RB-1 (vent)
 

So I work as a bike delivery guy when I'm not going to school full time. I have a pretty great life and due to the fact that I don't smoke or drink and am a total nerd, I have some extra income that I have been able to use on bikes. I ride every day, for transportation and fun. I have a mix of old and new bikes, an IRO is my work bike, I just built up a surly 1x1 for the winter and to take off road, I have a 77' schwinn superior that I need to get around to finishing up, I have a bertoni corsa mondiale that I built up using modernish parts. Point being that I have nothing to complain about when I'm deciding what bike to ride. I rarely have a moment where I feel that I don't have a bike for a kind of riding that I would like to do.

That being said, I have the N+1 disorder and am always lusting after some bike or another. Crabon fribe doesn't interest me much, but classic steel has always captured my imagination. That and some of the work that is being done by custom builders today; which is another matter entirely. Back on topic, I deliver in an area with a few college dorms. About a month and a half ago I see this beautiful bridgestone RB-1 locked up outside one of them. I don't know what year it is but the thing is beautiful. Yellow and white paint scheme, set up with bar end shifters, everything looks shiny and well taken care of, but it has a terrible locking job. This was at 10 pm and it was locked up, I'm assuming overnight, with only a single u-lock securing the top tube to a pole. I make the delivery and then drool over the bike for a couple minutes, lamenting the fact that it doesn't belong to me.

This bike sticks with me, but I tell myself that in all likelihood the owner uses the bike as transportation and at least it's getting ridden. Well, I've delivered to the dorm several times since then and the bike has never moved. It actually slid down the pole so that it is on its side, and someone else locked their magna on top of it. We've had snow on the ground here in Minnesota for weeks now, and during that time the snow has continued to accumulate on the bike, leading me to believe that this bike does not get ridden, and will be left in the snow all winter.

I am not a thief, I have never and will never steal a bike, but let me say that this bike is tempting me like a damn demon. I'm assuming that you guys have seen similar stuff to this in the past. I'd like to hear similar stories of head banging frustration and how you dealt with it. I think that one of the things that frustrated me so much was coming back to the store and *****ing to my co-workers about it and them not getting it at all. In the end, I know it's just a bike, but it's one that is getting more rare every year that has a pretty cool history behind it.

I too have lusted for a yellow RB-1. One popped up for $120 in my size a few weeks ago. The seller told me I had first chance at it. A few hours later he wrote me with this lame story about how he doesn't know that much about bikes and its actually an mb-5. Whatever. He deleted the post but i know what i saw without any shadow of a doubt. He probably just realized what it was really worth and pulled it.

That's my rant.

You should totally tape a note to it. Tell them you would love to buy it. If its really being that neglected they probably don't know its worth or care that much about it.

Good luck!

Dang... I hooked my friend up with an RB1 frame the other night... it's a truly beautiful frame and we will be building him a road bike over the winter.

I would leave a note and hope the owner is in a selling mood... it is a very nice bike.

Know what you mean ... a block from work I pass a Bianchi Pista that has been locked to the same street sign for months. I assume it's abandoned. Every time I see it, I think "that is just wrong!"

But an RB-1, and the indignity of lying on its side, that is far worse.

avatar stealer ;P

I had somehing like that a few winters back. A beautiful well preserved old Raleigh Sports with a Brooks leather saddle and matching saddlebag, and rod brakes was locked up outside a store for weeks that turned to months. I assumed it belonged to someone who lived in a nearby apartment. As it turned to winter christmas tree lights appeared on the bike. I asked about it in the art store it was parked outside. No one knew who it belonged to, and they had been asked before. Snow began to pile up on it. Friends and I at the bike coop debated the ethics of liberating it before it was ruined, but we did nothing. In February a huge snowstore dumped several feet of snow. It took a week for the city to clean up from it, but when they did, the bike was gone. I'm pretty sure the city cut it off the pole so they could plow the sidewalk, and it almost certainly wound up in a dumpster somewhere. This was one of the best looking Rod Braked Raleigh Sports I've ever seen, and now it's just not in the world anymore. Now I really really don't believe in stealing bikes, but in hindsight I really wish someone had.

Where do y'all live? Where i'm from, if these bikes weren't stolen, they'd have been stripped of wheels, saddles, and possibly more after a few days.

then again, i had this old schwinn world sport i wanted to "donate" before we had a local co-op. I parked it, no lock, outside the coffee shop where i'd been working. It was a total beater, but also totally rideable/functional. I had a note on it, but the note blew away/was removed/something pretty much right away, and i never bothered to replace it(the note). It sat for over a week before this guy i know came in and asked the barista what was up with the bike. The girl told him "it's rob's; he wants someone to steal it."

