Originally Posted by
Bikerider007
The problem is bikes are so cheap now that most won't pay for new tires and tubes or do the work themselves. It's easier to toss and go to Wally World and pick up a brand spanking new MTB or BMX for $50-100. There are and will be tons of these in the dump.
I saw what most would think a nice MTB for $69 or $79 on special around the holidays. There is just no money or value to them once the consumables go or they start having shifting issues. Kinda sad when you think about.
This about sums it up.
The bicycle nonprofit that I volunteer at has so many junky/cheap bikes donated on a regular basis that we've run out of storage space. Once a used box store bike has compromised paint and/or corrosion issues, the cost to refurbish and make functional exceeds the value. This is especially true of bikes with suspension, as a day or two of being rained on quickly turns these boat anchors into non-functioning boat anchors.
Our local scrap yard pays out .4 cents a pound for bicycle scrap, rubber and all. We try to salvage what we can in usable parts (usually not much) and then haul a load to the scrapper which nets about $20.
As much as I disagree with Trump, I hope his new policy directed toward unbalanced trade and Chinese steel dumping in particular, brings about some change to this situation.
