Buying bikes from the Council Tip / Recycling Centre

[GeekDadZoid]

There's various increments of cheap and nasty, and some, whilst clearly cheaply made and sold are not always nasty.
I pulled a rigid Magna 26'er out of a skip a couple of weeks ago, and apart from having no saddle it's all there and could be made to work ok. The dropout junctions with the stays give away the budget nature of the frame, but it's better quality than an outright BSO. Cheap yes, junk no.

Very jealous of your finds. I often buy from scrap men who seem to get the pickings around here, but I never really get anything for free.

 

[Rusty Nails]

Until about five years ago I could get bikes from our local recycling centre for free. My best finds were a 531 frame Peugeot road bike and a nickel plated Marin Team Issue mtb with XTR gears and Cook Bros cranks.
Nowadays they have stopped that and instead work with a local charity to make them roadworthy and sell them at their on site shop

 

[Sittingduck]

Inspired by this thread, I visited my local recycling centre just now to dump some stuff and went for a look at the bikes. Mostly BSO's but on the end of the row my eye was drawn to something a little better (if seriously beaten).

Specialized Crosstrail - too big for me really and no front brake or brake lever and the wrong front wheel. Seriously in need of some TLC is an understatement but I like a challenge and frankly am utterly bored at work. Got it for a tenner - not bad imho!

 

[ColinJ]

Inspired by this thread, I visited my local recycling centre just now to dump some stuff and went for a look at the bikes. Mostly BSO's but on the end of the row my eye was drawn to something a little better (if seriously beaten).

Specialized Crosstrail - too big for me really and no front brake or brake lever and the wrong front wheel. Seriously in need of some TLC is an understatement but I like a challenge and frankly am utterly bored at work. Got it for a tenner - not bad imho!

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That looks like a good deal! Make sure that you come back on here with photos of the renovated bike.

 

[Sittingduck]

That looks like a good deal! Make sure that you come back on here with photos of the renovated bike.

I don't want to thread jack so started a dedicated one in the Project forum here

 

[T4tomo]

Very jealous of your finds. I often buy from scrap men who seem to get the pickings around here, but I never really get anything for free.

I recently sold my free find -

Discovered this in the woods, several years ago, reported it it found - no-one claimed, so it became legally mine. It didnt need a great deal doing to it to tart it up. I realised I hadn't ridden it for about 5 years so moved it on.