[Closed] Hoarding worn-out bike parts

It won't be useful until a week after you throw it out and need that small unique bolt that was on that one individual and now unavailable part.

None of this will ever be useful, right??

I tried to fix a 7-speed bike last month. Had to upgrade it to 8-speed because I threw out all my 7-speed stuff years ago. Now I'm out of 8-speed stuff, will have to start dipping into my 9-speed emergency stock for older bikes.

I have a hoard of used parts stored in a tesco crate too.
Great minds think alike!!

Only one tesco crate?
This was my corner at a bike jumble.
20 years of hoarding
Its about half of what's hoarded in various locations.

Only one tesco crate.
The rest is in the loft.

Phil_H pah you're not even trying!

I "fixed" this habit by starting replacing things early- so instead of having a pile of worn out crap, I now have a pile of actual usable spares, albeit with not much life. It's been incredibly useful this last year with stuff being hard to find.

As for reducing the hoard of crap, I managed to improve that a bit just by having good scrap bins- it feels way better to say split a mech into steel and plastic and recycle it nicely than it does to just bin it, better still to split off the nonferrous metal. (I kind of doubled down on that by starting doing some metal casting so now every bit of "junk" I can tell myself is a bit of raw materials for a pour, but I've got to be honest and say this has mostly been a way of turning junk metal into wasted money 😉 )

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thols2
Free Member

None of this will ever be useful, right??

I tried to fix a 7-speed bike last month. Had to upgrade it to 8-speed because I threw out all my 7-speed stuff years ago. Now I’m out of 8-speed stuff, will have to start dipping into my 9-speed emergency stock for older bikes.

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I've got an unused 8speed sram chain and cassette if its of any use..

and loads of bars, some seat posts, worn out cranksets. Saddles, really really need to sort it, maybe, one day!

Well the feeling of chucking it actually feels better than hording it. You just have to trust me on that.

I’ve a crate or two of scrap parts. They do get rummaged through from time to time looking for that extract something. Usually don’t find it
As for just about useable parts my plan is to somehow find the time to rebuild all the old 26” frames I’ve amassed and then most likely continue to not ride them. At least it might feel like all those parts aren’t messing up the place ..

Suddenly my hoard of around 50 spare 29er tyres, from Maxxis and Schwable. All of 3c or Addix - now make total bargain sense.

All bought for about £30 each. They're now like £60 *if* you can find them!

My spares pile has just grown a bit thanks to some extremely generous STWers donating some parts through one of my previous threads.
I started building and rebuilding kids and adults bikes over the past couple of years and giving them to local people that need them. It gives me something to do in my lonely days, it's also a way of me being able to give something back but mainly I find it very therapeutic so it helps me a lot mentally too.
Spares are always handy to have and usually needed here.
And yes, they are in tesco crates as well 😂

Ive sold pretty much all my old and unused kit in the last couple of months - it's help fund some top end parts on my new frame.... I've also give a Tesco's crate of tools and things like spare headset spacers, puncture repair kits to one of the local bike charities and I've still got a garage filled with stuff....

In preparation of buggering off I've spent last week sticking stuff online.

Old Avid brakes, random stems, bars, uncomfortable saddles, pannier rack, wheels....

It's crazy how quickly it's gone. Although, to be fair, I stuck most of it on at silly low prices to get rid of it, but it's gone!

I have loads of crap that suddenly becomes really useful at times. Like the extractor set for my old On One Reetard cranks. Just wish I could remember WHY it was useful 🤔

Also have a service kit for my 32mm Revs made from old pipe and a bit off a trouser press.

But yeah, loads of bits besides that. Need to do a clear out but present conditions mean I'll be holding on for a bit, not that desperate to sell some of it.

It won’t be useful until a week after you throw it out and need that small unique bolt that was on that one individual and now unavailable part.

this.

i recently gave a couple of bikes and parts that were clogging my cellar to https://www.cyclistsfc.org.uk only later the following week did I realise one of the parts was a barely-used 9-speed XT cassette I should really have kept for my son’s slipping shifts this week. Oh well. Better that the parts are used than sitting doing nothing.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! I don't just have one crate, I also have a pile of old rims and trashed forks behind the garage. I really should get rid of those, although one of them is my first upgrade MTB fork, and the other is the same from my now deceased buddy, and I don't have the heart to do it.

That's just the totally worn-out stuff. I also used to have an enormous stash of old half-worn parts. I happened to put a mis-matched crank on ebay one day, and when it sold in a few days, I realised I had a bit of a parts goldmine and eventually funded my latest mountain bike. As the parts shortage continues, I dig a bit more, and am still finding stuff to put on ebay. I've sold some half-worn 8-speed road cassettes in the past few weeks!

