Eric Takabayashi <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message news:<3EFD6984.27B0E574@yahoo.co.jp>...
> Ed wrote:
> 
> > "John W." <worthj1970@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> > news:73fde4f0.0306180924.57f0c76f@posting.google.com...
> >
> > > I'm certain this has been touched on before, but what do they do with
> > > all those bikes? Recycle? I'm certain some (small) percentage get
> > > reclaimed, but do they have police auctions of unclaimed bikes?
> >
> > Sometimes it's the only way to get rid of your old mama-chari. Where I live,
> > they charge you about 3,000 yen to throw a bicycle away.
> 
> If it is at all decent, sell your bike at a secondhand shop. I once recovered
> my stolen mountain bike months later, taken from a rice irrigation canal. It
> was all rusted out, including the cables, and covered with mud and dead 
> leaves.
> They gave me 3,000 yen cash for it, and tried to sell it for 6,000, as was 
> that shop's norm with used bikes. They didn't even bother to clean it up or 
>fix it.
> 
I had good luck trading off to other gaijin. One guy bought my
mountain bike at a good price, another my mama chari, which I had
acquired the same way.

John W.