Bike collection - disposal advice

[simonineaston]

A friend lost her dad recently, after a short illness. Pa was a keen cyclist, right up 'till his illness and had a modest collection of quality cycles, spares and memorabilia. Do readers of this forum have any advice about disposal of said items? Friend is keen that the collection should go to somebody, individual or agency, who will benefit, and doesn't like the idea of simply offering them on Gummers and eBay.

[Cyril Haearn]

You could contact the cycle museum in Llandrindod Wells

[gloomyandy]

There are several cycling charities around that take bikes and pass them on to people just getting going. My local one is streetbikes
http://www.streetbikes.org.uk/recycling_project
not sure if there is one near you?

If the bikes are of a high quality some charities may choose to sell them on rather than pass them on and will then use the funds to help with other activities

[pwa]

Advertise them on this site and donate proceeds to a charity?

[simonhill]

More info on the bikes would help.

When my mate died he had a reasonable stable of bikes. I had to value them and then distribute or dispose. What I found was that there was very little of financial value. This included his Hetchins which people on here valued at not much more than 2 or 3 hundred quid on the open market, even though it had been his pride and joy. The only one that was really worth anything was a fairly new Surly LHT.

Our local ReCycyle centre take bikes and bits, as said above, worth trying to find your local equivalent.

[tatanab]

If I assume he was a member of a local club then they could be given to the club to be sold or donated to the benefit of the membership. I've put that in my will along with associated parts, tools and books.

[Stradageek]

If you are in Bristol, I'd give everything to these guys:

http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/

They look like they'd make sure everything was used to support cycling and cyclists

[drossall]

Get help from someone who knows bikes. A local club may be a good source. Or, give us some more information - the manufacturer and model names on the bikes would be a start.

If you're looking to donate, some advice has been given - there are charities that service and distribute bikes to worthy causes here or abroad, and/or use bike maintenance as a worthwhile activity in itself for those who could benefit from the training.

If you're talking about quality bikes that you want to go to someone who will appreciate them, it matters whether we're talking about recent ones, or those from several decades ago or older. (In a small collection, there could be both.) Recent bikes sell like anything else, for maybe 60% of the purchase price, depending on condition, rarity and whether you're lucky and just happen to find a buyer who is looking for that exact size and model. Ten-year-old bikes sell for less, obviously, again like anything else.

There's currently quite a thing about older bikes (from maybe thirty years or more ago). There are special events and rides for them, and a certain nostalgia around the traditional steel frame; bike technology has shot forwards in the last few decades and nearly everything has changed. To sell those, you'd probably do better on somewhere like Retrobike, but advice from someone who knows bikes would still help. For the same reason, classic parts are really sought after; the rapid changes in technology can make it hard to get spares to build up or repair that classic machine. There are people who would cry if they found out that you had binned a load of classic Campagnolo spares.

If you mention roughly where you are, someone here might be willing to help. Your judgment, of course, but anyone with a large number of posts tends to be an established enthusiast and worth listening to.

But contacting a local club is still a good idea. Or the local group of this organisation.

Sizes are essential in selling bikes and, among enthusiasts, a centimetre difference is significant in whether a bike will be a good enough fit to be worth buying. On modern bikes, there's often a label but, if you don't know how to measure*, at least an indication of the former rider's height would help.

* What they fail to make clear there is that you're measuring along the tube (the red line), NOT the vertical height. Modern bikes tend to have sloping top tubes, which makes sensible measurement confusing, because the slope can vary. Manufacturers now variously quote the actual tube length (ignoring the slope), which is nearly useless, or the equivalent size if the tube were horizontal, or some random number plucked out of the air. On a sloping frame, try measuring the actual centre-to-centre length of the top tube, which gives a measure of bike length. Notice that seat tubes are often measured centre-to-top instead, hence C-T in the diagram.

[simonineaston]

More info on the bikes would help.

I think that's the next step - I should pop round to friend's pa's place and itemise the collection - as you point out, it's one of life's paradoxes, that a much-loved collection which formed the centre of the deceased's life and pasttime, can be seen by disinterested others as a "small pile of funny old stuff" !

[Cyril Haearn]

More info on the bikes would help.

I think that's the next step - I should pop round to friend's pa's place and itemise the collection - as you point out, it's one of life's paradoxes, that a much-loved collection which formed the centre of the deceased's life and pasttime, can be seen by disinterested others as a "small pile of funny old stuff" !

In the right hands is has a high value, even if not in cash
Plenty of us like close-up photos of old frames and parts

[drossall]

Oh yes, we'd enjoy photos

Noticing the number of posts you have, you probably didn't need to be told most of the things I said...

[9494arnold]

I've PM's the originator on behalf of the National Cycle Museum.

[barrym]

If you are in Bristol, I'd give everything to these guys:

http://www.thebristolbikeproject.org/

They look like they'd make sure everything was used to support cycling and cyclists

There's also Bikes4Africa based in Tetbury, Wilts. Mainly they like MTBs I think. They go to kids in Africa which enable them to get to school, get an education and reap the benefits for years.

[yostumpy]

really, I think you should offer them for sale on here. If they go to a charity, what'll happen, some folks will cherry pick the good stuff, maybe to sell on, other stuff might be sold on, or even end up as scrap. 'PA' was a lifelong cyclist, as indeed most of us are on this forum, and to own something that was once a treasured item of someone else, gives a rare feeling of pleasure, and 'custodianess' . His memories will carry on cycling through the items, and his memories will be shared amongst us all on this forum.

[pedalsheep]

really, I think you should offer them for sale on here. If they go to a charity, what'll happen, some folks will cherry pick the good stuff, maybe to sell on, other stuff might be sold on, or even end up as scrap. 'PA' was a lifelong cyclist, as indeed most of us are on this forum, and to own something that was once a treasured item of someone else, gives a rare feeling of pleasure, and 'custodianess' . His memories will carry on cycling through the items, and his memories will be shared amongst us all on this forum.

Nicely put yostumpy.