Stolen bicycles are strictly  off limits when it comes to what is allowed to enter The Old Shed.  I want nothing to do with stolen bicycles, other than those that I might purchase at a local Police Auction.  Other than that, forget it.  Or so I thought...

I cannot remember exactly how I learned of the presence of approximately 300 stolen bicycles that had been shipped from Toronto to Thunder Bay.  The bicycles in question were the legal property of the legal system, the stash remaining after a local bicycle thief had been found guilty of, well, stealing bicycles, I suppose?

At any rate, and I do not pretend to know the details of the story behind the trial and its outcome. I do, however, have an intimate relationship with the 300 stolen bicycles, that reached North-western Ontario.

Upon learning of the bicycles presence, I looked into the situation a bit further.  As it turned out, another Bicycles for Humanity volunteer had already been in touch with the situation, as it developed.

Apparently, the bicycles, seized in the legal proceedings, were to be released to people in Ontario who were in need of them.  The bicycles were not to be sold, nor were they to be used for profit.  Put another way, the bicycles were intended to reach northern First Nation communities, where the bicycles were thought to be needed.

With that goal in mind, I saw an opportunity to partner up with the First Nation organization handling the transfer of the bicycles, offering any help, or advice, that I could through the group I volunteer my time to, Bicycles for Humanity.

Though it did take a wee bit of discussion, it was agreed that I and selected helpers could look the bicycles over and repair those that we could without investing our own money.  Though the offer was a no strings attached one, the individual responsible for the bicycles offered a bicycle to each of the helpers.

Though I was lead helper, I was a helper, none the less.  And with that in mind, my eyes quickly fell upon a single Campagnolo high flange hub swimming in a sea of three hundred, poorly stored bicycles.

I asked if I could have that bicycle and was told that I could, however; it would not count against the bicycle I was earning.  Why not, I asked?  Simply because it was an old Ten Speed and of no value!

By the end of the exercise, three of us had fixed up exactly fifty bicycles, while the other two hundred and fifty sat without seat posts, or other key components, required to make the bicycles road worthy.  Of those 250 remaining bicycles, approximately 120 of them are old roadsters, antiques and Ten Speeds.

By the time we had gone through all three hundred bicycles, I had been allowed to take about eight old Ten Speeds or roadsters that were deemed to be of no value.  I was not the person assigning value, I might add.  Of those allowed, I think I brought four home, giving one away to another B4H volunteer.

NEXT - BUILDING THE ALAN SUPER RECORD