@Northwind - that's an interesting-sounding hobby. What metals do you forge? I assume alu. That is more the kind of thing I was expecting to do - make some decorative items, or use the metals to make something else.

I “fixed” this habit by starting replacing things early- so instead of having a pile of worn out crap, I now have a pile of actual usable spares, albeit with not much life.

😂😂 I'm not sure that's a solution, as then I'd have piles of parts I'd definitely never throw away!

Suddenly my hoard of around 50 spare 29er tyres, from Maxxis and Schwable. All of 3c or Addix – now make total bargain sense.

Ha now that's commitment. I have the usual stash of 10 or so half-worn tyres that I'll get around to wearing out, one day.

I've not got much compared to you lot but the worn out bike parts I have kept for several years are completely coated in 90%-black grime if that counts for anything?

twrch
Free Member

😂😂 I’m not sure that’s a solution, as then I’d have piles of parts I’d definitely never throw away

Yeah but the difference is they're useful parts you're not throwing away, instead of worn out old shit for a bike you don't have any more!

I haven't done a lot of the casting yet- I have a 3d printer so I can print shapes then use that to create a sand mold. Aluminium's a bit shit to pour, for decorative stuff but I'm hoping I can up my game a bit and make functional parts instead of just flat things.

Mostly I am just a little bit addicted to turning scrap into ingots at the moment, very satisfying. And they take up less space at least!

It won’t be useful until a week after you throw it out and need that small unique bolt that was on that one individual and now unavailable part.

Gave away an old marazzochi fork to bike recycle charity place.

Old marzocchi fork, that I still use, broke a tiny spring. The spring has not been made for 10 years or so. The bloke who fixed it had to have one custom made. This took some time. Months in fact.

The fork I gave away had the same tiny spring that could have extracted in 10min.

Ho hum

Isn't the game to try and build a new(old) bike out of your spare parts? This is why I have about 5 more unnecessary bikes than I need

This week some of my long-retired parts at the bottom of one of my brake spares crates* came in handy for fixing one of our neighbours’ bikes. The following day four bottles of beer were kindly delivered to my door 🙂

* yeah, I’ve got just a little bit more than one Tesco crate. More like a Tesco van.

I don’t keep any old parts, just a small box of screws/ bolts/ etc from the parts I have previously used that may be required. I have one bike, full XT, so only need very few bits unless something gets really trashed then I replace as necessary. Baffles me that people have so much stuff laying around (I’ll include multiple spare tyres also there …)

If it’s old but serviceable it goes into a box in the loft for a rainy day. Some of it is now becoming useful for servicing my kids bikes.

Does having every issue of Singletrack from numero uno count as hoarding? 🤔

When my sister was 18 she had a boyfriend into bikes (incidentally this is how I got into MTBing). She thought she wanted to go with him so she scrounged old bike parts off the boyfriend and all his MTBing mates and managed to build a bike. This was the early 90s so stuff was expensive and as youngsters they didn't have a lot of money unlike middle class STW 😉 Because of this, on the full bike she ended up with every single component was utterly worn out, it was a disaster.

I had a big clear out a couple of years ago - from 3 tesco crates down to less than 1. There were worn out chains, headsets and bottom brackets from the 90s, broken cranks, brake blocks, metres of used brake outers and all manner of stuff I would never use again.

Anything half decent I stuck on eBay - including a load of 9 speed stuff.

Now I find myself needing a 9 speed shifter (I got rid of an LX, a couple of Deores and a Saint 🙄). So if anyone has a cheap, working 9 speed shifter for my station bike - I’d gladly give you a few quid.

Does having every issue of Singletrack from numero uno count as hoarding? 🤔

I've taken to offloading a dozen of them every time the paper bin goes out.

Ha, I used to do that - e.g. keep the old worn cassette I'd just replaced.
Eventually the penny dropped that all I was really doing was introducing a lengthy delay before they went in the metals bin at the tip. These days I just cut to the chase and take them on the visit to the tip.

Because of this, on the full bike she ended up with every single component was utterly worn out, it was a disaster.

I know that feeling! I lived in the US for a while, and got really excited by all the shops selling 2nd hand bike parts. What I didn't realise at the time was that they were more like a walk-in version of my bike junk collection, and built a bike entirely of parts bought there. It was utterly miserable the entire time I owned it.

I’m hoping I can up my game a bit and make functional parts instead of just flat things.

@Northwind - keep us updated if you do make anything functional, I'd be really interested to see how it works out.