Bikes Abandoned in Public - how long do they last?

[KneesUp]

I've just taken the rubbish out at work. Glamorous I know.

Anyway, there is a flat above the next building, and evidently one of the former tenants left their bike behind, so under the external staircase a mountain bike is slowly atrophying. It's semi-public, and people do come around - I've had stuff taken from around the back of our building.

And yet, it occurred to me, that bike was there when first I emptied the bins here almost eight years ago, and it was rusty then so has probably been there for 10 years or more.

Which got me to wondering what's the longest you've known a bike be abandoned?

 

[mrbikerboy73]

I've seen a few abandoned near to where i live which surprises me as its a very quiet residential area. They are all locked up, but no one ever returns to collect them. To be fair, they are all crap bikes. Bits go missing sometimes, then within a few weeks they vanish. 10 years is a very long time, im surprised no one has stolen it or taken it to the tip. There are two abandoned MTBs round the back of my flat, both very knackered and you couldnt make a good one out of the pair.

 

[bpsmith]

I saw an abandoned bike still chained up outside Tesco in the City centre last month. It made me laugh as it had been stripped back to only the frame. Absolutely nothing left, except a bright orange equally rusted frame. There was an official Tesco headed letter affixed warning of disposal if not removed. Lol.

 

[KneesUp]

I saw an abandoned bike still chained up outside Tesco in the City centre last month. It made me laugh as it had been stripped back to only the frame. Absolutely nothing left, except a bright orange equally rusted frame. There was an official Tesco headed letter affixed warning of disposal if not removed. Lol.

They stole the paint?! It's rough where you live!

 

[Garry A]

Wasn't there one in Brig O Turk left so long that the tree it was leaning on grew through it. Must Google this.
Found it.
http://www.ancient-tree-hunt.org.uk/discoveries/newdiscoveries/2009/The+Bicycle+Tree

 

[Bianchi boy]

It was half way up the trunk of the tree

 

[Scotchlovingcylist]

There was a health centre I worked at a few years ago that had 3 MTBs abandoned - A Trax, Apollo and an old specialized. The manager said they had been chained up in the bike shed for years so I kindly offered to dispose of them. All 3 got tidied up, the specialized went to a mate who still uses it now and the bso's went on eBay for about £50 or summat. I've never found anything decent since but I always look

 

[smokeysmoo]

I see loads of old locked up bikes slowly disappearing around the campus' of Manchester University, and also where staff park bikes at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

I'm guessing they've been abandoned by past alumni and seasonal staff.

Some are down to frame and forks, but they sit there month after month and never seem to get moved away.

They are always generic BSO's but never the less they might have made a decent enough starter bike for someone at one time.

 

[Brandane]

Her is a time lapse video, recorded over the space of one year, of a bike left in New York city. It lasted a lot longer than I would have expected, and longer than it would have lasted where I live - a small seaside town in Ayrshire!

 

[kiriyama]

There were several abandoned bikes chained up outside the shop I used to work in when I lived in London. After a couple of years I started using them for parts for my crappy mountain bike I had at the time. I saw it as payment for all the bike thieves we chased off...

 

[xxDarkRiderxx]

I always wondered if you could salvage the parts left by abandon bikes as you see so many in London? I have time on my hands to put something together. Any policemen or women on here can verify what the situation is? or is this something the council have to deal with.

 

[KneesUp]

I've taken an abandoned bike before - there was one outside a supermarket that had been there - unlocked - for a week. I rang the police and they took my name and number, a description of the bike and where it was taken from. They then said that if I hadn't heard back from them in a fortnight, it was mine to keep - I presume they felt that a week outside a supermarket unlocked was enough to constitute it being abandoned, and two weeks is the amount of time someone has to claim it back.

I rode the whole thing for a while - it got me back into cycling - and many of it's parts live on in various ways. The frame is tucked around the side of the shed still.

 

[Accy cyclist]

There's an old rusty abandoned road bike near to me. It's been there for 5 years....in my backyard!

 

[Globalti]

I see abandoned bikes as the visible tip of a huge pyramid of people's chaotic lives; many are on the brink of collapse and scarcely holding it together.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Generally, in my town, (thrift reigns) the bicycles are removed either by the city or university police and given to a fellow who runs a program to get them refurbished and given away to people who need a bicycle. He may give away a couple hundred bicycles. The cities(Bloomington and Normal) provide him with bikes and space, and the cycling clubs provide volunteers to repair the bikes. Old system was that the police took the bicycles off the street and auctioned them off, but the lack of knowledge and dearth of publicity for these events made it so that I and a few others were the only ones who showed up, and most people bid on the other things like old police cars and office equipment the city was selling, and the bicycles would go for small change. Literally. I had paid, according to records, less than $5 for a lot of 4 bicycles. So the new system, admittedly, is better.