Hey,
Just wondering if any of you guys ever post wanted ads in your towns looking for old bikes,frames etc.... I also was wondering if anyone just drives the local neighborhoods in search of the goods. I was driving through my old neighborhood spotted a house with a few newer style bikes, but also saw some old frames off to the side. I was gonna stop but........ya know one of those things. So maybe tomorrow I will actually do it

I always slow down when I see a pile of bikes. Knock on the door worst that could happen is they say no.

one of the frames I seen looked to be a old looptail. I gotta stop by there!

Leave no stone unturned.

Be polite.

Don't do anything illegal.

Carry cash.

Be ready to make an offer when they say "it's not for sale...but how much would you pay for it?"

Get a bill of sale.

If they won't sell, or if they want too much, say "thanks anyway" and give them your phone number.

Good luck!

I got this Race Inc. by yelling to some kid who was riding it down the street. It took some courage, and I had to call the kid's dad, who actually owned the bike. But I think it was worth the effort!

yeah, the frame is chrome and appears to be partially spray painted. Is that easy to remove? Also it doesnt look like it has any decals/stickers. how would I go about identifing who makes it?

Post some pics someone may be able to id it. There is also some stuff you can buy to remove spray paint. I think it is call Graffitti gone. I have used it it works pretty good on frames. Just don't rub too hard it can take the other layer off.

Cruising the hood story. I was with my mom and sister looking at a house my Neice just bought. We were driving down the alley and passed a pretty rundown looking garage. I cricled back around my sister said what are you doing? I said I saw a bike back there. We drove back by and you could barley see the forks sticking out. My sister said how did you see that my mom replied he can see them anywhere. The bike was a beat up old mtn bike.

haha, great story. I have been catching myself looking extra hard at peoples houses/garages.

So heres my update................Today I stopped by the house that had the couple frames just laying there. I was gonna a few days ago but I just couldnt get the guts to do it. You know its just one of those things you normally wouldnt do. So today I said what can i lose? So around lunch time I drove over there, a kid answered i was real straight forward with him. He looked at me first like WTF?? But he told me the frame was a 82' Mongoose and it belonged to his roomate that was not home at the time. So he told me to return tomorrow and figure something out. I hope, I just hope the kid gives it to me. I mean these guys are straight new school street riders.

Hey RadRacing! I live in Bozeman and I cruise all the back alleys on my bmx looking into backyards and old garages. I haven't come across anything yet, but someday....

When I was living in Seattle I would walk the Queen Anne neighborhood during my lunch breaks and eventually I stumbled across a garage that looked to have a couple of old bikes hanging up. I finally caught the old fella' living there while he was out gardening and asked him about the bikes. He was thrilled to get rid of them having been unsuccessful at many garage sales. One was a stock Webco and the other was a nickel Cook Bros. w/european bb, original tuff neck, z rims, and comp II's. That was a killer lunch break! Oh yeah!

JP

Whoa thats pretty sick!! you gotta love places like that!! Yeah i still havent gone back to the kid's house.

I found a Hutch sitting in front of a triplex in the hood. Watched it for a few days, finally saw a mexican guy coming out of the house. He spoke no English! I grabbed a 20.00, pointed to the bike, and the deal was sealed!

yay second post

anyway
just today i saw an old malvern star on a sidewalk so i took it
i couldnt be botherd asking or anything because it was quite early in the morining
not sure if its any good though because i dont know much about these old school bikes

anyone wanna tell me model year and whether its good or not?







just ask for more pics if you need
thanks
john

thief, you stole it.

I gotta say thief on that one too.

well
it was outside on the curb with a whole bunch of other junk
on a curb collection day (a day when the rubbish man comes to collect junk)
and so i assumed that it was their 'junk'
so to me it wasn't stealing
but does anybody wanna help me out with model n stuff?

Put it back!!!! It needs a proper burial!!!LOL

It sounds like you stole it. Maybe you should go back and find out if it really was trash or not. Go to the home where you found it and knock on their door and talk to the people. Find out if they meant to throw it out or not.
I doubt anyone wants to help you on this site if you are perceived as a thief.
Good luck.

One time I was driving home from work (on the day before a trash day) and I see a cop car parked in front of this house. Well I slowed down to gawk and was distracted by 2 torker head tubes sitting on the curb with a bunch of trash. I didnt stop cause the cop was there, and figured I would have had words with him so I made the block a couple of times. Came around the third time and the bikes were gone. Someone had bigger balls than I and snagged 2 torkers. I was pissed.


