Police Bike Auction - Report

01-09-2005, 12:55 PM

Attended a bike auction yesterday. There were about 200 bikes up for sale
and perhaps because it was a cold and snowy day there were less than 50
buyers. Observations:

All but 2 of the bikes were department store models. Prominent names:

Supercycle
Infinity
Dunlop
Schwinn
Huffy
Murray
Free Spirit

The majority of the bikes had steel rims, drivetrains that needed a complete
replacement, stuck gearing and chains made of solid rust, seized wheel
bearings etc.

Interesting that the first and last time I attended a police auction (about
15 years ago), the dominant type of bike on the block were 27" wheel
10-speeds from the 70's bike boom and relatively unused 700c wheel bikes
from the 80's touring bike boom/bust. I saw only 3 road-style bikes for
sale. Mountain bikes appear have completely taken over the low/mid market.

Bid prices ranged from $25 to as high of $300 Canadian Pesos at the very
start. Initial prices were about 1/2 of new, as the Type-A bidders
scrabbled against each other to "win". Bid prices were directly
proportional to the number of speeds on the bike. The auctioneer pushed
hard the bikes that had 24-speed drivetrains and the useless suspension
found on the current generation of X-Mart bikes.

Non-suspended bikes were sorted and put at the end of the line, presumably
because the expectation that they would have to be thrown away.

I only saw one bike that was even slightly interesting, a
cosmetically-challenged Ritchey rigid mountain bike from around 1987. XT II
groupset in reasonably good shape. The front wheel was sitting next to the
bike. It was one of the 5 or so bikes that had quick-release wheels, and
someone had popped both quick-releases. Because of this, the bike was
likely categorized as be "broken" by the sales staff, and therefore placed
at the very end of the line with all the really really bad bikes. Bikes
that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
vehicular homicide cases...

Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
waiting in a pretty depressing environment.

Total time at auction: 15 minutes.

01-10-2005, 12:07 PM

Dave Mayer wrote:

> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
> bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
> this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
> vehicular homicide cases...
>
> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
> spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
> waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>

I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
some rebuilt wheels.

--
My bike blog:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

01-10-2005, 12:07 PM

Dave Mayer wrote:

> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
> bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
> this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
> vehicular homicide cases...
>
> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
> spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
> waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>

I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
some rebuilt wheels.

--
My bike blog:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

01-10-2005, 12:07 PM

Dave Mayer wrote:

> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used as speed
> bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the riders... Perhaps
> this is why these bikes were at a police auction. Evidence from past
> vehicular homicide cases...
>
> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted to
> spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2 hours of
> waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>

I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
some rebuilt wheels.

--
My bike blog:
[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

01-10-2005, 01:42 PM

Diablo Scott wrote:
> Dave Mayer wrote:
>
>> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used
>> as speed bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the
>> riders... Perhaps this is why these bikes were at a police auction.
>> Evidence from past vehicular homicide cases...
>>
>> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted
>> to spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2
>> hours of waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>>
>
> I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
> collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
> straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
> out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
> screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
> lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
> accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
> trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
> some rebuilt wheels.
>
At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage. I used to do that when I worked in Healdsburg and the
county dump was a 5 minute car drive away. It turns out that California,
home of the self indulgent and often overpaid, has a number of people
who just throw out a perfectly good bike rather than bother themselves
with a yard sale or something that might hurt their image.
I had to pass on some rather expensive bikes due to limited trunk space
and it hurt to think that a $500 bike might just become scrap metal
because it was 4 or 5 years old and not shiny enough.
Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
against the whole Darwin thing.
Bill Baka

01-10-2005, 01:42 PM

Diablo Scott wrote:
> Dave Mayer wrote:
>
>> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used
>> as speed bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the
>> riders... Perhaps this is why these bikes were at a police auction.
>> Evidence from past vehicular homicide cases...
>>
>> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted
>> to spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2
>> hours of waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>>
>
> I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
> collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
> straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
> out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
> screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
> lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
> accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
> trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
> some rebuilt wheels.
>
At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage. I used to do that when I worked in Healdsburg and the
county dump was a 5 minute car drive away. It turns out that California,
home of the self indulgent and often overpaid, has a number of people
who just throw out a perfectly good bike rather than bother themselves
with a yard sale or something that might hurt their image.
I had to pass on some rather expensive bikes due to limited trunk space
and it hurt to think that a $500 bike might just become scrap metal
because it was 4 or 5 years old and not shiny enough.
Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
against the whole Darwin thing.
Bill Baka

01-10-2005, 01:42 PM

Diablo Scott wrote:
> Dave Mayer wrote:
>
>> Bikes that were more rust than bike, or looked like they had been used
>> as speed bump by a large vehicle. God knows what happened to the
>> riders... Perhaps this is why these bikes were at a police auction.
>> Evidence from past vehicular homicide cases...
>>
>> Anyway, the Ritchey would likely not attract any bids. I was tempted
>> to spend $10 to save it from a the crusher, but it would have taken 2
>> hours of waiting in a pretty depressing environment.
>>
>
> I purchased a bike at police auction that had clearly been in a
> collision with a car or truck - mostly for the parts, but I did
> straighten the stays out enough to be rideable for my college GF. Turns
> out it was supposed to have been tagged for evidence but the police
> screwed it up. The guy who was hit was suing for big money and his
> lawyers had purchased a brand new bike of the same model to use in an
> accident reconstruction - but then they found me and I convinced them to
> trade. Wound up with a new bike in trade for a $35 police wreck and
> some rebuilt wheels.
>
At the risk of being heckled as a dumpster diver here is one to
consider, go to the local dump and ask if you can buy parts or whole
bikes for salvage. I used to do that when I worked in Healdsburg and the
county dump was a 5 minute car drive away. It turns out that California,
home of the self indulgent and often overpaid, has a number of people
who just throw out a perfectly good bike rather than bother themselves
with a yard sale or something that might hurt their image.
I had to pass on some rather expensive bikes due to limited trunk space
and it hurt to think that a $500 bike might just become scrap metal
because it was 4 or 5 years old and not shiny enough.
Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
against the whole Darwin thing.
Bill Baka

01-11-2005, 07:13 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].com>, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] says...

>Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
>against the whole Darwin thing.

I wouldn't complain. It is those folks that make it possible for other
folks to get really cheap, or free, stuff.
---------------
Alex

01-11-2005, 07:13 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].com>, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] says...

>Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
>against the whole Darwin thing.

I wouldn't complain. It is those folks that make it possible for other
folks to get really cheap, or free, stuff.
---------------
Alex

01-11-2005, 07:13 AM

In article <[Only registered and activated users can see links. ].com>, [Only registered and activated users can see links. ] says...

>Some people have too much money and not enough brains, kind of going
>against the whole Darwin thing.

I wouldn't complain. It is those folks that make it possible for other
folks to get really cheap, or free, stuff.
---------------
Alex