discarded bikes

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aquist

New Member
ok, its not ridable but there was a Trek 2000 SL with a fair amount of components in the trash i took it home. It has a bent frame
 
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aquist

New Member
hey me, what about the Schwinn high Sierra mt bk you stole from the trash collector. it only needed a set of hb. been riding it ever since...the price was right its new bars came off a wal mart special. They have a nice teal finish.
 

TheDoctor

Noble and true, with a heart of steel
Moderator
Location
The TerrorVortex
They're not actually yours, though, are they?
I mean, didn't you, like, steal them?
If something's in a skip, it belongs to the person who got the skip, or to the person who owns the skip, It's not yours.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Banned from every bar in the Galaxy
Location
Craggy Island
I passed a red Apollo kid's bike (for an older kid) on Saturday sitting rather forlornly outside the local Halfrauds at about 1am. The gears were knackered on it, but I'd have happily have taken it home for spare parts (although, being small in size, I'm not entirely sure what I would have done with them).

In the end I decided to leave it with the intention of getting it the next day if it was still there. But I forgot, so it is probably gone in a skip by now.
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
There's a term for it...something like 'stealing by finding' Take an abandoned bike at your own risk.
The old way used to be take it to the police station, hand it in and if no-one claimed it, it was yours after a few weeks. I dont think that happens in Peterborough any more.
 

funnymummy

A Dizzy M.A.B.I.L
There's a term for it...something like 'stealing by finding' Take an abandoned bike at your own risk.
The old way used to be take it to the police station, hand it in and if no-one claimed it, it was yours after a few weeks. I dont think that happens in Peterborough any more.

Freegans live pefrectly happy living off what they find discarded & in skips

I have 3 bikes in my garage, all of which I have found abandonned, all of which need a little bit of attention.
One was left leaning against my garage door, the bcak wheel was slighlty buckled but apart from that it was obvioulsy a brand new bike, I assumed it belonged to one of the TeenOnes friends, I shoved it in the garage to keep it safe, several days later I asked him when his friend would be coming for it? It didn't belong to anyone he knew - I went to police station & gave them the frame number - It's never been claimed.
Similar with the other 2 - left within 100 yrds of my house, one with buckled front wheel the other with a shredded back tyre, both reported to police neither claimed.... Ok none of the bikes are expensive, but it does make me wonder about the original owners. If someone stole my bike, however crappy i'd report it in the hope that the theif would dump somewhere once they'd got bored of it or broke it!
I have had one of the bikes for 2 years - It's been 'fogotten' about at the back of my garage -We have a 'Community Bike Project' the bikes will be going off down there - They can be fixed up or used for spares
 

Globalti

Legendary Member
Thieves will dump things they stole as easily as they picked them up. It's the old saying; "easy come - easy go".
 

swee'pea99

Squire
They're not actually yours, though, are they?
I mean, didn't you, like, steal them?
If something's in a skip, it belongs to the person who got the skip, or to the person who owns the skip, It's not yours.

Am I the only one who thinks that's bonkers? If something's in a skip, it's been discarded - that, in my book, makes it perfectly fair game for anyone. Better that someone 'adopt' it than that it go off to landfill. I'd have no qualms about taking anything from a skip, from firewood to bent-framed bicycles.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1309765744' post='1733655']
Am I the only one who thinks that's bonkers? If something's in a skip, it's been discarded - that, in my book, makes it perfectly fair game for anyone. Better that someone 'adopt' it than that it go off to landfill. I'd have no qualms about taking anything from a skip, from firewood to bent-framed bicycles.
[/quote]

Well, yes, and no. Actually, I have few qualms about skipdiving (or in my job, binstore diving), but the stuff in a skip belongs to the skip company. And much of it, especially metal, has a value. Individually, not much value, but it adds up. Go to a scrap yard, and you'd pay for it, that's how scrap dealing works.

Before I worked on for the recycling service at St Nicks, there was a woman who came and asked if she could bring in aluminium cans, and get money for them for a charity. Now, St Nicks is also a charity, and part of our income is selling the materials we collect. The boss agreed a price, so that she made some money, but St Nicks still made a profit. And she started to bring in binbags of cans.

Until she was spotted, fishing the cans out of the recycling boxes before we emptied them. So she was nicking our stuff, to sell to us. Yes, all for charity, but we're a charity too....

With respect to bikes, we get them abandoned on the nature reserve. We report them to the police, and after a set period if we hear nothing, they go to the BikeRescue project, or are bought by staff or volunteers.
 

Maz

Guru
i saw an ok looking bike down the council reclying tip that someone had disposed of. I asked the fella working there if i could take it. He said 'no, we auction these bikes off' so i bid him farewell.
 

Rhythm Thief

Legendary Member
Location
Ross on Wye
I found a Claud Butler aluminium MTB frame in a wheelie bin in Wolverhampton. Half the bits were missing and it had a set of cheap suspension forks which weighed as much as the moon, but with a little help from my bits box and another old MTB, I built it up into a pretty good touring bike for Ms RT. I know metal stuff in a skip has some value, but if you ask the "owners" of the skip they'll most likely be more than happy for you to skip dive. If they're not, just go back at night.:thumbsup:
 
I recently was at a Bike Friday event and someone from the waste disposal for the region was asking people please NOT to bin their bikes as all they could do was sell them for scrap metal, when there are places who will take the bikes and refurbish them, and they were giving out pamplets with a list of places on the back happy to take your bike off your hands.
 

Cheddar George

oober member
The "owners" of the skip are the hire company, they do not like people taking items of value from their skips. The guy who has hired the skip normally doesn't give a toss as it makes room for more of his waste, his biggest problem is people putting stuff in the skip at night. I wouldn't worry about the legalities over a knackered bike.

I'm sure i remember an episode of One foot in the grave when somebody dumped a 2CV in Victor's ship overnight. :biggrin:
 
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