I dont know, I have to call fair game. Where I used to live we would put out trash out the night before cause the garbage man came really early. It wasnt uncommon to come out later in the evening or early in the morning and have someone digging through your stuff.

I tend to agree, especially if it was sitting amongst other rubbish. The first few feet of property is owned by the city, so if it's sitting there like that it's fair game in my eyes.

I am a meter reader for the gas company. I've been doing this for 2 months now. I have found a 82-83? Schwinn Scrambler, 87? Diamond Back Hot Streak, and a 85-86 Hutch. I could tell the Hutch was a daily rider for one of the kids at the house, so I took a late mdl. DB Viper that I didn't want over there and made a trade for it. We both came out very happy. I had always wanted a Hutch. The next on my list is the Scrambler. I don't think it's worth alot, but never the less a cool old bike. It'll be the oldest one I have if I get it.

There's probably many more bikes out there to be had. Never hurts to stop and ask.

The father of the Hutch kid said he was co-sponsered by Hutch in the early 80's in CA.

City clean up day, is like a swap meet in all the towns around here. There are a whole lot of people that take the day (or 2, lol) off work to go drive around the city that is having clean up day.

They take his junk, he takes their junk, she takes his junk...

I was going to grab an early 80's Schwinn 10 speed down the street (because it had a Sting headset on it...Continental???) last fall. But I didn't want to deal with the rest of it. The next day, I saw the local strange-o trying to lash it to his orange safety vest or something, to carry it home while riding his giraffe bike. A few days later he had his high rise bars on it, and 3 foot long seat post on it, (The dude's like 10 feet tall, lol) and he was towing a new kiddie trailer he must have found, which was also full of stuff.

Around here, people start putting stuff out on the curb a couple of weeks early, in hopes that it will go away, and get used, before the clean up guys get it.

City clean up day (week) , is fair game in my book. (But the way you wrote it, sounded kind of shady.)

My kid's favorite bike is from one of those cleanup days. A friend of mine grabbed it and brought it over. A 90's Gary Fisher F/F/Bars. I dolled it up with an OA bath, and some polish, added some cool parts to it, and let him take it to his Mom's house (since she clearly won't buy him a good one). ...He has a Red Line, and an 05 Sting, both loaded. His favorite bike? The one that came out of the trash....Duh....

About two months ago I saved a chrome Torker from a scrap metal truck for $10! I found one early Hutch for $40 at my local flea market. I also got another early Hutch at the same flea market about a year ago for $5, just missing the wheels(Pro and Tuff equipped, and Maxy cranks) Neither one of the Hutches had serial numbers. And now today, at the flea market, I found a Mongoose Californian(according to MCM) for $20.,,,,OS

Never really been lucky with trash picking, and that flea market has landed me several nice old road bikes. My other love, which I dare say is stronger than BMX bikes. Hehe....

I didn't go looking but, here is the story behind this find. I was sitting outside on the deck having a smoke with the girlfriend. Then this kid (he was 18 or 19)rides by the house, and I said to my girlfriend "Look at that a old school bike with tuffs". (our deck is on the side of the house) After he is out of our view, I hear this crash (badly put together bike crashing to the ground). So I go over to him and he is complaining that this bike is such a piece of @#%^. He said he could buy a new bike from a old man that fixes bikes out of his garage for 20 bucks. So I reached into my pocket and handed him a 20. Here is what I ended up with.

I found this 77' Gold anodized FMF Team Replica on the side of the road. It had a 24' front wheel & forks on it with a 20" rear. It also had a Huge front basket and a bunch of crap parts and covered with La Habra, CA bike shop stickers and random others. I caught a glimpse of the gold anodizing and knew right away it had to be either a FMF or Race Inc.
Back in 77' This was the Best of the Best. It has found a new home with "Papawheelie".
http://bmxmuseum.com/bikes/fmf/1456/1
Looking for a 70's DG
& 78' 79' Mongoose
76' Scrambler
77' White Lightning (no gusset) even though mine broke in two at the headtube in '79
Looking toreplace my old rides.
And of coarse any pre 81' Redlines, always wanted one and still lookin'
Alright then.

Poor kid. Good thing you liberated that Torker decked out with Skyways w/ Campy hubs!

My best scores so far are an '88 Mongoose Decade Pro and an '86 Diamondback Super Viper, both mostly original, complete, dirty and a little rusty but both cleaned up nicely. No pic of the 'Goose (unfortunately), I quickly parted it out for some good $$ but I kept the Super Viper, she's my daily rider until I get my '08 retro Quad setup: