Your best freebie?

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Nigeyy

Legendary Member
Back in September, I saw a Raleigh Super Course out on the pavement with some other old rusty bikes with a "FREE PLEASE TAKE" sign on them. I couldn't resist. I drove back, picked up the Super Course, and then went on a mission: make a workable bike while spending no, zero, nada money.

I changed it over to a singlespeed doing the following:
  • replaced road handlebar with an old straight handlebar and some old short pull brake levers I had
  • replaced brake cables with some old ones (OK, I do keep reasonable used cables for just such things!)
  • replaced the wobbly crank (with cotter pins) for an old one I had and made it a singlespeed with a chainring someone had given me many years ago....
  • removed front and rear derailleurs and just wrapped the chain around one of the rear freewheel cogs

The long and short of it is I did spend..... zero. Granted I have the good fortune to have a few spare items (e.g. the used crank I had kept because it was more expensive to replace the chainrings than to actually buy a new crankset, and then a friend gave me a singe chainring that fortunately happened to fit it), and I had some old unused brake levers. Probably aside from the crank, I'd think most bike enthusiasts have these kinds of parts hanging around (well, particularly if you don't throw them away :smile:

Really I was on a personal challenge to see if I could get a truly usable bike for no money spent -and I succeeded! Anyway here it is now doing trusty service as I cycled to the nearest town to buy a six pack as a gift on New Years Eve (I've also used it for some other errands previously as well, and I'm very pleased):

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Spiderweb

Not So Special One
Location
North Yorkshire
Take the plastic dinner plate off the back wheel and it would look great, well done, nice rescue.
 
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OP
Nigeyy

Nigeyy

Legendary Member
I should take off the spoke protector, it isn't doing anything! Forgot to add: the grips are some old used handlebar tape wrapped around (I did mean to spend absolutely no money!). I was also lucky in that someone had recently put new tyres on it and the inner tubes were good. I'm guessing the wobbly crank was the last straw for them, but an opportunity for me :smile:

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gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
That bike is lovely Nigeyy, classic, last forever.
My best freebie ?
On holiday in Turkey circa 2000 and my company went bust overnight while we were out there. On my return I went In to see about getting my tools and personal stuff out. The MD was there and maybe 2 others to clear stuff out. Long and short of it he said to me...anything left in the workshops...take it, it's all going in the skip.

So the haul was ..
Panasonic battery drill, new cost then was circa £230. I still have it now.
Eutechtic inverter stick welder, quality piece iof kit...still have it although only used it a couple of times.
6 boxes of new spare parts for specific machinery, cost new was circa £4000. I sold them to a company I was a regular visitor in Cyprus to for £800.
Semi industrial steam cleaner, gave that to a friend.
That visit gave me a few days work to help clear out, i earned around £600 in 3 days.

Gutted, someone beat me to a Lincoln welder, cost was qrou d £1000 -although wed used it a lot...and the steel chop saw was gone as well plus a load of grinders etc.
 

Slick

Guru
That bike is lovely Nigeyy, classic, last forever.
My best freebie ?
On holiday in Turkey circa 2000 and my company went bust overnight while we were out there. On my return I went In to see about getting my tools and personal stuff out. The MD was there and maybe 2 others to clear stuff out. Long and short of it he said to me...anything left in the workshops...take it, it's all going in the skip.

So the haul was ..
Panasonic battery drill, new cost then was circa £230. I still have it now.
Eutechtic inverter stick welder, quality piece iof kit...still have it although only used it a couple of times.
6 boxes of new spare parts for specific machinery, cost new was circa £4000. I sold them to a company I was a regular visitor in Cyprus to for £800.
Semi industrial steam cleaner, gave that to a friend.
That visit gave me a few days work to help clear out, i earned around £600 in 3 days.

Gutted, someone beat me to a Lincoln welder, cost was qrou d £1000 -although wed used it a lot...and the steel chop saw was gone as well plus a load of grinders etc.
A moot and somewhat pedantic point but that stuff wasn't his to give away or dump.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
A moot and somewhat pedantic point but that stuff wasn't his to give away or dump.
Actually I expected to walk into the receivers. But they'd bee and gone, only interested in selling off the machinery (as far as the stuff within the factory was concerned, perhaps it was them that took the most expensive workshop equipment). The rest, Jon (the MD) cleared the site afterwards (remembering he is/was the landlord /building owner...not part of the business that went bust)
Another slightly weird point, he was his own biggest creditor. As landlord, he'd effect tively been supporting the business by not collecting the rent when contracts were lost....keeping us all In work longer than perhaps we should have. Ironically he was effectively punished for that in that the workforce were given an extra payment after redundancy because he should have given us notice earlier . It effectively doubled my redundancy package.
 
