oldlugs

The low end stuff will have to go immediately, I don't care to get jammed up storing frames and bikes that I can't sell or use. Right now two of my enclosed trailers are full and I just got done unloading my truck. Complete bikes take up a lot of storage space, if I build up a bunch of bikes, and they don't sell then I'm stuck storing them. Besides, I don't think they would bring enough to cover my time and labor. Spending hours putting together a bike that will only bring $100 tops just doesn't make sense. The wheelsets will sell, I've never had any trouble selling matched sets, they move faster than whole bikes around here. Frames don't sell, even high end bike frames don't move here.

Today I loaded up more boxes of bare rims, most are in lots of 20 and 24, all from the 70's and 80's.
There's also some smaller rims made in Italy, not sure what brand they could be for, and a few boxes of cheap replacement steel rims. It doesn't look like the guy was ever a dealer, just a used bike shop, with a hoarder mentality to some extent. I suppose at some point the low end bikes sold well. The odd thing is I grew up in this area and never remember him being there, there was never a sign, never any reason to believe he was building, fixing, or selling bikes there.
My major concern is that there's not enough money in these to make it worth the effort, the sum of the new parts is minor since most of it is all low end common parts, boxes of 1/2 rubber block pedals, wald axles, wald fenders, nuts, bolts, and brackets etc. Even on eBay you can only sell so much of that kind of stuff so fast. Larger items that don't have big value don't sell because the shipping cost adds too much to the cost of the item to make it worth the trouble. For instance, if I list a set of steel wheels online, and they're say worth only $30 locally, and its going to take $30 to ship, they're just not going to sell. In the end the seller ends up eating the cost of the shipping no matter what. With this in mind they really need to sell locally to be worth dealing with and I don't see that happening. I'm mainly hoping that I'll find enough items in the lot I want to keep or use to make the whole mess worthwhile. As I stand now, I've got about 16 hours in moving this stuff, and I've not even unloaded the second load yet. It can't stay in the trailer, and I don't want to jam up the garage with a pile of bikes either. Its going to get sorted and stripped as it comes out of the trailer, if its not perfect, its gone. I just hate to scrap a lot of good cheap bike frames but in the end they're not worth anything any other way, they may not even be worth the fuel to haul them to the junk yard with the way scrap prices have been lately. The whole trailer full of bikes isn't worth the time and fuel to haul to the junk yard, nor is it worth risking a flat tire in those places.
I'd likely just pile the junk up for a scrap guy to come take. The last time I had a pile of frames like this I ended up having to compact them into a dumpster just to get rid of them. Even the scrap guys didn't want light iron.
For right now I'm trying not to think too far ahead though. I've got the basement and one garage bay empty, plus all the benches cleared off.
What's left is the bulk lot of cheap bikes and what ever is upstairs in tubs.
I'm finding tubs full of used bearings, boxes of misc old headsets, bottom brackets, and nuts and bolts. He saved everything. There are boxes of crusty used cheap derailleurs all over the place, and I found fourteen boxes full of used hubs, all just cut out of their rims with the spoke still hanging on. I've got at least 400 lbs of Shimano 333 three speed hubs, in unknown condition, about half of that in SA hubs, and another 35 or so milk crates full of cheap steel hubs. Many are low spoke count hubs. I filled the bed of a pickup truck today with rusty, bent old fenders that he had stored upstairs. I suppose there may well be a gem in all this mess but I'm not too optimistic from what I've seen so far. Its likely just going to turn out to be a pile of nice wheels and some new parts and a couple tons of scrap. I bagged and threw away over 1500 rotten bike tires already that he had saved all over the place. Some where rotted so bad they were falling apart just handling them. My guess is that he saved every tire he ever changed.

oldlugs

Years ago a guy that I worked for had a model of a 10 speed bike on his desk that he brought back from overseas. It had real spoked wheels, a working chain, working cables, and dead on realistic tires. It was roughly 10" long and stood on its own kickstand on his desk. I believe it was a model of a Panasonic bike, identical to one he rode back then. The level of detail was astounding. If you rolled the tires over a bit you could see that every spoke was soldered individually. The wheels were spokes left and right just like the real bike. Each wheel was perfectly true, the brake calipers worked, as did the chain and cranks and it had mini toe clips on each pedal.
I'm not sure where he got it or how much he paid for it but he would get very nervous when someone handled it.

