Snooze; lose.

[wafter]

Down the tip with another car load of detritus from the shed earlier. Perusing the bikes. Amongst the sad pile of BSOs, I spy a crudely-hammerited road bike frame;its chromed socks and Carlton Headbadge piquing my interest. Campag Strada crankset, Neuvo Record RD and shifters, Cinelli bars.. not far away I spy the Mavic rims laced to Dura-Ace hubs. First time I've seen vintage Campag first-hand and I must admit it was beautiful.

Not too acquainted with this stuff (and with precious little room in the car) I retreat to the homestead for research. ebay suggests maybe £100-150 in bits.. tip wants a tenner for the whole bike. Motivated by both genuine desire to save these nice pasts as well as a bit of profiteering, I make my way back post-haste; only to find it gone.

Never mind; one presumes it went to a good home (even if the frame and it's nice internally-lugged fork looked pretty tatty I hope the components will be saved), I have enough on my plate and tbh it would probably have been of questionable value to flog all the bits off once my time was taken into account.

Reminded me of when I used to visit scrappys in a former life and harvest the good bits to flog on ebay - good times

 

[wafter]

Oh; if anyone's arsed - Farthinghoe recycling centre - spotted two semi-complete Dawes Kingpins, a nice looking bronze Raleigh 20-ish of some description and a Raleigh Pioneer - at "£10 for big bikes, £5 for small" you could potentially score all four for £25

 

[sevenfourate]

What a Shame !! 🙁

I’ve been looking (eBay, facearse, free-ads etc) for a beater / do-it-all / pub-bike: and hadn’t even considered the dump / tip. Although ours is Council run so I’m not sure I could just turn up and make an offer for anything I liked the look of and fancied recycling…..

 

[wafter]

What a Shame !! 🙁

I’ve been looking (eBay, facearse, free-ads et) for a beater / do-it-all / pub-bike: and hadn’t even considered the dump / tip. Although ours is Council run so I’m not sure I could just turn up and make an offer for anything I liked the look of and fancied recycling…..

Shame it was down there and that it ended up with such a godawful paint job... less of a shame that I missed it as it was in bits so must have gone to someone who recognised the value in the parts and obviously took it as a job lot. Good for them IMO; I'm just glad someone saved it (or parts thereof)

 

[wafter]

What a Shame !! 🙁

I’ve been looking (eBay, facearse, free-ads etc) for a beater / do-it-all / pub-bike: and hadn’t even considered the dump / tip. Although ours is Council run so I’m not sure I could just turn up and make an offer for anything I liked the look of and fancied recycling…..

Yes; that's a bit of an odd one. Seems Farthinghoe is happy to flog / give you anything; while Redbridge in Oxford (which is Council-owned, IIRC) won't let you take owt and all of the bikes are passed on to a local charity.. which in itself can't be a bad thing but probably puts the kybosh on uber-bargains.

Depends what you want I guess, but if you're easy local recycling centres have to be worth a look. How are you finding the prices of bottom end stuff on ebay? I'd expect it's all pretty suppressed currently..

 

[sevenfourate]

Yes; that's a bit of an odd one. Seems Farthinghoe is happy to flog / give you anything; while Redbridge in Oxford (which is Council-owned, IIRC) won't let you take owt and all of the bikes are passed on to a local charity.. which in itself can't be a bad thing but probably puts the kybosh on uber-bargains.

Depends what you want I guess, but if you're easy local recycling centres have to be worth a look. How are you finding the prices of bottom end stuff on ebay? I'd expect it's all pretty suppressed currently..

For £100 on here….or on eBay….I could have bought a multitude of complete / working bargains. Some of them far to good for £100 and if they had been stolen you’d have secretly been a bit miffed…..

The main issue for me is living in Lowestoft. A bit remote to have to travel anywhere or find something local. And of course £40 courier fees (If available) eats into any original purchase hugely.

Buying something new / relatively expensive locally or indeed over the internet was easy on the others in the fleet. Acquiring a genuine, cheap, ‘pub bike’ is much-much more challenging ! 😳

 

[wafter]

For £100 on here….or on eBay….I could have bought a multitude of complete / working bargains. Some of them far to good for £100 and if they had been stolen you’d have secretly been a bit miffed…..

The main issue for me is living in Lowestoft. A bit remote to have to travel anywhere or find something local. And of course £40 courier fees (If available) eats into any original purchase hugely.

Buying something new / relatively expensive locally or indeed over the internet was easy on the others in the fleet. Acquiring a genuine, cheap, ‘pub bike’ is much-much more challenging ! 😳

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Personally I'd not entertain the idea of anything new for this task (crap value and potentially more likely to be robbed) so would suggest you sit on your hands until something suitable comes along... although I guess the viability of that option depends on how desperate you are to get to the pub

 

[sevenfourate]

Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. Personally I'd not entertain the idea of anything new for this task (crap value and potentially more likely to be robbed) so would suggest you sit on your hands until something suitable comes along... although I guess the viability of that option depends on how desperate you are to get to the pub

I’m tee-total. So pub is actually spelt ‘Tesco’ here 🤣 But yea….there’s no need or point taking an £xxxxx Full carbon Gravel bike etc through the estate and down the hill to get some bread and milk…….

