A bike's history shouldn't start over every time it's sold.
Used bikes have always been sold on trust — a seller's word, a few photos, a hopeful buyer. We're building the record that means trust doesn't have to be a guess.
Anyone who's bought or sold a used bike knows the problem. "Good condition" means something different to everyone, and there's no way to check a seller's claims without an in-person inspection you probably don't have time for. So buyers discount what they can't verify, and the people who looked after their bikes get the same price as the people who didn't.
Our first answer to that is the Certificate: one consistent inspection standard, carried out not by us but by the accredited workshops, shops and dealers that already do this kind of assessment every day, turned into a public certificate tied to the bike's frame number rather than to one listing.
But a certificate describes one moment. A bike has a whole life — services, replaced parts, repairs, new owners — and almost none of it survives a sale. That's the gap Passport is being built to close: a verified record that keeps accumulating, and passes to the next owner instead of being thrown away with the listing.
We're piloting the certification standard now with a small group of partner workshops and shops across Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire, refining the checklist alongside the people actually doing the inspecting. Passport follows once that's proven.
Two halves of the same idea.
One proves a bike's condition at a moment. The other carries that proof forward. The handover between owners is what joins them.
A seller shares trust. An accredited workshop or dealer inspects the bike against the trustabike standard, grades it A–D, checks it against the stolen-bike register, and issues a certificate the buyer can read before they commit.
An owner builds trust. Every service and re-certification is logged by the Partner who did the work, so years of care become something a buyer can actually see — and something that transfers with the bike.
The standard is fixed. Who applies it is on the certificate.
A dealer inspecting a bike it's selling isn't independent, and we don't pretend otherwise. What stays the same either way is the checklist, the grading and the permanent record — so the certificate tells you both the grade and who stood behind it.
Independent inspection
The bike belongs to a private seller or a third party, and the workshop carrying out the inspection has no commercial interest in the sale. The "independently inspected" label is only available when that's genuinely true.
Dealer certified
A shop certifies a bike from its own stock, in its own workshop. Same checklist, same grading, same permanent record — but the commercial interest is stated on the certificate rather than glossed over.
The principles behind the record.
A record is only worth something if every entry in it was earned the same way.
You always see who inspected it
Every certificate names the workshop or dealer that carried out the inspection — and says plainly whether they had a stake in the sale.
Same checklist, every time
One standard across frame, drivetrain, brakes and wheels — tailored to road, gravel, MTB or e-bike, but identical for every bike of that type.
Public by default
A certificate is tied to the bike's frame number, not one listing — so it's still worth something the next time it sells.
Verified means verified
Work logged by a Partner is marked as verified. Anything an owner adds themselves is labelled as theirs, so the record never overstates itself.
We're early, and we'd rather say so.
The pilot is measuring one thing: whether certification actually changes how fast a bike sells and what it sells for. We'll publish what we find, including if the answer is less clear-cut than we'd like. Passport launches after that — built on what the pilot teaches us, not ahead of it.
Certification
Live, in pilot across Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire.
Passport
In development — launching once the pilot has run.
Dealer certification
Open to partner shops certifying their own stock, clearly labelled as such.
Help us build the standard.
Whether you want a bike certified, want to run the inspections yourself, or just want to know when Passport opens — there's a place to start.