today's trash find

CI Itoh

https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/...de92e01a_b.jpg

HOLY COW!! Great finds!

I'm not sure if this ones old but it looked pretty neat, if I remove the paint theres chrome under there, it would be all shiney!






Also, some snowblower I found in the garbage, it's got a broken weld lol

I didn't exactly save this, more like I found it before the next guy, at the thrift store bike lot. I had to pay $5 for it.



Recently my 15 year old daughter has "adopted" my wife's road bike, and has been riding it for training and in a few triathlons. So I thought I'd look for another road bike of about the same size to have a road bike available for both of the ladies in my life. I thought I'd go check out a thrift store bike yard, because my partner Steve found a great mountain bike out there. I went to the bike enclosure of the thrift store, and ran into Steve and his wife Jody, who were scouting for a kids bike. We prowled around together looking for gems, and seeing mostly junk.

Steve and Jody left with a nice kids bike, and I saw an aero brake lever on a handlebar, under a pile of nasty bikes. I unraveled the stack of nasty bikes, and got more and more excited as I freed the bike at the bottom of the pile. I saw a Campagnolo brake, then finally got the entire bike free to look it over.

It was a Fuji, with double butted steel tubing, and about the right frame size for my wife. It had Campy hubs, cranks, brakes, headset, shifters, bottom bracket and skewers, and Cinelli stem and bars. The saddle was suede, and it had Shimano pedals. Since one tire was gone, and it was pretty dirty and greasy, the lady at the gate of the bike yard put a price of $5.00 on it. I tried not to jump for joy, paid my $5, and took the bike home to clean it up. It was like Christmas in July, and with new tires and a little soap, the old bike looks pretty decent. This bike was the JACKPOT! Judging from ebay prices, any of the Campy parts would go for $75 to $125, and the whole bike might run $500+ on ebay.

Campag Super Record with Modolo (?) brake levers. Score

-Kurt

Wow, score is an understatement if you know your Fuji's:

https://www.classicfuji.com/DesignSer...ars_Thumbs.htm

Scott

That is exactly what it is, a Fuji Design Series.

Moto, if you like Fuji's, it's pretty much a part of the Holy Grail. Unknown and understated. Good for you

Scott

okay, look,i'll give you 10 for it. that's double what you paid!! have you seen the stock market recently?! you can't do better than that!

seriously, tomorrow i'm heading to the thrifts...

Holy cow that's a beautiful bike! I have to start hanging around thrift shops! :-)

My addiction for old bikes (and saving them from the dump) started with this one

This is the "after" photo, at that stage I didn't think to do a before shot. The rest are all "before":

Unknown frame with some DuraAce and other reasonable componentry


Nother unknown frame but is has some nice thin lugs and is all chrome underneath and I like the look of all chrome bikes!


My "Italian Stallion" - A Battaglin with columbus frame and Campag Victory components


Another unknown frame but nice and light, nice lugs and Suntour Superbe Pro Croupset


My Rapallo roughest cosmetically but one day it will look great!


Koga Miyata Pro


Not a Colnago but nice anyway.


And a Centurion Master?


Oh dear, that doesnt include the frames and a couple I haven't got pictures of, I think I have an addiction problem!!

Opps, and I forgot this swag of Australian Repcos

No that is my ride sticker, I got the bike ready (just) in time for a 30km fun ride.

And yes I'm sure there are a lot of stories!

This is why I am slow to post pictures. Campy this and Fuji that? My goodness! Anyway, last week, I did find three bikes in the trash at the curb in front of one house on my street just a couple blocks from my house. It's been years since I found a bike in anyone's trash, and to find three in one spot -- and not only that, but to beat anyone else to them, especially the scrapper/junker truckdrivers that prowl my neighborhood. In fact, an older, dumpy woman came along as I was loading the third bike into my van, and as she saw what I was doing, she said, "Oh, you're taking the bikes?" Yes, ma'am, I am, thought I to myself, and I did not offer to share. She said something else before leaving, but I did not hear her.

And I had given up on the idea of ever being just in time to catch a bike in anyone's trash in my neighborhood, so I wasn't at all cruising the streets anymore, just heading home after work and errands.

The bikes themselves are not overly special, but they are intact and mostly undamaged. A Sears Free Spirit with indexed shifters; a Columbia, and a Schwinn World Sport from Taiwan. I'll have photos and more info later this weekend.

Well it should be good for us people that rescue bikes as the price of scrap is down so a lot of the fly by night scrap guys are finding other ways to make money.Keep your eyes open I think there will be more good stuff for us to rescue then in the past 6 months.

My first pre-dumpster rescue. 1973 Schwinn Varsity in Campus Green.

Today I stopped at my LBS and he had this bike sitting out back of his shop. He knows I like old bikes and told me to take it or it would be heading for the dumpster. I will know more when I can take a good close look at it, but except for disposables, appears to be pretty complete and in good shape. It is destined for CL.

Wow cb400bill great score,thank goodness LBS dont realize they are throwing money away ? (luckily for US eh ?lol)

531 frame and Superbe Pro... dayum mate !!

WOW! With such nice looking chrome and apparently only needing some rubber, free from a LBS.

Found this is an downtown dumpster last Thursday... I will see if has been reported stolen.

All it was missing was it's front wheel and there is virtually no drive train wear...the bike is in fabulous shape all around and won't need too much tlc to make it a stunner.

Whoa.

I'm not sure what would be worse, that someone was stupid enough to lock it by just the front wheel (if it turns out to be stolen and that would explain the missing wheel) or criminally idiotic enough to just toss that into a dumpster because "it's too old".

That's just plain fabulous. Jeez

Well, nothing fabulous in my post here, just older bicycles that I mentioned earlier in this thread. The first three were on the curb with the trash in front of a house on my street. The fourth, the brown Sears 3-speed, I found on the side of Michigan Avenue near the Southfield Freeway exit ramp, just dumped in the tall weeds.

Maybe I should have let it die, but I couldn't walk past. Huffy 'Stalker' 10 speed. I slapped some grease on the bearings, trued up the wheels a bit and give or take some balky (crappy/sticky) cheap alloy brake calipers it is ready to roll on down the highway.(*)



* Please note: I have crappy steel wheels and pathetic brake calipers and levers. Please 'Roll on down the highway' at a slow and leisurely pace. Please cut that pace by 50-80% if conditions are wet. Finally, remember that even with these measures in mind, I am still faster then walking.