tips

I've just finished my latest project, a rather shabby Raleigh Medale. just a clean up and service for my nephew to use as a work bike. I am now being asked by colleagues if I can find and fix up bikes for them.

Looking on the usual sites, ebay, preloved etc I am seeing some silly prices for mass produced bikes in need of a lot of work. Yet my local tip gets loads dumped, but I'm not allowed to take any.

Has anyone had any luck prizing them out of their council workers hands?

Our local tip has a shop!

Re:

Think it depends a lot on who is running the site, either a contractor or the local council. Ours got taken over locally years ago and suddenly fencing went up all round the skips, and no longer could I have a bike for the princely sum of £2 and a packet of biscuits....

Look for the 'recycling' centres, they seem to be your best bet nowadays.

You can't get them off my local tip either. Apparently a firm comes round and takes them.

Try an add in your local paper or stick a note in your local corner shop . car boot sales is another place to look .

There is no law to prevent a Council run site from them selling the bikes to you. Ask them to quote it if they like.

However, if its privately run, they will have a company handbook that they have to adhere to.

I'll have to give the car boots a go or find a tip like hamster's with a shop.

just seems a shame loads of bikes that coud be put back on the road end up as a couple of quids worth of scrap metal

Re:

At our tip the bikes are collected by a company who have a contract with the council. As far as I know they go to a recycling centre in Leeds, where they are refurbished or broken down for spares. I believe most of the modern refurbished bikes are shipped out to African countries.
However a couple of bikes have been obtained by myself and a friend over the years. I once spotted an immaculate child's bike, perfect for my daughter. When I enquired at the cabin, the tip men said "We are on our tea break, the security cameras don't work, and we haven't seen you, so its up to you". The bike went on to be used by both my daughter's and was later sold on ebay for £20.
On another occasion a friend of mine spotted a Bob Griffin 531 racer, and managed to obtain it with a cock and bull story about his son doing a recycling project at school. The tip men had to phone their boss, but the bike was got for free. My friends son was actually only 6 years old at the time!

I also meant to say I've seen the best bargains on Gumtree and Preloved. Refurb vintage projects usually seem way overpriced on ebay. You might have to trawl a lot of car boot sales, I don't see many adults bikes at ours, usually only children's mountain bikes.

Bruce

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Another place is your local Police auction normally held at a sale room and run on there behalf by an auction company .