There is a thread over on yacf about “Abandonment”, simply put bicycles that have been left by their owners.
Though, I do think that most of the “left” bicycles are the last stop in the chain in a stolen story. The picture on the left, is of a bicycle I spotted abandoned or rather fished out the Thames and then left on the steps down to the river. How did that bicycle end up there, stolen for a joy ride and the dropped in to the drink, fallen off one of the many long boats that now and again is going up and down the river.
This make me think how many bicycles do end up in the river, canal or some bushes and ever get ridden, which is rather sad to think about. And then there are the ones that just get left locked to a railing or in a garage somewhere because people have moved on. Or the owner got a car and was thinking one day I will get back on the bicycle, but never got around to it.
Where I used to live there were four bicycles that was locked up to the railing outside the police station., a nice secure place. 🙂 But they were never moved for the 4 years I lived there, sad to see them just rust away. When the council decided that it was time to redecorate that road they just cut the locks and took them away.
I know one place on the overland train route, I used to take a few years back, where I could see at least three bicycles that had been thrown over the railing and down into the undergrowth under the bridge.
But if it is you who don’t want your old bicycle any more and it is not a thief telling you that it is time for you to get a set of wheels. Please do recycle the old one rather than just dump it in the canal or on the road, where there is a good chance that it would just end up vandalised or in one of the council tips. Over on paddedshorts I wrote about this a few weeks ago, Recycle your bicycle.
Late last year I found this lovely Ladypool bicycle left on the streets of London. I decided to take it home and see if I could give it a new life. Though after a few weeks of mmm-ing and arr-ing I figured out that I would rather finish the bicycle I was already building*) up than start a new project.
So I gave it to a new home via the great service over on yacf.co.uk. The very nice fella who took care of Lady, as she was quickly named, also figured out that he too had too many projects going. The very nice fella passed Lady on to a young lad who was in more need of a bicycle than we were. And here is the finished result, ain’t she looking good?
*) that project is still hanging on the wall, one of these days I will get to it 🙂