One afternoon, we were out on the back roads heading to town. We passed by an old salvage yard, and out front he had some bikes leaning against a tire pile. When we pulled in, the owner came out to greet us, and we began the ritual conversation. He soon revealed he had more in piles around the yard, and off we went to dig. Several old rusted, split frames from ice, half crushed, or other horror images were found. In the whole lot we found one that the frame only had potential. He wanted $200 for it. It was a murray cruiser, that had no surviving paint. Tires were gone, rims rusted through, and only parts of the fenders hung were they were bolted on. One side of the handlebars was rusted completely off. Despite the rust, the frame seemed solid. My thought was to use it to convert another womans frame over, but with considerable work in cleaning it up, and out (the inside of the tubing). There was no way it was worth 200.
I have run across this before though. Some old farmers or salvage guys would assume let a bike rot to death than sell it for anything less than what they assume such an antique treasure is worth. I have gone to great lengths to show some of them what the value is from blackberry browser. They just won't budge.
On our way out of the tall grass and dying bikes, I ran into a mens Schwinn Traveler. It was a tall frame, more so than I could use, and the rims were actually bent into flat spots or twists. The old guy laughed at my stumble and said, "hell, you can have that one." So I did. Maybe it was out of spite, or maybe the gears in the back of my mind were working faster that they could tell the front, but we loaded it up and left.
The frame was actually in pretty good shape. Again a very tall frame. So we have it hanging in the Ant cave for another day when it may need to donate parts to another project, or become usable again. I have two daughters, and God only knows when the time comes and they get married maybe there is a tall guy in their future. Well, we got him covered.
Every once in a while, I stop by and chat with the salvage guy. My hope is that eventually I can wear him down on his pricing. I have at least convinced him to store some the bikes under an eve of an out building. If not for my sake, for the next two wheeled hunter that comes along.
