Justin's Bicycle Shop, Open For Charity!

[dragnusa]

Don't you hate it when the CEO makes you downsize!!!??????

Haha, I would if she was indeed making me, she just says its time to clean up, and I see this as a good time to throw out some stuff and make some money at the same time. Scrap guy stopped by a few minutes ago, he's circling like a shark, he won't be happy when he sees some big pieces gone.

Ive been thinking about telling the scrappers around my area the first one that brings me a cruiser that dont look like its been ran over can have the 10 or so frames I have stacked up

[yoothgeye]

Ive been thinking about telling the scrappers around my area the first one that brings me a cruiser that dont look like its been ran over can have the 10 or so frames I have stacked up

If you get them on a regular schedule to your house and just give them something here and there, they will bring you bikes. My guy offers me bikes and sometimes I'll take the whole thing, sometimes I just grab a wrench and grab parts off of it.

Hold onto a small collection of copper (old pipe, wire, whatever) and offer that up as a good trade.

[yoothgeye]

Thursday April 5th: The boy I gave the Mongoose frame to the other day showed up today with his old bike taken all apart on a wagon with the new frame. I started putting it back together to find that he had lost many important parts. Ugh. So I dug around and put together as much as I could to help him and then sent him on his way as we had a Maunday Thursday service to attend.

[yoothgeye]

Friday April 6th: Today I started out in the morning cleaning up the rogue bikes, stripping them down and putting what was left on the trailer to make some money at the scrapper. Part way through my morning clean up the kids showed up, once again pulling a wagon full of bicycle parts. I started putting the Walmart Mongoose bikes back together and soon he was riding, luckily they had brought a new kid with them and he was interested in learning, working, and helping. All these kids were 2nd-5th grade, about 5 of them hung out for over 3 hours working on bikes, riding the spincycle, the new scooter, the monkey bike, and others.

I would grab a bike from the yard and strip the crank + cups, the fork + cups, and anything else I might think I'd need to build bikes. One of my favorite things was chopping up a good OCC Chopper bike and throwing it in the scrap pile.

I pulled out a 16" girl's bike, made a few adjustments and we gave that to a family hosting a young exchange student this Summer and told them not to give it back, pass it on, sell it, whatever. Enjoy!

After cleaning the bikes from my house I went to my storage facility over by the church and loaded up even more there. I'd say I have about 15-20 bikes on the trailer. I didn't save much except for a few frames that I envision being more tall bikes, I will not rest until I have a fleet of them.

Next project, organizing all the parts I so hastily yanked off and threw into the shop. Ugh again.

[kingfish254]

Very cool!
You are doing some good works there!

Keep your eye open on CL for someone getting rid of the plastic tubs they used for attic storage or a move. It's a great way to organize your parts.

[yoothgeye]

Very cool!
You are doing some good works there!

Keep your eye open on CL for someone getting rid of the plastic tubs they used for attic storage or a move. It's a great way to organize your parts.

Oh, I've got tons of them, my wife kept all our children's old clothes for hand-me-downs. When we had another girl instead of boy we were able to start clearing all of our son's clothes giving us lots of extras, and now every season our little daughter gets into the next batch of hand-me-downs I acquire even more. Even cooler is that the new bike shop portion of my garage use to be the kitchen in the upstairs apartment, there is a pantry, upper cabinets, lower cabinets, drawers, and built-ins on one wall. Each part gets its own place, it's turning out to be really nice, the only problem is I can't see building my build-off bike upstairs like I did last year because I think it would get stuck up there with the extra width of the sidecar. I was going to make it permanent, but thinking of making it removable now.

[beatcad]

so, ive chatted w/ you in the past and knew you were a good guy. yer still a helpfull soul.
id like to say you've got yer foot in the door of heaven, but that mite ruin my image
so ill just say ya done a good thing.
rock on wit yo bad self!

[jerrykr]

Justin,

I've been reading this thread, and chuckling right along. I'm kind of late with a reply, but since tomorrow is Easter, let me just say that I think you are a "Good Egg" for helping all the kids out. Believe me, they will not forget the times spent at your place as they go thru life. GOOD JOB!

[largek9]

Hey Justin every time I read this thread I always think about your kids! Coolest Dad in the Hood and seeing what you do for others will always be with them in life. Happy Easter to all! Tom

[yoothgeye]

Thanks for the props guys.

Well, like I said I was going to do, I loaded up the trailer. It all started with 3 steel poles, about 7 foot long each. They were the poles that held up one side of my old carport that was destroyed in the hurricane. Each one was very heavy, so I kept adding. Bike parts, other scrap steel, a storm door, bike frames, bed frames, etc... I drove to the scrap yard and onto the scales this morning. I didn't know what I was doing and had to ask help, but it was pretty easy. Drive across scales and out to the guy with the hard hat. The hard hat guy used a big claw to grab the stuff off my trailer, watching old bike frame fly through the air as he released them mid swing was fun. I drove back across the scales watching the weight... OK, I'm not that great at subtraction... that can't be right!? I thought I might have had 4 to 5 hundred pounds, but 1,160 lbs!!!! I just made $159.50 for just throwing stuff away... awesome.

I came back home and kept cleaning the yard, it's all clean now, but the shop is a mess. Gotta get that straight. I have all the "outdoor" bikes cleaned up now, and I added 2 bike racks, 1 to hold and secure the tall bikes and some old adult part bikes, and one beside the shop door for "customer parking" since most kids around here ditch their kickstands.

2 of the customers stopped by today just to see what was going on. Tomorrow is Easter and after morning services I have the rest of the day off, maybe the neighborhood kids will give the shop a day off... yeah right.

This morning:

[yoothgeye]

One of the kids brought me this wheel and said I could have it, said I could probably weld it back together... uhhh... no.

I think I'm going to send this photo to Mongoose and see what they have to say about it. It was a young kid and surprisingly he wasn't jumping. Mongoose has themselves covered though, their BMX bikes have a warning that says "NO TRICKS OR JUMPING" on them and their mountain bikes have a warning that say "NO OFF ROAD USE" haha, probably an indicator of what you are buying.


(yeah, I could've kept my foot out of the shot, but hey, that's what we do around here. )

[KJV]

it can be welded back; but, why bother.
would make for a cool chandelier.

[yoothgeye]

it can be welded back; but, why bother.
would make for a cool chandelier.

It's a cool wall hanging as it is.

[KJV]

yeah, it sure is.i was gonna buy one of those bikes;
just for the wheels. glad i declined .300+lbs..
that woulda been a nasty accident.

[yoothgeye]

yeah, it sure is.i was gonna buy one of those bikes;
just for the wheels. glad i declined .300+lbs..
that woulda been a nasty accident.

The wheels do look cool, but cool only gets you so far... obviously. The other week I bought a Mongoose Rebel with the 5 star "mags" that are not the split spoke, I don't think I could brake them, they are very cool, painted black with a machined edge that makes them look sharpened. I paid $30 for the bike in excellent condition. Not sure what I'll do with it, but I've already taken the wheels off and hung them up in the shop.