oldlugs

Here's some more pics, most of this stuff looks new or close to it.
I suppose I could fill the next 20 pages with pics from this lot, there won't be any end to it anytime soon as it'll take months to sort through all the tubs. This is just a few of the better items I grabbed and set aside.
The weather isn't going to cooperate today so not much will get done other than stuffing the last trailer full. Since this is in someone's backyard, I can't go in with a big truck, I've been doing this with enclosed car trailers and a couple of diesel pickups, plus a few of my vans from the shop. I also don't want to just show up there with a bunch of strangers since a lot of this stuff is in his house. After today all the trailers and trucks will be full, I have to empty the vans asap, I need them for work, but the big trailers can stay loaded for a few days. I cleared out two rooms upstairs at my shop for storage, so I can pack some items in there. I suppose I can stash quite a few wheels and boxes of parts in a pair of 30x23ft rooms with 10ft ceilings for now if its done right. The only problem is hauling it all up the stairs to get it there for right now. I took most of the new old stock wheelsets home to the house. Like everything else, these are extremely dusty but not rusted or corroded. They all clean up with just a quick wipe with a rag for the most part.

1 - Super Champion 27" w/Normandy hub so far this doesn't have a mate
2 - Weinmann 519 700Cx37 Kenda wheel, (no matching rear so far)
3 - Weinman Concave 700C w/Atom LF hubs Raleigh scripted skewers
4 - Schwinn S6 26x1 3/8" 1956 date on SA AW hub OLD Western Auto Nylon tires still inflated!
5 - Schwinn S5 26x1 3/8" 1961 dated Schwinn scripted 3spd hub
6 - Schwinn Scripted hub on above wheelset
7 - Mavic Open Pro front wheel 700Cx23 tire Ultegra hub, *no rear match so far)
8 - Araya 26x1.75 36h MTB rims, (mid 80's?)
9 - Araya alloy rims with Shimano 333 HF hubs, new old stock
10 - Atom LF hubs on Weinmann Concave wheelset

AustinFitz

Man, that's the kind of place I DREAM of finding! I would have a blast for years to come building up all kinds of different bikes!

Don't want to be a vulture, but if you find any big fat tanwall tires in 27x1-3/8 that aren't too dried out I would LOVE to get a few pairs off of you. I believe there is someone else on here too who is in search of the same. They just don't make fat 27" tires like they used to anymore!

I could also use a big fat pair of tanwall 650B tires as well. I just found a pair of 650B wheels in my shed the other day that I didn't even know I had!

Glennfordx4

I had almost the same thing happen to me about 10yrs ago. A customer from my Power Equipment repair shop came to my house right after I closed my shop ( I told him I would still work on his stuff from home ) and I had a lot of bikes around, he says I didn't know you were into bikes and I asked him if he saw the bikes at my repair shop ( he just didn't put 2 & 2 together), he tells me he had a bike shop that he closed almost 30yrs ago and still had everything packed in a garage and some sheds, he gave it all to me! He turned out to be a great friend after that and I helped him with anything I could, he was 92yrs old and still riding, he passed a few yrs ago and I miss him all the time. He was a mailman who liked bikes and planes building his first plane in the same shop he did bike repairs in, I worked on his Rotax 2 cycle engines for him. Here is a before & after pic of his truing stand he gave me, which I gave to my boss and it is displayed at our shop.


Glenn

PilotFishBob 

I've never called a truing stand beautiful before, but that certainly is.

oldlugs

Wow, what are the chances there's two of those old stands around here like that, this guy I'm cleaning out had this one, I took pics before we moved it. I think this one is bigger, its wide enough to do a motorcycle wheel or one of Fat bike or chopper wheels. He had this, two homemade stands, and a Park TS2 stand that doesn't look like its ever been used. The homemade stands are made from Schwinn forks with threads through the sides, the forks are welded to pipes, atop old rims. One looks like it sat outside for a long time.
The Hozan is a nice stand to use but the TS2 dishes the wheel for you automatically.

WGB 

OLDLUGS

Where are you out of?

