Same dumpster

[FastDoc]

This sucks. Why do people do this? All that was wrong with this bike was a flat front tire. A fifteen cent patch and fifteen minutes and there would be a happy little girl somewhere.

On the bright side, when I went by the next day (I had Tonto The Truck with me) it was gone. Hopefully someone salvaged it.

[cheesy]

Doesn't surprise me, Doc. A buddy volunteers most of his weekends at a large bicycle co-op in Chicago. He hits up most of the nearby suburb trash nights and ends up with a Toyota load of bikes in similar condition.

[Killerbracing]

That's how I keep my kids in bikes. Flat tire and the aluminum frame bmx bike goes in the dumpster. Scored a $600 mongoose for $20 because of a flat.

[Weldangrind]

I blame the Walmart mentality of disposable everything.

[SpudRider]

What a shame! I'm glad somebody salvaged that beautiful bicycle.

[Krasi_BG]

I'm old enough now to able to say, "Damn, these metrosexual kids are way too scared to get their hands dirty! All they care about are them smarphones and Twitter!"

I vaguely remember an old article or interview about some manager in a big engineering company, might have been Rockwell, who said these days they get applications from engineers who'd never disassembled a clock or a radio in their lives!

Btw, do they still teach wood- and metal-works in school?

[FastDoc]

'Btw, do they still teach wood- and metal-works in school?'

Not usually.

The funding and interest has been diverted to sex 'education'.

[katoranger]

My daughter prefers the bike we picked off the curb to the nicer one I bought at the Goodwill. We have never bought any new ones for the kids.

That bike would have been in the back seat of the corolla quickly.

Our high school has many trade programs. They teach building trades too.

[Weldangrind]

Both of my real kids took wood shop in middle school; it's mandatory there. Son of Weldangrind also joined the Jr. Drag Racing team when he was in grade 6.

The tech programs that our schools have are terrific. My illegal son won the Tech Ed award when he graduated; that was a terrific moment. He is currently rebuilding an old TS250 Suzuki with me.

[Killerbracing]

Here in the states there is a huge war against technical courses in the public schools. I remember when I was in Jr. High, you could build a crossbow if you wanted.

[cheesy]

Originally Posted by Killerbracing

Here in the states there is a huge war against technical courses in the public schools. I remember when I was in Jr. High, you could build a crossbow if you wanted.

What he said.

Back when phones still had dials and most homes only had one, there was a plethora of Voc Ed classes at my high school. Auto Shop, Woodworking, Machine Shop, Welding, Sheet Metal, Electrical, Electronics, Radio and Drafting. I managed to spend the better part of 4 years in that end of the building. I visited the school last year and most of the classes are now gone. Electronics is still there but it's a different animal from when I was there. Drafting and Machine Shop has been replaced by CAD/CAM but the rest are gone.

[katoranger]

I believe that our local high school still has all those options. They graduate some pretty skilled students.

[katoranger]

Rescued two bikes last night. Filled the trailer with stuff from the curb. Mostly scrap metal, but some things we will be able to repurpose. City wide cleanup goes until Wednesday.

[Weldangrind]

If you have excess bikes, do you have a facility that will accept them, like a charitable thrift store?

[katoranger]

Most of the ones I got are pretty rough shape. I can use some parts for projects and then the will be scrapped. The nicer ones I fix and give away.

We just got back with the third load. I think I picked up about 15 bikes. 2-3 I can probably salvage. The rest are too far gone. Just more pounds for the scrap trailer.

I did find an exercise bike that I can fix and give to one of the ladies at work that just had a hip done.