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Bike bin diving
 

[Closed] Bike bin diving

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[#1015360]

I'm sure I can't be the only one who sees other peoples bike rubbish as potential gold 🙂

I discovered a local bike shop's trash pile a while ago, and asking nicely if I could look in it, they gave me the nod.

It happens to be on the way back form my work, so I've stopped and had a sift 3 times over the past 2 weeks.

Found so far:
- Almost brand new LX front mech. Already fitted to a bike and working
fine.
- Bontrager 700c front wheel, needed 5 mins with a spoke key to true it. Now on my dad's racer.
- LX rear mech, perfect except for a missing bottom jockey wheel. Soon to go on my girlfriends bike (using the existing slightly shagged mech's jockey wheels)
- 2 sets of decent skewers - Shimano XT and Bontrager
- Replacement wheel for my landlord's very old Raleigh MTB. It needed a 6 speed wheel.
- And today, a set of slightly foxed but perfectly serviceable XTR HTII cranks 8)


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 4:52 pm
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'KIN 'ELL!

Well done! 🙂


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 4:55 pm
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And today, a set of slightly foxed but perfectly serviceable XTR HTII cranks

Quite the Scavenger Gourmet! 😉


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 4:56 pm
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Ehhhhhhh?????

This I HAVE to try!!!


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 4:56 pm
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Whenever I look all there seems to be are bent old wheels and tyres without tread - 🙁


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 4:59 pm
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You need to dig past the crap and down to the gold 😉

It has amazed me what's in the boxes!


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 5:05 pm
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I watched staff at my local focus diy place smashing up loads of perfectly good stock (mostly a big pile of toilet seats as it turned out) with hammers prior to skipping it recently. There was two of them, one with a hammer and one with a clipboard tickign a box each time one was smashed.

I asked them why and they said it was 'company policy' to stop people doing bin diving...


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 5:13 pm
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....they said it was 'company policy' to stop people doing bin diving...

Ooooh, that makes me mad!

I saw similar goings on at a kitchen supplier I briefly worked at. Perfectly good cabinets and worktops being destroyed.


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 5:17 pm
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You need to dig past the crap and down to the gold

It has amazed me what's in the boxes!

The really good bits are probably stashed there so one of the staff can come and liberate them later, often given a bit of cosmetic damage so they don't look new or partially dismantled so they can be recovered in 2 trips.
I spent a over 10 years working in car/bike accessory shops and Halfrauds and have either sacked or seen sacked several people for doing this.

On the other hand I do have 2 really nice hardwood steamer chairs that were about to be skipped by the Homebase that was next to the Halfords I used to work in, apparently someone spent over £600 on hardwood chairs and a table, then discovered that one of the chairs had a softwood back so took the whole lot back and demanded a refund, he was given one and their policy at the time was to skip returns.


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 5:30 pm
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I'd say these were definate throw-outs. All the bits were dirty as hell, and not easily dug out. WIth the XTR cranks, I found the drive side, and then spent 5 minutes looking through a box of old chains and cables (got filthy doing it!) The rings are toast, but the cranks are fine, if a little scuffed.

A lot of stuff I imagine isn't worth the effort to clean and/or fix up, especially if the person owning the bike wants it sorted ASAP. The shop'll just chuck out the old bits and fit new ones, rather than having a fettle.


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 6:25 pm
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those who used to use Dave Mellor cycles back in the early 90's

would be familar with the Dr Knott box...... crap saved for jonjo knott


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 6:27 pm
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These are the XTR cranks.....

[img] [/img]

Bit of spit and polish, they'll be lovely 🙂

Now who does 102 BCD rings, or am I going to have to dremel some normal ones. Buggered if I;m paying through the nose for real XTR rings!


 
Posted : 05/11/2009 7:20 pm