Moral Dilemma
 

Came home from work this evening and sitting on my walkway, stashed inside of my retaining wall is a little used, but very weathered bright yellow all stock Gary Fisher X-caliber--I'd say about a 2000 vintage--with frozen Hays disc brakes. It's common knowledge around here that I work on my own bikes and sometimes friends and neighbors bikes, but I've never had a bike magically appear like this. I live just off HWY 1 in SoCal, so there's the possibility it was stolen from someone's garage and was carried here since it is un rideable--I've chatted with my neighbors and other locals in the last 2 hrs--no info there--the mind boggles--suggestions appreciated

Finders, keepers. :D

Keep it, clean it up, make it ridable and ride it until the owner shows up. If no one does, keep it :).

Turn it in to the police and make sure they have your contact info in case no one claims it.

+1. But before you do fix it up & get it into operating condition. Make sure the police know you want it back if no one claims it & not to sell it in one of their auctions.

If you turn it in to the police DO NOT FIX IT, you won't get it back if it's any good, and for most people 'good' means looking nice and rideable. I have had a worthless but 'pretty' and rideable Huffy stolen from right next to a nice Fuji simply because the huffy looked good, and the fuji was covered with stickers had 'custom' paint the PO applied, and mismatched tires (gumwall/blackwall).

I don't trust the cops, I had the Grand Rapids police impound a bike I was riding at the time and had owned for over 8 years, because it wasn't licensed in grand rapids, and because I couldn't produce a sales reciept (I lived in dorr, 18 miles south of GR, why should I register it in GR? and why would I keep a sales slip in my pocket for 8 years?)

call the police, let them know you found a bike and ask what the procedure should be to determine if it's stolen. Most likely they'll tell you to throw it out, Keep the officers name the date and time of the call. then fix and ride the bike. You're covered so there'll be no headaches later on.

Also, I've found the best way to secure a found bike is to go get a license for it, that way if it is stolen they'll inform you of the fact and impound the bike asking you where it came from, if it's not stolen, you have 'legal' paperwork on it.

No I don't condone picking up every bike you find sitting around, but in many cases a found bike is truly abandoned, up here you see them everywhere with a flat tire laying on the side of the road, a few weeks later you'll see them getting tossed on the trash truck.

ken.

Mystery Solved No Morals Violated
 

Turns out a good friend and neighbor dropped it off as a gift! He was amused by the neighborhood chatter it had caused and just kind of sat back and watched the pot stir until he came forward and fessed up today. Classic reason why my town is called "Mayberry by the Sea"....Thanks for all of the suggestions gang.....Now how do I work on these Gen1 Hayes brakes?---Snoid

As a recovering attorney, I'm morally disabled. So, I wouldn't know.

And your good friend got it where :D ? Maybe check it for numbers from the national Bike Registry I hear about occasionally.

My neighbor and good friend lives off a trust acct, is over 55, surfs daily, (as he has for the last 45 years) and got the bike for his place in Ixtapa--it sat around here, garaged ( SoCal) in a marine environment since 1999 and never made it to Mexico--He took it to a chain LBS who told him it wasn't worth fixing and promptly sold him a shiny, heavy Ironhorse on sale--all it needs is cleaning, cables, lube job, brake and fork service--all of the XT components are perfect as is the cool yellow Bontrager Race Disk wheelset. Its been ridden all of FOUR TIMES..Knowing my neighbor, probably ridden radically and bone breakingly..now it has sentimental value and I can never sell it. It has a good home and will get ridden. Alot. Now does anyone know anything about these damn G1 brakes?