66Satellite

Looking for (another) vintage Merckx lately has really made me wonder what is wrong with people and why they treat their stuff like garbage.

I have a custom bike built for me in the late 80s. Raced it, rode it off road a ton, probably has 50,000or 60,000+ miles on it, many of the components worn out and replaced over the years. But the frame and paint still looks new.

My Ibis Mojo is 20 years old, raced it, crashed it a few times. Looks new.

Yes, I keep my bikes inside. Warm and safe from critters and kids.

Most of the stuff I see on eBay and CL is covered with paint chips, scratches, dents and rust. Many of these bikes weren't obviously ridden a whole lot--can tell by what often appears to be original tires, etc. So what do people do, toss them in their garage and then go knock them over once per week for good measure?

non-fixie 

That sounds about right. Maybe every two weeks.

T Stew

Its no different with cars, or houses. People spend a lot of money and trash em. After the new and shiny has worn off after a season or two, then its just an old beater to em.

wrk101

+100 Finding low mileage vintage bikes is the norm. Condition is all about how the bike was stored, rather than how hard it was ridden. I picked up a tandem once that someone left outside, padlocked to a fence for at least five years. Needless to say, it was really beat.

I told the seller, one more season and you should just put it out to the curb.

66Satellite

This is true. Just picked up my 2007 Volvo from the shop where it had an oil change. The mechanic said, "it looks new." I said hell yes it does. I wash it every three months whether it needs it or not and do basic maintenance. Just doesn't seem that hard...

Henry III

The standard population view bikes as toys and just old ten speeds.

RobbieTunes

+1 to Thrifty Bill.

Consider this. Perhaps 95% of the bikes sold in, say, the last 30 years - were not/have not been/are not being/will not be - ridden.
Various reasons: fit. fat. mechanical issue. time constraints. impulse buy. gift. disposable income > common sense.
So, they have to occupy space somewhere. Which comes back to - were not/have not been/are not being/will not be - ridden.
They are simply stored. That can mean in the bedroom, garage, basement, porch, crawlspace, tool shed, outside, but stored.
Things in storage are positioned according, for the most part to one thing: available space, rarely with "future use" in mind.
Available space is defined as what it takes to be out of the way, period, nowhere close to a priority like "safe storage for future use."
This space is not designed for the care, custody, and control of the bike, it's for "stuff," and stuff stored with other stuff gets knocked around.
Be it the elements, or the other crap banging up against it, or unsecure storage allowing it to move, the long-term stored bike is in peril.

The cycling kingdom is not immune to this. Let's say "we" own the other 5% of the bike sold in the last 30 years.
"We" almost always own more than one bike, in fact, I'd venture most active cyclists of any ilk own 3 to 8 bikes.
As "we" only ride one at a time, this means that probably 80% of what we own, in bike loot, is sitting. Stored for "future use."

So, figure 95% of the bikes sold are neglected, because they - were not/have not been/are not being/will not be - ridden.
Figure another 4% of the bikes sold are not neglected, but they are just stored, "for future use." Really, kind of stretch, at that.
Maybe 1% of the bikes sold in the last 30 years are being ridden, maintained with any regularity. And that's probably high.

Tons upon tons, literally, of unused bikes are out there, subject to neglect, taking up space.
Some can be salvaged, but to 95% of the people who bought them, they are excess stuff.
As such, they're treated about the same as that lawn mower with the bad wheel.
"Maybe someday, I'll get around to it," but probably not.

The answer, then, to OP's question is: Nothing. they move them around, and that's about it.

700

[h=1]Did you know that over 100,000,000 bikes are produced each year?[/h]

non-fixie 

Living in a country with 17,000,000 inhabitants and 20,000,00 bicycles that does not surprise me at all.

RobbieTunes

And I think they're all at Walmart with the forks installed backwards.

gugie 

Phew, I thought the question was a comment on why so many of us have so many bikes...

and I was struggling to come up with an answer that explained the quantity I have...

Lascauxcaveman 

LOL. Almost too true to be funny, though.

ciderguy

My bikes tend to have chips & scratches on the paint. However, they are ridden hard. Most of the damage seems to occur from locking them up, as opposed to something that happens while I'm riding them.

crank_addict

I no longer worry about this stuff. Life's short. Live it.

The Golden Boy 

I remember my High Sierra was in really, really nice shape when I got it. Over the course of 20 years in my parents' garage it got bounced around from wall to wall, mooshed up behind things... then after I re-took possession of it I lent it to my sister in law who left it on the porch over winter- encased in ice- like Oetzi the iceman, or one of the bodies of the WWI soldiers that keep defrosting in the alps.

ThermionicScott 

I dunno. Maybe this is me getting defensive, but sometimes things happen to your bikes even when you care about them. My top tube decals get scratched up when parking in bike racks. My Brooks saddles all have scrapes along the sides from being knocked over by careless people or blown over in the wind while parked on group rides. Corroded paint and rusty fasteners happen when you ride a lot on hot days. And crashing a bike without leaving a mark on it takes a level of skill or self-sacrifice that I must not have.

RobbieTunes

Me, too, at first.

Don't struggle. Embrace the disease.

RobbieTunes

Surely. I took 5 bikes to Bartali, and none was scratched.
I took 3 to the last Dare, and all were scratched, one of them on the decal.
Experience scars, I guess.

The only damage I've had from riding (apart from a serious total loss years and years ago) has been scraped bar tape, RD's, and pedals.
I did turn a stem/bar 90-sideways once when I high-sided a Y-Foil, but the carbon shell was untouched. Broke my arm, didn't know it.
Rode 10 miles, changed jerseys, plastered the rash with wet wipes, and had the bike checked out. 20 miles later, decided to go home.
If it hadn't belonged to a bike shop, perhaps I'd have let it fly. Then again, if there'd been oncoming traffic, we wouldn't be reading this.

TiHabanero

Titanium is the answer. Not bead blasted, as scuffs cannot be fixed. Brushed finish and all is bliss!

zonatandem

Our tandems are not 'garage queens, although we keep them in our garage.

jimmuller 

I have tried to take care of myself but I've still picked up some scratches through the years. So I can imagine what a bike must feel like.

Phloom

My bicycles are treated a lot better than my old car, a 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier Coupe. It sits outside, washed infrequently but I do change the oil regularly. My bikes are inside, spotlessly clean at all time and obsessively maintained. Bicycles are really easy to maintain and it has become my non-technical hobby. Can't say I have always been this way. My old Kawahara mountain bike spent almost 10 years chained to the fence. Last year, I stripped it and hauled the carcass down the the scrapyard. I guess I am doing penance for my neglect.