Good roadside find.

[StudEbiker]

Yesterday as I was coming home I saw a nice looking wheel and tire/tube sitting near the sidewalk looking like it was set out for the taking. I stopped and saw that it was a Rhyno Lite rim with a Shimano DeoreLX front hub. I was a little surprised that someone would just be giving it away and there was no sign so I knocked on the door and an attractive woman came to meet me. I asked her about the rim and she said it was her boyfriends, and she was pretty sure it was for free, but she didn't want to give it away in case he came back and wondered why the hell she gave his wheel away (good girlfriend!!). She said she would find out and if it was for free she would put a sign on it. Well I figured by the time I got back if she put a sign on it it would be gone, but as I was coming up the street this evening the wheel was still there and it even had a sign with my name on it saying it was free for me to take. Nice! 8)

 

[dnmun]

way cool, i always ask too when it seems too good to be true that people would just throw the stuff away, or give it away, but they do. thanks for small favors.

 

[Zoot Katz]

Good score!
Another good thing about the Xtracycle is you can usually just toss your lucky trash into the FreeLoaders.

I couldn't believe somebody was throwing out an industrial grade aluminium folding saw horse.
The Chinese guy who answered the door didn't understand much of what I said.
When I showed him the object of my enquiry he gestured to take it away with the only words I understood, "Free. Free. You go"

On the way to the store one night a few years ago, I noticed an unlocked bike standing by a garbage bin behind an apartment building.
On the way home I stopped to check it out. It was basement fresh.
Dust, flat rotten tires, broken cable and a broken plastic toe clip were tell-tale signs.
Otherwise it was a fairly respectable hot-pink and white mid-range Shimano equipped road bike.
Traded it for the Scott XC bike and sixty dollars to a neighbour who wanted a road bike.
The sixty bucks covered what I'd spent on its repairs and upgrades so the Scott was essentially non-profit so free.
Now it has become a money pit trying to get it electrified.

Best roadside find this year was last week.
A nice pair of genuine Ray Ban sunglasses to replace the recently broken Christian Dior knock-offs I'd found last year.
I've also found a good quality 12mm stubby combination wrench, a five and a twenty dollar bill since January.

The best find ever was finding big gee god at the top of Jackass Mountain after ten days in the saddle and sleeping on the ground.
We're all just cosmic mud made of the space dust and water that we share with every other living thing in the universe.
That might have been satori but I still had twenty miles to pedal before dark.

 

[AussieJester]

I have had some good finds this past two weeks myself as we have council collection on up in the hills (its a pretty wealthy area) I scored two Pentium 4 1.8Ghz WORKING PCS! a sony and a AWA dvd player both with remotes BOTH working a digital setop box with remote WORKING hydro foot massager as new WORKING Magnalite Torch mini still with batteries WORKING glass steel l"l" shaped computer desk like new, sold it on Online Market within 15 minutes of listing it for ~AU150 LiL kiidies electic ride on Jeep WORRKING had flat battery and steering wheel cracked also had charge with it (mates niece is the proud new owner and YES haha was 6v 8ah SKA we threw in 2 12v 18ah SLAs it flogs long now LoL Assorted steel two bicycles (mate Matt (1000watt picked up mid 1990 track bike (road racing) in mint condition (no wheels) has sourced wheels online now has complete original bike worth 3k back in the day. Always amazes me what people throw out up here absolutely LOVE council collections up here i get all the steel and bikes i need in the bi-annual collections to support my habit hahaha

Nice score on the wheel got pics....of the hot chickie babe i mean not the wheel heheheeh


KiM

 

[StudEbiker]

I wish Kim. Real sweet girl, sweet voice, nice smile....and wearing a ridiculously tight & short skirt. A few more tattoos than I normally go for, but they worked for her.

 

[AussieJester]

I wish Kim. Real sweet girl, sweet voice, nice smile....and wearing a ridiculously tight & short skirt. A few more tattoos than I normally go for, but they worked for her.

:: Homer J Simpson style Druuuuuel:: ... i honestly think you should return to the house camera in hand and get a shot of her for us all! c'mooooon Stud live up to your Nick take one for the team LoL

KiM

 

[dogman dan]

Ive found a few tools in the road that I'd never have paid the high price for. One was a crescent wrench 20" long. The really handy one was a pvc pipe cutter that cuts up to 2" pvc. Like finding a 50 dollar bill in the road.

Here we have grappler day twice a month when the city comes and takes big trash. It can be a big free garage sale if people are moving or cleaning out a garage.

