What are these "parts bins" everybody keeps talking about, and how can you build a bike from one. My parts bin is the stuff left over after I replace parts with more suitable ones. Why would I want to make another bike from these parts?

Oh wait ... are some of us buying and hoarding parts that we don't actually need at the moment?



Random photo - my commute

What, you don’t?

I think you've just described every single person in this subforum always and forever.

'He who dies with the largest vintage Campagnolo horde stash in the basement/garage/underground cave...' and such.

Boy, howdy. I stopped buying parts (mostly) about four years ago. And I have... a lot of parts.

Sometimes the leftover parts come in handy. As they say in the sports world, the most important ability is availability.

I don't hoard parts on purpose, but sometimes I do buy two (or more) of something to see which one will work out better.

Any parts that are not good enough for my parts bin go to the coop parts bin.

If it was only a bin, I wouldn't be able to almost completely build or change some bikes without being held up or waylaid and losing momentum instead of knocking it out according to plan.

I stock up on parts that fit a certain type of build for a given frame or use, vibe, etc when I find good deals, especially on hard to find specific ones that can stop a project dead in its tracks.

So the "bin" amounts to a big messy pile that occupies a big part of the garage, it works for me.

Also, cast off parts can be used as spares, temps, parts, experiments, etc, etc, donated, used for helping others and so many other things.

If you only have enough spares to put a single bike together you are slacking.

a) "bin" is a category, not a box
b) it's simple to catalogue what's in the bin if you realize the precept is: never throw anything away.

Yeah. I could open a vintage bike shop. And lose money assuredly.

Do you need anything? Pretty sure I can accommodate...

I’ve accumulated a fair amount via trade. I’ll take in a part that I don’t have an immediate need for in exchange for something someone does need immediately.

I can imagine a Stephen King novel in which every freewheel and freehub manufactured after 1995 (a date I randomly picked from my dithering mind), suddenly seized and locked tight, as if they had been filled with rapidly drying epoxy. Within minutes every bicycle in the world, except for FG, vintage freewheel equipped, and IGH bikes, all turned into fixed gear.

Can you imagine all the crashed cyclists in Portland (not Maine)?

For some unknown reason, all vintage freewheels continue to operate dependably, especially ones which had visited Freewheel Spa since 2011. Overnight the value of traditional threaded rear hubs and wheels, and vintage freewheels skyrocket to astronomical prices! Within days prices for these precious items climb to thousands of dollars! Ebay cannot keep pace with the demand!

Fortunately for C&V members, I've been stockpiling serviced and ready to ship freewheels for just such a day. Recall Joseph in the Bible advising Pharaoh to prepare Egypt for a famine in seven years. Pastor Bob has been doing the same in his freewheel bins.

All praise the preparedness of C&Vers and their parts bins! Can I get an "AMEN!"?

I have built a few bikes from spare parts. It can be fun , once you find the right frame , to build a bike . Also having a “bin” can mean upgrading a bike that came with less than top mech. Of course, none of us would ever do that!

Not everything is interchangeable. Once I have everything built, I'll save off some likely replacement parts and pare things down, but that's a few years out still.

First, turn money into bike parts or complete bikes.
Then swap some of the parts for the parts on the bikes.
Then sell the unused bike parts to create money.
Soon you will discover that you need the bike parts you recently sold and will pay a higher price to get new ones.
Having learned a valuable lesson, you will now buy more bike parts that you think you might need.
Eventually you will have more bike parts than you know what to do with (or know that you own, or where they are).
This is called…balance.

Since downsizing, my entire garage has become a "PARTS BIN"

I'm grappling with my parts bin(s). I will soon be doing a serious sort followed by a massive blow-out sale of bunches of parts cheap, as I will hopefully soon be moving into tighter quarters. I say this knowing full well that I am contemplating buying a bike I really don't need, just because it's cheap AND it was the last-year, last-gasp budget road bike Schwinn sold, the 1992 World Sport with Exage parts and a 7-speed Hyperglide hubset and a chro-moly frame with hi-ten fork ... but the guy is asking $45 and it's my size, and I bet with some bar-end shifters to replace the stem shifters it would be a pretty cool bike ... to go along with the other bikes I am already wondering how to safely store ....

I feel you. I don’t have parts bins, I have parts boxes sorted by groupset. Most of which are duplicated in some Way, shape or sort.

And mannnny wheels and frames.

Garage re-imagining about to begin...

Acknowledging I'm a bit on the anal side of keeping things organized.... My bins are stored on an inexpensive metal shelving unit seen in the following photo. If you look at the bottom, you'll see the shelving sits in a steel frame with casters on the bottom so I can move it about as needed.

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One end has a piece of pegboard to store freewheel and cassette bits.

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Now surely you do not require yet another of those trashy olde 1A thing-a-ma-jigs?!?!


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Or worse, cast them to the four winds with no compensation whatsoever. How will you ever recoup your investment?

Two decades ago, when we ordered our two large backyard sheds after filling in the swamp pool, The Deal was that all the bike stuff, including the bikes, had to fit in one shed. Absolutely no exceptions.

A couple years ago, Dear Wife is in Shed #2, and asks me: "Why are my bikes and our son's bikes in this shed, and why are there bikes I don't recognize in the garage?" I explained as best I could that although I had every intention of holding up to my side of The Deal, circumstances had evolved somewhat, and that I would endeavor to minimize the expansion into other spaces (sort of like how "spending reductions" can conveniently substitute for "balanced budget").

That was about the time the neatly-stacked bins of crochet yarn began appearing in the indoor hallways.

The detenté is holding. For now.

It's what happens when elongating reach a half cm at a time.

Seriously, the fit on all my bikes is getting longer. [MENTION=22396]Wildwood[/MENTION] would be proud ... or not embarrassed by my old 85-90mm stems, anyway.

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Young lady needs to enjoin the modern era and fit all of her machines with Wald; the quality 'merican brand for stems and bars!


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Of course I buy parts...

I might need them someday.

It happens here when a nice bike has been crashed and goes up for sale for pennies on the dollar. The parts become the stash (or bins) and they add up. I don't go looking for parts but some come up from time to time in unusual places like our habitat store, where two pairs of $30 pedals showed up for $3. Who would resist? Smiles, MH