In early November, Paul Slater of BicycleXchange in Jupiter FL posted to this list that he'd been contacted by someone about donated bikes to be picked up in Sanibel, a mostly retirement enclave 2 hours south of Tampa Bay.
After a couple of rounds of emails between me, Paul and the family of the deceased "Bike Man" of Sanibel, some friends and I rented a U-Haul this past weekend and went down to extract the bikes from a mobile home attic. In the (no more than 18")space between the ceiling and aluminum roof of a singlewide mobile, the Bike Man had stored nearly 50 disassembled bikes. Vintage Raleigh, Puch, Peugot and Panasonic, Schwinn Ross frames, hundreds of wheels and even some Mongoose Motomags. Boxes and boxes of chainrings, tubes, even a box full of shiny bright vintage chrome bells. A folding Raleigh, a 1960s tandem, road, mountain and cruiser bikes, so much for a new bike nonprofit to get started with that we're agog at the new possibilities.
So Thanks - to Paul Slater, but also to all the folks reading and posting, Thank you.
Chris Kelly St Pete, FL
Photos and more here: https://www.facebook.com/StPeteBikeCoOp