 

[Lock]

Just wish to add a plug for Freecycle here...
http://www.freecycle.org/
tks
loCK

 

[StudEbiker]

I definitely use freecycle here in town too. Missed a bike trailer awhile back....that would have been one of the best things ever, but I have gotten some good things.....like a brand new Ryobi Jigsaw, and a nice set of Bose speakers.

 

[AussieJester]

DAMN what a brilliant idea, dont think it would fly as well in Australia simply due to less densely populated area...
We have free sections in a couple of newspapers put out for advertising stuff you wish to sell but there isn't usually
a great deal of bikes in there mainly wood and timber and other building materials OH and garden sheds always a few garden sheds with the obligatory wording underneath "bring trailer and tools to disassemble yourself and remove" Owners just too damn lazy to do it themselves LoL

KiM

 

[Zoot Katz]

Today I was in OCB!.
The three decent frames I'd donated earlier this week were hanging on the ceiling hooks with price tags.

Eighty dollars for the 531 Trek 510. $100.00 for the Sekine Tange butted cro-mo frame with fork and collectable headset.
They'd been rescued from a frankenbike butcher's bone-yard when the city told him to clean it up.

The Univega mixte cro-mo frame and fork with BB was marked $120.00!
Jesse laughed when I told him I'd bought the Univega there ~9 years ago for forty bucks.
The nice triple crank it came with got used in another project.

I'd not be surprised to see the frames soon gone and the bikes built up this winter.
If OCB! can take in $300 from my cast-offs, plus what they'll make on the parts needed to complete the builds, I'm happy to help them pay the rent.

The fourth frame was a generic aluminiuim hardtail that is worth its weight in scrap. I've got another one of those for their alloy re-cycling pile.

 

[amberwolf]

Just wish to add a plug for Freecycle here...
http://www.freecycle.org/

That's where my lathe came from.

Plus a handful of bikes in varying condition, and indirectly got me a pile of wheels including the only freehub wheel I have. I even got one of my dogs from there, poor girl. The dead treadmill one of my better motors came out of was also from FC.

Often enough, it's not the stuff posted as offers there that I actually want or get. It's the stuff people post as wanted, that triggers me to ask them "what are you doing with the old broken one?" that gets me some of the best bits, because so few people want anything that's broken that almost no one offers those things up. So i pretty much get sole pick of that kind of thing, if I'm interested in it and they didn't chuck it before posting the wanted ad.

 

[jag]

While I haven't found a bike for myself yet, I have bikes lined up for my now 5.5mo baby, a toddler 3 wheeler to start with and two different kid bikes. In AB she can legally motor an eBike at 12. Guess there are still some years to go. Otherwise I mostly find scrap wood. Just made a child high chair from some nice pieces of Mexican fir someone had thrown out from their designer kitchen build. Nice interesting grain pattern and a bit different in color from US/Canadian fir.

Otherwise the place with the most findings I lived in was New Haven. As one of the most depressing cities in the US this may seem counter intuitive. (In fact three of the ten poorest cities are in Connecticut, one of the richest states in the country) However in New Haven one could easily find all of life's necessities. (at least as a student) Some international students had their whole apartment furnished with street findings.

 

[AussieJester]

Went out Sunday Kerbside is on in the neighbouring suburb to mine...picked up 2 push scooters (using the wheels from
it for the stabilzers on new bike im building) along with a kids BMX bike and a smaller ladies bike and several sets of 24/26in front and rear wheels (i went out soley to find 4 front hubs to use in my custome girder fork im plning to make...SCORE!) ...also got a pedestal fan
for the workshop (looks new!) a nice little power adapter 240input 15v 3amp output shall see how it goes on 48v running my linear actuator mate Matt uses similar for his 12v lights and it works a charm Also picked up 3 ornamental type tables (selling these in my siters second hand shop) Hope to get out again in few days the suburb the collection is in is on the escarpment of the darling ranges City Views from most houses dont need to tell yout the cost of a block alone there let alone the 3 and 4 sotrey houses that go on them makes one feel extremely poor driving around there but damn they chuck out some good shit LoL....

KiM

 

[Zoot Katz]

. . . City Views from most houses dont need to tell yout the cost of a block alone there let alone the 3 and 4 sotrey houses that go on them makes one feel extremely poor driving around there but damn they chuck out some good shit LoL....

KiM

Here the high-rate payers seem to toss out nothing but crap.
I think they donate the good stuff to charities so they can get a tax write off.

