TIOS

Today I crossed paths with a Silca Pista pump for the amazing price of $4.00. It had a nice #30 Presta brass head and the gauge goes up to 230 PSI. Got me wondering about what other great discoveries have been made for a five spot or under? Here is the place to show off the good stuff on the cheap. Can you beat this?

jjmadaj

At the last cirque du cyclisme I bought a NOS turbo gel saddle for a 5 spot. Put it on CL for 75, and was offered 100 to ship to GA. Not that cool of a story or product.. but it was the biggest return I'll likely ever have.

PDXaero

Not nearly as impressive but I was happy today when I peiced together a full cyclone mk-2 front DR at the co-op and was charged $3.
It was sad that two mk2 s and a superbe pro were in the parts bin but at least one has been reconstructed.

Squirrelli

This Sugino GS crankset was only $4.



Not my picture, but you get the idea.

Cyclist0383

NOS Brooks B-17 for a fiver. But this was in the early nineties when bike shops couldn't give them away.

TIOS

One from the past I remembered... An early 1960's Legnano Super Sport for all of $3.98 + tax. The post about it in the Catch of the Day II thread (post # 1744) but here are a few photos. I hit the jackpot with this one!

Esteban32696

Like new Shimano 600 rear derailler = $ 1.00

big chainring 

Just lately on ebay I scored a SunTour 14-24 5 speed freewheel for $.99. And a Sugino NOS 49t chainring, to replace my 30 year old Sugino chainring, for $1.25. Of course shipping puts them over $5, but still good deals. Actually the chainring came in just under $5 shipped.

BigPolishJimmy

I lucked into this a couple of years ago. I didn't know what I was buying, at the time I figured it was just an old lady bike for parts. Sadly there was a bullet headlight that I thought was an old boat light in the garage on a table, it may have been a boat light, and it may have been a generator light. After looking up the bike, I went back the next day but they had already given the other stuff to the Salvation Army, I was out of luck on the light.

When I bought it there was a little exchange from an older woman and a guy about "there goes your baby". I didn't understand at the time but later as I went over the bike I realized this might be what they call a "garage queen", or if it was ridden much it was only done so on nice days, always cared for and kept inside. It's a beautiful bike. I was originaly going to flip it, but I've decided it's a keeper.

gomango

We used to find these routinely until it dawned on folks they were decent commuters.

This one was purchased at a garage sale down the block from us. It had a $25 price tag and lasted for 5 hours.

My youngest son ended up offering $4. It's all he had in his piggy bank at the time.

We tossed on some bars, fenders, and tires.

Sold her easily along with quite a few other entry level bikes when I was flipping like nobodies' business.

A friend that teaches at the University of Mn rides her to work over 200 days a year!

stien

I got ~1 free bike per week over the summer last summer. Does that count?

norskagent

over the $5 limit, I paid $10 for this stem, craigslist find:

gomango

Nice find.

Just sold one last week for 7 times your price.

YoKev

Bruce Gordon stem for $5.

cb400bill

You win.

bbattle

I'll bet he got out of there before they realized it was supposed to sell for $398.00.

Rocket-Sauce 

Does it count if it was 20 years ago? I spent the summer riding from LA to Boston. We took a side trip into Baja Mexico and came across a bike shop that catered to road racers. It was mostly low - mid range stuff so my hopes were not very high. I saw the tires and they had "Continental Sprinter 250" tubulars (what I was running on my race rig back home), but they didn't look quite right. The sidewall was more orange-tan than brown and the label was a little too bright orange, almost neon. But the price was right. It was in pesos and when I did the conversion in my head, I thought I must have made a decimal error. It came out to a little under $5 each. I asked the clerk "¿Está este precio correcto?" ("Is this price correct?") and he said "Si." so I said "Tomaré todos." ("I will take the all"). He looked at me and said "¿todos?" and I said "¡Sí!" I took all of them (about 25) and rode directly to the nearest post office to mail them home with the tires wrapped around my body bandelero style.

I used them for training tires. They were definitely cheap knock-offs, heavy, questionably "round", but were barely more than the cost of a tube.

-holiday76

i got a big copper rivet brooks pro at a swap meet for $5.

beech333

Park Tools cotter press. (Bought that with a BB lockring spanner at 2/$6, so I consider it a $3 buy.)

rhm

We used to buy Wiedemann's beer for $4.44/ case. Doesn't that count?

BobHufford

These ...

Garage sale find ("I think those are bike tools, but they are old and rusty -- not sure anyone would want them").

Roger M

Mine is not nearly as nice as the OPs, but I got this Park pump for free off of CL. Someone bought it new, and the base cracked soon after. They couldn't figure out how to fix it...

I picked it up and called park. They sent me a new base and a couple of Orings for free... It's not a high end pump, but it works good now. And for that, I would like to give Park Tool a recommendation... Great customer service.



On this one, I blew by the $5 limit by a longshot. I paid $8. the wheels are from an early 70s PX10(I saw a recent auction end on a set of those skewers...for $110)



I had to put another $75(or thereabouts) into it to get it to this stage.

auchencrow

Win.

- And Mrs OFG doesn't even post here.
(Too busy scarfing up the best deals, I guess! )

Poguemahone

Does free count?

Complete set of Campy Super Record, minus pedals. Free, given to me by ex-girlfriend.

Complete set early dura ace, free, given to me by different ex-girlfriend.

Ross Mount Hood, free from a dealer's scrap pile.

Shogun Prairie Breaker III, free from a dealers scrap pile; partial dear head Deore/Suntour XC rear hub

Bianchi Brava, free from the trash, full Shimano 105

Urago, free from the trash. Wrecked, but had a 1960s French threaded Stronglight headset, basically unused.

Various hubs and wheels, and a mess of other stuff as well. Free, trash.

Several bikes and frames I have simply given away. Free, in the trash.

The trash finds are because I have dogs and walk them in the alley. This is my best alley find ever, though:



She's a lot better now. That's right after we found her.

Moral: be nice to ex-girlfriends. Be nice to dogs.

raverson

Retrieved a couple of rusty frames from a culvert alongside a country road. An old Moto and Pug with upgraded cranks.