Police Bike Auction - Report

Attended a bike auction yesterday. There were about 200 bikes up for sale
and perhaps because it was a cold and snowy day there were less than 50
buyers. Observations:

All but 2 of the bikes were department store models. Prominent names:

Supercycle
Infinity
Dunlop
Schwinn
Huffy
Murray
Free Spirit

The majority of the bikes had steel rims, drivetrains that needed a complete
replacement, stuck gearing and chains made of solid rust, seized wheel
bearings etc.

Interesting that the first and last time I attended a police auction (about
15 years ago), the dominant type of bike on the block were 27" wheel
10-speeds from the 70's bike boom and relatively unused 700c wheel bikes
from the 80's touring bike boom/bust. I saw only 3 road-style bikes for
sale. Mountain bikes appear have completely taken over the low/mid market.

Bid prices ranged from $25 to as high of $300 Canadian Pesos at the very
start. Initial prices were about 1/2 of new, as the Type-A bidders
scrabbled against each other to "win". Bid prices were directly
proportional to the number of speeds on the bike. The auctioneer pushed
hard the bikes that had 24-speed drivetrains and the useless suspension
found on the current generation of X-Mart bikes.

Non-suspended bikes were sorted and put at the end of the line, presumably
because the expectation that they would have to be thrown away.

I only saw one bike that was even slightly interesting, a
cosmetically-challenged Ritchey rigid mountain bike from around 1987. XT II
groupset in reasonably good shape. The front wheel was sitting next to the
bike. It was one of the 5 or so bikes that had quick-release wheels, and
someone had popped both quick-releases. Because of this, the bike was
likely categorized as be "broken" by the sales staff, and therefore placed
at the very end of the line with all the really really bad bikes. Bikes
that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
vehicular homicide cases...

Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
waiting in a pretty depressing environment.

Total time at auction: 15 minutes.

Dave Mayer wrote:

Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
vehicular homicide cases...

Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
waiting in a pretty depressing environment.


I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
some rebuilt wheels.

--
My bike blog:
http://diabloscott.blogspot.com/

Diablo Scott wrote:
Dave Mayer wrote:

Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used
as speed bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the
riders... Perhaps this is why these bikes were at a police auction.
Evidence from past vehicular homicide cases...

Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted
to spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2
hours of waiting in a pretty depressing environment.


I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
some rebuilt wheels.

At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage. I used to do that when I worked in Healdsburg and the
county dump was a 5 minute car drive away. It turns out that California,
home of the self indulgent and often overpaid, has a number of people
who just throw out a perfectly good bike rather than bother themselves
with a yard sale or something that might hurt their image.
I had to pass on some rather expensive bikes due to limited trunk space
and it hurt to think that a $500 bike might just become scrap metal
because it was 4 or 5 years old and not shiny enough.
Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
against the whole Darwin thing.
Bill Baka

In article , says...

Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
against the whole Darwin thing.

I wouldn't complain. It is those folks that make it possible for other
folks to get really cheap, or free, stuff.
---------------
Alex

Bill Baka wrote:


At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage.

I've been known to at least yank out the shimano-style quick releases
from bikes in the metal pile at my local transfer station - no shame in
that.

Oh wait...I did actually salvage an nice 80's Fuji that looked like it
was just walked out of the bike shop except that it had no wheels. I
plan on turning it into a singlespeed and seeing if some aspiring bike
messenger will take it off my hands for a few bucks.

Hi Kyle
What is a local "local transfer station"?
Sorry for quote style, John

Kyle.B.H. wrote:
Bill Baka wrote:


At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage.


I've been known to at least yank out the shimano-style quick releases
from bikes in the metal pile at my local transfer station - no shame in
that.

Oh wait...I did actually salvage an nice 80's Fuji that looked like it
was just walked out of the bike shop except that it had no wheels. I
plan on turning it into a singlespeed and seeing if some aspiring bike
messenger will take it off my hands for a few bucks.

I got at least some of my odd assortment of cranks and chain rings by
way of a crank puller tool that I kept with me. Just getting a few fully
changeable cranks with 3 gears to mix and match made it worth the
bother. Better than Ebay since I got to look and see if it was worth the
3 minutes and $2.00 for a good Shimano set. Where do collectors' items
come from? Collectors like me. I only have a Schwinn Super Sport and a
vintage early French Motobecane by chance of finding them. Sure beats
yard sales.
Bill Baka

On 12 Jan 2005 19:28:45 -0800,
wrote:

Hi Kyle
What is a local "local transfer station"?
Sorry for quote style, John

Dear John,

"Solid Waste Transfer Station
Local citizens and haulers bring trash, recyclables, and
yard trim here. Material is then delivered to its
corresponding facility for processing."

http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/sw...ferstation.asp

Basically, it's where you drop off trash and it gets sorted
out. A front end for a garbage dump. A dump with a Phd.

Carl Fogel

wrote:
Hi Kyle
What is a local "local transfer station"?
Sorry for quote style, John


It's for towns run by do-gooders who a) don't want unsightful trash cans
outside their pristine neighborhoods of million dollar homes once a
week, and b) probably want to teach the residents of the town a lesson
about how much trash we create. So every household, big and small, young
and old, treks to the transfer station with trash cans in their trunks,
instead of paying waste management to hire one truck and 3 garbagemen to
do the job much more efficiently. Oh, and it still costs us $150 a year
for access to the transfer station.

But at least I get free bike garbage once in a while!

Kyle

Kyle.B.H. wrote:
wrote:
Hi Kyle
What is a local "local transfer station"?
Sorry for quote style, John


It's for towns run by do-gooders who a) don't want unsightful trash cans
outside their pristine neighborhoods of million dollar homes once a
week, and b) probably want to teach the residents of the town a lesson
about how much trash we create. So every household, big and small, young
and old, treks to the transfer station with trash cans in their trunks,
instead of paying waste management to hire one truck and 3 garbagemen to
do the job much more efficiently. Oh, and it still costs us $150 a year
for access to the transfer station.

Dear Kyle:
Not.

That is, transfer stations need not involve all the mess you describe
above. Our county has a transfer station. It also has curbside trash
pick-up and curbside recycling.

At our transfer station, one can dump stuff that's too big for the
garbage can, recycle a vast array of materials (e.g. bulk scrap metal,
car batteries, old computers, etc.). Nonrecyclables go from there to
the county incinerator. It's also where the curbside pickup goes (I
gather; it's certainly big enough.)

In short, a transfer station *can* be where the trash is *transferred*
from the private haulers[1] to the county incinerator crew.

Haven't seen much in the way of bikes/parts there.

[1]Around here, garbage pick up is run by multiple private haulers, who
get a monopoly from the ?city? ?county? for each sector of town.

Mark "do gooder sometimes" Janeba