# Roadside finds in 2017



## wisdom (5 Jan 2018)

Just for a bit of amusement what have been your roadside finds in 2017.
Mine have been.

Ass saver.
2 x twist drills (different times).
15"good quality adjustable spanner.


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## Drago (5 Jan 2018)

Topeak Rear flinger guard.

A £20 note.

Some doggers.


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## Bollo (5 Jan 2018)

Inner peace.


And some porn mags.


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## Hugh Manatee (5 Jan 2018)

Bollo said:


> Inner peace.
> 
> 
> And some porn mags.



In that order or did you find the porn first?


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## burntoutbanger (5 Jan 2018)

A small plastic Troll Doll. Had to turn around and go back and pick it up, my five year old daughter loves it.


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (5 Jan 2018)

I once found a pair of knickers, a VS thong for anyone interested (no I didn't keep them)


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## Tim Hall (5 Jan 2018)

A 7mm allen key.
A screwdriver with a damaged tip.
14mm spanner.


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## classic33 (5 Jan 2018)

Dead parrot.


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## LeetleGreyCells (5 Jan 2018)

classic33 said:


> Dead parrot.



Was it a Norwegian Blue?


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## biggs682 (6 Jan 2018)

A 14mm impact socket


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## Welsh wheels (6 Jan 2018)

A drain
A manhole
Double yellow lines
Some broken glass


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## snorri (6 Jan 2018)

A used paint brush, still serviceable!


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (6 Jan 2018)

biggs682 said:


> A 14mm impact socket


Can I have that back?


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## Saluki (6 Jan 2018)

A bunch of McDonald’s coffee cups (used) in a stack. Clearly chucked out onto the verge. All had coffee bean tokens on so I put the tokens on the token card, put the cups in a nearby (20 yards away) bin and got a free coffee at McDees.


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## Moodyman (6 Jan 2018)

£10, £5 x 2, needle nose pliers, steel washers, isolated cable ties in various locations, Rixen Kaul anti-sway bracket for panniers, regular pliers, a handful of new oversized industrial screws, 10mm spanner, several bungee cords.

These were found in recent years. It pays to look where you're going.


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## GuyBoden (6 Jan 2018)

New, very large roll of black Duct cloth tape 50mmx50m, wrapped it onto my frame and took it home, excellent stuff, many thanks to the careless previous owner..........


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## Sunny Portrush (6 Jan 2018)

Bollo said:


> Inner peace.
> 
> 
> *And some porn mags*.



That is old school lol


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## mr_cellophane (6 Jan 2018)

classic33 said:


> Dead parrot.


Are you sure it wasn't just sleeping ?

I found a £1 coin in the middle of a junction in the middle of nowhere.


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## LeetleGreyCells (6 Jan 2018)

classic33 said:


> Dead parrot.





RealLeeHimself said:


> Was it a Norwegian Blue?





mr_cellophane said:


> Are you sure it wasn't just sleeping?



Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!


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## classic33 (6 Jan 2018)

RealLeeHimself said:


> Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!


Aye, it's the real monty.


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## Supersuperleeds (6 Jan 2018)

I found a Giant road bike and a dazed old bloke next to a gate. Bike was too small for me.


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## GuyBoden (6 Jan 2018)

I've found a few flooded roads too..................


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## FishFright (6 Jan 2018)

A 17mm ratchet spanner and a small bag of weed


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## Milkfloat (6 Jan 2018)

Supersuperleeds said:


> I found a Giant road bike and a dazed old bloke next to a gate. Bike was too small for me.



What about the bloke?


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## Supersuperleeds (6 Jan 2018)

Milkfloat said:


> What about the bloke?



He was fine


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## cyberknight (7 Jan 2018)

Myself


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## Globalti (7 Jan 2018)

GuyBoden said:


> New, very large roll of black Duct cloth tape 50mmx50m, wrapped it onto my frame and took it home, excellent stuff, many thanks to the careless previous owner..........



Blimey your bike must have looked interesting with 50m of tape wrapped around it. How long did that take?


