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No that's pretty much craigslist here as well. Over time I've noticed some decent deals here and there, just wrong size or wrong style for me.
Though I may ultimately just keep the ones I borrowed. I'm fairly certain that the people I borrowed them from don't particularly want them back, at least not from me.
So, like, bike-sensei: I haven't actually changed most of those things on several bikes that haven't been ridden in years, and the tires are hit-or-miss, but with a bit of lubrication the rest seems to work ok in that I hop on and pedal it and it goes. Should I be changing out all those things as well?
With a 12-year-old used hybrid, unless I had information to the contrary, I'd assume that the previous owner rode it a moderate amount, that it still has the original chain and cassette, and that the chain wasn't regularly cleaned or lubricated. I know from personal experience that with moderate to heavy riding a cassette-chain combo will last about 5 years before being completely trashed. The caveat there is that this is mountain biking, which is inherently dirtier, and a 1x12 setup, which is inherently more fragile, but that's balanced by the higher-end components involved. I'd guess that a Trek hybrid from 2012 is running an 8-speed Shimano Altus cassette or whatever the SRAM equivalent is, which will only run you about 20 bucks online, and the chain can probably be had for about that, too, and for those prices I'd be inclined to just replace both now rather than wait.
The upshot is that it's probably due for one. It's not something I'd lose sleep over or anything, but for comparison the cassette on my Cannondale hybrid lasted about 8 years with one new chain in after around four. The reason I prefer just replacing it is that if you wait the early symptoms can resemble any number of other things that are harder for you do fix if you don't have a ton of experience. The chain and the cassette wear each other out, and this initially results in the chain having trouble engaging with the sprockets during shifts. Eventually it will slip when riding and jump to different gears, and may drop entirely. And a worn chain is more likely to just snap under load and inevitably leave you walking your bike back at the point in the ride that takes you farthest from your car. But assuming the chain and cassette are good, most people assume the derailleur is out of alignment, and start dicking around with set screws to try to adjust it so it shifts smoothly. In most cases, this makes sense, since it's really easy for a derailleur to go out of alignment. The problem is that if you're not a pro who does this every day (and especially if you're a beginner at this), it's really easy to throw a perfectly good derailleur out of adjustment while trying to fix a problem that's elsewhere. So if you do decide to let it ride, replace them first thing if you start having shifting problems and don't touch the derailleur unless that doesn't fix the problem.
As for cables, again, nothing I'd lose sleep over, but after a dozen years they've probably had it. Check the cables and housings for obvious damage and replace them if anything doesn't look right. I wouldn't touch the shifter cables unless there's a problem, though, since swapping them out involves adjusting the derailleur.
Damn, you're good.
So that might be the cause of the occasional missed shifts that are driving me nuts.
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