dweenk

I think you did the guy a favor. His hobby must have become an avocation, then an obsession, and then a burden. He is now rid of all of that and has a clean garage and basement as well as a working heater and garage doors (not to mention a happier wife).

merziac

Today's catch



Anybody have a big one to trade?

Vcycleta

https://www.flickr.com/gp/142311368@N04/671v9X
Late 1980s Bianchi limited can’t figure out date
1980s Univega Viva sport
1970s Dunelt rust bucket

oldlugs

Maybe so but at his age, all he gained was a place to park his car and maybe his lawn mower.
Both he and his wife were up in years, my guess was he was no longer able to do what he had been doing and had given it up some time ago. I suppose there was a long period between when he last worked on bikes and when he finally decided to let it all go. I sort felt that my stopping that day may have been what helped in that decision, as all he was doing up to that point was tossing a few wheels away in the trash. But I also can't stop thinking what he may have thrown away before I noticed the parts that day in the trash. I hadn't gone by that way in in months.
I may have missed dozens of wheelsets that I never knew about?
But of course, if never asked if there were any other bike parts, I'd have only had what I pulled from the trash those two days.

His wife was ecstatic about it all being gone, she was giving things away too, she gave me one of the most extensive cook book collections I've ever seen, over 200 hardcover books.
He also gave me a couple of old outboards from the 70's, a 9.8hp Mercury that looks like new, and an old Gale 25hp. He said the boat got crushed years ago when a tree fell on it, the motors have been sitting ever since.

When I asked him which of the bikes were his personal rides he said he never was much of a bike rider, he preferred four wheels. I suppose that's the best way to be when it came to a business, I was always told never to make your hobby your business because you will eventually get sick of doing it and you won't enjoy it anymore.
I think he liked to tinker and build bikes but somehow never became an avid rider. I think maybe he saw them more as art than transportation.

Years ago I cleaned out a lot of bikes from a guy up north of here, I hauled away a two car garage full of old balloon tire bikes and parts. I had met the guy after buying a bike off him on eBay for almost nothing. The guy said he was done with bikes, and just wanted his garage back. That deal wasn't free but I didn't pay much at all for them. I left the man with a completely empty garage, he was thrilled with the fact he had all that room again. Three years later, I was back there cleaning out twice as much as I had the first time, he packed it the second time with even better bikes and parts, but again, nothing spectacular.
Five years after that, he called me again, this time asking if I'd come empty his garage again. This time it was full of a combination of old road bikes and garden tractors. It turned out he was an auction junky, he'd buy this stuff for almost nothing, tinker around with it till he got tired of it or till he ran out of room, then dump it all and repeat.
I don't suppose he paid much for any of it but he liked the thrill of winning an auction. I asked him why he didn't just return all the stuff to an auction and recoup some of what he paid but he said none of it would bring enough at auction to justify his time. He didn't value any of it anymore than the few dollars he paid for it at auction.
I haven't heard from him now in over 10 years now but he'd be well into his 80's now too. I guess there comes a time in one's life when all the things you collected over the years just don't matter anymore.

Although the lot I just moved was free for the taking, I have yet to tally up what it cost me to move, but I've got four days pay to four helpers, plus fuel, and the cost of several extra dumpster loads at the shop to consider. I've probably got close to $2500 in all of this, maybe more.

Scottybigs 

I've got the same bike, except the green colour. Check out @randyjawa 's website mytenspeeds.com, he has a full profile on this bike. Worth restoring!

oldlugs

I did some more digging after I got home today, there's a lot more here than I had first thought. A lot of parts got loaded that I didn't see during the big move. There are quite a few plastic shoe boxes that are marked with bike models and years that contain all the new take off parts from those bikes, shifters, derailleurs, brakes, BB and HS, chains, freewheels, etc. There are also a few tubs full of French only parts, Stronglight and TA cranksets, BB, HS, and pedals, Simplex derailleurs, (mostly Presige and Criterium series), some Huret parts, and a few sets of French threaded rear hubs.
There's a load of Raleigh parts, most are marked Super Course or Comp. There are cases of rims, just about all adult sizes. I found more than a case of new Rigida 27" rims for a Peugeot UO8, several boxes of 'Baretta' branded 26x1 3/8" chrome steel rims made in Italy, several misc boxes of various road rims, and four boxes of vintage Araya 26" and 700C MTB or comfort bike rims. There are two cases of Michelin Dynamic in various 700C sizes. Most are 25 and 28mm. I counted over 50 new Maeda and Suntour freewheels, a few Shimano freewheels, several complete sets of Shimano 600 EX components, some Dura Ace and 105 road hubs, new Tange headsets, several boxes of complete BB kits, and more wheel sets I over looked before as well. There seems to be roughly a half dozen sets of 27" Rigida 1320 rims matched to Miche Competition hubs, and some more matched to early Dura Ace hubs.

