mlgdave

I just bought 800 bikes, found in an old warehouse. 1000's of parts. I was shooting a reality show last year and found these by chance. Bought them today. Will sell from my storefront in Spokane, and online of course CL and Ebay and if administrators allow it here (I see private sales only) so admin you can contact me and let me know what if anything i can do. I am hoping to be able to provide some harder to find and unusual stuff for members.



Mlgdave

retyred

Congratulations, you have a Herculean task in front of you. Do you have to relocate them?

More pictures are necessary. I'll take any bike that has the name Cinelli on it.

mlgdave

I do have 60 days to move them, here are some more pictures, I will look for Cinelli! :-)

ham

I hope you didn't pay too much, looks to be mostly junk. There's bound to be a few worthwhile things in there though.

mlgdave

I have zero concerns ;-). Thanks
Mlgdave

leicanthrope

I can't wait to see your sig file by the time you get this all sorted out.

mlgdave

Sig File?

mlgdave

leicanthrope

That was sort of a shorthand way of referring to the signature block on an email or a post. I'm envisioning something like what some posters do here, with a list of bikes and details, just on an enormous scale with your new stable.

oddjob2

Well, I hope you have figured out what is scrap or donor material so you don't have to haul it twice. Good luck with it!

3speed

You might be best off employing someone who knows what they're looking at, or finding someone local from here who knows what they're looking at, and let them take what they want from it(within reason, of course) as payment. I think you have quite a task in front of you. Also, please consider contacting some sort of non-profit, donation type of organization now. Let them know what you've got going and donate whatever you don't sell by the end of your 60 days. I don't mean to be down on your acquisition, but I think there may still be a good pile left at the end. That's a lot of bikes/parts to move in 60 days, and as someone basically mentioned, it doesn't look like a lot of it highly desirable stuff. It would be a huge shame to send usable left-overs to the landfill if it could be used by someone less fortunate. I say contact them now because if you have a big pile left, no non-profit place is going to be able to move much stuff on a days notice.

Mos6502

Looks like it's mostly department store junk... but that's just how it is with big lots like this. There's probably some really interesting stuff hiding in there too.

Let me know if you find any Columbia or Westfield bikes.

RoadTire 

Please do look into donations. This looks like it could be a windfall that would help them fix bikes and provide bikes for people who cannot afford them, and especially for young kids if there are smaller bikes. I spent 3 months last fall donating time for Free Bikes for Kidz ( FB4K ) here in the Twin Cities and even with good sponsors parts can be a premium - just in the amount of time to find the part, not necessarily the cost.

gaucho777 

Since it's hard to make out what's there in the mass of bikes, I'm curious: How many of the 800 bikes are currently functioning, including serviceable rubber? Do you plan to fix up the bikes and resell them as functioning bikes, or a lot of as if sales? Of those 800 bikes, how many do you think could honestly be sold for $100-$200 or more with less than $100 investment? By your assessment, what do you think are the 2-3 most valuable bikes in the lot?

Daveyates

That is a huge amount of work there!
To write one good description and making the photos and uploading to Ebay takes a little while let alone doing it a 1000 times!

To my eyes it looks like who ever had the bikes decided to grab any bike available. It looks like a collection of a hoarder not a bike buff.
From the various photos nothing really jumps out to my eyes.

I think you are going to need a lot of luck with this venture and i hope you find stuff that makes this worthwhile.

I really think you should of thought twice before making this purchase.

gomango

You would be wise to consider a youth mechanic program.

Perhaps you could use these to teach kids how to wrench/maintain their own bikes.

There is a shop in St. Paul that does that and they seem to be doing a great job.

Come to think of it, there's a coop on University that does incredible outreach as well.

At any rate, I see an incredible opportunity for good here.

So, do you have a space that will be readily accessible to the public lined up?

Edit: Check into Roadtire's suggestion as well. Lots of good things can come from this unusual opportunity.

RobbieTunes

If I was retired, I'm come out there and help you.
I think that may be your labor pool, retirees who know bikes and want to help.
The kids approach is really good, but takes volunteers who are committed.
Most of them used to come to my garage and work an hour, then leave without really doing much.

Your first step is triage, deciding scrap from parts from possible completes.
You'll need someone who can envision "up or down" on a bike, or available parts.

After that, repairs to repairable bikes, strip of non-repairable, organize parts, and then move them.
Given the volume and time frame, I'd set a goal of 25 bikes/day, minimum. That's 3-4 people, minimum, with tools and space, air, etc.

RoadTire 

...tools, space, air ... and lots of Liquid Wrench. Heh. Robbie is right, retirees and underemployed folks (and those of us who work from 3AM - Noon) who know bikes make a great labor pool.

qcpmsame 

Where is Randy? He is the one I think of when I hear about these big collections being donated to a worthy cause, hopefully he can give you some input. I'm with gomango on the youth mechanic idea, or a co-op set up that would work with you.

Bill

gomango

+1 on Randy.

Looks like a huge opportunity to do something worthy and sustainable in the op's community.

turky lurkey

Man that pile of bikes looks like fun!

Glennfordx4

I don't care what anybody else said I think that's a great find & I would love to get a deal like that. I bought 300 + bikes at auction ( that's what got me back into biking ) that I made out like a bandit with, total cost was $135 by the end of the day as I was selling bikes for $20-25 as I was loading. I kept about 125 of them plus a bunch for parts and donated the rest. I hope you got a good deal because it is going to be a lot of work but if you are the type like me who enjoys bikes as a whole it can also be a lot of fun. The pile of Skyway BMX wheels alone can fetch a good dollar & I see a lot of Muscle bikes & BMX frames along with a bunch of middle weight stuff that is easy to sell. Junk all of the Huffy like 10 speeds with 26" steel wheels & any newer department store kids bikes right off the bat to help lessen the load ( strip anything useful first ).

Not all of us are into high end road bikes you know, one mans junk is another mans project. And please what ever you do get a lot of good pictures as you make the move.


Glenn

bibliobob

The BMX parts/bikes look to be the most valuable.... JMC was a good brand, and I would guess that some of the old mag wheels might be valuable?

phoebeisis

LOOK FOR TREKS
if it has already been picked over ALL the TREKS will be gone
Treks are sellable bikes in everyones eyes (decent reliable bikes)
so very few Treks means those auction SOBs cherry picked the lot.
Same story on Schwinns

OP does this for a living-so he certainly knows what he is doing-as he says-he will do fine.
Besides- add some air some spray lube Most bikes come back to life-no matter how long they have been stored-cables work tires hold air

TREKS ??

3speedslow

Good luck on your new life. Let us know how things are coming and what set up you finally go with.

rootboy 

Good luck!

yeegawds..