Fetching

Road trip!  My father, bless him, is now helping feed the family addiction.  A friend of his from work offered us a group of bikes that his kids and grandkids have abandoned in his yard.  Off we went in the little red thunder truck (no exhaust, lot-o-rust).  Keep in mind, most situations like this are usually nothing to get excited about.  Most large bicycle groups like this tend to be half ruined, cheap Wal-mart bikes.  Nothing against some of the Wal-mart bikes, but there are some high end that you rarely see in store, and then the really low end, that everybody buys.  Anyway, I expected the typical odds of 1 for every 10, that is one good find for every ten boat anchors.
Upon arriving, I was much more happy and surprised.  A Schwinn Breeze, another Sears Daimler, an 80's Murray 10 speed, a 10-speed Niitaka, a lugged Free Spirit 10 speed, and a non-lugged free spirit 10 speed (a cheaper later production).  There was a few more in the mix, a few cheapies, and some very stripped out frames, but not a bad haul.  Most were girls frames, with exception of the Murray, and the cheapies.  My girls once again win out.

The Blue Giant and the Greedy man

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.