There's a few boxes of sealed bearing, used Lambert hubs in 32/40 hole.
I found one whole tub with nothing but the running gear for 1978 Raleigh Super Course's, enough to assemble about 5 or 6 complete new bikes if I have the frames here somewhere. I know there's at least two, but I didn't load them all myself. One steamer trunk the guys hauled down from upstairs in his garage was full of Torrington spokes from the 40's and 50's. It must have taken four guys to get it down the ladder and in the truck, and the same to get it upstairs at the shop.

I think I'll still be finding surprises here a year from now, I only opened about four tubs and a few dozen small boxes and I can't believe all of what's here yet. I didn't even get to the boxes I tagged and marked not to bury yet. These were just a few that were on top in the last load.

Most all of the better items are in plastic bags, inside zip lock bags. I didn't open every bag, but I think enough shows through in the pics for most to get the idea of the scope of what this guy had. I'm absolutely amazed at how well he tagged and stored most of the better items. I'm also shocked at how many wheels and hubs he had for wheel building, he must have built a lot of wheels at one point. While there's some rims in these pics, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to new rims. These are just the open boxes and mixed boxes he had down around the work area, he had sealed boxes of various size rims upstairs I didn't even crack open yet.
I also found a cardboard drum, roughly 40 gallon size full of used Normandy hubs, it got loaded and stashed behind a cabinet at work, I never even saw it till today. I also still haven't even really begun to go through the towers of milk crates full of used hubs, used brake calipers, used stems, bundles of fenders, rear racks, used handle bars, and saddles. There are two full 15 gallon oil drums full of just seat steel clamps. He had squirt bottles full of bearings of each size on the work bench, and 5 lb boxes of bearings in each size to refill the squirt bottles with. I found brand new 3 speed hubs branded as Sears, SA, Suntour, and Shimano. There is one full tub of new New Departure model D parts, plus a half dozen brand new hubs that likely have never seen the light of day. I found wholesale order sheets and receipts as far back as 1952 along with many vintage catalogs for parts. The shear number of some items is mind boggling, he must have bought in bulk when he bought parts, making sure he bought enough of any one item to last a lifetime. There is also a case of 35-597 26x1 1/4" Rigida rims in 36h, and another of the same marked Made in Italy but labeled Joannou. There are four cases of various Araya alloy rims, several loose Araya steel rims, and some Ukai rims, most all 27". The only 700C rims I found are Weinmann concave in both 36 and 40h and some 35-40mm wide 700C single wall rims for city bikes. Once I get some of this sorted, I suppose I need to inventory it and mark its location or I'll never find it again in this mess. For today I was just flipping open boxes and snapping pics so I have a rough idea what's all here.

At this point, the hardest thing to wrap my head around is the fact that he gave this all away, I can't imagine myself getting to the point where I just tell a total stranger to just take everything. I suppose there comes a point in life when you realize you just can't take it with you. I suppose if you could, I'd best be buying a bigger truck or two.

Here's a bunch of pics of some of the better items I found today.
I'll back off on the pics for a while here, I feel like I'm taking over the thread a bit with all this.

