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

[arielmoon]

I am on the receiving end of the equation and I am very grateful! My attorney is a mountain bike racer and he insisted that I borrow his "old" bike so that I could find out what the big deal was. I have had to wait to get more healed from my accident but I will be out on the trails more this fall and winter.

Yay for people like you!!!

[Cataboo]

So in the further adventures of Dave - he rode the bike like 10 miles to go see a girl he had a date with. He got there, she told him she was too busy or something, he rode back home - hit a gulley and crashed, ripping up his hands (I told him to wear his gloves)

A few days later, he came home and had somehow bent the chainrings on the crankset. R hammered them back flat.

This morning, he rode one of the commuter buses into the city with it, got off the bus, and the bus took off before he could get the bike off.

So, in 2 months or so - 2 crashes, 1 ripped tire & warped wheel, 1 set of bent chainrings (????), and a missing bike.

[Melalvai]

My daughter's bike that is too small for her, and my husband's bike that he has not ridden in over a year came in really handy when our nieces & nephews were up visiting one day and I took them all to the park. The older 2 stayed home by themselves and I distributed the younger ones on all the different bikes plus one in a trailer and we had exactly enough and more or less the right sizes. We still have those 2 bikes "just in case"!

[colorisnt]

I wish I could show my mother these stories. My father and I are bike hoarders and this summer, we took in a bunch of "orphans" to fix up. Our garage was bike-laden to the brim.

Mom said, "Get those bikes out of there!", so we tried to sell a couple. Couldn't. So, we ended up giving them to the organization that I was working for this summer that has a family involvement dept. A lot of kids got some great bikes. One got the nicest one and is now commuting to and from school (which is a big deal because he lives in a really low income area and his parents don't have a car). It means that he now has independence and can ride. Last I heard, he is loving the bike.

[Cataboo]

In the further misadventures of Dave, he's had a few more crashes and started riding the huffy again - when we asked why he said the front wheel needed to be trued. He apparently demanded $40 and got it from some car that cut him off and forced him into a ditch.

The front wheel, is a little bit beyond truing and I think shall become wall art on my shed:








While I do have a spare front wheel, I'm inclined not to put it on that bike because anyone that can do what he's done doesn't deserve to ride anything more than a huffy. Especially if he can't pick up the other part of the brakes after a crash.

[badgercat]

Oh. Wow.

For what it's worth, my friend still has my Raleigh, and has made no mention of trying to replace her stolen bike. It's not like I was riding it regularly, and honestly the extra space in the living room is nice... but since it has been over 3 months now and it was just supposed to be a temporary arrangement, it would be reassuring to get some kind of "can't afford to replace my bike yet, thanks again for your help" acknowledgment or something just so I know my lovely mixte hasn't gotten jacked too. Ohh well.

[woohoo]

In 2004 our Scout group went to Germany for 2 weeks, about 45 of us. For months and months before the German Scouts we were visiting had hoarded bikes, scouring local ads and freemarkets, and fixing them up. When we arrived they had made sure that every one of us could borrow a bike and a lock (we brought our own helmets!) The bike collection was eclectic at best: some had brakes that were big rubber pads which pressed onto the running surface of the tyres, many were pedal backwards to stop, and many were bodged together with incredible skill. Almost all were older than me! We absolutely loved it though, and for 2 weeks were able to zip around en masse in the sun, able to explore loads of places we'd never have been able to get to without bikes. It was absolutely phenomenal, and I'll always have a great appreciation for the benefits of bike hoarding!

L

P.S. Mine was a mixte which was down to one functional gear and which rode over on the rim every time I leaned over too far, but continued straight on whenever you turned the handlebars! By the end of the trip I could ride it on grass or gravel with confidence though; bikelove at its best!

[Biciclista]

we have loaned out bikes a few times already to young engineers in my office who want to participate to the bike to work month challenge. The same has been done for other people, both visiting us and including an intern at my office who wanted a bike for the summer.