Today was a good one at my Co-op. I scored all of the parts needed to finish the Trek 1.2 . Headset parts, tubes, and cables and housing, along with some cable ferules for 4mm shift cables. Whomever claims the Trek is in for a sweet ride when it is built up. Too bad I have lost interest in building this bike, but I trust it will go to loving home. Smiles, MH

I realize these aren't treasures but I'm so happy to see a bike that's not a Next or the like that I feel compelled to post. The Peugeot mixte is older and features the square cross-section on the stem and the (broken, of course) plastic brake levers but is otherwise unremarkable, and the Trek is a nice-ish '90s 850.

Not much happening there since the pandemic but maybe it'll open up again soon. That Trek is still there and still outside but has moved to a different pile, and if I had not found a contemporary Marin I'd probably be jonesin' for it but my rigid '90s MTB bases are covered.

There was a TALL bike boom basic SR, fairly unusual...


...and a junker with L.L. Bean branded (rebadged Eclipse?) folding shopping panniers on it. I might try to get those baskets.

I went to my co-op today to drop off a headset and pick up an 8 spd cassette for the Trek 1.2. Sunrace was $11 so it won the day. I was even asked to decipher fender questions for a couple from France. It seems the folks here are averse to fenders on bikes. After a couple of years without I moved over to the fender side and haven't gone back. All of my wet weather riders have them. I stay so much drier that way. Smiles, MH

Not the co-op, this was actually at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore nearby. I've posted some of their old Schwinn 10-speeds before but this looks interesting; a folding Downtube 8H with a Sturmey 8-speed hub. I'd be tempted to get it (maybe not at their 25% off the posted $200 price) if it had the lengthy seatpost and if I knew the hub worked. Right now it has exploded index cable housing on the shifter so can't be shifted. Also, that hub is only a 28H so wouldn't be useful on my other bikes.

Next to the dumpster at the co-op recently. Unremarkable little bike except that it's the 24" version.

I have one of those I bought at a yard sale for $13. Fitted with SR randonneur bars and MicroNew brifters it became my son’s bike until he recently outgrew it. It was an awesome steed!

A couple of funions

Still have not been in the building since the start of the pandemic but I like to go by occasionally to check on the dumpster and environs. This is usually the donation pile outside the door and there's no telling how long stuff sits before it gets taken inside for processing, thrown into the dumpster or simply taken.

Saris Bones 2-bike rack. Nice little item just lying on the ground unsecured. I have the larger version that was not cheap, even at cost.


So, the dumpster. The only bike stuff were some mismatched wheels, but I have plenty of wheels and no space for more. Tired of your bike's ass hatchet saddle? Need a whole body hatchet of sorts? A bed of nails for your next nap. Only posting this because I've never seen one in real life. Back to bikes.

I just bought that same rack off FB marketplace for 25. Really useful!

That rack is still in the same spot.

Stopped by just now to check on things and the only thing of interest was this Triumph ladies' 3-speed in the drop-off pile. It was languishing amid a dozen or so big box Mongoose/Next-type pieces of lesser heritage. Nice little bike with some promise but the sad part is it will likely be in the dumpster next visit.

The dumpster at Rag and Bones was recently dumped so nothing of interest there, but I saw a couple of neat ones in the donation pile; a 23" France-Compte from the bike boom, modded and missing a wheel and crankarms but in lovely shape otherwise...


...and a Raleigh Sprite ladies' with a bum cotter, unremarkable but for the newer Shimano rear derailleur and QR 700C wheels.


Don't need either one but it might be hard to resist just on principle.

Another pass at Rag and Bones. The dumpster was full of mostly non-bike metal but this decent Trek was in the donation pile.

Not much going on today; the place is closed today and there's not much of interest in the donation pile, and even the dumpster is pretty sparse. However, it looks like they purged the excess wheel inventory. Here are a few of the interesting bits.

An Avocet front hub, probably an Ofmega-produced unit.


A decent Helicomatic rear hub.


And a second one.

I can go back for some or all of these if anyone simply must have them. I know what obsessive collectors can be like. I assume such a person would want them for wallhangers or a hub-specific collection, and less likely to use them on bikes to be ridden.

I had a pair of those Avocet / Ofmega hubs with loose ball bearings. They were smooth running - excellent cone and races that held up. Yes, Ofmega gets a halo from me. Good stuff.

Given how much Andy is asking for some Helico parts (forty quid for a lock ring!), I'd say they're worth retrieving.

I think our place is devolving. The dumpster has been gone for weeks now and there is only the donation pile to look in. Nice old tallish UO8 today, stock but for shifters and those Kool Stop pads...


