General: Extra bike components

A lot of you out there have conversions from multi-speed bikes of one generation or another. My question is; what are you doing with the old componentry? Are you stripping it off and throwing it in a box somewhere, trading it off, throwing it in the garbage?? May sound like a funny question but I've been looking for months for a nice set of SUNTOUR 7 speed shifters for the Cannondale I'm building up and have gotten quite frustrated. Either they not out there or they are NOS and the prices are sky high.. Most are $50 and more.. Anybody know anybody who has them laying around? Suntour only.

BTW anyone refinishing a Cannondale, the guy on the vintagecannondale site who sells the decals is top notch, and so is his product.

I keep parts which may be of some use to me in the future as replacements or to use on a beater or something. Otherwise I sell what is worth selling and donate the rest to a non-profit bike co-op around here.

Posted By: suicide_doorsdonate the rest to a non-profit bike co-op around here

Good man right here!!!

I save my parts and they a) get used to build/maintain my beater b) get taken apart to scavenge small parts (nuts, bolts, spring, derailer cogs, etc) when I need them c) get sold at a bike swap d) get donated to friends beaters.

A well stocked box of random crap is the best resource a cyclist can have.

Posted By: wes m.A well stocked box of random crap is the best resource a cyclist can have.

True dat, rasta.

My main LBS has bunch of junk bins in the back of the repair shop where they dump all the discards. They occasionally let me root around for tidbits; I've found stuff like a C-Record Campy seatpost and a full rack+Wald collapsible baskets in there. They usually give me the loot for free; sometimes I offer a token payment out of guilt (couldn't take the Campy seatpost without coughing up something; the Mighty Favog does not approve of wealth without sacrifice).

A couple of months ago, I went in looking for fiddly bits for Mafac Racer centerpull brakes. The head wrench lety me run riot, and I cleaned them out. I was in the shop a few weeks later, and said head wrench went back to look for something.

"Whatcha looking for, Chuck?", sez I.
"I'm looking for one of those clamp bolts for a Mafac centerpull, to jury-rig this drum brake together."
"You don't have any of those Mafac bits; I cleaned you out last month. Tell you what: I'll buzz on home, and grab one out of my box."

I zip home, pull the necessary fitting out of my stash, and then grab a different pinch bolt I'd put together as a spare for another drum brake. I bike back to the shop, hand them over; the Mafac won't work (which I suspected), but my improvised fitting did. The wrench offers to pay me for the $1 gizmo, and I refuse. So now, the wrench remembers me as a guy who helped him out, by reaching into his dwarf-hoard and passing on a little treasure. Bonus points for me, plus I got to keep the Mafac bit for myownself.

Having a collection of weirdo little bits: It's an investment in the future

Posted By: eaglerockby reaching into his dwarf-hoard and passing on a little treasure.

HA

Well.. As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I'm working as time permits at the Iowa City Bike Library which run with donations of pretty much everything, but still having a problem finding the shifters... Shimano cr** is a dime a dozen but most folks don't give up the good bikes for nothing, and that's what we're paying.

KUDOs to all you guys who are supporting your local coop! I have a fair "dwarf-hoard" from the late 80s early 90s and that's where I found the rear derailleur for my new build; it's an X-1 NIB.. I have old Campy, Modolo, Suntour, Zeus, Ofmega from when I was mechanic'n big time... but only one set of shifters which were the newest set of power-shifters before Accushift came out.

If you find some Suntour 7sp downtube shifters laying about keep me in mind.. Thanks all. Was mostly curious if there were more around than I that keep these old parts.. Sorta like finding people with jars of pennys

Ha. I saw a guy with what must have been a ten two gallon jars worth of pennies slowly dumping them into one of those sorters at the supermarket. It takes a percentage, but you could give it a shot.

Eaglerock, these front derailers you speak of... Im looking for a 28.6 (larger clamp diameter is fine as long as its a size thats easy to find a shim for) bottom pull triple that can take a 22-46 chainring range, any make or model that will get the job done, any reasonable price.

^pif!!!

Posted By: Joshua A.C. NewmanHey, Greg, can we get a Swap Meet topic? I don't want to clog the rest of the forum.

Now there's an idea.

I think there are two angles here. The first is news about local swap meets: schedules, strong/weak points of particular swaps, vendors to look for. The second is an online, ongoing velospace swap meet:

"I've got Bike Artifacts X, Y, Z. I'm looking for Bike Artifacts A, B, C. Let's make a deal!"

A distinction between a swap meet thread and the existing WTB/FS threads is the stated possibility of trades, rather than the (informally) stated prices of ForSale. A member could post their complete wish list and their complete list of unwanted swag, and then amend the lists as they acquire or dispose of each item. The input could even be form-driven: One field for 'wanted items', one field for 'items available for trade'.

Hmmm....

Posted By: eaglerockperhaps the lists could be linked into the My Stuff/User Profile pages.

Would be great to have a list of maybe-useful-to-someone things just floating on the My Stuff page.

Posted By: suicide_doorsIf we could see what people were selling in the mp on the profile pages... Well, aside from tracking them.

Do you mean like a pseudo-RSS thing, or listings on the Welcome page? Say, 'last ten "Wish List" items added/last ten "Willing to Dump" items added' - put that alongside the Twitter links?

Oh, I really like the idea of a sidebar that just shows what people have to trade and what they want. Just a couple of words. That's a really cool idea.

agreed

Posted By: eaglerocklatron, it looks like you've a couple of sets of Lyotard pedals in there. Anything in French thread?

Alas, no. As much as I love French bikes, I have no French-thread gear. I did have a set of Lyotard pedals, but sold them a while back. What you might be seeing are SR SP-150 pedals, my favorite cheapies. (V.O. is selling some vintage Atoms, if that would be of interest.) Yep, that is a Super Record seatpost, for a to-be-built someday project. I do have a set of good-condition Suntour barcons I'm not using. Just wish there was one place I could go to to browse everyone else's stashes...

Having a single page that is the sum of everyone's "my swap stuff" entries, sorted by recency and searchable, would be great. Not sure of the difficulty of pulling it off, but it would greatly speed treasure hunting.