Declutter: Putting to rest the dead bike

[jack]

Over the years, I've had to replace several bikes from theft or accident. Each time, anything left over I've thrown into the shed. By now, the shed contains a Frankenstienian monstrosity where:

* The frame comes from a bike which came off worst in a 50mph collision with the tarmac (fortunately, no vertebrates were harmed in this incident!)
* The back wheel is a hub-gear wheel scavenged off another bike which died in some way (I no longer remember how), but is no longer connected to anything
* The chain is broken
* The front wheel looks fine, but I'm not sure if it is the slightly-bent one or not.
* The saddle was cannibalised when the saddle on my new bike broke. In its place there remains a broken replacement which (probably) doesn't fit on the bike.
* The mud-guard supports and various other accoutrements were also cannibalised
* I've not tried the brakes

Obviously, this chimera is unridable. It's also in pieces. Most of it is going to the recycling centre in the morning (Yay, declutter!) I feel quite morbid, some of the bits having served me well over the years only to be rejected now. But that's as honorable an end as a broken bike can hope for :) Rest in peace, chimera.

My question is, is there anything worth salvaging? I don't really care about the money, but if anything is useful I'd rather it wasn't wasted. The forks are buckled, and I seem to recall replacing them wasn't practical so the frame is unusable, does that sound right? The wheels might be usable as front wheels, but I'm not sure -- is there any point keeping them in case? Or anyone might want them? Is there any use for the brake mountings, gear mountings, etc?

Comments

[kaberett]

My tiny brother would probably love all of those things TBH. In particular he'd probably quite like the back wheel; I can't readily say whether he'd care about anything else.

[jack]

Well, I'm not sure if the back wheel can be made to function as a back wheel or not, but someone would be welcome to them.

[ewx]

I've had bike-enthusiast friends willingly take away things that seem completely beyond value to me, so you never know...

[hairyears]

Shame there's nowhere like Bikeworks in Cambridge: they recycle and recondition old bicycles and bits thereof.

[naath]

I expect that the recycling center is *probably* organised enough to arrange the useful re-use of anything usefully reusable; you could try you local bike shop or any bike-enthusiast friends/free cycle because parts *can* be useful (wheels can be returned to circularity for instance).