Hard Rubbish/Flea market finds

[amrjon]

please tell us more about 'that feeling' that you will find a bike, Obi Wan, and how you use the force to know just which street to drive down. learn it I must.

[mark field]

please tells more about 'that feeling' that you will find a bike, Obi Wan, and how you use the force to know just which street to drive down. learn it I must.

earlier in the day i noticed some piles on the roadside, thought it might be that time where everyone starts to offload onto the footpath so i knew i would check it out after work (9:45 pm) I'm very methodical about my scrounging methods. i pick a main road and zig zag until all streets are done on one side and then do the other, i didn't get past the first street before the find, but nothing else after that. i must have got the last minute late night offload that the scrappy's missed. when i was in Five dock 12 years ago i was finding 10 bikes per clean-up. now its one a year. that's Sydney for you. cant even get rubbish cheaply anymore.

[lunar_c]

I go out searching for bikes with my fiance (yes, she is perfect, no she doesn't have any sisters), we have a system .. we pick a feeding road through a suburb, and as we pass each intersection she looks one way up a street and I look the other, we assess which street appears to have more "good" junk (ie, stuff that looks like it could be bikes and not just green waste), and investigate further accordingly.

Always leave a different way to the way you went in so you don't waste precious junk-finding time retracing your steps!

[amrjon]

Where I live they have changed the cleanup system recently.
Its no longer a suburb by suburb collection timetable, now anyone anywhere can put rubbish out at any time and you ring/book to have it picked up.
Its killed off the 'professional' scrappies and scavengers, and the type of 'collecting' described above.
Its also reduced the amount of stuff put out because most people aren't organised enough to book a collection time (no doubt why they changed it - it must be much cheaper for the council).
But the flip side is that because the 'professionals' are no longer out there from dawn to dusk during the collection week, its given everyone else an even chance of a find.

[Stuey]

I still have to get over the embarrassment of being a roadside scab. I usually do the quick raid style grab and run.

I spotted a LARGE pile of bikes the other week in a hard rubbish collection situation, but because it was in a cul-de-sac, I didn't want to stand, with five or six houses facing me, and go through these bikes. This pile was like a bonfire setup, as tall as me, and there would have been 15/20 bikes in it. Some looked OK, and although the best brand I spotted just driving by was a Giant, who knows what was in there. Probably low end, but I realise there were probably loads of useful parts in that lot. Bah! Never again - I'm donning the thick hide after looking at this thread for a while.

I did pick up a very good nick 2007 Giant CRX frame, though, from another house.

Stuey

[HappyHumber]

I still have to get over the embarrassment of being a roadside scab. I usually do the quick raid style grab and run.

You big girls' blouse!

I spotted a LARGE pile of bikes the other week in a hard rubbish collection situation, but because it was in a cul-de-sac, I didn't want to stand, with five or six houses facing me, and go through these bikes. This pile was like a bonfire setup, as tall as me, and there would have been 15/20 bikes in it. Some looked OK, and although the best brand I spotted just driving by was a Giant, who knows what was in there. Probably low end, but I realise there were probably loads of useful parts in that lot. Bah! Never again - I'm donning the thick hide after looking at this thread for a while.

This is the key thing... early on in your bike scabbing, just don't be afraid. Grab what you can. Do it a few times and the "embarrassment" subsides. There's a lot less thought to stripping a found bike than there is to building a bike you want to be proud of. So it's easy to kick back with a beer or 3 and some basic (non-bike specific) tools and collect parts off of someone's rubbish, whilst you get a feel for how things go-together.

This was the approach I took a few years ago and soon enough I had all this Himalayan-like range of bike related crap at home, I decided I had to sort and rationalise. You soon learn which examples from the various piles to turf... you can only keep so many Dia-compe single pivot 27" non-quick cam-release brakes as spares if you get my drift.

I found this step especially important come the next bulk rubbish collection in my own suburb

If you're still a bit bashful, put it this way; How often have you stood in your your front room tut-tutting over a cup of earl-grey at some supposed low-life picking out things from your own bulk waste? They're saving more shite from landfill. They're doing their bit for the environment without driving a Prius, drinking soy milk [/srcsm] or whatever fashion proves "you're doing something" for the environment

I'm happy for anyone to grab my leftovers.

[maccayak]

I do the drive by first. Sometimes twice just to check. Come back with ute/tailgate open and space available. Park facing the exit of the street/court. Get out of car and dont look at any houses, complete mission and leave, car is always still running.

But if people are out, I just ask if I can have the old bike.

Geoff

[Stuey]

Oh, I've done it a few times, and have the usual pile of dia compe 'flexy brakes'... But yeah, I need to HTFU. Especially now that I've built up a few older bikes and realise just how useful a pile of bits can be...

I did ask once if I could grab a bike, when the owner was out. They were fine.

I also welcome scabbers. I've even put notes on things saying they work (computer gear, speakers) to help passers by!

Cheers

Stu

[HappyHumber]

I also welcome scabbers. I've even put notes on things saying they work (computer gear, speakers) to help passers by!

I just last weekend killed my washing maching of 5 years which I got off a verge with "Free! Works Well!" scribbled on the side in artline marker.

I got it home.. hooked up the garden hose and extension cord to it out on the back verandah.. ran it throug a cycle with some bleach/disinfectant chucked in. Brilliant!

I suppose I better cross out "Free! Works Well!" and add "Sorry, not any more..." come my bulk rubbish collection in February.

