Yes, the bags were all too good of a deal to pass up. The red & blue bags are panniers that can also be used as backpacks. Great for shopping. The Banjo Bros. bag I have wanted for years. The leather bag is a nice leather briefcase but it will see mostly carry-on bag use when I travel. Its a great match for my leather duffel. Its much too heavy to be used as a messenger bag or pannier. I ended up with all the bags for under $100, so I would be kicking myself now if I had passed on any of them.

I've got a new project... a Series 2 PDG Schwinn P-mount frame off of CL. It's in great shape cosmetically. I used to have a Series 3 PDG that I kind of regretted selling because I really liked the frame but not so much the components.


IMG950711 by orrery84, on Flickr

I also won an eBay auction for a nearly complete Shimano 105SC group, Cinelli stem/bars, and Campy Omega wheelset that will go on the above frame. Spent a bit more here but I'm sure I saved some money over hunting for each individual part.

exactly!

How about, ‘saved from the parking lot’. A funny thing happened at the Home Depot today; as I was leaving the parking lot, my bike antenna went up. There in the outer lot was this frame standing upright with no one else around. My forensic analysis of the situation is that the bike had been pilfered and stripped. However, the thief didn’t have the heart to toss the frame just anywhere. I’m going to post it on the local Craigs to see if someone claims it. But if I end up stuck with it, I know nothing about French bikes. It appears to be a rather low-end frame with 122mm rear spacing. Peugeot Record Du Monde. Unfortunately, the fork appears bent.

Are those Tektro Dual pivots?

Yes, R556's, with relatively new cables and housing. This leads me to believe that the bike had been recently ridden.

Despite the saddle. It's an odd situation for sure. Frame is stripped of the cranks, which require a special tool, but the brakes and stem/seatpost are there? I'll bring a crank puller and chain break, but no allen keys?

Maybe someone was doing a craigslist deal for the bike, met in the parking lot, and forgot it?

Looks like a project bike to me. Was in the back of a car maybe and wife/girlfriend got sick of it being there when they got something new at one of the stores that the parking lot was for. Pitched it out, or maybe just forgot it after re-arranging stuff.

Maybe they didn't meant to leave it and just forgot to put it back in? Maybe instead of a bunch of items they bought they had a flat tire and had to take the project out to get at the spare -and then forgot to put it back in?

The possibilities are endless.

My money is on a project bike that was never finished looking at those brakes. Maybe it got stolen as is and then dumped later. Maybe someone just wanted the cranks?

It was in a dump, to be honest I'd have probably done the same thing rather than risk letting it get scrapped.

I"d do it, do it , did it, Dang...

I'd just question the picture. Dumps bury or scrap, not half bury so they know what the heck they put there.

Some places have dumps , where people leave things . Other have landfills, where waste is buried . I would think recycling companies would get ahold of things like bikes before they were buried .

The photo is of the bike sitting in my friends yard, the rear wheel, (wooden) is tacoed and appears to be half burried, but is not.
Ours is a landfill, where waste is burried. You take your trash there and pay by the ton to dispose of it.
I find it funny that people would pay by the ton to throw away metal, when there are a dozen or so local people who if you telephoned them, would be at your door in five minutes to haul off any unwanted metal you might have laying around.
Either way, I would guess the "no scavanging" thing is about safety. I doubt the landfill is worried about people "stealing" the trash.

One of mine,,,,BD

With permission from Landfill Site Management, I manage to salvage about 300 bicycles a year. Of those 300, approximately 240 of them will be shipped to Africa. The rest are also recycled, in a responsible manner, creating less pollution and helping others in the process. The following picture is a single day's picking, during 2009 Free Dumping Week...

Have you been to Africa to see the other end of this venture?

No, but other members of our volunteer group have been there and made a movie about it. That movie, Where On Earth Is My Bike? is one of our fund raisers.

To that I would like to add this...