I realize you must have too much to list on her but perhaps somebody might have something you need and they might have something you want (assuming that the deal was you not sell on Ebay but it's okay to trade???)

oldlugs

Here's another group of pics, these were on his bench area, which is buried, plus a few shots in a room in the garage with the furnace in it which we haven't figured out how to get in and out of yet. There's bikes and parts on shelves beyond where we've been able to walk, Its looking like we might have to remove the parts, then the shelves just to reach the back of the one room. There's two more of these drawer cabinets full of parts I haven't been able to reach yet too. He's told me to take the tool boxes, tools, benches, and bike stands too. So far I'm up to five trips with more than one trailer at a time. If this wasn't close to home, I'd probably just rent a few 53' box vans and get it done all in one shot but the car trailer route lets me back right up to the garage around the back of the house.
I had four guys working for the past four or five hours unloading the car trailers, so those are ready for another load either tonight or tomorrow. I'm hoping one more trip does it, I'm running out of spare room to put this stuff. The last load can stay in the trailers but I've still got all the bikes in the tin shed and most of the bikes in the main garage to load on top of the parts in the two back rooms, the attic, and what ever is left in the house upstairs. On top of his adding places to empty to the list, his wife, who can barely walk has been dragging things out of hiding places as well. I'm guessing he had parts stashed all over the house.
This isn't the first place like this I cleaned out but its by far one of the biggest lots. He's giving me the parts, but the ordeal is getting expensive both due to the fuel in the trucks, buying everyone lunch and dinner when they work, hourly pay for up to four guys at a time from a local labor service, plus pizza and beer for the handful of buddies who have been here every night to help sort and haul this stuff upstairs.

oldlugs

On a flip note, I guess I'm not getting much done at work for the last three days this week, so far all I've done is move bike parts since I got involved in this. Its looking like some will have to go in my basement at the house as well, plus the shed, garage, backyard, boat, camper, you name it. Just so I don't have to pay to store any of it I'll deal with it till I get it sorted out. I did grab the tool boxes and bring them right home, plus all the tools hanging all over the place.

2cam16

Talk about a treasure trove!

juvela

-----

The condition and order of all the materials is truly impressive. Usually with troves like this the holdings are grunge, messy, dirty and of little value/utility. This is quite something!

Take your time and enjoy...

-----

bnewberry

The scale of this is larger than I thought or can Evan really comprehend. Good luck and have fun. You will no doubt end up with some things worth some of your time invested.

PilotFishBob 

Those tools are *the* treasure. The 2nd bike I ever bought was a '77 Raleigh Super Course that I got at a garage sale and I still have. The lady selling asked me if I might want some tools with it and for a small amount extra I walked away with a lot of Park tools that quickly became indispensible. At the time I purchased them I didn't realize just how important they'd become to me, but i was taught to never turn down tools at a reasonable price. Good advice...

Chukbacca

That sign is RAD.

fatalflaw

A guy that I do automotive repair for was throwing away a sekine not sure what model but he said I could have it I would like to restore this bike and any help on what model it is would be great

vintagebicycle

I agree, the tools are the biggest find. I did a similar clean out over the summer up in NY.
The guy had four tool boxes atop a workbench along the back wall in the garage, and another in the house in the basement. I couldn't even see the tools or what was on the benches because of the clutter. Each drawer in the tool boxes had an oily rag covering the tools in each drawer.

oldlugs

The tools and tool boxes are surely a big bonus, I wasn't positive at first if they went with the lot but he said load them up after I asked several times what he planned to do with them.
So far the guy hasn't asked for a thing, he even tried to pay for the pizza the other day I ordered for the crew helping me.

All the new parts are bagged and tagged, even parts in new boxes have been removed and bagged in clear bags to keep them clean.

As I open up some of the tubs, I'm finding more new parts, but instead of being tagged and sorted in the bins, their in tubs marked 'French', 'English', 'Raleigh', 'Peugeot', 'Motobecane', etc. What I'm finding it the tubs are sorted by bike model or by country and style of threading. I opened one tub and it was all vintage French parts, all Stronglight, Mafac, Ideal, etc. Another was marked Peugeot and is all bits of chrome, brackets, forks, grips, and parts with the Peugeot name on them, another was marked Raleigh and was full of Raleigh scripted stems, cranksets, skewers, grips, and other Raleigh branded parts. The tubs may prove to be hiding some real gems. The tub marked French had two mint Stronglight 93 cranksets, several TA cranksets, and boxes of Mafac calipers, levers, as well as Stronglight French headsets and bottom brackets. It seems he stripped or parted out a lot of nice bikes in the past. The heaviest tub so far was marked British and was full of scripted chrome steel cranksets, Raleigh, Armstrong, Rudge, BSA, etc. It had to weigh 200 lbs or more, and it was up in the attic over the garage.
Considering the garage has only 2x4 trusses overhead, its amazing the place didn't fall in on him with all that weight up there.