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Slick

Guru
Actually I expected to walk into the receivers. But they'd bee and gone, only interested in selling off the machinery (as far as the stuff within the factory was concerned, perhaps it was them that took the most expensive workshop equipment). The rest, Jon (the MD) cleared the site afterwards (remembering he is/was the landlord /building owner...not part of the business that went bust)
Another slightly weird point, he was his own biggest creditor. As landlord, he'd effect tively been supporting the business by not collecting the rent when contracts were lost....keeping us all In work longer than perhaps we should have. Ironically he was effectively punished for that in that the workforce were given an extra payment after redundancy because he should have given us notice earlier . It effectively doubled my redundancy package.
Which is fair enough but I have been involved with this kind of thing as an unsecured creditor far too often in the past and it would have been the first clearance I have heard of that anything of value was left behind. Your final point isn't weird to me, it's a common tactic used by unscrupulous business owners to ensure anything of value can't be taken off them to pay for the trail of debt they intend to leave behind them. I've seen similar examples and a lot worse being used lots of times.
 

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Way back in the 80s our company splashed out on a privat room and seats for the grand national. They bussed and flew top clients in from around the country.
The private room was loaded with all the best alcohol and food you could imagine.
Myself and another guy were assigned to "look after" it.
At the end of day 3 we were allowed to take what was left.....which was a lot. As an eg I got a full bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label which in those days cost over £90.00.
I did well out of that
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
Which is fair enough but I have been involved with this kind of thing as an unsecured creditor far too often in the past and it would have been the first clearance I have heard of that anything of value was left behind. Your final point isn't weird to me, it's a common tactic used by unscrupulous business owners to ensure anything of value can't be taken off them to pay for the trail of debt they intend to leave behind them. I've seen similar examples and a lot worse being used lots of times.
Regarding the disposal of valuables by the reciever, i thought on my arrival back i'd struggle to get even my personal tools and stuff back but it seems they wanted a quick in/out, secure the machinery worth any appreciable money and stuff the rest, perhaps not worth the effort for them. They could perhaps have grabbed a few thousand pounds worth of extra bits, maybe £10 K / £20 K over the site, but what cost disposing of it ? Call me a cynic but i'm sure the recievers will at the very least do whats in their interest....or more accurately, not incur costs they don't need to.
 

Slick

Guru
Regarding the disposal of valuables by the reciever, i thought on my arrival back i'd struggle to get even my personal tools and stuff back but it seems they wanted a quick in/out, secure the machinery worth any appreciable money and stuff the rest, perhaps not worth the effort for them. They could perhaps have grabbed a few thousand pounds worth of extra bits, maybe £10 K / £20 K over the site, but what cost disposing of it ? Call me a cynic but i'm sure the recievers will at the very least do whats in their interest....or more accurately, not incur costs they don't need to.
Maybe not a cynic as I know the receiver is legally obliged to ensure every possible pound is squeezed out to settle with creditors that's why the usual scenario in your example is to bring in an auctioneer and raise the 20k, pay a percentage at zero cost.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
I also got a load of stuff from an office move and clear out.
We had just moved into a new flat and had very little.
We got a dining table and chairs, most of the contents of a kitchen including the work tops and cabinets, a sofa, some chairs, a TV, a couple of wardrobes, a desk, and a few other bits like lights, pictures and plants.
None of it was of particularly decent quality, but it did the job

We still had some of it 5 years later when we moved out.

15 years later I still have a potted Bay Tree and a load of tools
 

oldwheels

Legendary Member
Location
Isle of Mull
You are correct in law Slick but I have had experience of receivers on both sides of the fence. IMO they were bone idle and dishonest. Stuff I was willing to pay good money for was more or less given away before they would speak to me and by then it was too late to change etc. Property of mine in a watchmakers who went bust was just binned rather than sell it back to me. Too much bother. I could go on. They are just parasites.
 

gbb

Legendary Member
Location
Peterborough
You are correct in law Slick but I have had experience of receivers on both sides of the fence. IMO they were bone idle and dishonest. Stuff I was willing to pay good money for was more or less given away before they would speak to me and by then it was too late to change etc. Property of mine in a watchmakers who went bust was just binned rather than sell it back to me. Too much bother. I could go on. They are just parasites.

Bone idle....perish the thought :whistle:.
That's where I thought I'd struggle getting my stuff back, I thought it's all be locked down, but no, they'd been and gone in a few days.

And then you think, what if they could have secured another £10k, £20k, £30k in assets, what is that worth to creditors ?...10p in the pound ?...and what would £20k worth of goods realise at auction ?
And as the MD was his own biggest creditor....a few thousand quid in payback....to a multi millionaire ?
I seem to remember a couple other major creditors were in it for maybe £300k...that 10p in the pound doesnt even scratch the surface of anything meaningful of what they'd get back on an extra few thousands worth of assets. Or is my analogy too simplistic ?
 
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