Bike Murderer!

CHRISNOIR

Yesterday I had to undertake the heinous act of taking my first ‘serious’ bike, a GT Aggressor MTB circa1996, to the tip. It’s completely unfixable and since I went ‘roadie’ it’s not even worth salvaging any spare bits. The worst thing is I felt like such a b**tard actually doing it.

All the memories came back; riding it home from H*lfords (H*lfords! Ah, the folly of youth!) bouncing round the hills of North Wales on weekend breaks, working up to a fifty-miler. It almost felt like I was ditching a girlfriend who’d become infirm in favour of a sleek Italian model.

To twist the knife further the skip at the tip was empty so I had to heave the poor old thing over a wall and drop it down a twelve foot drop.

Is it wrong to be so sentimental over a piece of metal?*


*I've actually kept a dust-cap...

girofan

CanterburyTailwind

I know it's too late now, but...couldn't you have freecycled it? Or there are charities that resurrect old bikes to ship off to countries where they're used as utilitarian work horses...but would it have felt too weird handing over a bike full of memories to someone else?? I don't know if that would have been better or worse than the 12 ft drop, but it would have been more useful.

BTW, what was unfixable about it?

geoff_ss

I've always thought of bicycles as infinitely fixable though occasionally in the spirit of my grandad's 'ammer (2 new handles and 3 new heads )

Geoff

Crapaud

CanterburyTailwind wrote:

I know it's too late now, but...couldn't you have freecycled it? ...

That was my first thought, as well. There are quite a few of these type of projects about. When my old Ridgeback EX 500 finally gave up the ghost, I took it in to Common Wheel. The'll strip the bike of any useable parts, even if it's only nuts and bolts, and recycle them.

While I was there, I had them make up a commuter / utility / tourer around someone's old MTB frame. IMO the Ridgeback was only fit for the bin, but they already had a customer for it when I went to collect the MTB , and were rebuilding it all from used parts!

There are organisations like this all around the country - you just have to do a bit of digging to find them.

Nexus

Fairly local to you is the cycle-ops project run by the Tameside Youth Service. They're based in Ashton, AFAIK.

Obviously not much use now, but just in case it comes up in the future.

vermooten

MTB???? Halfords?

"You a man today."

CHRISNOIR

vermooten wrote:

MTB???? Halfords?

Well, you live you learn... :oops:

The bike was recycled (arf!) - in a way, the local tip is quite good at getting you to separate as much of your refuse as possible. I'd like to think the old steed is currently being reshaped into something else!

Still, is it wrong to be so attached to an inanimate object? It's a piece o'metal ferchristsakes!

Nuggs

I've been trying to get my wife to take her Raleigh Shitmobile to the tip but she seems to have an emotional attachment which will only allow her to dispose of it on the second hand market.

Never mind that she hasn't ridden it for 10 years. Never mind that it weights as much as a sumo-wrestler who's let himself go. Never mind that there more rust than shiny bits. Never mind that the drivetrain's so clogged with muck, you'd have to cause an environmental catastrophe with solvents to even make a start on it. And never mind that no one in their right mind would actually pay money for it...

:roll: