thinktubes 

In Chicago (and most larger cities) the alleys are patrolled by scrapper trucks, who pickup anything of value. At any given time, there will be at least one bike on the backs of these trucks. Of course 99.99999999% of the time, the bikes are Walmart crap, although I do see a fair amount of Schwinns.



Most of these guys are pretty street-smart and know what the good bike brands are. They usually sell off the good bikes on the secondary market.

ftwelder

I get a lot of bikes from these guys.

sykerocker 

Virginia seems to have a somewhat more enlightened attitude. Besides the county dump, there are numerous transfer stations where the citizenry can drop off their garbage. And these guys have sections for everything, be it motor oil to batteries to used medical sharps. Of greatest importance is the "recycling tent". This is one of those $695 (usually larger) aluminum carports where anyone can put something that still has use in it for anyone else to help themselves. And you'd better have a county sticker to get into your local transfer station. Dumping and picking are both limited to county residents.

The catch (of course) is that if it's got any value, it's going to have a half life of about two minutes in the recycling tent. On Saturdays, there's usually four or five regulars who flat out spend the morning and early afternoon at the transfer station meeting the people who drop stuff off - I call them "the vultures". And a lot of the really valuable recyclables (including bicycles and computer stuff) never even hit the ground. They go from your truck directly into the next guy's truck. The best bike I ever got at the transfer station, an 80's Nishiki tourer in such good shape that I didn't even have to tear it down, just polished it up and sold it at Westminster for $250.00 went straight from the other guy's pickup into mine - and there were three other vultures on their way over to try and horn in on the deal while it was happening.

This is not to say you can't hit it right. My current commuter, a Schwinn CrissCross came from the recycle tent, after I laid it down behind a bunch of less desireable crap and then did a Bradly Wiggins-worth 2.5 mile time trial run to get home and grab the pickup to get back to get the bikes. Good thing I did. In the interim, the other three (Wal-Mart) bikes that was with it all disappeared.

ilikebikes

That. ^^^^ My bro in law lives in a little poop town in Deleware and he has to drive all his trash and such to the local dump. I'm in Philly, the whole towns a dump, so my pickin's are good.

cmbezln

For whatever reason, Chicago is full of schwinns. Whenever I'm on craigslist, its a game of sorting through mountains of schwinns

PS ...thanks for the info, guys. Just need to find out where my local dump is, googling didn't pull up anything.

randyjawa 

Try looking in the phone book.

thinktubes 

Is this a trick question?

Doohickie

There are also drop off dumps in big cities. I have trash picked up, but if I want to drop something big off, there is a dump I can go to. That's where I've found a bike or two. Very hit or miss though, and the policy is that once it is dropped at the dump you're not supposed to take stuff out. (I asked nice and they let me.)

Look on your city's web page for where you're supposed to drop off large trash items. I think the key word that finds it on my city's web page is "environmental."

Sixty Fiver

Our city dump is massive and there is a mountain of bicycles you cannot touch...

nlerner

noglider 

And the personal benefit with this plan, if you follow it, is that you can skim the best bikes that come through. The donors think the bikes are going to needy people in Africa, but they never find out that they were deceived.

randyjawa 

Funny, (not really) that noglider's take on it would be that B4H is trying to deceive anyone. The bikes going to the Dump were headed there to be discarded, not donated. We have just given the people, who are throwing bicycles away, a choice in what to do with those unwanted bikes.

Perhaps your accusation of deception is directed at me. If so, fair enough. Think what you will of me, but please make it clear, when making those negative comments, that it is with me you have an issue, and not with a great organization like Bicycles for Humanity.

In closing, my intention, with responding to this thread, was with the hope that another B4H chapter might spring up, and bring more good to the planet and the creatures who share it.

wahoonc

My take on the B4H is that the better stuff is sold off to help fund getting the rest of the stuff to it's final home. I have absolutely no issue with this, and if fact support more than a couple of charities with similar operations.

Aaron

Rootman

I think a lot of them are saved FROM the dump and are snagged at the curb before the trucks pick them up. Our city used to has a monthly "large item" day when stuff that would not fit in bins could be put out, there are people who cruise around the section during their day to pick up stuff.

rootboy 

oldlugs

None of the salvage yards here will let go of an old bike, if its not in the 'to be shredded pile' its in the 'going for sale for big money pile'. I came across an old Rollfast balloon tire bike a while back, it was in good, clean rideable shape but not mint by a long shot. The bike was a low end model, no frills, but all there. It had been pulled aside and put in the lot of items for sale. They wanted $800 for it, told me it was a rare antique. I offered $50, they weren't interested. A week later it was laying under an old pizza oven smashed flat.

