Hey Andrew, lemme know if anything good turns up in that field!

More seriously, I really can't distinguish between the ethics of a bike found at the side of the road and a bike found in a dumpster; and one bought off Craigslist is only marginally better. There is an ethical or environmental argument to be made in favor of rescuing either one, but there is an equally strong argument to be made against. Someone owns the dumpster, after all, and all of its contents. In many places dumpsters are specifically labeled to prohibit people picking stuff out of them. On the other hand, people also pay (by the pound) to dump the contents of dumpsters, and may be happy to have some of the contents removed. I'll be perfectly happy to discuss the ethics of this over a few beers sometime, but in a practical sense it does not interest me. If there's a bike out with the trash, or in the dumpster, I'll ask someone who's in the yard anyway; if there's no one to ask, I just take it.

Osiris, congratulations on your new bike! With a little work, it should be very nice. These bikes are not valuable, and you will not make a lot of money restoring it and flipping it. But they are great bikes, built to last more or less forever, and a lot of fun. There are lots of threads here about them; check out "for the love of English Three Speeds" or something like that. If you chose to get rid of it... well, there are plenty of people who will want it. Not me. I have enough bikes. What size is the frame?