What have you found on the side of the road?

[kramnnim]

Most of us spend thousands of miles every year, scanning the road for gravel, glass, etc...what interesting/valuable things have you come across? I picked up a case full of music CDs today, which prompted the question. A riding friend found a fully functional PSP...

[Secosera]

The coolest thing I've probably found was a nest of fire ants I ended up standing in while changing a flat...

[SoCalSteve]

I found a $100.00 bill once in the middle of the road...Took my wife out to dinner.

[pbjbike]

A dead woodpecker. I claimed the pink/orange feathers that I gave to my GF at the time. A 2 ct. diamond could not have been a better gift.

[PaulE]

Last thing I found on the side of the road was someone's mobile phone. It worked but wasn't charged. It fit my phone's charger so after charging it at home I called MaDa in the contacts, got hold of mom and returned it. Turns out it fell out of her daughter's pocket at the bus stop.

Before that, I was on a ride with Pete and I found a 13 mm Craftsman combination open end/box end wrench in good shape.

Lately, a couple of my friends mentioned that they now see those little dental floss holders that look like miniature slingshots or modified cocktail sabres tossed from cars on roadsides. I saw one of those on Saturday's ride.

[lemondsteel]

Nice pair of cool sunglasses. Perfect for riding, especially Mnt. biking. Free so if they get destroyed no great loss. Polarized too. Countless bungie cords which always come in handy.

[staggerwing]

In the past year, a 10" Proto adjustable wrench, and 9 months later, a large pair of tin snips, both of which I added to the bag, took home and cleaned up. Yes, I would have made an attempt to return, if any identifying info had been etched or painted upon said tools, but nothing was inscribed.

About a month back, found a $20 in the gutter, in a nice residential area that I cut through on the commute to work. There wasn't a breathing sole around, so I made a recovery.

[gdw]

I found a clip from a Colt 1911A1 loaded with .45ACP hollow points on one of the trails outside of town this year. Kids target shooting dropped it and left all their fired casings as well.

[firerescuefin]

I was on a long ride and developed highway hypnosis... caught my front wheel on the edge of the shoulder...overcorrected...highsided...flew off the bike. It happened with 2 joggers coming the other way. I found my pride on the side of the road, picked it up gingerly, and rode home.

[old fat man]

found an 11mm open end wrench on thursday. rode by another open end wrench today, 15mm. by the end of the month I should have a full set if I stick to this same route.

[BengeBoy]

Last fall I found a dead raccoon. Next day there was a cross, with the marking, "RIP Rocky Raccoon" and some flowers. (The raccoon itself was presumably buried). The cross is still there, months later.

My other biggest finds have been abandoned bikes (2 in the last year), tossed into bushes by side of the road. Called the cops.

[peanutgallery]

Since the interweb, there is one thing you don't see much of these days, dirty mags

[thegunner]

A dead woodpecker. I claimed the pink/orange feathers that I gave to my GF at the time. A 2 ct. diamond could not have been a better gift.

nothing says love like something plucked from the corpse of a bird :banana:

[jbrainin]

Funny you should mention dirty mags. I found this one (more naughty than dirty, apparently) during a lunch break riding from Victorville to Twenty Nine Palms, CA. The doll head was found alongside the road just before arriving in Twenty Nine Palms

[Norm Swift]

One too many dead deer lately, which once you know where they are you can take a deep breath... hold for a few hundred yards... and then exhale.

On a positive note, I found a cool desk on a rural, low traffic road. The previous owner had put a "Free" sign on it, so I called the wife, loaded it on her truck and away she went. The wife was just happy that the phone call was not to pick me up off the side of the road.

Also found a 30-pound sledgehammer. Drove past it in the car a few days later, and since it had not yet been claimed, picked it up.

Norm

[djg21]

Funny you should mention dirty mags. I found this one (more naughty than dirty, apparently) during a lunch break riding from Victorville to Twenty Nine Palms, CA. The doll head was found alongside the road just before arriving in Twenty Nine Palms


On two different occassions, I came across couples going at it in the back seats of cars parked along the sides of roads in the middle of the day. This is not a joke! Unfortunately, none of the persons involved should have been allowed to engage in exhibitionism.

[GuyGadois]

lots of dead squirrels!

[kramnnim]

I've been seeing a lot of smashed box turtles...makes me sad.

[Louis]

Sunday's ride: nearly new work glove. Black.

Not sure what to do with it now.

[MRB]

Sunday's ride: nearly new work glove. Black.

Not sure what to do with it now.

Contact O.J. he has the exact opposite :)

[rdparadise]

Well, speaking of dirty mags and such, last winter while travelling a nice country road you won't believe what I found. It was an imitation rubber portion of the male anatomy, purchased at an adult bookstore, that some women use to take care of themselves. It had the meat and potatoes if you know what I mean. Anyway, I didn't pick it up, look for it's rightful owner or call the cops. There it sat as I rode by. :no:

That's all for tonight folks.

Bob

[rustychisel]

gardening gloves, always gardening gloves, singly, in pairs, it doesn't matter.

