bikes out of the refuse stream
I often walk past the UT police station on my way to the gym and see the rows and rows of impounded bicycles. I find it a sad sight to see all of these bikes going unused; it seems like a project like Bikes Across Borders or Austin Yellow Bike could make use of these bicycles. Most of these bikes are abandoned, but UT requires cyclists to register their bikes and the UTPD will impound unregistered bikes on campus. I imagine cyclists with nicer bikes pick up their missing rides, while students with junkier bikes don’t want to pay the fines to get their bikes out of impound, leading to the hundreds of bikes chained up in front of the Benson library.
It looks like some of these bikes may find homes after all. UT’s department of Parking and Transportation is holding its Fall bicycle auction tomorrow night starting at 5pm with silent bidding starting at 5:30. As you might expect, most of the bikes up for sale are junky Wal-Mart style bikes, but there are few bikes that have potential. Judging from the way they were stored and the amount of rust I see on the chains and gears, I suspect it will take some work to get these bikes back into working order. There’s no indication of whether all the bikes sell out or what happens to unsold bikes. I do hope they go to the Yellow Bike Project.
If you’re looking for an inexpensive used bike, but lack the skills or inclination to fix up a bike, Austin Yellow Bike may be a useful resource for you. Although they’re best known for the yellow community bikes which are supposed to be left around town unlocked, ony the junkiest bikes are turned into Yellow Bikes. The organization fixes up the nicer bikes and sells them at a low cost. You can also volunteer your time and build a bike from one of the available rides. Finally, Yellow Bike offers their tool library: if you need to overhaul your bottom bracket and don’t want to shell out for a bottom bracket tool, you can do it in their open shops.
