2. Find deals online
There’s a lot of online retailers that will have sales going on year round. They usually discount items that are one or two seasons old, which is usually no big deal. With clothing you will run into limited sizing and color options, so you will need to do some digging to find the perfect piece. Here are discount pages of the major mountain biking online retailers:
- Backcountry Sales
- Chainreactioncycles Sales
- Bike-discount Sales
- Bicycle Wearhouse Sales
- Wiggle Sales
- Jenson USA Sales
- Evanscycles Sales
- Competitive Cyclists Sales
3. Subscribe to newsletters
A comfortable way to get offers in your inbox is to sign up to newsletters. They usually come out weekly and will list stuff that’s on sale across multiple retailers.
Shameless plug: I publish a weekly newsletter with 6 deals and I try to pick stuff that’s off by 50% or more.
You can sign up to MTB Weekly here.
Other newsletters that include deals are listed bellow:
- Bikeradar Deals Newsletter (sign up on the homepage)
- Singletracks Deals Newsletter (you actually need to create an account with Singletracks)
- Backcountry Deals Newsletter
4. Deal aggregators
If you want one place to search deals across multiple retailers, you can use a deal aggregators. Here’s a list of a few which aggregate solid deals:
5. Facebook groups & Subredits
A great way to find bargain prices on mountain biking gear is to look at Facebook groups. There’s a lot of them that specialize in mountain biking. They are run by local mountain bikers, I'm including a few bigger ones for the US and UK, but do a quick search on Facebook to find one in your local area.
- Mountain Bike Marketplace (45K members)
- Mountain Bike Swap Meet (10K members)
- mountain bikes 4 u buy/sell/swap (11K members)
- Bike Shop on Reddit (8.8K members)
6. Online Marketplaces
In recent years, the used gear market has grown significantly and this led to the creation of mountain biking specific market places. Some of them purchase gear from you and resell it, some are just a Craigslist for mountain biking.
- Pro Closet (certified pre-owned)
- Bike Exchange (certified pre-owned)
- Pinkbike Buy/Sell
- MTBR Classifieds
- Bike Soup (UK)
- Perfecto.bike
7. Local bike sales
Local bike sales are a great way to get your hands on used bikes but also on bike tools, helmets and others. Make sure to thoroughly check the quality of anything you buy, especially with protective gear, like helmets. If you see scratches, I recommend staying clear of those. A helmet that has suffered any sort of impact will not protect you as well as a brand new one. Ask at your local bike shop or look around on facebook for bike sales events.
8. Don’t forget to support your local bike store
While it might be tempting to buy all your gear online, it’s good not to forget about your local bike store. A lot of times, these bike stores are supporting the local mountain biking community, building trails, helping new riders with skills workshops and much more. It’s a good idea to support them by purchasing some of your gear there. Singletracks has a nice list of local bike stores by region.