1- Baretta 26x1 3/8" rims (I wiped one off for the pic)
2- Misc 27' rims
3- box of handle bars
4- Early Dura Ace hubset
5- SR 110mm Stem
6- Weinmann and Raleigh Scripted CP calipers
7- Lambert sealed hub pairs
8- Riveted leather saddle
9- Misc French bits
10- Cloth bar tape and chrome counterweighted road pedals
11- Nervar alloy crankset
12- Raleigh engraved crankset, (Super Course etc.)
13- Stronglight 93 crankset and BB
14- TA Crankset
15- Tourney cranksets
16- Suntour Cyclone kit complete with barcons and cables (Marked Super Course/Moto GJ)
17- Wheel reflectors
18- SR pedals
19- Simplex derailleurs and parts
20- Suntour Cyclone GT
21- Ross Gran Tour NOS wheelset
22- Dia Compe side pull calipers
23- Rim strips, Titlist frt derailleur
24- Maillard rear skewers
25- Maillard front skewers
26- BMX BB, brakes
27- Atom pedals and barcon shifters, box marked Raleigh SC New take offs
28- French threaded freewheel, red cable casing, made in France, Suntour Cyclone GT, box marked Moto GJ
29- 27" Rigida 1320 rims, NOS
30- BMX cranks and misc front chain rings for 110mm.
31- Selle Royale leather saddles, (I'm finding these all over the place in various tubs and boxes).
32- Weinamann 27"
33- Shimano hubs
34- Shimano LF hubsets
35- Atom LF hubsets
36- Misc Headbadges
37- more Headbadges (there are boxes of headbadges, most sorted by country, new and used).
38- New tubular rear rack for touring or road bike
39- Misc. Shimano Nexus bits, (found a few new Nexus hubs too)
40- Box marked new take off parts from Ross Super Grand Tour

oldlugs

I had to post one more, I found this in one of the buckets of new forks, I don't think I've ever seen a 304mm steer tube fork before. The threads aren't long enough to cut the thing down much either. I'd like to see the bike this fits.
The fork reads Akisu butted tubes on the label. It looks like a replacement fork but most have more threaded area so you can cut to fit but this has barely enough threads for a thick headset. The blades measure 367mm to axle center.
I also can't imagine what size person would ride such a bike.

vintagebicycle

I've had a few really tall Fuji and Panasonic bikes from the early 80's that used 300mm or longer forks. A buddy rides a 69cm Fuji that he's had since new, he's 6ft9. I seem to remember seeing a 72cm frame once in a Schwinn dealer, not sure if it was a Schwinn or other brand but the head tube was massive.
Those big bikes bring a premium around here, not so much that buyers need a big frame, they just seem to prefer big bikes. I sold a 66cm Panasonic DX1000 last summer to a guy that was no more than 5ft1. He coudln't even get on the bike without getting along side a porch or tailgate of a truck but he had to have it. Each time I find a larger bike, he buys it. He can't even reach the pedals without getting off the saddle and 'reaching' down with each leg side to side to pedal. Akisu was Tange or Champion tubing. If someone damaged a fork that size, the one you have there may be their only shot at getting the bike back up and rolling again. Those are super rare these days. Especially if that's for 27" wheels.

oldlugs

I found these in a box of goodies from that clean out last week
Suntour Perfect, Maeda 888, and Suntour Pro Comp cogs.
This explains why I found two boxes of new freewheel bodies in one drawer cabinet.

mech986 

I for one would foresee a lot of interest in the Suntour freewheel parts for us guys with similar freewheels. Did you find equivalent spacers and lockrings?

2cam16

Today's haul from a lady in the City that was giving riding up for now because she needs an upright hybrid type of bike. So she offered all of these to me for free.
2006 Dolce
90's Yokota Tuolumne
Mavic Race pedals
a Novara bag
IMG_3301 by 2cam16, on Flickr
IMG_3316 by 2cam16, on Flickr
IMG_3323 by 2cam16, on Flickr
IMG_3324 by 2cam16, on Flickr

thumpism 

There's a saying in the motorcycle world that there's nothing more expensive than a free motorcycle.

mountaindave 

You have one now!

roughrider504

Do you plan on selling any parts? It'd be cool to build a frame with some parts that were saved from a landfill. Those stories are the best!

oldlugs

At this point I'm not sure what my plans are for the parts and all the bikes.
I did let go of most all the complete, lesser model bikes this morning. I made a deal with a guy who builds bikes for charity. I got some nicer bikes worth keeping, and he got a huge volume of bikes that will allow him to distribute more bikes over the next few months. Most weren't in that bad a shape but they were just cheaper bikes with no real value to anyone other than a person looking for cheap transportation.
Most of my end of the deal included older Raleigh three speeds and a few mid range road bikes. Either way, I'd rather store 25 better bikes that need some going through than 600 crap bikes that will just sit around and get rusty. It frees up both larger trailers and half of one room upstairs at work. I also let him have nearly all the Wald baskets that were in this lot which were taking up a ton of space.