And most of my extensive collection of Allen Keys have been roadside pickups.

Dead deer? Dead kangaroo smells pretty awful. Whilst riding in the hills I'm waiting to see my first dead alpaca (alpaca farming is a yuppy treehugging tofu sniffing thing to do around here).

[tiretrax]

$3, lots of gloves (all kinds), dropped water bottles, sunglasses, a pump and road kill [from snakes and squirrels to a nice size deer (10 point?) (it was a bad omen for the toughest century i've ridden)]. lots of trash from cyclists - punctured tubes, used air cartridges, spent gels, etc. I haven't found any more cash, but I keep looking.

[Matt-H]

On Sunday, a coconut.

[Dekonick]

Kiddie croc's - no parents or kids anywhere in sight. Left with a ranger station...

Used condoms... Umm... I just left them for the ants to figure out what to do with them...

Used to find lots of cassette tapes streaming magnetic material back in the day... often DEF LEPARD's Pyromania... (80's anyone?)

Kids today don't understand how much 'tape' is in a cassette! Quite a bit...

Nothing good lately... but I don't look too hard either...

[veggieburger]

Back in the early 90s I found a near-new pair of Shimano MTB shoes in the middle of the road, my size. Wore them for many years.

[dogdriver]

Today, an unopened tube of Clif Shot Blocks. Took it as an omen, as I felt like crap, cut the ride short, went home. Will gobble them next ride with proper homage to the road kill deities...

[quickfeet]

A full roll of red electrical tape that I have happily been finishing my bar tape with for two years!

[Blue Jays]

- new locking pliers
- reasonably new framing hammer
- chromed railroad spike
- friendly runaway dogs (called owners)
- three very large turtles (helped to safety)

[AFS]

A nice camera. It took me about 2 weeks to find the owner.

Lately, too many illegal dumps; like a tv, sofa, engine block, 8-ft satellite dish...etc.:mad: At least the county has a service to pick up the junk that these losers leave on the side of the road.

[rice rocket]

Where in CA?

There's so many couches and mattresses on the I-5 in LA that probably fall off pickup trucks, it's pretty incredible.

[AFS]

Where in CA?

There's so many couches and mattresses on the I-5 in LA that probably fall off pickup trucks, it's pretty incredible.

Northern Santa Barbara County. The junk seems to come in waves.

[d_douglas]

I hit the jackpot - I took my daughter to get her hair cut yesterday and beside the car was a bag with ‘free’ on it. I saw that it had clipless pedals in it. I look and it has two pairs of cheapo generic ones (with a new set of cleats in a package) but more importantly, a pair of vintage yellow and green Time ATACs in near mint condition! That is all I use and I have recently lamented here that I think the quality has tanked - and now I have a set of the super nice OG Ones!

I assume these sat in someone’s basement for 15years and no one was going to use ‘useless clip pedals’ so they just dumped them for someone else to use! It was an amazing coincidence that an actual Time pedal user found them, as 99% of people wouldn’t know or care what these things were :)

[thatguy]

I ride along a beach park road so I find lots if fishing and boat gear, rods, reals, life jackets, etc. Also found a rattlesnake with a full belly but didn't take it home.

[Black Dog]

I hit the jackpot - I took my daughter to get her hair cut yesterday and beside the car was a bag with ‘free’ on it. I saw that it had clipless pedals in it. I look and it has two pairs of cheapo generic ones (with a new set of cleats in a package) but more importantly, a pair of vintage yellow and green Time ATACs in near mint condition! That is all I use and I have recently lamented here that I think the quality has tanked - and now I have a set of the super nice OG Ones!

I assume these sat in someone’s basement for 15years and no one was going to use ‘useless clip pedals’ so they just dumped them for someone else to use! It was an amazing coincidence that an actual Time pedal user found them, as 99% of people wouldn’t know or care what these things were :)

That’s a great score!

[Black Dog]

In no particular order: money, tools, gloves, golf balls, so many rubber straps from trucks, porn, tape, water bottles, cell phones, blue tooth speaker, sunglasses, an oversized 6 sided dice, and some other miscellaneous stuff.

[paredown]

My best--when I was renovating and we had no money for anything, I found a huge box of galvanized wire staples that must have either fallen off a truck or been left by a wiring crew--still using the last of them...

[Tickdoc]

Lots of wrenches and sockets, pliers seem to be the usual things I will turn around to pick up. Highlights are a peterbuilt trucker hat and a really nice spur? (From a set of spurs with a rodeo scene on the side of them)

I still wear the hat, display the spurs on my shelf, and still use the tools.

[LouDeeter]

I've found many wallets, purses, gold chains, coins, bills, tools, phones, golf balls, a wedding band (see article: https://www.yourobserver.com/news/2018/aug/15/in-lakewood-ranch-theres-a-nice-ring-to-this-story/ (https://www.yourobserver.com/news/2018/aug/15/in-lakewood-ranch-theres-a-nice-ring-to-this-story/)

When I first found wallets/purses, I would try to find the owner, contact them and return. I had some question whether I was a crook. I have since learned that if you find something like that, contact the local police. It might be the result of a crime and they will return the item and investigate if necessary. One of the better stories was I found a kid's wallet. I couldn't find him, but I found his dad. I called his dad and a lady answered, telling me they had nothing to do with the kid. I eventually tracked him down, only to find that the lady was the girlfriend of the dad and I had "caught" him out with her! I once tracked someone down by a golf club membership card. The golf club then called the owner, who then called me. He was happy but couldn't understand how his wallet was 2 miles from the route he had taken on his golf cart when he lost his wallet.

