General Cycling Discussion - Have you found anything interesting on the road?

I was wondering, what things did you people run into while riding?
One time, my two friends and me, were walking 20 miles road going to Three Sisters Mountains, In oregon. We found almost a dozen of knifes! I often see coin laying on the road.

Anybody found anything interesting? :D

A wedding band. I wondered if the the former owner found out about a cheating spouse & decided to toss it.

I talked to a guy, who drove 18 wheelers in the past. He found a dimond ring, stuck in one of his tires, while checking them on the truck stop. :)
It's just very interesting, when you are riding, you see LOTS of road area very close, so supposely those who ride LONG distances, must have good chances to find something unusual. :)

I have found 5 cell phones, lots of tools, money, I see lots of car parts.

I have found myself on the road a couple of times.

I have several tools found while riding including a $30 hammer, a huge Cresent wrench, a torque wrench, the biggest screw driveer I have ever seen, and a fiberglass handled contractors shovel. I had to go back in the truck for that one. It was hard to ride and carry it.

I also see a lot of clothes. My favorite are the undergarments on the side of the road. It makes you wonder what people are up to as they ride down the road.

Believe it or not- marijuana. When I told my siblings, two of them actually started bidding on the stuff... it's still here, hidden away. A few small dime bags, that's all.

Yikes!

Well, today I didn't find anything interesting, or useful. Although I have seen about a dozen of dead birds, probably killed by bikes (ran over) and huge rat. Now the rat was the size of a small cat so that might have been a job of a downhiller;) or maybe a park vehicle! Sad thing to watch:(

$20 once. Mind you, a friend of mine went surfing last week and found $50 in the surf. It's amazing what this plastic money does. :D

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Believe it or not- marijuana. When I told my siblings, two of them actually started bidding on the stuff... it's still here, hidden away. A few small dime bags, that's all.

Yikes!

In college a buddy of mine decided to go to my Alma Mater based on the fact that he found a quarter sack of weed on the sidewalk. We wondered if it were not a very slick recruitment tool. It made me reconsider the drug test I was administered:

"How many grams are in an ounce?"

Originally posted by Chris L
$20 once. Mind you, a friend of mine went surfing last week and found $50 in the surf. It's amazing what this plastic money does. :D
Wait a sec. Did you say PLASTIC money? You have plastic money in Australia?:eek:

Plastic money with lots of pretty colors in Australia.

Funny enough, the money always looks like new. I sometimes would take my money and give it an extra spitshine before I'd buy something. You can make an old bill look brand new with just a little of Mother Nature's natural lotion. :D

Mostly tools...and an amazing number of bungee cords.

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Plastic money with lots of pretty colors in Australia.

Funny enough, the money always looks like new. I sometimes would take my money and give it an extra spitshine before I'd buy something. You can make an old bill look brand new with just a little of Mother Nature's natural lotion. :D

I say it's a good way to conserve the forests by using plastic money instead of paper. I promise it's my last off topic comment!:D

Originally posted by Chuvak
I say it's a good way to conserve the forests by using plastic money instead of paper. I promise it's my last off topic comment!:D

That would be true if money were made of paper...what we call paper money is actually 25% linen 75% cotton mix.

Me, I only find shoes and almost find dead bodies...and the shoes don't even come in pairs.

I have noticed on a couple ocassions- condoms. Can't figure that out? ON the shoulders or curbs of highways. Why? What is really puzzling; They were taken out of their wrapper, yet unrolled??? Why would anyone do that.?
Recall couple times on the curbs of highways and maybe once atop a designated bike path.
TO notice such below, guess I must not be moving fast enough.

A huge crescent spanner.

Occasional loose change.

A few small tools.

Several credit cards.

A couple of wallets.

Originally posted by Chuvak
Wait a sec. Did you say PLASTIC money? You have plastic money in Australia?:eek:

Indeed we do. All our notes are made out of plastic. Much harder to tear than paper. Of course, I've still got a couple of the old paper notes (mainly as a keepsake), including the old $1 and $2 notes that were replaced by coins back in the '80s.

The great thing about our money is that a $5 note is a handy spare to carry with you. If you get a hole in your tyre you can whack it inside your tyre as a sleeve to get you home.

Originally posted by MediaCreations
The great thing about our money is that a $5 note is a handy spare to carry with you. If you get a hole in your tyre you can whack it inside your tyre as a sleeve to get you home.

I've never thought of that. I remember riding to work one day, having a sidewall blow up, and using a folded up (several times) piece of paper to hold it in place. Now that you mention it, a $5 note would have been a faster and more effective solution. And unlike the paper, it could also be used to provide refreshments to ward off the evil bonk-monster in an emergency.

I can't believe no one mentioned pornographic magazines. Seems like once every ride, often while stopped at a light, I will look down to see the most vivid photographs.

My theory is that married men, hurrying home to their wives throw them out the window so they won't get caught with them.

On a different note, yesterday while driving to the trail I found a cyclist! I noticed a biker walking a bike and when I stopped to see what he needed I found out he didn't speak a word of english. Sign language and pointing led me to offer him a ride down the road. A wordless five miles led us to the interesection where we went our separate ways.

Condoms, the leg of a Pronghorn (when I use to live in Wyoming), and an ammo can with ammunition in it (turned it into the armory that was right down the road).

While riding :: tons of tools and bungee cords, a bag of weed valued at $40 (I turned it over to the police), a check book full of checks (I tried to contact the owner but ended up turning it in to the bank)

Whilre running :: a spent bullet (the projectile, not the casing), $10 (largest cash find), a vibrator! :O

Last time I checked petroleum was needed to make plastic. How does that meet with your(Chuvak) ecological views?