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## Tommy2 (7 Jan 2018)

mr_cellophane said:


> Are you sure it wasn't just sleeping ?
> 
> I found a £1 coin in the middle of a junction in the middle of nowhere.


Did you not feel like it might be a trap?



Supersuperleeds said:


> I found a Giant road bike and a dazed old bloke next to a gate. Bike was too small for me.


Crikey how tall are you if a giant big isn't bike enough!!!!!?


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## classic33 (7 Jan 2018)

Supersuperleeds said:


> I found a Giant road bike and a dazed old bloke next to a gate. Bike was too small for me.


What about the gate?


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## Dave7 (7 Jan 2018)

A virtually new golf ball......on the road alongside the course.
Played with it that week.
It was crap......or maybe it was me that was crap


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## night cycler (7 Jan 2018)

Within the last month, 55 ball bearings about 25mm dia. Picked all of them up and put them in the saddle bag.


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## steveindenmark (7 Jan 2018)

A wallet containing credit cards and all the guys HGV driving permits and licence. I traced him via the internet and rang him.

He came round to collect them and brought 2 boxes of chocolate and a bottle of wine as a thank you. I have never seen a guy so happy to get his property back. Without his licence and permits he would not have been able to work as a long distance lorry driver. He was due to drive to Poland that evening and had no idea he had lost his wallet.


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## Supersuperleeds (7 Jan 2018)

classic33 said:


> What about the gate?



Not sure about the gate, @13 rider might be able to help on that one


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## 13 rider (7 Jan 2018)

Milkfloat said:


> What about the bloke?


I lived to tell the tail and hear about the incident constantly



classic33 said:


> What about the gate?


The gate also lived until I go back with an angle grinder and exact my revenge 

Found a wallet with cards and driving License . Had a business card in it for the owner rang to say Id found it checked the address and delivered it back at the end of my ride just to rack up more miles . Owner was not in so just posted it through letter box


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## Ganymede (7 Jan 2018)

night cycler said:


> Within the last month, 55 ball bearings about 25mm dia. Picked all of them up and put them in the saddle bag.


What are you going to do with them?


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## night cycler (7 Jan 2018)

I don't have a use for them at the moment.

I am a bit of a magpie. I pick things up that I can potentially use at some point. Usually bits of clean steel that I can cut/fabricate and use with the electric welder for one purpose or another.

I tend to ignore rusty pieces due to the time it would take to clean up.

If I don't find a use for the ball bearings they will probably end up on flea bay as catapult ammo.


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## Tommy2 (7 Jan 2018)

I did see a nice looking tweed flat cap a while back, I didn't stop to pick it up but I should have cos I was after one but didn't want to pay for one, thought about it for a few days after.
A deer head sticking out of the verge, didn't quite realise what it was til I was level with it and made me shiver a little as it was late evening and very quite (the roads and the deers) also didn't pick that up.

Found a drivers licence and posted it back to the owner.


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## andrew_s (7 Jan 2018)

An electric lawnmower, about 150m from the nearest houses (2; the next nearest was half a mile or so)
It was there for about 2 1/2 weeks before it vanished.


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## johnnyb47 (7 Jan 2018)

I found a birds nest on the road last year which by a miracle still had the chicks in it. I managed to climb up the tree it fell from and wedge the nest back in situ.
I sat across the road and watched and thankfully its parents came back to feed them up again. The chicks were making a right old racket when I picked them up. Apart from that I've not seen anything lying around apart from the odd dead badger ( blimey they stink to high heaven ;-/)


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## derrick (7 Jan 2018)

A mobile phone in three bits, put it back together found it worked, phoned home number, the guy was about 5 miles away, he drove down to pick it up, gave us 20 quid, i was happy bought a round of drinks when we got back to the pub, That was about two years ago, before that a pac a mac, that i still use.


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## grellboy (7 Jan 2018)

A purple strap on. Surprisingly average in size. Put it on my handlebars to help me get aero for the local TT.