In the garage, there were two shelves full of spokes, some boxes go back to the 30's. The bad part is many are near empty, some are empty or have only one or two spokes, others are unopened. There are a few dozen huge bundles of stainless spokes, There's also some non stainless bundles like this too. A lot of the spokes are branded Crown.
There's also a lot of parts branded 'Union', spokes, pedals, hubs, etc.
There's also hundreds of baskets, buckets, and crates full of junk used parts that will have to be scrapped.
I don't see any reason to save 15 buckets of used ball bearings, or rusty Wald headsets.

I found lots of brands I never saw before
One of the coolest so far that I've not run across is a three speed bike with the BURGERS ENR brand on the headbadge. All the writing on the frame is in what I believe is Dutch, and there's a ton of writing, as if the decals tell a story. The bike is black, has 26x1 3/8" rims, an extreme rake to the fork, more than any British bike I've seen, and very little chrome. It appears to be a mix of German, Dutch, British and Italian parts. It has caliper brakes. I did a quick online search and most of all the info on these is in Dutch, and most of the pics I found are of older rod brake bikes not at all like this one. It doesn't appear to be a bike that was imported for sale here, so it really makes me think how it got here. I put it aside but it got packed in the back of the one storage room upstairs for now. I'll do a separate post on it when I dig it out.

One thing we were dealing with is that there's no light upstairs and not all the upstairs has floor strong enough to walk on. It also took me two days to figure out why the garage lights didn't work. There were two panels, one for the shop, another for the heater room, there was a switch marked HEATER that was off next to the old oil furnace, but it not only killed the heater, it killed the power to the main breaker panel in the garage.
I had to disconnect the heater since there was no oil in tank. I then put a plain switch in a separate box for him on the side of the heater. Its been warm so we didn't need any heat but I asked if the heater worked and he said it died years ago. He said its why he started working in the basement in the winter. Thus the reason for the two sets of tools and second stash or parts.

Since he's not asked for a dime for any of this, I figured I'd fix a few things while we were there. Neither of the garage door power openers were working when we got there, it took two guys to lift the one door. The opener had two belts, both of which had been well lubed for some reason. I put a couple of new belts on both openers, and cleaned and adjusted the drives and it all works like new now. There's a few broke windows I told the guys to deal with as well. I figure its the least I can do since we're pretty much disrupting his life for most of this week. I'll also have the guys sweep up and haul any trash and old boxes away as well. I'd like to leave him with a garage he can just pull his car into when we're done. I'm hoping to be done by Sunday night even though we're supposed to get rain again all day today. Then the sorting really begins. I need to sort out the junk fast and get this all organized ASAP so I'm not storing a bunch of junk that keeps me from getting to the good parts.

vintagebicycle

The components are very late 70's, as is the headbadge. Check the components for date codes.
Then compare the frame with various model from those years. Color, lug style, fork crown, and tubing decals will help ID what it is.

That headbadge was what they used right before they started using only a decal for a headbadge.

Check out this site for some more info
https://www.mytenspeeds.com/My_TenSpe...r_Canadian.htm

fatalflaw

Im having issues trying to get a good picture but the side pull brakes would be shimano 600
Front deraileur is a.shimano 600
Shimano 600 shifters
SR crank stamped 3H
Normandy luxe hubs with a gold color label
Weinmann rims
And where the wheels mount its chrome and stamped shimano
SR handle bars
A sticker on downtube that i can barely read champion cro moly butted tubes
And the frame lugs seem pretty fancy compaired to what im use to seeing
Serial Y7 6933 color of the bike seems like a pearl color white
And as far as i know is seems original component wise

oldlugs

If I were to guess, having dealt with only a few of those in the past I'd say its most likely a 75-78 SHS 270 or 271, or posibly an SHT270. The 600 bits may have been added later but the 600 EX line did start around 1978 but I'd think it would have been more likely to have had a Titlist rear derailleur and Tourney brakes back then. The top tow models came with Dura Ace or Crane derailleurs. The cranks say SHS270 no later than 1977 but they were around from about 1975 or so. You will need to get a few date codes off other components to make a better educated guess. I believe that headbadge started in or around 1977 and ran to the early 80's. The 2nd and 3rd from the top of the line models had forged dropouts and chrome tips on both ends.
My gut feeling is that with those cranks, if they are original, its likely an SHS 270 from 1977-78 with the thought that they likely used those cranks for a few model years till they were used up. I've seen those used on bikes as new as 1980, even though they were dated 1976. For the most part though, component dates don't lag more than a year or two behind the model year of the bike.