 

[cyberknight]

Yes; that's a bit of an odd one. Seems Farthinghoe is happy to flog / give you anything; while Redbridge in Oxford (which is Council-owned, IIRC) won't let you take owt and all of the bikes are passed on to a local charity.. which in itself can't be a bad thing but probably puts the kybosh on uber-bargains.

Depends what you want I guess, but if you're easy local recycling centres have to be worth a look. How are you finding the prices of bottom end stuff on ebay? I'd expect it's all pretty suppressed currently..

our tip is the same, council owned privately run wont let you take anything .

 

[wafter]

I’m tee-total. So pub is actually spelt ‘Tesco’ here 🤣 But yea….there’s no need or point taking an £xxxxx Full carbon Gravel bike etc through the estate and down the hill to get some bread and milk…….

Absolutely.. ideal job for something cheap, old but still worthy of some love. If you're not familar (apologies if you've posted on either of these already) I have a couple of pseudo-beaters:

Raleigh Router: Found, owes me about £60; currently the work hack and will be used for the most dangerous missions if / when I return to the city.

Fuji Touring: Bought, owes me about £300 exc. bags. Longer-range rural supermarket / social hack as it has far more gear range than the Routier along with various other mod cons...

What are you looking for - something old, cheap and steel?

 

[sevenfourate]

Absolutely.. ideal job for something cheap, old but still worthy of some love. If you're not familar (apologies if you've posted on either of these already) I have a couple of pseudo-beaters:

Raleigh Router: Found, owes me about £60; currently the work hack and will be used for the most dangerous missions if / when I return to the city.

Fuji Touring: Bought, owes me about £300 exc. bags. Longer-range rural supermarket / social hack as it has far more gear range than the Routier along with various other more mod cons...

What are you looking for - something old, cheap and steel?

Lucky you ! Both sound ideal for certain respective tasks 👌 Did you arrive at these by choice per-se. Or by default of what half decent turned up first ?

I have a really nice gravel, above average MTB and ok Fuji Sportiv commuter / road.

I do really enjoy a bit of light off-roading. And would be using the beater for random local jaunts, Tescos trips, flitting into Town, off-road rekkies etc. So an MTB kinda makes sense to me. Although a relaxed geometry, drop-bar Tourer type bike would spark my interest too.

Maybe this week is the week I’ll dedicate a bit of time into the ‘project’. There’s a bicycle-recycle place within 10 miles of me that I've never been to before. Would be a good start you’d think……

 

[wafter]

Lucky you ! Both sound ideal for certain respective tasks 👌 Did you arrive at these by choice per-se. Or by default of what half decent turned up first ?

I have a really nice gravel, above average MTB and ok Fuji Sportiv commuter / road.

I do really enjoy a bit of light off-roading. And would be using the beater for random local jaunts, Tescos trips, flitting into Town, off-road rekkies etc. So an MTB kinda makes sense to me. Although a relaxed geometry, drop-bar Tourer type bike would spark my interest too.

Maybe this week is the week I’ll dedicate a bit of time into the ‘project’. There’s a bicycle-recycle place within 10 miles of me that I've never been to before. Would be a good start you’d think……

Thanks and yeah; I can't complain tbh - both bring me far more pleasure than modern consumptive society suggests they should, given their very limited financial worth.

Sounds like a tourer would do the job; however it seems like a fine line between a proper beater and something too vintage / nice / impractical to be viable. I was lucky with the Fuji - wasn't familar but just repeatedly searched FB Muppetplace for "Touring bike", that came up, I did some homework and it seemed good so I went for it.

If you want practical, unpretentious and comfortable modern touring bikes seem like a good bet as they've generally remained steel while all the cool kids have gone ally / plastic.

If you want off-road then perhaps an old mountain bike might be a better bet on tyre-clearance grounds; or maybe try for council-gravel by building something with drop bars and STIs on an old MTB frame..?

Cetainly sounds like it's worth paying regular visits to your local recycling place - as someone who's typically hyper- picky about spec, condition etc.. there's a lot to be said for the liberation of throwing your specs wide open, taking it easy and just seeing what comes your way.

I'd probably not have paid money for my Routier, but given the circumstances I couldn't resist and despite its various shortcomings I still absolutely love riding it

 

[oldwheels]

What a Shame !! 🙁

I’ve been looking (eBay, facearse, free-ads etc) for a beater / do-it-all / pub-bike: and hadn’t even considered the dump / tip. Although ours is Council run so I’m not sure I could just turn up and make an offer for anything I liked the look of and fancied recycling…..

Depends on the council. The waste disposal at Oban has things for sale and I was allowed to search the pile of old bikes where I found a tatty Kingpin which cost me £5.

 

[sevenfourate]

Anyone got any thoughts / opinions on these two bikes (?) - which are both at ‘CycleRecycle’ - pretty close to me. Would have to go see / sit on both reference sizing either way…….

https://www.cyclerecycleuk.com/product-page/scotts-cycles-super-club

https://www.cyclerecycleuk.com/product-page/raleigh-medale

 

[Mo1959]

Anyone got any thoughts / opinions on these two bikes (?) - which are both at ‘CycleRecycle’ - pretty close to me. Would have to go see / sit on both reference sizing either way…….

https://www.cyclerecycleuk.com/product-page/scotts-cycles-super-club

https://www.cyclerecycleuk.com/product-page/raleigh-medale

I’m not usually interested in older style bikes, but have to admit they both look rather nice! Definitely worth a try I would say.