Aubergine 

Papa Tom

Although I prefer my commuting bike to be a dependable one, I am constantly inheriting bikes from people who bought them, never used them, knew I was into biking, and figured I could do something with them. I really like to keep some of these around for when I ride to an event like an outdoor festival and there's no designated place to lock up. I'll throw a cheap lock around a fence or something, walk away, and not worry about the bike all day. If it's not there when I get back, there's always a train station nearby.

My best find, so far, is a classic Tomos folding bike that I got for $5 at a yard sale.

JanMM

14 years asleep!

blue192

Hehe. Back when I was still in college I would buy 10~20$ bikes to lock outside of class. I wanted to ride a bike that would not get stolen and had to have a few of them because I kept having to repair the bikes. I miss those days.

Colorado Kid

It's only a good idea "if" you don't put a lot of miles on it. I did (What you are proposing.) back in the 70s. Went through a lot of cheap bikes fast!!

CliffordK

I'm far beyond wanting to ride that grade of junker bike.

When I was working on neighborhood kid's bikes, however, I discovered that it was cheaper for me to buy a thrift store kid's bike and scavenge parts off of it than it was for me to buy things like tires and tubes.

The one difference, of course, is that many kid's bikes are often < 5 years old by the time they get tossed out at the thrift store. So, rubber & etc can still be good.

Ancient Barn Fresh bikes can have bad rubber, and rust everywhere else... so they aren't good donors for the primary consumables from commuting.

noglider 

Yes you've lost your mind. I can tell you because I've done the same. My kid's bike got stolen, so I went to the police auction to see if it was there. It wasn't, and I brought home three bikes. I gave one to my daughter, one to my wife, and fixed up the third and donated it. Then I picked up some more bikes, fixed them up and donated them to needy people. Then people started dropping off bikes, and my home was a mess. Word got out about me, and the NY Times did a story about me. Word got out farther, and people asked me to sell them bikes, so I became a bike flipper. The clutter was bad enough that I nearly qualified for the Horders TV show.

I no longer flip bikes or fix them for other people. I own nine bikes that I call my own, including a tandem that my wife and I ride. I have a few leftovers that I've been meaning to pass on. I have three to commute on in my city apartment, one at my mother in law's place in Florida, and three in the country location (including the tandem). Keeping the tires and brake pads fresh can get expensive when you have so many bikes. I'd say try to keep it down to two or three bikes, or you become like a cat lady.