Bikes at the dump.......

It’s crazy, it went that way at our council skip many years ago. There is a local recycling place where they sell bikes off for a tenner but rarely anything good!

This chap *not from the place above!


was a friend of my grandparents and amassed a collection of over 400 amazing vintage and veteran bikes many I’m sure from stuff being scrapped - he was from a scrap dealing family and a really nice bloke.
 
Great story.....often wonder when you hear tales of people with massive collections of 100's/1000's of bikes, motorbikes, cars, whatever, how they come by them without being millionaires.....scrap dealers come up a lot.

We're collectors by nature...the Romans collected Greek scupltures....was ever thus.
 
Same problem with north yorkshire. Nothing short of vandalism yet a friend of mine up north says his skip people seperate stuff up and there are corners of the yard where you can buy all manner of stuff.You wonder how many antiques have gone into the timber skip. How in heavens name can it make sense to scrap a usable bike for 50ps worth of metal. Just what sort of twisted reasoning is behind that?A chap brought a pine door in at ripon when I was dumping rubbish.Asked him if I could have it and he was more than happy it was going to be re used.One of the blokes ( trying to be tactfull )came over and said you cant do that its got to go in the skip. No its not we said and left him chuntering away. Frankly its sickening
 
I think we all agree that for every one good bike there are going to be at least 10 scrappers ( More likely to be a far higher number). So the key part is that the tip keeps working and is not over flowing so must move every bike it gets in. That will be factored into the next stream buyers price.

So if you want 1 good bike are you willing to also take 10 scrappy ones and promise to put them back in the loop as usable bikes or stripped/ sorted recyclables ? Because that's what needs to happen to keep things flowing. Its not the cream that is the problem it the tonnes of dross that no one wants that's the issue.

I managed to get a Tuff Burner for free from the tip in Bristol around 1995 as a joke. I used it as a pub bike for a couple of years then gave it away just before they started selling for +£100.
 
@KermitGKona88 Thats surprising for a scap dealer to turn you down...they usualy smell coin and imagine you'd have give more than weigh in costs.

But people are weird.
I do think it had something to do with the fact they were right at the front of his truck and there was a ton of shite that needed moving to get to them... And then of course it would need to be loaded up again...
 
Went to the tip for the first time in many years, last visit bikes were £5 each as a tea fund for the staff (also anything else interesting knocking around was negotiable....) this time not so.....nothing can be sold any more and the bikes are stacked until collected in bulk (not sure by or for who..)..... anyhow, only posting this as there was a reasonable Marin sat there and a decent set of Wolber AT18s that i wasn't allowed to take no matter how much I pleaded.....so sharing the pain and also wondering what gems have been found (also lost) via the local tip. I had a few from this same place back in the 80s as a teenager....


View attachment 593768
Went to the tip for the first time in many years, last visit bikes were £5 each as a tea fund for the staff (also anything else interesting knocking around was negotiable....) this time not so.....nothing can be sold any more and the bikes are stacked until collected in bulk (not sure by or for who..)..... anyhow, only posting this as there was a reasonable Marin sat there and a decent set of Wolber AT18s that i wasn't allowed to take no matter how much I pleaded.....so sharing the pain and also wondering what gems have been found (also lost) via the local tip. I had a few from this same place back in the 80s as a teenager....


View attachment 593768
The Emmelle has gone to the right place
 
I think we all agree that for every one good bike there are going to be at least 10 scrappers ( More likely to be a far higher number). So the key part is that the tip keeps working and is not over flowing so must move every bike it gets in. That will be factored into the next stream buyers price.

So if you want 1 good bike are you willing to also take 10 scrappy ones and promise to put them back in the loop as usable bikes or stripped/ sorted recyclables ? Because that's what needs to happen to keep things flowing. Its not the cream that is the problem it the tonnes of dross that no one wants that's the issue.

I managed to get a Tuff Burner for free from the tip in Bristol around 1995 as a joke. I used it as a pub bike for a couple of years then gave it away just before they started selling for +£100.

If theres money to be made someone will be sorting the cream from the curdle...or whatever.....my main point was that some rarities might have got toasted i the meantime......actally my original maon was that i didn't get the Marin for a fiver, but sure... if they are saving them for someone who bulk buys then that person will want everything so they can make up the funds with the odd bit of cream amongst the curdle.....if i had a deal with a tip I'd be pissed if they were selling off anything decent to punters and leaving me with the junk.

Part of the subtext of the post was I was also interested to see if anyone had had any good tip finds in the past when things were more slack....


BOTM tip winner right there......


is that a scuplture....WTF is that thing with a tractor seat at the top of the pile?
 
That picture reminds me of one day many moons ago, when I was dumping garden waste at our local recycling center and I glanced up and saw a Silver Jubilee Grifter on top of a pile of scrap and I begged then to get it down for me and they flat refused🤬
 
Back
Top