Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - a sad day. *sigh*

just a random snap of part of Ann Arbor's cleanup. they aren't being donated anywhere, i asked.


http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/9725/dscn30048vx.jpg

http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/7496/dscn30057nd.jpg




on the bright side, i s'pose the bike racks will be freed up.

I can't wait for the day when it will be full of SUV's.

that is terrible... please excuse me while I cry.

Not even recycled?

bikes not bombs!

Aaaaggggghhhhh!!!!!

time to hit the dump. that looks like some quality rummagin'

I witnessed a similar occurance here two years ago. A big blue bin full of bikes. A security guard informed me that once the bikes were in the bin, they were the property of the crusher. If I went diving I would be commiting a crime.

Not even recycled?



they might be being recycled. i dunno how you recycle a bike. ???


on the side of the dumpster is the university of michigan recycling logo. but i asked the driver and he said they were being thrown away and i wouldn't be allowed do dig through it.

i heard that the local police usually confiscates unwanted bikes and sells them at a police auction, but from the looks of it, they don't do that anymore.

i'm actually not as upset about the bikes being tossed as i am about the amount of money spent. just think, hundreds of freshmens' parents bought their little sweetie a new bicycle (among other things) right before dropping him/her off at the dorms. and that kid took their brand new vehicle and left it outside to rot. i mean, even huffys and murrays cost 60-100 bucks, right?

it's not just that. at the end of the year you can dig through all the dorm dumpsters to find furnature, futons, computers, appliances-- much of it in usable condition, all of it disregarded. this is just the university of michigan we're talking about here. i'm certain the situation is no different at schools across the US. we're talking about literally tons of trash generated and millions of dollars wasted because money got put in the hands of a bunch of kids who don't value it.

i'm not necessarily one to talk-- i'm a student here and a reasonably well-off one at that.

but... jeez.

Ouch!!!! . . . Ow! there must be a hundred bikes in there! I don't get it.

they might be being recycled. i dunno how you recycle a bike. ???

http://www.bikeworks.org/
http://www.workingbikes.org/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=2
http://www.bikesnotbombs.org/

that made me really sad inside.

How anti-authority/pro-bike/pro-charity is your school paper?

I think those photos running right next to a story on one of the organizations that BostonTrevor listed could create a pretty powerful impetus for change of how they deal with this "waste".

The vast majority are probably dept. store bikes that are hardly worth the effort (look at all the reflectors and pie plates)... I mean, who really wants a "mountain bike" that cost $79.99 NEW? Or a $39.99 BMX bike? Most probably should have been sent to the landfill BEFORE assembly. Know when to hold and when to fold... junk is junk... can't polish a turd.

That's a familiar site over here in Miami. For many years, there's been a boat that piles on the bikes real high on the Miami River. They are usually destined to Haiti. I guess they need them over there a lot more than we do over here, but it makes me wonder the sweet steeds that through the years may have ended up over there!

Were these bikes abandoned in the streets or what?

;) I'm sure that the people towing the bin away won't go through it themselves.

In the case of the bikes in the Miami River, no-one knows. I guess I could drive down there and ask?! Everyone always assumed that they were "hot" but that's just not fair really. They were probably abandoned or bought off police auctions for a few dollars.

bikes not bombs!
haha i have that sticker on my bike

What a waste!

In gainesville all of the abandoned bikes get tagged to let owners the university is about to grab them. Then a dump truck is filled up with them. I bought one of such bikes a year ago for a buck. It was a schwinn mtb with true temper tubing. People laughed that I had bid on a bike without a wheel.

Friday the university was cleaning up the racks again. They had a separate truck full of just locks, so I asked to look through (I was hoping to find one of those krypto cables to thread through my wheels.) One of the guys reluctantly let me. The dumbasses had cut 5 of these cables. I had to explain to the cutters that they just needed to cut the ulock and the krypto cable could be spared for the auction by just unthreading it from the lock. Then I reailzed they didn't care, but I'm glad they recycle them here.

I mean, who really wants a "mountain bike" that cost $79.99 NEW? Or a $39.99 BMX bike? Most probably should have been sent to the landfill BEFORE assembly.

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-5om/Fox.html - Maya Pedal, for one
http://www.pcei.org/vbp/ - The nation of Ghana, for another
http://www.greatergoodsa.co.za/causes/causeoverview.jsp?cause_id=1000002722 - Diepsloot, South Africa
I could go on.

The fact is, those bikes may be garbage to us first-world bike snobs, but for the low-income, both at home and abroad, even a Wal-Mart bike can provide effective personal transportation to millions of people who cannot otherwise afford it.

When you ship 5,000 bikes at a shot, it's not too expensive and well worth collecting those $80 rides.

. . . i dunno how you recycle a bike. ??? . . .

Give it to someone else to ride . . . That's how You Recycle a Bicycle