oldlugs

Well, after another day moving parts, I'm nearly done. All that's really left is to move the benches, some shelves, and about 400 or so bikes.
We concentrated mostly on the boxes of parts hanging wheelsets, and tires today, plus a few frames we found. I did Here's another lot of pics, I snapped these with the cell phone as we were loading them, a few were taken after it started to get dark so they're not that great but it should give an idea what I'm finding in this mess.
The crates full of hubs we loaded today were mostly all 3 speed hubs, Shimano and SA, plus a crate or two with HF Shimano hubs, and several boxes of LF Atom and Maillard hubs. Some of the white boxes are marked with years and bike models, so my guess is that the bike they fit is somewhere in the lot of frames, it appears those were bikes he was in the process of working on when he quit or gave it up. The owner was walking around today sort of shocked to see the walls again in the one side of the garage. He was also shocked to see the electric working and the garage doors operating again. The one garage door was bolted shut because he had several hundred wheels hanging from the ceiling in that room. We unbolted the door after we removed the wheels and got the door working again for him. That room still has bikes in it though. All in all so far I've counted roughly 700 complete bikes, in varying condition, most are pretty low end and rough, plus about 1600 complete wheels that are pretty much in decent shape. Most turned out to be matched 3 speed pairs. The oldest bike so far has been a 56 or so Schwinn Tourist, for which I've found most all the parts except the fork but its tagged with a 'location' of the fork, I just have to make sense of his notes to figure out what or where that means. Its likely in one of the buckets we already moved. The newest bike so far has been a few late 80's moutain bikes and maybe some of the department store stuff but I really am not too concerned how old a bike is that came from Kmart of the nearest five and dime back then.

oldlugs

It didn't take much time, and it sure made the job of moving all this stuff a lot easier being able to open both doors and being able to see what we were doing. Besides, he just gave me several trailer loads of bike parts. There's probably close to a truck load of just new parts alone.
Its a major case of being in the right place at the right time, probably for me and him. I'm not sure who's happier, me or his wife. She keeps telling me its the first time she's seen the basement walls and floor in 40 years. They had a guy there today putting in a chair lift on both stairs in the house, one to the basement, another to the second floor.
At last the basement had outside access and we didn't have to haul all that stuff through the house to remove it.

I must say, I hope I don't stumble on another mess like this too soon, this is starting to feel like work.
I now have my back porch packed with parts that have to be carried down to the basement and sorted, I didn't feel like making another trip out to my shop after loading the truck the last time today. Its piled on my porch till I make some room down in the basement for it all. There were a few boxes I didn't want buried so they came back in this load with me. The rest can stay in the trailers, I'll use a buddies dump trailer for the last load of bikes and my open trailer for the benches and shelves.

Glennfordx4

I can tell your haul was 10 times more then mine was lol, the tools alone would have made me feel like I hit a gold mine. The tools I got were nothing like that, the truing stand was the best one I came away with., I still have bunches of lower end parts that have been sitting here the last 10 yrs that I picked up with a few jewels here and there.
Like you I also worked on getting his garage cleaned and working again & was still working on it when he passed. I tried to contact his family after but got no response from anyone, so I went back and picked up some of my tools and supplies but left a lot there as I didn't want to be arrested for trespassing, although his neighbors knew me and they gave me all the contact info for his family. No one even came to the house as it went up for sale with everything still inside, the land was sold off and new homes were built all around his and a lot of stuff was removed by people that were working for the builders I'm sure as I would at least stop by and check on the place, sucks!

Glenn

oldlugs

I just got back with the last of it all, all the junk bikes are in a dump trailer, stacked like firewood, the decent bikes are upstairs at work and a few came home with me. I took everything but the one narrow work bench along the wall which was only about 18" deep, it was bolted through the block wall and I figured he could use it somehow as it was more or less part of the building. We swept the floor when we were done. We left him with two working garage door openers, the third door was manual only but we unbolted the track and got the key latch working with some lube. The furnace works, but he needs to buy fuel, I dumped in about 5 gallons but just so I knew it would run.
I took all the metal shelves, the tools, tool boxes, three bike stands, (the type that hold the bike by the bottom tube and bb), plus one wall mount Park stand with damaged base. He had that bolted to the one work bench in the basement.