Our first shipment, about five years ago, managed to create five full time jobs in Namibia, Africa. The bicycle shops earnings helped to start an orphanage that now employs one full time adult and give food and shelter to 28 orphans. I saw that movie at the Bicycles for Humanity - Thunder Bay Pancake Breakfast two weekends ago.

I know this may be a borderline C&V bike, but I'm gonna push a ruling that it's C&V based on the fact that these things were classic when they were brand new & now they're knocking on the door of being 'vintage' too.....I just picked up a 1997 Merlin Extralight (serial # 13870). It's in excellent shape with a DA 9x2 full group, save for the pretty much brand new Ultegra/OpenPro wheelset + came with a nice Park workstand, 3 boxes of all sorts of spares, some tools, some accessories, etc. & a pretty new set of 105 wheels...I have a lot of different & different sorts of bikes (everything from the 1960 Schwinn Continental & 1971 Raleigh Professionnal to a 2007 Orbea Orca & a 2010 Kona ***** Inc with disc brakes ..and even a 2005 Merlin Agilis in there for the mix), but I've always put an early MA-built Merlin Extralight up as the holy grail. I tried to get a friend lined up to buy this one, but it all sorta worked out as this one was meant for me.

I may be in the market for a slightly longer (like 100cm) Ti stem and I'm definitely looking for a proper decal set (all caps "EXTRALIGHT" and the "M" and "E" of merlin joined) even though this one came with a complete set of decals for every Merlin made...just a circa 1999 or early 2000s version with different script. Otherwise, can't wait to put some miles on this bike!

^ Definitely a CATCH! Gorgeous Ti road bike, congrats on your grail find.
IMHO, there's no problem sharing your good fortune and thrill here, especially this thread.
Plus, as you stated, with the pace of change, these bikes are falling into this category. I see a frame with a horizontal TT, DT bosses, threaded 1" fork and headset. Conventional spindled BB.
It has reasons to be admitted.
Pretty soon, if it doesn't run on batteries, ride-by-wire...they are C&V.

Sad but very possibly true.

It is a 1995 Haro Vector V3a
(The date code on the derailleur says April, 1995)
BikePedia says it is a 1996 according to the parts though.

The componenets are pretty good:
Shimano Alivio RD
Shimano AceraX FD
Dotek Pro 4 Crank
Grip Shift
Chang Star brakes
Tektro Levers
Ritchey Vantage Expert Rims
Shimano Deore XT Hubs

I think I got a pretty good score! I've cleaned it up and I'm going to give it to my girlfriend so that way we can go hit the mountain bike trails together. I rode it to work today and it rides brilliantly.

According to the date codes it says its a late 92' possibly early 93'

I swapped 2 cheapo Walmart bikes for this plus $100

I think I got a pretty awesome deal. This is how it looked when I brought it home and before I cleaned it up. This bike is in pretty good condition overall. Very few chips in the paint. I would give it a 9/10 overall. It has what looks like an original Shimano Altus group (Shifters, Cranks, and derailleurs). The Left shifter has some issues that I'll need to work out. Other than that it is good to go.

This is a pretty tall bike and I can barely get on it to ride, but that's ok. I'll probably ride it for a little while and then sell it or trade it. It is 23" from C-T.

Edit:
Here is the component group that is on it but the date codes say November 1992.

https://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/v/M...S+C10.jpg.html

It's not that easy to find MTBs with large frames.
Even if it has a Hi-Ten frame, it might be good for an inexpensive version of an LHT for commuting and touring.

Surly Long Haul Trucker

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/long_haul_trucker

The bikes to Africa thing is nice and all, but It sure did tick me off when those guys would sweep through the flea markets in Houston a couple of times a year. Every bike on the property would scooped up before I could even get there. They took them all, so it would take a month or two for the bikes to filter back into the market. Not sure if I sound heartless or not, but it was how I supplemented my income. My job paid nearly as much as I got from flipping rebuilt bikes,,,,BD

Was donated to my CoOp yesterday-