 

[dnmun]

sometimes the richer they are the more they throw perfectly good stuff away. free stuff is pretty universal around here, a small world of sharing culture, a commie redout here in portland.

my fav finding was in a dumpster around the corner from me here. it was some diamond earings, and the front fork i offered zoot was in the same loot, actually a car full of stuff from there. and bedframe was the square tube type , so it will be so special. but my fav in this load was a fancy plastic shoe horn from some ritzo italian loafers, and so now my new fat shoes will just slip off with it so i can take my shoes off without unlacing. small things. and a huge box of incense, years supply for me. aquarium, fancy hoover and all the attachments and vacuum bags and even the original instruction manual, set of golf clubs, forgotten the rest filled the honda wagon, gave a bunch away, including a fancy scuba goggle to my tenant as she left to move to amercian micronesia so she will be snorkeling soon. fancy israeli scuba goggles.

just across the street from where that dumpster was, 2 years ago the roofing guys had let me pull off the unused sheets of plywood they threw in the dumpster when they finished cutting everything. i dragged it home on the roof of my honda wagon and used it to make the roof of a woodshed. the rafters for this woodshed were the last of some 20' long 2X4's i picked up at the wood recycling place. dumped my old wood and picked up 24 brand new 20' long 2X4s laying in a pile that i could pull out, and put them on my truck and left. they didn't care. i used them for a fence around my yard and my neighbors yard and buncha other stuff, that alone was worth about $200. anyway the roof from the trash plywood is 8'X22' and covers a buncha my firewood and as much other stuff as i can get under it. i think aussie jester knows what i mean.

i have had people give me truckloads of free firewood, just 3 months ago i did a search for some plywood on CL here and turned up a free load of full 4X8 sheets of OSB, 8 sheets all free. used most of it already for my little bike and scooter carport.

people who don't have the nerve for dumpster diving have missed the real underside of modern culture. people throw everything away. heaters, fans, bikes, everything. my neighbor gave me a collection of tiny screws which was just taking up too much space, passed down by an old man at his church who had been a cabinet maker for 50 years. these screws were all still in their little boxes from the 30's, all antiques, nickel plated screws, all for tiny fine cabinet facades, all in assorted boxes such as little #2 screws 3/8" long, and 4-40 threaded machine screws, 1/2" long, all antiques, still in their boxes. it is hard just to find space for the stuff that you find it becomes self limiting, you gotta give something away to make space. hehehe

 

[Grinhill]

I joined the local Newcastle Freecycle list last week. I think it might take some practice at trawling through the daily list in an efficient manner, but if it turns up something useful it's worth it.

 

[AussieJester]

. i think aussie jester knows what i mean..

Absolutely do mate, Kerbside collecting is one of my absolute favourite activities it cost very little (fuel for the car)
you never know what your going to get thats half the 'excitement' i think, bit like fishing i guess? Serioulsy if your never
gone for a scout about do it! its a whole lot of fun i been doing it for yearsmy living area is entirely decked out
with kerbside cosres my computer desk HUGE corner desk (along with 2<--Pentium 4s of my 3 PCs) 2 high back and one low back office chairs..my lounge... my 4 throw rugs.. my fridge.. tables.. shelves.. chester draws and wardrobe ALL from curbside all in excellent condition and cost a few hours of FUN to get.I haven't paid for ONE SINGLE bicycle since i started the e-bike builds either not a one and i have had at least a dozen FULL BIKES plus parts... In all the times i have been out not once have i been abused for collecting (although technically in WA it is illegal) what i do see is HEAPS of like minded people from the "pros"in tray back trucks and towing trailers to the families out in their car..
One thing i can suggest is have a "wish list", write down what your wanting on paper, i find this cuts down alot of time, if you dont see what your chasing in a pile have a quick look but move on to the next.VERY VERY rarely d i have never come back empty handed without something from my list.

people who don't have the nerve for dumpster diving have missed the real underside of modern culture.

I wish we had dumpsters about like you fellas do in the states they are more a rarity here, business have them but keep them paddlocked
after hours/weekends to stop people getting into them and throwing crap all over the place, inconsiderate assholes spoil it for the rest of us yet again... I have to satisfy my collectors urge with curbside scavenging thankfully theres usually one on most weekends in one suburb or another in the metro area and i have the list !!! hehee..Collecting is stage one of most of my projects HAHAHA gather parts start building LoL

One persons trash is another persons treasure!

KiM