Originally Posted by
cudak888
Any of them on campus? Check with the university and ask what they do when they do a bike rack purge. Many universities require students to register their bikes so when the abandoned bikes pile up and they cut the locks, they know who to contact. Some get abandoned.
Ask the city too. It's sometimes offloaded to a towing company, but there's often a public works department that sorts it out and usually ends up scrapping whatever they wind up with. Saved some seized shared bikes that way.
-Kurt
Yeah, by us the unis and the rail company auctions them, the city makes a 2 level sorting, as they operate LBSs to help people with various diabilities. They repair the repairable ones, or take apart the ones which are good for the parts bin, then the rest gets scrapped. Still 4-5 years ago there were a lot to be seen with the city"s red tag (meaning the death row, avoiding the selection process) but these days the thieves steal anything which is locked for more than 2 days, unless its a standard German 60s-70s city bike.