My first plan is to take an inventory of all the parts, which is proving difficult since the parts are grouped by what bike they fit. He labeled each storage tote with a bike model and number, and did the same for the wheels, frame, forks, and handle bars. The problem is he stored all of them in different areas, meaning as they got moved, they got packed away separately as well. I have frames that are numbered, I found note sheets where he inventoried the parts and made a list of what each bike needed with apparent plans to put it back together one day. I assume he left them apart to save labor but I think he also may have lost track of how many were apart. I've been able to group the parts for about 35 bikes together so far, so I'm optimistic that most all the frames will have matching parts bins and wheels as well.
So far the frames without tags have had no tagged wheels or parts tubs. So that tells me he hadn't planned to put them together or had used those for parts. I also found one of those black Composition books like kids use in school with a list of every wheel he built dating back to 1951. He wrote down the hub, the rim, the cross count, and spoke length, and the bike it fit and the date. It spans from 1951 to 2002 with a few extra pages left. So it makes me think that's about the last time he actively worked on bikes. However, the latest auction receipt from a local auctioneer shows he purchased 21 misc bicycles for $18 in 2009. So he kept buying even though he wasn't working on them any longer.

mountaindave 

Wow. I got clued in to this story by the wheel storage thread. It’s fascinating and deserves its own thread. We’re interested in following along with the saga!

Hudson308 

Sounds like you cut a deal that will help you reduce a decent chunk of the inventory you didn't care so much about.

If this hub and rim information is detailed enough, I'd be interested in photocopies of it. In return I'd be willing to load it all in an Excel spreadsheet for sorting/sharing. It may be useful as another database for spoke length.

grasscutter

Frequent reader, rare poster:
Had to comment, and say 'good on you', for the doing the elderly gentleman house & garage repairs.
That's a cloud of good karma, all (including me) can do with having a few more over our heads.

tiredhands 

Heck yeah, that's fantastic! Even if they are lower quality, to think about 600 bikes with baskets being given out to people who need transportation is pretty amazing.

oldlugs

My basic idea in the trade was to not let a bunch of still useable, or as least easily repairable borderline department store bikes just rust away under a tarp or such. I didn't have permanent storage where I could take my time to sell each one separate, nor did I have the interest in doing so for a bunch of bikes that wouldn't likely bring more than $20 each if priced to move quickly. I traded them for a handful of decent bikes I can fix and either use or sell for better money. Considering that most of the bikes go to kids, he was happier with a bunch of cheap ten speed road bikes vs. the small lot of English three speeds.

There's a lot of info in his note book but a lot of it is redundant in that most all of the 26" mtb or cruiser wheels all list 10 1/2" or 10 5/8" spokes, which is usually the case when building older wheels as well.
Most of the other info is just variations of old standard combinations. Most brand hubs share similar diameters and therefore end up taking the same spoke lengths.
There already is an excel spreadsheet program out there called Spocalc that does this.
If I get the time, I'll page through his notebook to see if there's anything I haven't seen before but most are variable combinations of various common hubs and very common rims. Most of the road rims he built were all the standards through the 70's. Weinmann concave, Rigida 1320, Araya 20mm, Ukai, Ridida steel, Araya 20mm Steel, and most of the Schwinn and Raleigh OEM rims. There are some rims he listed that are odd but the spoke lengths are common. Just a quick flip through the book in the beginning he listed over 30 wheels all built with New Departure Model D rear hubs and an equivalent of the Schwinn S-2 rim he lists as a Crown Replacement steel wheel in 26x2.125". Considering the 100 or so boxes of 10 5/8" vintage Torrington spokes I found, it looks like he built this combo quite often back then.

ed b

I found this frame in a swap meet in san diego.
I do not want to sell it, rather I want to trade for a smaller one of the same class

Trading 90's road bike frame and aero fork custom made Andy Gilmour size 59, not bent or hit, it has paint chips
It has dropouts, bottom bracket and fork Campagnolo chorus
Frame and fork steel is Columbus SLX

Trading for a same kind of frame size 53 or 54

Hudson308 

You might want to add this to the "Frame Doesn't Fit" thread in the "Sticky" section near the top of the forum page.

ed b

Correct, it seem to fit in catch of the day but will follow your comment

Lascauxcaveman 

Certainly fits both categories. Pretty interesting trade bait for the frame swap subthread. I'm surprised there isn't a "Show Us Your Gilmour" thread yet. Someone with a complete bike should start one. Small volume builder, but all good work from the five or six I've seen posted here.

I've never seen a fork built quite that way; pretty cool.

merziac

Kinda looks like an inverted mutation of 3Rensho fork, definitely pretty cool.