should i buy?

[subforry]

Steve I am cut to the core from you smiting me.  Maybe I can find my happiness again in the bottom of a bottle.

This does bring me to something I have been thinking about saying (so now I am going to say it):
I think being snobby about donated working garbage bikes it not a good for BRW or society.  Let me point out that if we sell a working used garbage bike (or kids bike) that means one less new garbage bike (or kids bike) is purchased and that is a good thing.  BRW is getting people on bikes, especially people of very modest income.  If the buyer uses the bike they will come to realize that it is garbage and  step up to a real bike and hopefully advise people not to buy new department store bikes.  Just keep in mind that once the garbage bike is made the resources are wasted and cannot but recovered.  We should do what we can to prevent the sale of new garbage bikes.

[kbpfister]

I agree with Steve, bikerowave is all about reducing and reusing, buying a new bike should be an option of last resort

[Steve Mattson]

If we get any garbage used bikes in that can reasonably be repaired and made ride-able on our end, I'm all for it.  Just look at the literal tons of Shoguns, Murrays, New-Schwinns, and Barbies we have suspended from our termite infested ceiling.

Maybe I need to back up any sense I give that I am a bike snobby.  Yes, I bike nice bikes.  And it makes me sick when I think of the crap China's slave-camp-blood-shops are producing.
But,
I'm not really interested in selling garbage to people.  I want our guests/customers to be happy with their purchase when they are looking for safe, inexpensive, used bikes.   I'd rather not sell a bike that I know is going to fall apart in a week.

Unless it's going to Burning Man.  Then, all rules need-not-apply.

Bottom line is, I want us to have available bikes in the shop which are safe, and dependable.  Not garbage that's been Franken-biked together, with only one brake up front, with derailleurs pulled off and cobbled into single speeds, with only 16 spokes used when the rim takes 32, or when seat posts have been hammered into the seat tube to fit.

I want our guests happy with their purchase.  If it's a $30 Murray "Mtn Bike-like" turd that's straight, runs, shifts and stops and the things work smoothly; great.  I would want us to set some kind of bar for ourselves as an organization to deliver ok or better bikes.  Everything else; recycle.

Cole, I'm sorry you've once again been driven to the bottle in this. 

[JB]

"I'm not really interested in selling garbage to people."

+1 BILLION

There ARE garbage bikes, and just because a garbage bike CAN be made rideable doesn't mean that it SHOULD.

The choice should not be between used and new garbage bikes, but between new garbage bikes and the used but worthwhile bikes that are what Bikerowave should be selling.

Throwing away a Next/Murray/Roadmaster is not snobbery, it is a favor to cyclists and would be cyclists everywhere.

The real question is how to increase our stock of affordable and worthwhile bikes.

[enzomatic]

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lac/bik/1741385495.html $140 is a good price for what's there, you can swap the parts to a frame your size and sell that frame. Hell you can swap the parts onto the gitane and be done with it.

[dpstrauss]

if i could double smite i would.  stay the f@#k out of walmart!!!  at all costs.

[ShaneQuentin]

I agree, I believe it is a disservice to our patrons to send them out on a garbage bike.  You know what I always say: "if it has single piece cranks it goes in the dumpster".

[gus]

unless its old as shit and/or a cruiser.

[Gern]

YES!!
EVERYONE PLEASE STAY OUT OF WAL-MART!!

[enzomatic]

I agree that new cheap bikes should be avoided. There are plenty of used bikes out there of decent to good build quality that can be had for around the same price. The market for road bikes these days has drastically increased the asking price and cut the availability greatly, but there are still tons of older mountain bikes out their that can be converted into town/commuter bikes, if this is done right it could be appealing to a good portion of people looking for transportation.
concerning the cheap wall-mart crap.
1)While I don't like the idea of stripping a low-end bike that pretty much runs, if someone were to use those part to mend higher quality mtbs etc. then I'm all for it.
2)If there isn't currently a higher quality bike that needs the parts to run we should just try to get the low end bike back on the streets for dirt cheap (also being honest with the customer about its draw backs and limitations) because that may keep them from buying one new.
3) If a low end bike gets donated that needs parts, we shouldn't waste our shops resources on it. It should be stripped for everything useful and what isn't useful should be tossed. (see if someone wants to get some scratch selling the aluminum.)
$0.02

[enzomatic]

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/lgb/bik/1766171316.html you should buy this, someone wants $200 for a tandem road, you can use it for dates!

[dpstrauss]

garbage is a term that gets thrown around pretty loosely.  a useful if old and hackneyed axiom when tempted to tossing it around:  one person's trash is another person's treasure.  there is a sector of the workforce heavily populated with people who ride bikes we would gaze upon with a snobbish eye.  admit it.  i would offer a different guideline.  if we can make it into a safe and reasonably durable means of transportation for a person who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford a bike and is willing to learn how to maintain it, we should do that.  if we can't, we should recycle it.  before we do the latter, we should think about the possibility of the former.  someone is making millions exploiting resources and people by selling all those bikes on bikesdirect.com and all of those other places some of us mention on a constant basis.  until there is not one decent used bike for sale anywhere in the region, we should give that one a rest.   

[JB]

I think you're offering up a false dichotomy Don. 

The choice at the Bikerowave is almost never between a used bike that can be cheaply turned into a reliable form of transportation, and a new bike that is based on the exploitation of people and resources.

The choice at the Bikerowave is usually between a used and decent bike that is selling for a fair used bike price, a recommendation to check out Performance / Wheel World / bikesdirect.com because the customer wants a road bike / singlespeed / fixie and we don't have any (and the person either lacks a car or the interest in driving all over town hunting for something on craigslist),  or a POS garbage bike that would require more in new parts (and the accompanying exploitation of people and resources) than we'd be able to sell it for, which is why it gets stripped and tossed ASAP.

On the rare occasion someone comes in with a dept. store bike that needs repair, OF COURSE we help them fix it, and on the rare occasion we get a dept. store bike in decent condition donated, OF COURSE we fix and sell it, but those are the exceptions.

Sometimes one man's trash is EVERYONE'S trash, and that's why it ends up in the dumpster.

If anybody has suggestions about how to get more worthwhile used bikes to sell, please let us know.

[kp]

I agree w/ Don's assessment.

[EricW]

+ 1 on JB's last. 

Some repair projects become educational. Not practical. If it's a garbage bike depends, to a great extent, on the owner;s perspective. I regularly recommend not buying/fixing/keeping any bike that doesn't fit them. If it'a a mass of repairs for a inexperienced wrench, then they should pass and try another bike. Someone else, desiring the education experience, may be able to deal with it better.

That said, I agree with Steven M  - some bikes are not worth it for anything but disposable purposes. Almost no; single crank, indestructible million pound Schwin, or Walmart bike is worth repair effort.

EricW