Buying a bike in Maastricht: what to pay and how not to lose it
A bike is not optional in Maastricht. It is how everybody gets to campus, to the supermarket and home from a night out, and the city is built on the assumption that you have one.
What to pay
- €120 to €250 for a decent second-hand bike from a shop, usually with a short warranty and a service included.
- €60 to €120 privately, at more risk and with no recourse.
- €300 and up for new, which for three years of study is defensible if you will keep it.
Below about €60, you are buying somebody else's problem or somebody else's bike.
Buy from a shop the first time
A shop gives you a receipt, which proves the bike is yours, and a frame number recorded against your name. Both matter if it is ever recovered by the police. Second-hand shops around the station and the student areas do a steady trade in exactly this.
If someone offers you a bike on the street for €25, it is stolen. Buying it is a criminal offence in the Netherlands, not a grey area, and it keeps the trade alive that will eventually take yours.
Locks matter more than the bike
Buy two locks of different types: a heavy chain or D-lock through the frame and the rack, plus the ring lock most Dutch bikes already have on the back wheel. Two different locks take two different tools, and most thefts are opportunistic.
Spend €40 to €70 on the good lock. It feels absurd next to a €150 bike until the week it is the reason you still have one.
Where to park
Use the guarded stallingen where they exist, especially near the station and in the centre. They are cheap or free and they are watched. Overnight, get the bike off the street entirely if your building allows it.
If it is stolen
Report it to the police online with the frame number from your receipt. Recovery rates are not high, but recovered bikes without an owner on record get auctioned, and yours cannot come back to you if nothing ties it to your name.
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