re: #189 William Barnett-Lewis

Brings up a question I have. I salvaged a bike from a dumpster - near as I can see it only needs one pedal and the chain/gears/shifters adjusted. Tires are flat but the rubber looks good. My son’s current bike is a bit too big for him so I was thinking of getting this one fixed up till he grows into the bigger one I got for him last summer (thinking it was smaller). How much is a ball park for that kind of work (best case no parts, worst case rebuild time, etc?) I’d just like to know so I can budget in the work over the winter so it’s ready to go in the spring. I know so little about bikes I have no clue when going in if I’m getting a good price or not.

Thanks!

It probably needs inner tubes which run about $5 each. It should have a rubber strip around the ends of the spokes on the inside of the rim, those cost a dollar, or you can use strapping tape. Everything else would be covered by a $40 tune up, if you were here.

Check the frame to be sure it’s not bent. Check right behind the head tube for a wrinkle in the top tube and downtube, sign of a head-on crash. See that the rear wheel is in line with the frame. Make sure the fork is not bent anywhere. Then check the wheels for straightness. They can be straightened to a degree, but if there’s a sharp bend, the rim or whole wheel will need to be replaced.

The one pedal is probably the reason it ended up in the dumpster. Check the hole it should be screwed into to see if the threads are still there. Left pedal has left-hand threads. If the threads are shot, the crankarm will need to be replaced. That’s fairly cheap— $25 parts and labor if it’s a one-piece crank (which would be evidence of an el-cheapo bike) and less than that if it’s a three-piece crank.

Cables are good if they move smoothly through their housings, no good if rusty in the housings (external rust usually doesn’t matter) or if any strands in the functional part of it are broken (the tail end outside the pinchbolt doesn’t matter).

Truing the wheels would take a lot of time and patience. Everything else you could do, I’m sure.

If you have a local bike shop, a free estimate should be available.

I’ll help with more info as needed.