i got several 'free' bikes today
two of which i cringe at when i think about working my fingers to the bone only to sell them for short money, perhaps i will find that taking them apart for parts is a better 'death' for them.

when do you turn your back on a bike?

I turn my back on them after I've stripped them of usable parts.

I usually only do this if there's something structurally wrong with the frame.

Economics could induce this also. If the frame is usable, perhaps you could offer it here, or on CL for cheap.

I once put together parts back on a frame only to find I couldn't get the
rear wheel to spin in the center of the rear chain stays. A few minutes of
looking and I got ready to remove all the parts and it was out in the next
trash collection. A Columbia that had been put aside for a very good reason.
Wish it had become apparent to me before I put all the parts on it

I think I am up to three frames in the garbage and a few donations that look
beyond the effort I wanted to put in them. As I said above, sometimes bikes
make it to the trash (where I have picked up a few good frames) for good
reason!

Some bikes are just more trouble to overhaul than they're worth. I agree with USAZorro - a compromised frame is an automatic death sentence in my little shop of horrors.

I'll usually strip rigid frame mtbs if they are in too much disrepair, as they will never sell for enough to cover the aggravation in putting them right.

In general - If I can't make a clean, safe, presentable, and reasonably profitable bike out of a hulk I drag home, it gets stripped for parts

or what about donating it to the local thrift store and taking the tax right off from it?

Every now and then I'll throw a pile of frames and parts on CL for free... Sometimes I just re-list the bike as-is for real cheap so it becomes someone elses problem.

Damaged frames/forks and toasted wheels I recycle at the local scrap yard. I also put in a few complete bikes that are too far gone and not worth working on. That is of course after I strip off anything that might be useful to me. The bike shop I work at just throws everything away so I grab wheels just for hubs and hub parts and just recycle the spokes and rims.

+1 Donate the carcass after stripping all parts.

If they won't take it, I put it in the metal recycle bin.

I save it for the El Cheapo Build-Off contest!

Neal

Now I realize the price of scrap steel varies by area, but those that have taken frames to sell at scrap yards, how much do you get? I have a scrap yard near my work, and an old xmart rigid mountain frame I am thinking of stripping of parts.

steel frame $2 to $4 scrap.

If the frame is crap, I strip it and give it to redxj

Me too!

My too-far-gone bikes were plundered for parts and pieces of frame tubing to be used in a friend's custom recumbent trike project. Two head tubes, two handlebars, brakes, derailleurs, shifters, probably more I've forgotten.

If you want to get creative, even the worst bad bike isn't beyond the pall.

what I do with my bad bikes is I scold them and put them in the corner....

Bad bike... very very bad bike... you are in trouble now..... wait till your father gets home

Sometimes, I send them away to be reformed. Someone always has a better idea....and can use them. I don't mind the shipping for a frame, if it helps someone else turn a wheel.

robbie there for a minute I thought you meant as in reforming the bad frame....like reform school... oh gosh I am giddy tonight... hehehehe

In my case its' the value of the frame's brand name. A beat Trek 800 with a bent rim, broken derailer, gets repaired because a Trek is an easy bike to flip. A Magna dual suspension, that's in perfect working order except the cranks worked their way loose and rounded the square taper, gets to become a parts bike.
I hate to toss LBS brand name frames. I've only tossed one Schwinn that was badly rusted, a Takara and a Fuji that had bent frames. But I've tossed several department store bikes, but not before they contributed to the parts bin.

i keep meaning to get out to the barn and photograph the new acquisitions
the Iverson wil get stripped and dumped, i took one look at the dropouts and can't wait to burn it.
the Schwinn world sport i will ignore for now, the suntour parts look okay but it's been out in the elements for a few years. WHY do people always say it's only been out ONE year when you can clearly see it's been out 5 or 6?

the only one i care about is the 89 Nishiki, it's in better shape and has a 'name'
so a once over lightly and a new seat should make it salable.

There are very few truly bad bicycles. The problem is bad people who abuse and do not take care of their bicycles.

I avoid 'bad bikes' by not buying them. I only buy name brand bikes that have inherent value.

I DO NOT buy any bike with rust or any bike that had more than a few parts changed.

i hate to ever turn my bike on a bicycle. hell, i feel bad enough for the 12 bikes i have to leave at my other house 50 miles away and only get visitation rights every other weekend. at least they are inside and safe, and thats the kind of bicycle empathy i share. nothing more i like to do than build up nothing, turning it into some thing for someone, somewhere.

unfortunatly, when that old bike is destined to go to the big LBS in the sky, i will strip off all useable parts from the bike and clean and rebuild them to use on another bike someday, then haul off the frame to scrap salvagers who can do whatever with it. like a hunter, all its useable parts will be feasted on, and its essence remembered. and iverson or a raleigh.

so poetically said.... aaaahhhhh my heart is a flutter.....

no it is great to hear what to do with the dead frames... but you guys with the x-mart bikes... if the frames are junk then aren't the components junk too?

More often then not, the frames are not junk - the components, however, make the package worthy of the title. Hence the following frankenbikes:









-Kurt