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## John the Monkey (7 Jan 2018)

A debit card - luckily, it belonged to a lady just a couple of houses down (I asked one of their neighbours whether they recognised the name on the card).

A sort of bolt thing - very handy for putting an unshipped chain back on the chainwheel without getting my hands dirty.

Several Philips head screws and an industrial staple. Sadly my tyres "found" these before I spotted them.


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## Ganymede (9 Jan 2018)

night cycler said:


> I don't have a use for them at the moment.
> 
> I am a bit of a magpie. I pick things up that I can potentially use at some point. Usually bits of clean steel that I can cut/fabricate and use with the electric welder for one purpose or another.
> 
> ...


I read your reply having just read a local police report. Bloke just got arrested for pinging a lead ball at a vehicle with a catapult. Being charged with possessing an offensive weapon.

Must say I applaud your thrifty magpie-ing, I do it myself all the time. I am currently using an old rusty iron tool head to infuse iron into a dyebath to darken my dye.


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## Alan O (9 Jan 2018)

The only thing I've found that is cycle related is an allen key - not sure what size, but it's in with all my others now.

I do find lots of coins - usually 1p, 2p and 5p. Among the local scum (er, I mean, the charming youth of my home city) it's fashionable to discard such denominations as a sign of affluence. I also occasionally pick up a 10p or 20p, and a couple of times I've found pound coins. I probably picked up about £20 over the year - not a fortune, but more than enough to keep me in inner tubes.


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## Will Spin (9 Jan 2018)

Several mattresses, a deconstructed bathroom, many discarded fast food containers, and lemonade bottles half full of a suspicious looking liquid (probably not lemonade).


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## Globalti (9 Jan 2018)

Some lucky soul found the BRAND NEW Castelli rain cape that we gave GtiJunior for his birthday; we went out for a nice birthday ride; he stuffed the cape in his jersey pocket and five miles later I noticed that it had fallen out. Grrrrr! 

Actually in Lagos, Nigeria, there's a form of street art that I've never seen anywhere else but I've just Googled it and I find that it's a known phenomenon in New York, a city that probably has similar levels of traffic, heat, vehicle decrepitude and road damage to Lagos. In New York it has been named Asphalt Archeology. It's where bits have dropped off vehicles and become embedded in the hot soft tarmac then polished smooth by millions of passing tyres. It makes for an endless fascinating guessing game when you are stuck in one of the Lagos go-slows:

http://www.privatephotoreview.com/2013/05/asphalt-archeology/


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## Dave Davenport (9 Jan 2018)

A saddle pack containing two tubes, a multi-tool, pair of levers and a chain splitter.


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## Alan O (9 Jan 2018)

Oh, I forgot - I found a toilet last summer. Just a toilet, stood there on the pavement, looking pretty much new. 

I had to leave it, as I wasn't riding my bike with the toilet carrier.


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## sarahale (9 Jan 2018)

Does this count? I'd never seen one IRL before and this year I've helped 2.


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## Globalti (9 Jan 2018)

What happened? The hedgehog got stuck in a plastic cup? Poor old Tiggy-Winkle.


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## Bollo (9 Jan 2018)

Alan O said:


> I had to leave it, as I wasn't riding my bike with the toilet carrier.


Unprepared. Tut.


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## sarahale (9 Jan 2018)

Globalti said:


> What happened? The hedgehog got stuck in a plastic cup? Poor old Tiggy-Winkle.


Yes exactly that, wandering into the road in daylight and was a very warm day.


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## Tail End Charlie (9 Jan 2018)

I found two mobiles, both of which I got back to their owner.
A small spanner.
A shovel, difficult carrying this, I held alongside the handlebars.
A ratchet strap, very useful it is too. Pity I didn't find it the same time I found the shovel.
And the biggest coincidence of all was when I found two onion bags (plastic mesh type) when earlier in the ride I had thought I needed one for the allotment.


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## palinurus (9 Jan 2018)




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## Jon George (9 Jan 2018)

^Is that the gun the robbers used at the burger bar heist?


