Recycling by word of mouth

I’ve finally disposed of my old bike.

This is, or rather was, the mountain bike I bought in Italy, about 15 years ago.  It served me well for a number of years, including commuting, leisure cycling, shopping, and (not least) house-hunting when I found my current place.  But a while back (at least three years, I think a little more), it died.  That is to say, the frame developed a big rusty hole at the point of the bar where I’d drip sweat on the uphills, and seemed more than a little unsafe to use 😮 .

With the frame gone and the other parts in a range of states, I didn’t hasten to fix it.  But with some decent-quality parts still in good nick (wheels, rack, brakes, cranks, possibly other parts of the drive chain), it seemed too good to take to the tip.  And since I don’t have a new mountain bike, I’m not likely to use them for spares myself in the foreseeable future[1].  If I wasn’t such a procrastinator it would’ve gone to something like freecycle or ebay, but I never got around to it.

Fast-forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I met a chap in town with a not-quite-a bike.  We got chatting, and it turned out he was returning from the tip, where he’d been reclaiming serviceable parts from discarded bikes.  So I told him about the bike and asked if he was interested.  This week he came and took a look, agreed there were parts worth reclaiming, and took it away!

Happy to have it off my hands, and I hope he finds a good use for the parts!

[1] I don’t have space to keep multiple bikes I care about, but fortunately my touring bike is a decent all-rounder and serves both on and off-road.  The dead bike wasn’t a drain on my space ‘cos it lived out in the yard.