...and a wheelless 820 with a Flexstem.

Stopped by my Co-Op tonight to drop off a box of parts and a rack. Talked with a young lady who had her bike stolen and was looking for a replacement. The members were showing her a bunch of mountain bikes. I pulled her aside and showed her the Georgina Terry that was hiding inn a corner behind an overpriced PX10. Priced at $175 with an Avocet ladies saddle and 600 platform pedals, with Shimano 7spd barcons. I figure she made bank of close to $600 on that bike from our Co-Op. Some days it is nice to help a shorter young lady find a better fitting bike for a great price. Smiles, MH

Our co-op is still in pathetic shape but at least they got another dumpster, this one a standard-sized one instead of a trailer-length one. No room in it for the discarded bikes and parts since it seems to be filled up with stuff from other tenants of the building, The only decent (non-Huffy/Murray/Next/POS) in the area was this ladies' Varsity...


...and this caught my eye, a treasure from the '70s. High flanges and sealed bearings, gotta be Lambert or Viscount but I could not read the hub shell. It's a straight 27" Ambrosio rim that looks like a Weinmann 210. I absolutely, positively do not need a 27" rear wheel with 120 spacing, so of course I brought it home. It's a lovely relic if anyone could use it. Bearings still as smooth as silk, and once I got a rag on that shell and better light I could read most of the VISCOUNT stamping.

I keep old 27s for the hubs if nothing else. Some are extremely nice.

Hmmm, ever since Freewheel moved to their high-falutin' downtown location, I have no idea where their dumpster/discard area is. Probably an interior location elsewhere in the building, not accessible to the public. Hadn't thought about it. They probably have almost no discard anyway, because the new location has no after-hours donation drop option. So they probably pick and choose as donors come in.

Oh well... I went in today mostly looking for some spare Altus canti bits, including half-decent pads, for various low-buck MTB/hybrid flip-builds. Came out with four sets, each with at least something missing/broken, but enough spares to fix at least two incomplete projects. Plus...
* Full set of like-new KS Salmon v-brake pads
* Full set of like-new generic v-brake pads
* Specialized branded but obviously Technomic road stem, patinated
* Pair of 105 SPD-SLs, "normal use" in the contact areas but smoove as silk axles
* Pair of like-new Shimano bar-cons, 8-speed SIS rear

The employee was suggesting a donation of $25; I gladly paid $30.

I volunteer at a high-volume big-city bike Co-op as a mechanic. Installing a set of fenders, particularly used ones, is the ultimate low-skill, high resource repair job. It can consume an hour of an experienced mechanics time, which could involve hunting around for compatible stays, clips, bolts and other attaching hardware, and making sure the damn things don't rub or get caught up in knobby tires. The other time trap is when you have to remove stripped or seized-up bolts and frame mounts, which could involve drilling, re-tapping and lots of profanities. This time could be better allocated to teaching, assessing bikes, repairing bikes, and selling bikes.

Unless you are committed to commuting in the rain, fenders add unnecessary weight, wind resistance, and they rattle around. If not installed correctly, they constitute a major safety hazard, if the end of the fender comes in contact with a knobby tire, and causes the wheel to lock up suddenly.

To all the commercial shops who sell customers fenders, and then 'refer' their clients to our Co-op for installation - thanks for that...

Here is a 70s French frame with some nice bits at the Rusty Spoke in Phoenix.


The Rusty Spoke does not currently have personnel for internet sales, so this will eventually get built up as a downtown daily rider unless somebody local wants to drop by and suggest other arrangements. Recent thread tentatively identifying the frame as a Follis here:

ID help for early 70s-ish frame

A couple of thoughts/questions for those with an interest in co-ops:

1. I recently started a thread on the Forum Suggestions and User Assistance forum on the main Bike Forums page suggesting that maybe they should have a forum for co-ops. I would welcome input on that thread.

2. When a thread gets as long as this one it becomes very cumbersome to read and post. What do C&V people think about starting a continuation thread for the same purpose?

As a separate section/forum outside of C&V, such a forum would inevitably contain a lot of non-C&V content; I, for one, would rather not slog through such content. So perhaps a sub-forum, at the same structural level as C&V Sales, would be in order. Yes, that's a bias. Perhaps a separate top-level Co-op forum could be created as well, just as we have a top-level marketplace forum as well as a C&V Sales forum.

To clarify, the proposed new forum would be for people who are involved in co-ops to talk about starting and running co-ops. I'm only mentioning it here so people can go to the Forum Suggestions post if they are interested in that sort of thing.

The proposed new forum is not intended as a venue to post about available bikes - I agree that a thread like this one belongs here and should be limited to C&V bikes.