What Do You Do With Your Old Unused Conventional Bikes?

[6zfshdb]

Many of us older riders have converted to e-bikes now, and our venerable old conventional models are used less and less.

My wife and I used ours for awhile after we got our first e-bikes, but now, since we are less able to ride them, they are just gathering dust. We tried listing them on eBay and Facebook Marketplace but they are a dime a dozen and aren't selling right now. Ours are close to 20 years old but still in good condition. I suppose we should have sold them during the Covid years when used bikes were in demand. Now, even Goodwill and the Salvation Army won't take them around here. They say they no longer have staff to clean them up and do repairs. It made no difference that ours are in good shape.

We have no family or friends who would want them, and there are no other charities in the area who will take them. I suppose if we lived in the city, we could just park them in front of the mall where they are sure to be stolen. If we lived on a heavily travelled road, we could park them in front with a sign that said "For Sale $50". They would certainly be stolen as well.

Sadly, it appears our once adored bikes are destined for the dump.

I'm curious what others here do with their old unwanted rides.

 

[sc00ter]

I have a few bicycle charities in my area. Two are thru local churches and the other 2 are normal charities. If you travel out of the area/or state bring them with you with a prearranged charity to take them. I guess I have local charities because I live in a heavily dense urban area. I do recall when living in PA (Philipsburg) that to get anything done I had to cross the mountain and go to State College or way out to Altoona. Philipsburg wasn't the happening place at my time there because the interstate wasn't connected yet. Now its all the State College professors trying to escape the "city" life.

I have 2 very nice conventional bicycles sitting in the garage and if we get rid of them I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find a home for them. Like you, I don't want to see them go to a dump. If SWYTCH didn't have that complicated ordering system that makes me just give up I'd consider converting them. But yes, conventional bicycles just aren't in demand anymore.

 

[Bicyclista]

@6zfshdb, I am glad you did not use the term "acoustic" to describe conventional bikes. Bikes are not like guitars, and it is a butchering of language to say that conventional bikes are acoustic, even as some of us pluck spokes and listen to their vibration to ascertain their tension.

My two conventional bikes hang in my storage space, unused. One is a Schiwnn Paramount, the other a custom Bill Holland. In their time, the late 20th Century, they were very desirable and expensive. Now they are valuable only to collectors. Finding a buyer takes effort. Perhaps once I get into Swedish death cleaning, the practice of leaving very little for heirs to do after one's death, I might find the energy and motivation.

 

[6zfshdb]

@6zfshdb, I am glad you did not use the term "acoustic" to describe conventional bikes. Bikes are not like guitars, and it is a butchering of language to say that conventional bikes are acoustic, even as some of us pluck spokes and listen to their vibration to ascertain their tension.

My two conventional bikes hang in my storage space, unused. One is a Schiwnn Paramount, the other a custom Bill Holland. In their time, the late 20th Century, they were very desirable and expensive. Now they are valuable only to collectors. Finding a buyer takes effort. Perhaps once I get into Swedish death cleaning, the practice of leaving very little for heirs to do after one's death, I might find the energy and motivation.

I'm not sure why the "acoustic" moniker caught on. Typing four extra characters to make it "conventional" isn't much extra effort.

Maybe we could invent a shorter reference word, like a "bagel" or a "pizza" (Two of my favorites anyway)

 

[rcdanner]

Why not just call a bicycle what it is. It's a BICYCLE. Or, for short, bike. I refer to my electrical bicycle as an ebike. I don't know what an acoustical bicycle could be. A bicycle with some big speakers attached?

 

[harryS]

Fifteen years ago, I put our drop bar Peugeot and Raleigh 12 speeds from 1975 out on the curb. leaving us with three old bikes for me, my wife, Nine years ago, we started ebiking after I had bought a 2015 hybrid. My wife got a new bike, and I later converted the other three to electric, Today, the hybrid remains my last regular bike, I rode it 1000 miles in 2023 but only 100 this year,

Meanwhile, for old times sake, I bought a similar old Raleigh 12 speed for 50 bucks, but Peugeots were too expensive, I electrified the Raleigh and it's one of my favorite rides. Skinny tires, high bars, but down to 6 speeds. Mid drive 300W TSDZ2 and under 40 pounds.

 

[PCeBiker]

I'm not sure why the "acoustic" moniker caught on. Typing four extra characters to make it "conventional" isn't much extra effort.

I had never heard the term until I joined this forum and finally figured out the reference.

An acoustic guitar is fine, but it just isn't loud enough, so you plug it in to amplify it with electricity to make it an electric guitar.

I especially like how the early pioneers of electric guitars would steal the microphone pickup from pay phones to cobble their own electric guitar using their old-school acoustic guitar.

It became a real problem to find a payphone with all the necessary pieces needed to make a phone call.

Just like how everyone was stealing milk crates to store their vinyl records.
It got so bad that they made the milk crates smaller so that records don't fit.