The dump or landfill here is patroled, there are signs stating that once something crosses the scales its the property of the county, and anyone caught removing anything will be prosicuted to the full extent of the law. They consider anything metal as recycleable and its sorted as it comes in into huge bins. Any multiple metal items get tossed directly into a giant hammer mill shredder. I've watched some pretty nice stuff get shredded. No amount of bribary works to get anything out of there. A few years ago they even had people out front to keep you away from people in line to dump things making sure that no one got any deals outside the gate.

This and most other towns around here made it illegal to trash pic on the side of the road, that came about around the time they issued recycling bins in the late 90's. Get caught picking up a bike and they make a federal case out of it. Even if you knock first and ask. The practice of asking about what's on the trash pile ended after they deemed anything put past the curb or sidewalk city property and they prosecute for theft if your caught.

I have however gotten a few bikes from the trash truck drivers, the occasional cold six pack does wonders for getting the best stuff.
Just last month I got a His/hers Raleigh LTD/Sports combo and a running garden tractor. They're not a good judge of good or bad, so I tend to get a lot of junk, but the occasional gem makes it worth having a scrap pile out back.

Yardsales are your best bet but lately these auction shows and pawn shop shows have everyone thinking they have high dollar items for sale.

Gravity Aided

thinktubes 

Yep, the new mantra is: old equals gold

jet sanchEz

Huh, I guess I've had it good. For the past 8 years or so I have had a guy at the scrap yard putting aside bikes for me. I paid $10 to $20 per bike and whatever I didn't want ended up in the shredder. I must have collected over 300 bikes in that time but, just the other day, the owner shuttered the place. He sold the whole thing to a condo developer

Oh well, I had a good run and pretty much every single friend of mine rides a great old bike from the scrapyard

Rootman

Interesting, what did you do with all the bikes?

noglider 

randyjawa, if I were in your shoes, I might do the same as you're doing, so I should be careful not to sound completely negative about it.

I acknowledge that BFH is a good organization. Actually, I trust that it is, as I haven't investigated them, nor have I participated with them. I trust you give them a lot of free labor and expertise and this results in plenty of good. So let that balance my small criticism.

I am under the impression that you have done some publicity in Thunder Bay saying that people can donate bikes at the dump. This publicity states or implies that the donations -- all of them -- end up in the hands of needy people. Leaving out the fact that the nice bikes end up in your possession for you to use or sell is a form deception from my point of view. It might be honest to say that volunteers are paid with good will and bicycles; have you done this?

Again, I don't want you to stop doing what you're doing (not that I'd expect you to ask me), and as I said, I might do the same thing. I think it would be a bit more decorous if you revealed the details in your publicity and on your web site and your posts here.

Catnap 

i really don't think it matters. very few non-profits operate on 100% uncompensated volunteering; core employees are generally paid for their time in some form, if not outright cash. i think it's nitpicking to complain if a small percentage of the bikes or parts are used as compensation for volunteering.

bottom line, any charitable organization needs to be sustainable. if people can be motivated to support a charity like BHF in return for the chance to score a real barn find or a part they need, that's a lot more sustainable than paying them.

noglider 

Catnap, good point. In that light, it's not really stealing of Randy to take a few bikes. But it should be reported.

jet sanchEz

Most of them ended up on Craigslist after a bit of work; they funded all my bike projects. And, like I said, almost all of my friends have a bike under their butt that I gave them. My sister has 6 kids and they all have a bike from the scrapyard, as do her husband and her. My mom too and one of her friends. Over the years I have given about 20 or so to the local bike co-op.

Here is my mom's bike, I only had to put on some new tires and add a bell. I cannot believe that this was garbage to someone at one time.

randyjawa 

It is reported, both on the Bicycles for Humanity - Thunder Bay website and my own website.

Sadly, I cannot prove to you folks, or noglider, that I tell the people throwing bikes away at the Dump, that not all bikes go to Africa, or that any B4H-TB volunteer can earn a bike through the B4H-TB Earn A Bike Program. But I do report that not all bicycles donated go to Africa, to anyone that I meet, personally, while I am picking bicycles up. If they ask for details, I share the details openly and with pride.

And, for what it is worth, at the time of this writing, Bicycles for Humanity - Thunder Bay is the most successful B4H chapter on the planet. Sadly, I cannot prove that at the moment either.

Not sure what else I can do to let people know that I/we are not skimming or stealing bikes. Not sure if that disqualifies the deceiving people comment either, but it is the best I/we can do at this time.

The thing that bugs me the most is that I mentioned this to noglider quite some time ago. Guess he simply forgot or something. Perhaps I should do what I can to find that thread, with hopes of refreshing his memory.