Store your used bike parts...

[horsefarmer]

I had a pile of used brake levers with cables and housings attached from junk bikes I stripped. Ditto for shifters and their attached cables and housings. I should of taken a before pic, but it was a twisted mess! Bought totes from Home Despot and sorted brakes and shifters into separate totes. Redoing bikes I would want to pull parts to see what shifters and levers I want to use - not fun trying to dig out what I wanted. After separating the components I wanted from the tangled mass then the hunt was on for cables and housings ugh. Then I inherited more parts and pretty much really just threw them into the totes... Working on some project bikes this Winter, I thought I'd organize this mess for easy access...

My process is to inspect the cut cable end and if frayed cut the damaged part off. Then I remove the housing and inspect for damage and cut as necessary. Housings go in the tote, then I pull the cable and either bag or box the shifter or lever and tie matching pairs together. Finally, I use those fat twist ties they use to keep small bags of coffee closed to tie all those loose cables together into a manageable thicker wire rope of sorts. Even sorted the brake cables into short (front) and long (rear) groups.

Anyway it took some time, but now it's so easy to find just what I want it was worth it. Now I know what I have and it's been inspected so the rusty frayed cable ends and the dried up brake pads are gone.

 

[clamdigger]

Sort and bag in slider style zipper bags helps a lot for me. For loose , frayed cable ends , trim as needed. I then cover the end with the smallest heat shrink tubing that will fit over them. Butane lighter, at the tip of the flame, for a clean heat source to shrink the tube.

 

[SpikeFC]

Best idea for cables is to tie them into small loops, just like the factory does when you buy cables, are shifters with cables.

 

[horsefarmer]

I have a couple of shifters with nice long cables that I store in zip lock bags. I like to keep the cables bundled together so I can just hold the cable I want to replace or lengthen, up to the bundle and match it up.

 

[wheelbender6]

I bought an old bike from a guy that had an idea. He parked an old station wagon in his back yard for storing his bikes and parts. Wife was pissed.

 

[Chainmaker2]

My "shop" is in the basement, I keep these bags we get valve plates in at work to store stuff in..I usually just put everything neat from a bike into one bag (they can fit up to a 1pc crankset) and then I use the smaller same style for loose /same type items...

 

[Wildcat]

I had a box made up from scraps a few years ago that held bags of parts and could double as a serving cart when a table cloth was used. No one knew there were tons of rusty parts right below the serving trays of Pork Adobo, Pancit, Lumpia, Calderetta, and Hamanado. It worked great.
So I had a new one made custom, only using good wood and putting decent wheels on it. It doubles as a worktable when I cover the top with something to protect it and can be wheeled through doorways as a serving table.

The idea is to have places to stash parts where they don't get noticed. Hanging frames up as art won't get it at my place. An old station wagon out back for storage would probably wind up being my home!

This new box will get some wooden drawers added so I lift out sections that have certain parts. Right now it's just bags and a couple of plastic bins. Stuff other than bike stuff also winds up in there. Everything except frames tires and wheels fits in there.

 

[nosferatu1381]

I just walk into the house with something cool and it disappears. Two or three years later I find it again. I start finding all kinds of great parts the more ten mm I have. I am pretty sure they all go to the same place

 

[horsefarmer]

I know it's just like Christmas sometimes.

Not so funny when I can't find my pedal wrench!

 

[Verrt]

My process involves leaving the cables in the housing sometimes, or sometimes not, mix brake and gear cables together, carefully twist them all into medium size loops, put some of them in ziplocks they they can easily poke holes in, label the bags with vague things like Peugeot or brake cable, throw in a handful of unrelated nuts and ball bearings with the cable, then I spread them all over the basement, seemingly at random, in different tubs and containers that may or may not contain other bike related things. If I'm feeling really diligent I'll throw in an uncoiled skinny 700c tube to make sure everything gets nice and tangled together.

This way when I need to grab a specific cable I can easily go on Amazon and order a new set.

Perfect system.

 

[horsefarmer]

Broke down all the old wheel tire combos in stash. Cleaned trued and greased bearings added rim strip and labeled them. Put the wheels up in a rack I made out of a clothes rack from Shopko store closing sale...

Aired up tubes. If they held air overnight, deflate and clean and put in labeled bags for reuse.

Take up less room and much easier to put wheels together. Plus knowing whats "in stock".

 

[Bendix]

I started using old file cabinets after seeing a pic of somebody else's storage. He used to be around here, into klunkers. "41DX" or something? I think. Watch Craigslist and you can often get them for free, in the digital age they have no real value and folks are usually just glad to be rid of them, they're not easy to dispose of !

If you use tubs make it the hard, rigid kind. When the garage heated up in the summer my stacks o' tubs would get too soft, leaning and buckling under the weight. Oops.

I have four 4 drawer bike parts file cabinets, and another one for ammo and cleaning stuff. All they cost was a little gas!