I still have both sizes of milk crate.
It puts a smile on my face when I sit on my stolen milk crate with my non-accoustic bicycle sitting on another. ☺

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I'm not sure why the "acoustic" moniker caught on. Typing four extra characters to make it "conventional" isn't much extra effort.

Maybe we could invent a shorter reference word, like a "bagel" or a "pizza" (Two of my favorites anyway)

Agree, "acoustic" is a silly shorthand for an "unmotorized" bicycle, which in my mind is the clearest longhand. "Conventional" and "regular" are also problematic, as ebikes are already the dominant kind in my area by a wide margin.

So I just shorten unmotorized bicycle to "ubike" for internal use. Should be pretty future-proof, as I doubt that underwater bikes will ever become widespread — the fact that RideWithGPS insists on showing all my riding below +100 ft in elevation as below sea level notwithstanding.

 

[Roamers]

Donate to charity that services less fortunate adults.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Once I understood I couldn't really ride traditional* bicycles anymore, I gave mine to a man I considered a friend at that time.
---------
*) @Jeremy McCreary: why to invent new words?

 

[Roamers]

I had never heard the term until I joined this forum and finally figured out the reference.

I hadn't either; knew what it was though and works fine.

 

[PCeBiker]

I'm sure you could drive through some sketchy neighborhood and do a "drive by drop-off" and just throw them out of your vehicle, then get the hell outta their before you get shot? Remembering that no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Roamers]

The donating "acoustic" bikes thing brings to mind the Seinfeld muffin top episode with the donation of bottoms.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Once I understood I couldn't really ride traditional* bicycles anymore, I gave mine to a man I considered a friend at that time.
---------
*) @Jeremy McCreary: why to invent new words?

I don't like "traditional", either. At one point, pennyfarthings were traditional.

 

[jabberwocky]

Sold some of them. Gave a couple away. Still ride some of them. Hanging onto a few that I don't ride anymore but aren't worth much so aren't really worth selling.

 

[gromike]

I buy beautiful twenty-year-old bicycles from a charity for next to nothing and put motors on them. Some I fix to pedal like this one from the mid-2000's. It had only a couple of hundred miles on it!

I am of the belief that the ebike trend has cratered the market for conventional bicycles. It's a feast for a bicycle aficionado. Otherwise a sad waste of resources.

 

[indianajo]

I bought several MTB at Salvation Army resale after I quit driving cars. The Diamondback rear axle broke and two Pacifics the plastic crank arms wore out or the crank sprocket wore out. I donated the repaired axle one to a illegal worker attending my church whose car was confiscated by the city for no insurance. He never rode it, preferring to walk like a caballero. The ones with bad crank arms or sprocket I put out for the metal pickup man on garbage day. I still have a 1985 Schwinn MTB frame with worn out crank sprocket hanging on the wall. That bike never threw me on my chin, by contrast with all the newer MTB's that did, multiple times. As I now have a $30 crank puller I may repair that and start riding it when I go to a concert or buy a Greyhound ticket in Louisville. I also buy tools over there sometimes. I need to measure the Schwinn fork to find out what is different from the 90's 00's MTB's. I think it might be "fast steering". I still ride a 3 speed IGH Austrian bike, WT Grant, across the river to Louisville to chain up outside Ky Center for the Arts or Brown Theater. Not worth stealing. I can catch a TARC bus to concerts, but the bus service stops before evening concerts are over. 6 mile walk back, and my knees are too high mileage for that now.
While the "conventional bike market has tanked", I had to pay $275 for a Trek 16" MTB to ride at my brother's house in Houston. Goodwill does not stock bikes in Houston. The brother has bikes but his legs are 4" longer than mine and I cannot ride a 21" bike. I wanted a drop frame Giant for $300 but could not get to the scrapyard on a Metro bus.

 

[dblhelix]

Many of us older riders have converted to e-bikes now, and our venerable old conventional models are used less and less.

My wife and I used ours for awhile after we got our first e-bikes, but now, since we are less able to ride them, they are just gathering dust. We tried listing them on eBay and Facebook Marketplace but they are a dime a dozen and aren't selling right now. Ours are close to 20 years old but still in good condition. I suppose we should have sold them during the Covid years when used bikes were in demand. Now, even Goodwill and the Salvation Army won't take them around here. They say they no longer have staff to clean them up and do repairs. It made no difference that ours are in good shape.

We have no family or friends who would want them, and there are no other charities in the area who will take them. I suppose if we lived in the city, we could just park them in front of the mall where they are sure to be stolen. If we lived on a heavily travelled road, we could park them in front with a sign that said "For Sale $50". They would certainly be stolen as well.

Sadly, it appears our once adored bikes are destined for the dump.

I'm curious what others here do with their old unwanted rides.

I just sold a 2007 Giant OCR3 which needed work for $20. I listed it on CL and started getting responses within 20min. 2 hours later it was gone. I was happy to get the space back.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

At one point, pennyfarthings were traditional.

• It was over 140 years ago
• Those had pedals, too

 

[Brian-s]

Call a local bike shop. They may be connected to a charity, or know of one