Recycling

I have been gardening in the last couple of weeks. By gardening I actually mean removing weed infestations. Its a long tyerm project and the weeds in my yard are usually bigger than your average weed. I have used a chainsaw in the past (privet) just to provide some context here's a before and after shot sequence:

Before

After

Anyway, I cleared out the side path and garden and removed a couple of trailer loads of weeds including fish bone fern, camphor laurel, wilde ginger, privet, ochna, asparagus fern, and many more. Now that the weeds are gone I've laid out some geotech cloth as a weed mat and am starting to plant a hedge of Photinia which will act as a border but be pleasant and green to look at. Much better than a colourbond fence in my opinion.

Anyway, I dragged the weeds to the recycling yard at the Wollongong Tip and this gave me a chance to check out the recycle centre for bike frames for brazing practise and potential parts stripping. I still dream that I'm going to find some exotic bike like a Gitane or Peugeot at the recycle centre but so far no luck.

That is until last my lst trip when I found two frames with some interesting steel and fittings. The first one is a large (60cm?) Repco branded bike with some form of Tange double butted tubing that had some nice Nitto handlebars and stem, Dia Compe brakes and levers, sugino cranks and shimano 105 level ders. No wheels.

The next find I will refer too as the stealth bike - crappy black paint, oxidising to buggery, but I noticed under the crud that the rear brake said "Shimano 600". Closer inspection revealed that the derailleurs were the same. SR stem, Selle Anatomic Saddle and alloy seat post, Tange threaded headset spun nicely. Only one wheel (rear) - six speed cassette, araya 700c. Picked it up and admittedly without a front wheel, bottom bracket and cranks it was very light.

I purchased them both for $5 and took them home for closer inspection and parts removal. Some corrosion here and there but eventually everything comes apart as nature intends. After stripping the Repco bike will be brazing practise however the stealth frame is another matter. I'm thinking that I'm going to building this one up as another rando bike and see how it runs. The advantage of this frame over the Apollogy is that its a 700c frame while the Apollogy is 27.5 inch. Better braking is a priority.

The frame geometry is very similar though the stealth frame is slightly larger. This shouldn't be a problem as the Apollogy is slightly smaller than I like. If the stealth bike works out OK, I will fix the Apollogy or just keep them both.