Originally posted by Eureka
I can't believe no one mentioned pornographic magazines. Seems like once every ride, often while stopped at a light, I will look down to see the most vivid photographs.

My theory is that married men, hurrying home to their wives throw them out the window so they won't get caught with them.

I see them a lot on country roads. I've seen a lot on the highway across Australia.

I agree with your theory. As the ones I see are almost always beside roads in the middle of nowhere, I think it might be truckies who buy them, 'read' them and then chuck them out the window.

On an even less pleasant level, I also see old coke or other soft drink bottles full of yellowish green fluid. I guess those truckies haven't got time to stop.:(

Today I was out for my morning ride and found a woman's credit card.

I'm now in the process of looking her up in the phone book in the hopes of contacting her to let her know I have it. Yikes, I hope she knows by now that it's missing! It's actually a debit card, not a credit card, which is worse than losing your credit card, I think.

Koff

the most common things: epinepherine blister packs, rubber tubing and liter soda bottles. (sigh. I wonder what the drug of choice will be after meth is old hat?)


lots of tools, CDs, coins. Oh and horse shoes, believe it or not. Once found a nearly new, totally stainless steel pocket knife and I still use it. Keeps a great edge.
Once I came across a checkbook and a pair of prescription glasses and was amazed to discover that I knew the owner. He had put the stuff on top of the car while he got in and then drove off, and the things took a tumble. It's a wonder the glasses had not broken. He figured he would never get any of it back and was totally ecstatic when I called.
My dad used to drive back and forth from our house to his job in Peoria on the weekends and to keep himself awake he watched for stuff along the road. One winter's night he was coming home and saw something shining on the edge and pulled over to check it out. It was a polished pearl-handled revolver(which he turned in to the authorities) and along with this was almost 400$ in 20s and 50s scattered along the shoulder. Needless to say he kept the cash, but we all wondered what its history was.

Lots of screws and nails I pick up, A handgun I turned in, Occasional ammunition (falls out of the back of pickup trucks), occasional money mostly coins, and on one occasion I had to give first aid to a girl that was mauled by a big dog. Most of this while jogging or walking, when i'm biking it's easy to miss things.

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Today I was out for my morning ride and found a woman's credit card.

Koff
The Sunday before last I was stopped at a light on my way back from a ride and found a driver's license and credit card lying in the bike lane. The guy no longer lived at the address on the license, couldn't find him in the white pages, and none of the phone numbers I found on the Internet were any good.

Figuring the guy was a cyclist, for the heck of it, I searched our racing club's mailing list archives and found that he married one of the former members of the club. I was able to get a work number for her from a Google search. She described the missing items to me and I dropped them off during one of my evening rides later in the week.

Turned out that both of them were serious riders both of them racing in the Pro/1/2 category at one time or another.

SteveE

Found a wrench..thats about it. But I can tell you Bud light and marlboro are the most popular in may state.

ummm whe working I found a bike, without wheels... thats what got me started again.
I've recently found a pump, Ive found trashed wheels, with good hubs. Rebuilt those with new rims and spokes. a couple of bucks here and there, an empty wallet, a walet with just ID, returned it to the local constabulary.
Lots of unrolled condoms, yes that is strange.

Money (a 20 and a couple of 5's), broken bike parts and helmets, and some articals of clothing you never want to touch. Oh, and plenty of road kill.

Pornographic pictures. I could not believe it myself, but someone tore out a lot of these from a magazine or something, and threw them out on the road. I brightened up what was an otherwise dull day out on the rural roads...!!

Originally posted by Koffee Brown
Today I was out for my morning ride and found a woman's credit card.

I'm now in the process of looking her up in the phone book in the hopes of contacting her to let her know I have it. Yikes, I hope she knows by now that it's missing! It's actually a debit card, not a credit card, which is worse than losing your credit card, I think.

Koff Koff, You should turn that card in to the police.Maybe it was stolen from her in a mugging or worse:eek:

Disregarding miscellaneous junk and trash. . .here's what I've seen: Money (largest single find was a $20 bill). Tools (one was a flathead screwdriver that could probably be used as a sword given its extreme length). Shoes, socks, gloves, cd cases, cassette tapes.

On a related note, to all those that use C02 pumps and leave the spent cannisters on the road - quit it, please.

Corn cutter ( a wooden handled knife about 2 feet long), money, tools, 4 pack of charmin, was on a tour and found a banana which I really needed at the time, glasses case, glasses, a dope smokers works bag with a home made pipe, lighter, cleaner tool.

I tend to miss stuff when riding. I pay too much attention to the cars. Driving though, we've stopped for several chain binders. The truckers lose them frequently, but we get plenty of use out of them.

Plastic money...interesting. You know, we could talk about saving trees by not using paper bills, but trees are renewable. Plastics are processed oils, which tend to be less environmentally friendly. On the other hand, the durability would mean that people could stop pushing for those useless $1 coins.

Media Creations and Chris L. What does plastic money feel like. Does it have the feel and appearance of paper money ?

It's smoother than paper money. It really feels like quite thin, laminated paper.

Now I know what you're leading to ....... and no, Chris and I will not send everyone on the forums a sample.:D

Some tools, a blinkie, a bag of tie-wraps, glas, roadkill, and a muffler from a moped


cheers :beer:

i found a camera tripod down in an embankment once. turned around and looked down the embankment and was like; "what the ?...". went back for it later in my car. found LOADS of wrenches, welding gloves (welders leave 'em on the back bumper of their trucks at jobsites) a mint pair of sunglasses that somehow were not scratched, cds, cast iron tow hooks and other stuff i've forgotten about. now that you mention it though it's been a while since i've found anything...