We had a bike come in once all rusted to hell nothing unusual till we heard some of it's back story. The guy donating it had purchased it back in the 70's or 80's and road it on the road for a season or two then he put it inside to use as a trainer. He rode it every single as a trainer from that point on. There was a dust/grossness mustache on the top of both brakes; the bottom bracket was "glued together" with a mixture of rust and dried sweat juices; just for kicks took a rag out and some simple green and cleaned the headset... from the un-cleaned portion to the cleaned portion there was about a 2mm difference. Since the brakes were nice we dusted those off and took them off then the scrapper was very happy to take it off our hands. TL;DR: bike with uber sweat caused rust is gross.
The oddest donation for the exchange of parts that I've received was bologna.
On 29 July 2013 00:42, David Eyer Davis davey@bicyclecollective.org wrote:
Ahah that's priceless James, I appreciate the stories everyone. Here's the 1st draft list, still need to ID some parts:
*The Anatomy of a Recycled Bicycle**
Jim Blackburn front rack, donated by the Bike Collective NightShop Manager
Aluminum rack adaptors home-machined in manic frustration to 'getit to fit'
Mismatched Tektro brakes with integrated bell off a bike left on aUTA bus
Nuts and bolts scavenged from broken warrantied bikes donated bySpecialized
Suntour friction shifters donated from a homeless volunteer’scollection
Fork and riser handlebar overstock from an out-of-business shop inPark City
Headset meticulously pieced together by a mechanical savantvolunteer
Ritchey front wheel donated on a Santana tandem, donated postdivorce
XTR rear wheel the sole surviving piece from aroof-rack-into-garage incident
- Spectre stem donated from the personal collection of local pro Dave
Zabriskie
- Chainrings appeared in a mysterious bucket full of beautiful unknown
bearings
- Suntour front derailleur pulled from a bulk donation of police
evidence bicycles
Trek 950 True Temper MTB frame pulled from a thrift store dumpster
Chains can be resurrected from rusty death with lubricants, but this
one’s new
Park Tool Y Wrench- bought with a grant; the tool for most jobs
Toe clips go in and out of fashion, ending up in piles at Bike
Collectives
- Cables and housing: take-offs brought down in bulk from a local bike
shop
- Seat post quick-release: the one salvageable part off of a department
store bike
- Ritchey Logic mountain triple crank abandoned in favor of a compact
double
- Water bottle cages: one from a 1970’s road bike, one from a 2012
mountain bike
- Tubes with 10 patches from Earn-A-Bike kids classes learning to fix
flats
- Brakes assembled from a cracked touring frame and a spray-painted
dirt jumper
- Vintage Shimano Deore derailleur donated by a cyclist’s husband to
clear house
- 70’s cleat-style Shimano pedals thread into the 1990’s crank with no
trouble
- Ancient Ideale leather saddle was covered in playa dust from Burning
Man
- Quick-releases came in on brand new factory wheels with misspelled
labels
- Sakae seatpost swapped out by an Do-It-Yourself Shop customer for a
longer one
Shimano hyperglide cassette salvaged from a ‘taco-ed’ (crashed) wheel
Christophe straps were the last nostalgic hold-out from a retired
touring rider
- Blackburn rear rack a take-off from a poorly executed ‘fixed-gear’
conversion
- Tires brought in a pile from Contender Bicycles when they moved
locations
- Fenders resurrected from a bent mess, stays cobbled together from
spare parts
*Partially true, partially mythologized, based on stories gathered from the Bicycle Collective Network
On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 1:28 AM, james bledsoe jamesbleds0e@yahoo.comwrote:
at the Bicycle Kitchen los angeles we get a lotta bikes. The santana was telling. As the fellow donating the complete and ready to ride tandem left the kitchen he muttered, " my current wife won't ride it". we have kept it and use it for social occasions as far as i know it hasn't started any divorces.
*From:* "veganboyjosh@gmail.com" veganboyjosh@gmail.com *To:* The Think Tank thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org *Sent:* Saturday, July 20, 2013 5:02 AM *Subject:* Re: [TheThinkTank] What are your oddest part donation stories?
This looks like a very cool way to explain what community shops do. Please keep us posted as it progresses and once it's done.
I'm also interested in the strangest donation stories.
On Friday, July 19, 2013, David Eyer Davis wrote:
Hi All, The Bicycle Collective here in Salt Lake has been given the opportunity toexhibit a piece in the Leonardo Center's upcoming show http://www.sites.si.edu/greenRevolution/ centered around resource conservation, it'll be a great PR/Exposure piece for collectives and is shaping up to be a lot of fun.
Our concept for the show is to do is build up a badass/utilitarian 80's MTB intentionally from as many different sourced parts as possible. The finished bike is meticulous and considered from a functional and aesthetic perspective but is a total mongrel. The bike will hang in the exhibit on an old great Park Tool stand we've had donated recently.
Behind the bike, we'll hang a full-size printout of the bike taken apart, all its parts exploded. Every part will be numbered, and correspond to a legend to the right of the picture. We're making up a narrative for the parts that typifies the Bike Collective experience: This fork came in on a crashed bike, this frame was from the police impound, this wheel from a local shop, derailers from a dusty box donated by an ex-racer, etc. We'd give the provence and era of the parts and anything significant info on them.
What we'd love from you are the oddest part stories: Where did the strangest thing from your shop come from? Who donated it? why? did they make it themselves?
If you could forward this around your organizations and have people send us their stories at info@bicyclecollective.org I'd appreciate it.
Here're some previews of the project: http://instagram.com/p/b4B1RruA3f/ http://instagram.com/p/b7S90oOA-u/
Thanks, David Eyer Davis Executive Director Bicycle Collective c: 801-230-6308 www.bicyclecollective.org
The mission of the Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.
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David Eyer Davis Executive Director Bicycle Collective c: 801-230-6308 www.bicyclecollective.org
The mission of the Bicycle Collective is to promote cycling as an effective and sustainable form of transportation and as a cornerstone of a cleaner, healthier, and safer society. The Collective provides refurbished bicycles and educational programs to the community, focusing on children and lower income households.
Thethinktank mailing list Thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.o...