[mark field]

some of my best pieces of furniture have come from council cleanups. and as for the embarrassment- ill rip something out of the hands of the person who is just about to dump something for collection if its something i want. ill even ask them to help carry it to my car if its big enough. i collect skateboards from the 60's and 70's and have made quite a collection for myself and also made a bit of money- some boards Ive picked up and restored have sold for $400+. i have a sand surfa that's worth about $1000. embarrassed? not me Ive seen people in brand new BMW's going through trash. it takes all sorts, and to the bravest most dedicated go the spoils. or lucky. there really isn't any need to justify why you do it, or how you do it, because everyone does or has done it. my last girlfriend who's father was a Chinese politician and seriously cashed up came to visit from China, he was staying at her place in Artarmon and decided to go for a walk- he came back all excited as he picked up an old crappy piece of furniture to use as a TV stand. she was horrified that he could do something so below their status, and i must admit i didn't expect that from him either. but he was quite proud of his find and rightly so. And the funny thing is when people give you looks because your taking something they are throwing out- they forget that they owned said item and would have had it for years and been all proud and stuff, if you find people giving you looks, ask them if its theirs, they will always own up to it if is and the looks will disappear very quickly. If its not then tell them its worth X amount of dollars and you can be sure the looks will change from this to this

[Stuey]

OK, I'm all fired up now to go searching.

[Mulger bill]

I wish my council did the hard rubbish day thing.
Around these parts you dial for a truck

[Semar]

Within a few km of towns the discarded crt screen tv is a common sight.

[HappyHumber]

Within a few km of towns the discarded crt screen tv is a common sight.

That gets on my goat...

I'm still a CRT owner... I keep upgrading from friends & colleagues cast offs I don't let theirs even touch the the ground outside. Latest & greatest acquisition is a very nice 68cm Sony Trinitron which has seen very little use from its previous owner of the last 12 or so years. 4:3 Fat back tellies FTW!

[mark field]

Within a few km of towns the discarded crt screen tv is a common sight.

the patients at my work in the acute mental health ward constantly destroy the TVs on the ward, along with the DVD players, radios, windows, doors, toilets, and furniture. I'm always on the look out for TV,s to replace the broken ones and luckily they can be found every week. there is nothing more terrifying than a seriously angry and bored patient waiting to explode because they have "nothin to do". praise be to the cheap LCD TV is all i can say.

[RobertFrith]

I don't understand the embarrassment factor at all, I've actually helped scavengers load my bulk rubbish on their vehicles. One of the great things about the bulk rubbish collection is the opportunity it offers for diverting useful stuff from landfill.

Last couple of years around here there have been copper recyclers snipping cables from working appliances, rendering them useless. They seem to operate under cover of darkness. They are probably embarrassed and have reason to be so. Still if you put something out for landfill I suppose you can't complain if even a little bit of it is diverted.

[Mulger bill]

I've heard that those cable snippers are supposedly "community minded" souls who cut the cable at the inner end for your safety as they believe that second hand appliances are apparently electrocutions waiting to happen. Of course it means that the local tip gets filled quicker.

[mark field]

In the future, copper will be as expensive as gold. In the very old days people used to go around grabbing the old TVs and valve radio's for the platinum inside that was commonly used for the soldering, now its guys going around for the copper. Aluminum is also on its way to being rare. so one day all those cheap k-mart alloy mountain bikes with the chunky wide as your finger welds will be a sought after prize and BNA members will be posting their finds in the Alloy appreciation society thread, with such posts like "here's my Northern Star Alloy mtb, it has all the lowest grade components of any bike ever but the frame is worth $3000"

[amrjon]

There's obviously something inside those CRT tellys thats worth a buck or two , I've seen some dodgy looking guy round here open them up just to pull some small part out and leave the parts all scattered about. Seems a waste. Like others I'd be happy to see anyone pick one up to put it to use. But somehow just cutting off the cord or removing a small part makes me angry.

[amrjon]

Standish, AS FOUND.





If you see a 9' tall fella looking for his bike, send him my way.
I'm not sure how sidewalls go as a braking surface though?

[drubie]

9 feet tall, ugly fork aficionadio. Crikey that thing is so bad I'd be afraid to ride it.

[lunar_c]

Cool brakes, I like them. Not sure how rubber on rubber goes as a friction compound though..

[RobertFrith]

In the future, copper will be as expensive as gold. Aluminum is also on its way to being rare

Getting a little OT I know but I've always been fascinated by the uselessness of gold. As I understand it half of the gold we manage to extract in ever diminishing fractions from ever larger holes is used in jewellery, most of the rest is used for "investment" and a small proportion finds it's way into practical applications on account of it's conductive and corrosion resistant qualities. Copper and aluminium have a broad range of practical uses and both are eminently recyclable materials, making them attractive to thieves and scavengers. I've heard it said that aluminium was referred to as "frozen electricity" in the early days of its refinement, on account of the energy input required to transform bauxite to alumina.

[ldrcycles]

Cool brakes, I like them.

+1, I really like the look of centrepull brakes.

[HappyHumber]

Standish, AS FOUND.
....
If you see a 9' tall fella looking for his bike, send him my way.

That's hilarious. Gotta wonder where the "minimum insertion" mark is on that seat post... Though my money is that it's the wrong sized seatpost just barely wedged into the seat tube... it was probably never ridden like that, or least by noone who values their 'boys' still being attached to their body.