Turned out, i knew the guy from both the coffee shop and the bike shop i was working at (had three jobs in those days). He came into the bike shop to get some stuff for it, asked me why i didn't just offer it to him. I told him the truth; i didn't think he'd be interested in it (he had a decent-quality FG conversion). I've lost touch with him a while ago, but he was happy to have a 2x6 bike for awhile...

Still, it's a shame to hear about bikes being locked up and squandered, especially nice ones, but all bikes should be ridden or preserved. I'd personally never steal a bike, but i don't look down on ppl who "liberate" bikes in situations like those described above...

-rob

My Merckx was abandoned at Temple University and left outside for months. Luckily for it, and me, the grounds manager there was a cycling enthusiast. It stayed with the police for 3 months as abandoned before the grounds manager owned it.

I don't see how this ends up yours unless you cut a deal with whoever manages abandoned property with the school. I would leave a card under the saddle or taped to the bike offering to buy it. A lot of kids are getting dad's old bike in the garage and they just don't know. Whoever had the Merckx used Shimano cables in Campy Ergo levers...which is why it was probably abandoned.

If I was hot for that bike, I'd knock on a few doors to see if I could track down the owner.

I did something similar a few decades ago when I saw a nice old Honda CL350 getting buried in snow outside the military housing I lived in. When I found the owner, he gave signed over the title and told me "good luck!" I pulled my free motorcycle out of the snow and got it running in an afternoon.

Its gonna be a rusty one if you dont get it soon. Put in the work to find the owner, you will not be disappointed if you can get it.

Agree. I wouldn't consider stealing it but I would definitely try to track down the owner.

Earlier this year there was a red Palo Alto locked to a tree on my street with a cable lock. I was terrified somebody would steal it and left a note that I was worried it would be stolen and was interested in purchasing it. I live in Boston and unfortunately this is one of those places mentioned above that a bike either gets stolen or stripped if left poorly locked. Seller responded he had no interest in selling it because it was his only form of transportation. I offered another bike plus cash but he didn't bite. I still think about that bike...

Actually, it was an MB-5. He took a pic off the internet of an RB1 because his MB5 looked similar..? He told me that someone supposedly came and was very unhappy about it.

I would love an RB1, but am not willing to pay what people ask for it.

What I would do

1. Put a note on the bike offering to take it off the person's hands.

2. Talk to campus security and/or the maintenance department. They for sure have policies about abandoned bikes that will probably work out in your favour if the bike truly is abandoned.

Knock on a few doors, place a note on it! What could it hurt? You just might end up with a very nice bike.

+1 make that by morning!

+1 on the note. Maybe put it in a ziploc type of bag, to protect the paper from the rain/snow. If it is at a college, several cases of beer might be a good offer too.

If you don't think the owner will be by the bike to see the note, try taping notes on the entrance to the nearby building(dorm?). They will most likely be torn down, so expect to replace them occasionally.

There are abandoned looking bikes all over Boston. It pains me to see even the cheap Trek's or Mongoose. I've left note on some of the better
ones usually without responses, but I did get one partial frame by leaving a note.

I posted a picture of the abandoned bikes at the play ground near me on here a year or so ago. Soon after I took the pictures they were all
gone. Like someone above said, who knows if they ended up in a dumpster or if they went to Bikes Not Bombs.

So I have an update with a happy ending. I watched the bike sit in the snow for several months getting more and more frustrated. I posted flyers tryin to contact the owner and even asked random people at the dorm if they knew the owner with no luck. I mentally gave up on the bike until about two weeks ago when I decided to pursue the matter further. I contacted the security office and was told that they would soon be cutting all of the bikes off the racks to send to the police auction. I talked to the head of the department and explained who I was and why I was so frustrated about this bike. Given the circumstance he gave me permission to cut the lock and take the bike. End result is a beautiful, slightly worse for the wear, 1992 bridgestone RB-1 sitting in my garage right now. Only thing is that it doesn't come close to fitting me. It's around a 51, I have yet to measure it, and I'm 6'3 so I'm not really sure what to do about it. I'll try to take some pics to post up this weekend when I have more time.

At this point, pics are a requirement. :)

Nice job, hopefully you can swap with someone if you're really interested.

Around here, if the campus cops cut down a bike, it goes to auction. I've never seen any deals at those sales. Sort of sucks, but what do you do.

There's a Raliegh Twenty that's been locked up forever nearby, clearly abandoned, but the landlord had no interest in helping me liberate it. I sigh everytime I walk by it.

Sunrise does trade-ins :).

You should probably give it to someone who could really use it, and who would fit on it.