Poguemahone

Heck, I know it's unseemly to brag (or gloat), but I know few folks who would appreciate this more than the members of this board. Today I went into one of the thrift stores down the street from the art center I teach at. I often find cycling gear cheap (last week an unworn pair of time shoes and a pair of unworn bellwether tights, total cost 3 bucks), and the occasional decent bike as well. Today's haul:

1 Shimano Ultegra triple crankset
1 Normandy Luxe Competition front hub
1 Malliard heliomatic rear hub and cogs
1 Set Sachs-huret deraileurs, front triple and back long cage
1 set very nice 27" matrix rims
1 nice SR crankset
1 set dia compe Gran compe brakes
1 set suntour cyclone deraileurs, front and back
1 very nice campagnolo/ rigada wheelset, 700c
1 Trek 600 Reynolds 531 frame 52 cm lugged
1 Trek ? Reynolds 531 frame and fork, 52 cm lugged
Various seatposts, seats, pedals, bottoms brackets and headsets (1 is a Stronglight B Hinault), a nice blackburn rack, a couple water bottle cages and 1 water bottle, a frame pump, and some other stuff I need to catalog.

I'll probably be able to sell the two frames (not my size) and make the seventy-three bucks (plus tax) the two bikes together cost me. Everything looks to be in fine shape, but with some storage grime (the tires and brake hoods are goners), which is good, because near as I can figure, the thrift store prices bikes by how dirty they are when they come in, and these were dirty enough to cost thirty five bucks each. Which is how much my UO-10 cost me, and despite the fact I dearly love that bike, it's not in the class of these two. So over the next few days I've gotta figure out what I'm gonna sell and what I'm gonna keep. A pleasant task indeed.

pjbaz

Nice!

My thrift store has bikes from time to time, but nothing that good. I always seem to grab bikes from them to scavange a part or two...in fact, I'm building a fixie from an old lugged Fuji I bought there.

PJ

lotek 

why is it that my thrift shop only has rusted out
Murray and Huffys? (and not the good ones).
nice haul. If you want to ID the Trek frame send me
the Serial number, If I can't suss it out I can send it
over to Vintage Trek.

Marty

Poguemahone

Is the serial # the one stamped on the bottom bracket? In that case, I believe it's 010555. I don't have much experience with treks, but that's where the serial numbers on Peugeots are.

These are my third and fourth thrift store bikes in the past year. I bought the UO-10 in January, a handbuilt Panasonic DX-5000 w/full Shimano 600 (stripped parts, sold frame) over the summer, and now these two. Add in a set of 105/Weinmann wheels, and quite a bit of gear, including three pair cycling shoes, pearl izumi, cannondale, and bellwether tights, and pearl izumi, rei, and canari shorts. I think I must live in the town with the best cycling thrift stores in the world. I've also passed on at least three double-butted framesets that I saw in the last year.

Most of the bikes in the thrift are, alas, the same sort of crap you guys are seeing. Sometimes they're even priced for more than I paid for these two treks... combined. The pricing seems completely random.

Louis

Some good juicy stuff there.

The thrift shops in my area never have much cycling stuff, an occasional bike that's interesting is about all. I've bought three bikes, a set of rollers, a Blackburn trainer and a handlebar bag from thrift shops so far. And yes, the prices seem to be adjusted according to accumulated dirt.

Poguemahone

After some research, I think the bike is a 1982 model 710. Lotek, if you wanna confirm/correct, I'm listening.

I forgot about the four thule cartop bike racks I got for 25$ for the lot, BTW. What next, I wonder?

lotek 

What I come up with is a 21 inch 710, 1982, 1st run of
249 frames.
I'm checking to see if we can get a more specific date
than just 1982.
82' 710 had the following:
531 tubing throughout, Nikko bottom bracket and lugs, Shimano
dropouts.
Marty

Poguemahone

Add to the haul: a dirty, but fully functional, 1983 Raleigh Super Course. Not the greatest bike, but a decent double-butted frame. How dirty, you ask?

Ten bucks worth of dirty.

LarryJ

Great day at the thrift store! I'm a thrift store junkie myself. My philosophy is to stop in often, and to be reasonably selective. I'm working on an Atlanta thrift store route, to hit once per week. I haven't had any days like the list you've outlined, but given that I'm usually looking for clothing, sheet music, sports equipment, furniture, and other stuff as well, I never seem to have a really useless trip.

My current big thrift store decision is whether to buy a mixte frame bike of indeterminate origin for six dollars in order to salvage off some old mid-range Shimano parts. It's been sitting in the store for two weeks, and I've been staring at it three times a week, wondering if the parts will just sit in my parts heap forever if I grab it.