Bicycle hoarding really can be for the greater good...

[badgercat]

A college classmate recently moved to the city where DBF and I live. She and her husband are a one-car couple, and unfortunately, her bicycle was stolen today. Since I got my Jamis, I made my Trek my daily commuter, and my mixte has been sitting in the living room looking pitiful. So, I mentioned that I had an extra bike sitting around--and would she like to borrow it to get around until she can replace her bike? Why yes, she would! I had been thinking about selling the mixte, but I think I like this "having a lovely-but-wasn't-a-huge-investment bike around to lend out" thing much better. I just hope she won't feel put off when I suggest she use a u-lock anytime she's not riding it. (we do have one she can borrow).

Has anyone else been able to use a personal bicycle collection to help someone out in a pinch? I'd love to hear other stories.

[inkspot]

A student in my lab decided to stark commuting by bike to save money. She tried to find a bike on the local message boards, but nothing came up that she could afford. Because I, too, hoard bicycles I was able to lend her my Trek Navigator for a few months. She enjoyed it so much that her extended family all got together and bought her one for her birthday.

I'm all for bike hoarding - you never know when one of your bikes might need major repairs or when a friend might want to try cycling for the first time. I would be lost without a backup!

[Cataboo]

I was building up Scar to be my commuter/beater when my Mom expressed an interest in having a bike - she rode him to work for abut 2 weeks before deciding she wanted to keep him.

More recently, my BF's cousin something removed has moved in with him for this semester to go to university. He doesn't have a car and R's house is really not all that close to the city and a few miles from a metro station - so when we asked what the cousin's plans were to get to the metro or school, he said he was going to ride his bike. Dave's a sweet kid, 19, super enthusiastic, but he is like 6'4 with size 14 feet. He's a big guy. So we went to another cousin's house to pick up Dave's bike and he carries a walmart huffy up out of the basement. R said "no, that's Sara's (the 7 year old daughter of the cousin's house we were at) bike, go get yours" Dave started insisting "THIS IS MY BIKE"

I looked at him, and said "Dude, that bike's too small for me and I'm 5'1"

At which point, Dave started getting insulted, 'cause apparently he'd saved his money from his first job in high school & paid $70 for the huffy.

R & I were just staring in disbelief and cracking up. Repeatedly. Poor Dave really should find a nicer cousin to live with.

But we got it home, I told R to go fix it - because it was pretty obvious that hte front wheel was banana shaped. Apparently both wheels were badly out of true, so Dave had just loosened the brakes so they wouldn't rub - which also meant, they didn't work... He just stuck his feet on the ground to stop. So he eventually got the wheels trued, but it didn't change the fact that the gears really didn't work, the rear hub was shot, and.... It was like a 14" huffy that a 6'4 guy was riding.

Dave proudly locked his huffy to the lamppost out front - R's brother stopped by for a visit and said "Why are you locking that **** up? Noone's going to steal that bike" Which put Dave into a huff on why we were all down on his huffy. I'd given him my bike helmet with a suggestion he use it and he really did ride that huffy for miles. He had an accident a few days later skinning both his knees.

I had an old steel giant that I'd rescued when I saw a free to a good home sign on it, very large frame - so probably a 6' + person. I'd rescued it for my brother in law, who saw a pic of it and said "I'm not riding a peewee herman bike" and I just stashed it waiting for a better home because it was a nice steel frame with fat 700c tires. I brought it over to R's, replaced the cables, greased things up a bit, and had R tune it...

We stuck the seat about half way up, and made Dave ride it. He got upset when we still wanted to jack the seat up, wanting to know why he had to be so far off the ground. He did admit that it rode a bit better than the huffy, and I stashed the huffy in the garage...

A few nights ago, DAve wanted to go to 7-11 at night, didn't want a ride, and after the ribbing about what he needed at 7-11 in the middle of the night that he didn't want us to give us a ride for, he rode the giant away... He came back like 20 mins later with a flat...

The sidewall of the tire was ripped out, the front wheel was all warped - and R set to truing it and I ordered a new 700x35 tire because we didn't have any large tires spare. And we told Dave to ride the huffy for a couple days.

That tire comes in today, but Sunday night Dave was sitting there saying "Man, I didn't realize how bad that huffy was till I started riding the other bike. I saw my reflection in a window and I look ridiculous on it, I'm like 3 times as big as it, and I'm on it all hunched over and just panting trying to make it move. How did I ride that???" R & I were laughing so hard, we were in tears.


Our spare road bike is on loaner to R's friend at work who was going to do a triathalon or something, but he's had the bike since february. So it needs to come back, and I think it'll get loaned to my brother who wants a road bike. It's sort of borderline too big for me, but borderline too small for R - but we got it for a good price, so it just stays around for a just in case bike.

[Roadtrip]

Wow Cataboo, that story had me in stitches. I used to have a friend who would somehow FIND stray cats and couldn't help herself. She'd take them home and feed them and find good homes for them. It's amazing she didn't turn into some kind of cat horder or something, but she managed to find them all homes.

Good job on the good bike karma your passing around!!

Shannon

[pinkychique]

I was dating a guy a number of years ago who's dad hoarded bikes. Now I'm just as much of a hoarder, and he was talking about getting rid of his Specialized Allez Epic just like this :
http://scotland.inetgiant.co.uk/Edin...ws-300/3147667

I said I would take it, then never really had the need or reason to set it up, so it sat in the garage for a couple years. After a year of no longer dating the guy, my best friend was needing another bike because she mucked hers up in a crash and couldn't afford a new one. I polished it up, put new cables, chain and the derailleur that it needed on it and gave it to her. The components are such that it would probably retail for $1200 if I wanted to sell it, but now my best friend has a sweet bike that rides very smooth

Hoarding does come in handy!

[azfiddle]

My husband was the recipient of a "good karma" bike. About 6 or 7 years ago, he wanted to start bike commuting to work. At the time, I didn't actually take him too seriously, and didn't think he would stick to it. (What did I know? He proved me very wrong, and look at me now) We didn't have too much extra money to spend on a bike, but a friend mentioned that her father had passed away and had left 6 bikes. One was an older Miyata touring bike. She just gave him the bike. He rode it for over two years- thousands of miles, before acquiring other bikes he wanted to use for commuting.

It was such a generous gift, and made a huge difference in his life. We recently passed the bike on to another friend, and just asked that she return it if/when she stops using it or decides to replace it.