I was riding on the New York City greenway yesterday when I happened upon a guy with a pair of bolt cutters attempting to liberate this old Sears 3-speed bike that was chained to a sign post. When I asked him what the f*ck he was doing, he answered "I'm salvaging this bike." When I responded, "no, you're stealing it," he told me that it had been there for weeks, so obviously no one wanted it, and he was going to salvage it.

The front brake is detached, so it looks like someone was riding on the greenway, had some mechanical problems, and decided (stupidly) to leave it locked to a sign post.

Luckily it was secured with a hardened kryptonite chain, and he was unsuccessful.

One of those old Sears Made-in-Austria jobs...

How are those Sears bikes? I have a chance to buy one for cheap, are they worth working on them?

I've never ridden one, but they look pretty cool.

^
Greatest Yehuda Moon comic strip ever.

-Kurt

today's was pretty good also (and pertinent) :

I'm surprised the saddle is still on it if it had really been sitting for that long.

I've seen many a stripped frame, securely locked to a fence or bike rack, in this town.

I had one come through my hands. Good, basic transportation. Not gonna win any races but kind of fun to ride.

I've got an Austrian made Ted Williams Free Spirit that I did a lot of work on...I don't regret it but I would say it really depends on what you want it to be. It's just low end with stamped drop-outs and no braze-ons. I had to buy clamps for everything to get it to work. That being said, I set it up with 105 9 speed so the drive train is on par with most of my other bikes and it does ride super smooth...just as smooth or smoother than any of my other bikes. I've posted it before, but here it is again for reference...

Before:


After:

Wow, I was just thinking about a nice cleaning. I just didn't know if they required any obscure tools or if they had any known issues. I really like the after picture.

the old is it ok to take abandoned bikes thread gets derailed by the old is a sears free spirit a good bike thread. classic.

The only thing I ran into that was odd was the headset size. I shimmed it with strips from a coke can.

So did you get it after he left?

So what's you opinion on the original topic? Is it ever Ok to take an abandoned bike? How do you make sure it is abandoned?

I would only do it if the I spoke to the owner of the property that it was on.

Example 1: Bike chained to fence at apartment complex for weeks. After talking to the owner/employees at the complex, if they give me the go ahead, I would feel comfortable freeing it.

Example 2: Bike chained up at Marta/Metra train station. I would never liberate this because it would be more or less public property. Street signs and sidewalks are the same problem. Too risky.

Wouldn't hurt to speak with the Metra department that deals with abandoned property on their premises.

-Kurt

college campuses have bikes locked up for months at a time, i wouldn't attempt to claim it as salvage. some people just don't have anywhere to store their bikes.

I guess you could ask but I doubt they would say "go ahead and take it, we've notice it hasn't been touched for weeks"? How about taping a note in a ziploc bag saying "I've noticed you haven't moved your bike for weeks, how much do you want for it?"

Someone here, can't remember who, told a story recently about how they locked their bike up in the same place every day while at work. The people at one of the near-by buildings never saw him coming or going, they just saw the same bike in the same place everyday, so one of them ended up taking it after wrongly assuming that it had been abandoned (he ended up getting it back). I wouldn't want to "liberate" a bike without knowing the whole story or having the go-ahead from someone with the authority to give the go-ahead.

Wow.

What posessed you to build that? I mean, it turned out really well, and if it rides as good as it looks... no complaints for sure... but a Free Spirit? I always figured Free Spirits were best for buying real cheap, putting minimal money into and selling to a broke college kid for a slight profit, if not stripping for parts and binning the rest.

In any case, I am really impressed with it, I guess it goes to show that many overlooked bikes out there have a lot of potential if you are willing to spend the coin.

Have the same story, except:

* It was locked to a lamp post at a trade school I was attending.
* It was one of the kids in shop class who saw it there every day, and talked their instructor into loaning them a pair of bolt cutters so they could "liberate" it.
* When I reported it stolen, the word got back to the instructor, and he drove me personally to the kid's house to recover it.

So I agree, I would also not liberate a bike unless I was able to talk to the owner. The kid in this case got the "go-ahead from someone in authority to give the go-ahead"; but he was wrong, too.

Yep, it was your story I read the other day.

Did he buy you a new lock?

Thanks!
I bought an '80s Fuji for my brother for Christmas a few years ago and while cleaning it up I put the saddle from my tri bike on it and it totally transformed the bike. Since then I had wanted to get my own older bike and update it with modern components (I knew nothing about vintage bikes at the time, other than that they were cheap).

I was updating my tri bike from 105 to Dura Ace, so I picked up the Free Spirit for $10 and moved the parts over, mainly just to see how it would turn out, if it could be done, and how it would then compare to a modern bike. It turned out pretty well and it rides better than I would have ever thought.