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## Jon George (9 Jan 2018)

Okay, not a cycling find, but a roadside find nevertheless: a £5 note. Upon bending down to pick up the money, I spied a £10 note nearby. Three or four seconds scanning the pavement immediately after this, produced a £20 note.
I spent a little more time looking for a £50 note, you know, just in case ...


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## Leaway2 (10 Jan 2018)

I found this in the road whilst riding through Carrington on Boxing
day. I think it will clean up nicely. It is about 8" long.


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## night cycler (10 Jan 2018)

johnnyb47 said:


> I found a birds nest on the road last year which by a miracle still had the chicks in it. I managed to climb up the tree it fell from and wedge the nest back in situ.
> I sat across the road and watched and thankfully its parents came back to feed them up again. The chicks were making a right old racket when I picked them up. Apart from that I've not seen anything lying around apart from the odd dead badger ( blimey they stink to high heaven ;-/)



Well done for going the extra mile putting the bird's nest back in the tree.


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## grellboy (10 Jan 2018)

Three mobile phones. 2 iPhones and a crappy Alcatel. All happily returned to owners, the last one literally minutes ago.


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## Drago (10 Jan 2018)

We need a new thread for 2018 finds.


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## Banjo (11 Jan 2018)

2017 was a Bit of a poor year for gutter scrounging.One pair of newish muddy fox gloves ,8 foot length of 6x1 (hid it and went back in car) nice flat screwdriver and a ratchet drive is about all I can recall.

Also two Audax brevet cards .Useless to anyone else but possibly priceless to owners both were reunited.


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## Banjo (11 Jan 2018)

Drago said:


> We need a new thread for 2018 finds.


I will pop out


T.M.H.N.E.T said:


> I once found a pair of knickers, a VS thong for anyone interested (no I didn't keep them)


You realise it doesnt count as a cycling find 
if the item is on someones washing line?


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## clid61 (11 Jan 2018)

wisdom said:


> Just for a bit of amusement what have been your roadside finds in 2017.
> Mine have been.
> 
> Ass saver.
> ...


8 GB I pod perfect condition in a case .


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## T.M.H.N.E.T (11 Jan 2018)

Banjo said:


> I will pop out
> 
> You realise it doesnt count as a cycling find
> if the item is on someones washing line?


Oh right


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## hoppym27 (11 Jan 2018)

I found a puncture once....


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## confusedcyclist (11 Jan 2018)

Dregs in a can of Skol;

and a cheapo rear light with a broken clip, which subsequently got zip tied to my pannier rack.


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## confusedcyclist (11 Jan 2018)

Leaway2 said:


> I found this in the road whilst riding through Carrington on Boxing
> day. I think it will clean up nicely. It is about 8" long.
> View attachment 390985


You forgot to mention the black hole from space in the background, nice!


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## samsbike (11 Jan 2018)

Loads of glass shards and fag butts and some empty beer cans. I need to get out more !


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## jay clock (11 Jan 2018)

a very clean and unsullied copy of Club International.


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## jay clock (11 Jan 2018)

Also once found a passport in the road


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## Reynard (11 Jan 2018)

A couple of stones or so of freshly-harvested maris piper tatties.  Wouldn't have spotted them if I hadn't been on the bike.  They'd tipped off a trailer where there's a big dip in the road.


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## palinurus (14 Sep 2018)

*makes engine sound*


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## pawl (14 Sep 2018)

In the middle of the road a deep hole.Start of a new quarry?


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## Globalti (15 Sep 2018)

Not by the road but out mountain biking, a phone. We called the owner's mum and told her we were leaving it at The Robin Hood in Helmshore then we all lined up, pulled our shorts down, made a video of our bottoms and left the phone with the publican. Oh how we giggled!


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## heliphil (17 Sep 2018)

apart from plenty of coins and notes, I've picked up a new packet of bed linen, a pair of pliers, various size sockets and a TomTom sat Nav fully working !)


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