I took another tool box from the basement, but left him with some basic tools hanging on the wall, a set of screwdrivers, some pliers, a hammer, etc. The general hand tools weren't anything special. The one tool box I showed here was the only one with bike tools, its a 5 or 6 drawer Craftsman tool chest that sat on the garage work bench. The back wall of the garage bench was covered with bike tools, he had just about every freewheel adapter there is, plus a few I've never seen before. He even had a few custom cut hardwood blocks marked with hub models, they were used to clamp hubs in the HUGE vise on the bench so he could open internal gear hubs when they weren't in the wheel.
There are several frame repair tools, clamps, straightener bars, threading tools, fork gauges and benders, and rim straigtening tools. While I already had a good assortment of bike tools, this certainly reinforces my collection a great deal.

I still haven't opened all the tubs, at least not beyond just popping the lid to see what type of parts were inside. Those are stacked up waiting for me to go through them. Most appear to be all new parts and are brand or country of origin specific. I counted 14 large tubs, 39 smaller tubs, and over 50 small 12" square boxes full of used parts that were on shelves in the shop. He saved everything, good or bad. If it had so much as a single part left on it he kept it in the main shop. The truck tool boxes, barrels, and crates out in the back shed and in the yard had parts that were either broken, rusted, or that had been stripped of all useful bits. The milk crates and wood boxes we found were all full of used hubs cut out of wheels, many still had the ends of the spokes in them. They were sorted by brand, and spoke count but it appears he saved every hub, good or bad. I counted 7 milk crates of used SA AW hubs, 3 with Shimano 333 3 speed hubs, one with Suntour 3 speed hubs, one large wood box had all New Departure hubs from the 50's, another had only ND model C, and another small tub has only ND model A hubs and parts. There was one smaller drawer cabinet with all ND and Morrow parts in drawers. I counted another 30 or so new geared hubs, several new coaster brake hubs in each brand, and boxes of used bits he saved.
I did find several boxes of bike chain, but only of derailleur chain, I found less than 30 1/8" bike chains but I did find several packs of new skip link chain and two cases of old KMC derailleur chain.
My smaller trailer is packed to the top with beer boxes full of parts as well, these appear to be mostly saddles, stems, bars, tubes, folded up road tires, books, reflectors, (lots of reflectors), rear racks, kick stands, sprockets, pedals, etc. That load will take months to go through, but I think it can be sorted out and consolidated into smaller boxes and shelved eventually. I didn't intend to turn my garage or house into a full on bike shop but its looking that way now. My main hobby has always been wood working but right now my wood shop is overrun with bike parts.

One of the biggest surprises is how many brand new rims he had stashed upstairs, most in case quantities, in all the adult sizes. Most though are 26x1 3/8", 26" MTB and 27" road bike rims. I filled the bed of my pickup twice with just new rims.

He also had two buckets of disassembled freewheels, sorted by brand. He took them apart, cleaned the bits, then bagged them in heavy zip lock bags still apart. The majority of those are Maillard, Suntour, and Shimano in that order with a few Regina, Campy, and odd brands in there as well.

Its sort of apparent that when he wasn't working on a bike, he was most likely parting them out then cleaning and tagging the parts. He had to have been doing this for decades. He told me his favorite thing to do was build wheels, which most likely why I found so many perfect wheelsets hanging all over the place. With most being 26x1 3/8" three speed wheel sets. The majority of the bikes are this style, with old cheap road bikes running a close second. While all the new rims were mostly aluminum, nearly all the wheels are steel, and nearly all the bikes we found would have been steel wheel models. Only one or two of the road bikes were high enough models to even have alloy rims.

I never realized how many different really low end bike brands there were back then. More than 3/4 of the bikes are just junk, too far gone to salvage anything from. About 50 or so would be ridable with air in the tires and some oil. The rest need wheel work, bearings, or simply have sat so long the grease is turned to stone. The late 70's department store and Asian bikes are the worst this way, so many of them are frozen up with dried out grease. The really old bikes seem to roll and pedal fine. One Panasonic three speed is so gummed up it won't roll, pedal or shift. Yet the bike looks really clean otherwise. Even the tires held air.

He did take care of the tools though, he had Rust Blocker blocks in each drawer and most chrome tools were wrapped in oily paper towels. A few are crusty but they will clean up. The best part is that the place was dry, no mildew or dampness anywhere so things that were likely nice when he packed them away, stayed that way.