With a half decent Fat Bike costing from around £700 it's a big chunk of cash to spend if your not sure if a Fat Bike is for you or not.
Of course you could go ahead and spend half the amount of money on a brand new Chinese Imported Fat Bike, but to be honest the reliability, the components and the overall build quality will have you wishing you spent your money a little more wisely.
The above bike is a budget entry bike, and only costs £280.00 which is nothing for a new bike, but you get what you pay for.
The spec is not bad with disc brakes, front shocks, 21 gears and a steel frame, and as it goes for that sort of money it's not bad.
Of course if you never intend to take your Fat Bike off road, and use it only for riding to the pub and back then the cheap and cheerful Chinese Fat Bikes will be more than adequate.
However, I soon found out that the inner child in me had me riding through the gnarliest, muddiest and roughest terrain I could find, simply because I could and the bike could handle it.
Not sure a cheap import would last too long!
So I decided to take a look to see what you could get for your money on Ebay UK.
I found a few bikes, so if you like the idea of a Fat Bike but want to buy a good used bike then these are the ones you should be looking at.
The first bike I found was a Mongoose - Sold via Halfords, all though I'm not sure that they sell the Fat Bikes any more? Plus many other distributors throughout the UK.
At £320 it's around the same as an import but at least you know it will have a slightly better build quality. At the end of the day this is still a UK entry level bike even when brand new.
The next bike I came across was the Voodoo Wazoo - costing around £500.00 new and this one is on at £330.00 and is hardly used.
Plenty going for this bike with it's Hydraulic Brakes and Alloy frame, but it does weigh a whopping 16.5Kg. But again a good UK entry level Fat Bike.
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This bike is around the £1000.00 when new, so this at around 2 years old and with only light use is a sound price at £350.00
This is a 2016 model with an aluminium frame, hydraulic brakes and a white frame which is apparently rare these days and 20 gears.
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This next bike was around the £1000.00 plus mark when new, highly regarded as a great bike and with the upgrades the owner has done is a good price for a high end bike.
Salsa Mukluk 3 (2015) Fat Bike 19" Large
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The Salsa Mukluk comes with almost brand new Surly Nate tyres - cost alone over £100 so with everything else that has been added a cost of £650.00 is not unreasonable.
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My next find was this great bike with all the gear you need for an off road tour.
This is a Kona WO Fat Bike - Bike Packing Expedition Ready 19" Frame.
A real head turner plus it's a great bike made by Kona, well known for their build quality. Often the choice of round the world cyclists due to it's durability.
It's got a price tag of only £750.00 I say only, but the bags alone would set you back several hundred pounds before you start!
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I then came across a Surly Wednesday Fat Bike 19" large - up for sale at £825.00 but you can make an offer.
Now that sounds like a whole load of cash, but the frame alone will set you back £600.00 if you were looking at building one from floor up! It also comes with brand new Surly Tyres (tubeless) and it does not look as if it has seen a great deal of action.
My final bike is a Trek Farley 9 2016 model - the equivalent today would set you back over £2000.00 and this guy has added in excess of £1000.00 worth of extras.
So with a price tag of £1075.00 and with offers accepted this is a bit of a bargain if you have a grand to play with.
So there you have a good selection of bikes for around £1000.00 or less.
Which bike would I choose? tough question, but knowing what I know now it would be a tough choice between the Trek Farley 9 and the Surly Wednesday.
If I really had to narrow it down it would have to be the Surly - only because of how I ride - the Surly has loads of welded lugs for luggage.
I'm not a racer or down hill specialist, plugging away with luggage attached is more my thing.
Hope you found that helpful, I will try to do a monthly ebay report on Fat Bikes, any questions leave a message below in the comments section!
Ride safe........
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