Want a New Bike? Trade Up. Here’s How.

Recently, bike brand Ventum announced a new trade-up program that lets customers trade their old bikes for credit towards a new Ventum. The program is one of several trade-up options for triathletes that promise to streamline the path to a new rig by saving you an awkward Craigslist encounter.

The Ventum trade-up program is powered by The Pro’s Closet, best described as a Boulder-based eBay for all things bikes. You email info about your old bike to Ventum, who passes it along to The Pro’s Closet who evaluates your steed and determines its value. Then Ventum will give you a voucher for 110 percent of that value, which you can use to buy any Ventum. If your bike’s worth more than a c-note, that might help drive down the $5,500 cost of entry into Ventum ownership.

If you can’t live without a downtube, not to worry. You have other options. The Pro’s Closet has its own trade up program that works similarly. You can use the voucher from The Pro’s Closet to buy a new bike at any of the company’s handful of retail partners located across the country, but unfortunately not in all metro areas. Bicycle Blue Book.com, the Kelly Blue Book of bikes, also runs a trade-in program through retailers across the country.

Several Trek Bicycle stores have trade-in programs too, including locations in Nebraska, Missouri and Florida. So does Bicycle Warehouse, and SoCal’s Pulse Endurance Sports.

Just like when you trade in your car at the dealer for a new one, you’ll pay for the convenience. You can always check your bike’s worth as a trade-in vs. a private sale on Bicycle Blue Book.com to see if the extra hassle of selling it yourself is worth it to you. But if you want a new bike now, trading up promises to make the process easier so you can spend more time riding and less time hauling your old bike to meetings in brightly-lit public places.