I once found a revolver and picked it up with a stick and then took it to a parked police car in a parking lot. He didn't seem too excited, but he did take the gun. No idea what became of that.

I have found clothing/towels/rags and stopped to clean my chain, then continue on my ride.

[reuben]

Highlights are a peterbuilt trucker hat and a really nice spur? (From a set of spurs with a rodeo scene on the side of them)
Are the spurs SPD compatible?

[bshell]

All kinds of tools, needles, a nice Pearl Izumi windbreaker that fits great, too infrequent cash, a heroin spoon (flipped up and bent a spoke and then hit me), a pricey 29" MTB carbon front wheel in the gutter on my ride home . Spesh employee spaced out at trailhead and drove away. I found him on Craigslist. He gave me $150 worth of cotton turbo somethings for the road, which I gave away because they were skinwall -but that was quite nice of him. College kid's cell phone. He came by to get it and literally said one word, "cool", and left.

+Can't believe I forgot my full size "Rack-it" lumber rack!!! Someone cut it in half and bent the front "U" shape almost into a triangle shape. I was planning to buy one and saw this at the side of the road near our city landfill. That was 20 years ago but I think they were $500-$600 back then so I jammed home and came back with the truck "hoping it'd still be there" hahahaha. Heated/bent/welded in 4 spots and still going strong. I had more goofy energy then.

[Tickdoc]

Are the spurs SPD compatible?

I don’t think so….they barely even jingle when I ride.

https://i.imgur.com/mBKksa8l.jpg

[reuben]

I don’t think so….they barely even jingle when I ride.

https://i.imgur.com/mBKksa8l.jpg
Give it the hot wax treatment.

[AndersCAAD]

I found an ice cream maker a couple years ago. Works flawlessly and makes great ice cream. I had to ride for an hour with the big awkward box it was stuffed into (had all the extra parts and stuff) but was well worth it.

[tellyho]

Best find was an early 2000s Trek Fuel in great shape. Now my younger son's MTB.

[dcama5]

About five years ago, when my wife and I were doing metric centuries on most weekends (too danged old now), I found, and picked up, a 13mm open-end wrench on the side of the road during one of our metric centuries. Coincidentally, this was the exact size I needed for centering my Ciamillo Zero Gravity road brake calipers on the Alliance road bike. Wow! I have been using it since.

[tomato coupe]

I've found several abandoned bikes on the side of the road, sometimes leaning against light poles, street signs, or bike racks. Many times they would still be there when I came back with my bolt cutters.

[glepore]

An echo 2 cycle motor with a half in chuck and an auger the size of a 1 qt pot, a serious landscape tool that I used until it died.

[Seramount]

money...a $20 bill once and $26 (20, 5, 1) another time.

sockets...5mm, 7mm, 10mm.

a box of galvanized deck screws (was riding past a Lowe's).

glass hash pipe.

purse w/ sunglasses, keys, and a box of raisins.

a Park pedal wrench (?)...who carries one of those on rides?

but, mostly what I see (and almost always pick up) are thousands of plastic water bottles and Al cans...rough guess is 1 item/mile, so it adds up over time. went out today and harvested 10 items before I had 5 miles in...sigh.

[JasonF]

This is LA after all….I turned around and gave it to an animal shelter.

[Spinner]

Several years ago, I found a wallet laying in the middle of a street. In addition to a driver's license, it was full of credit cards and an estimated $300 to $400. As it happens, the address on the license was several blocks off of my route home so I stopped at the fellows upscale home and rang the doorbell. The door opened shortly thereafter and I asked the fellow if he was (name here). He said that he was, so I pulled the wallet from my jersey pocket and handed it to him.

He didn't say another word and essentially slammed the door in my face. AH.

[oldpotatoe]

Old thread and been a while but I found a compound bow, with arrows, in a case, by the side of the road..Put a 'found' thing in the paper(yup, that long ago, like early 90s), where I found it, and a 'identify to claim' gig..30 days, nothing so kept it..then sold it. I couldn't even put the thing back.

AND, when I owned Vecchio's..found $1000, in hundreds in an envelope in the parking lot behind the shop
..Talked to the restaurant next door and the biz in the building in the parking lot...

"Did anybody lose something important in the parking lot??"...no answer, asked for about two weeks..so kept it, shared it with my two employees and my two kids.

[Steve in SLO]

My best was a 24" Ridgid Aluiminum pipe wrench in the weeds on a back road.
Not easy to ride home with so I drove back to pick it up. Craigslist ad without takers so I still have and use it.

Next best was a set of shop keys on a retractable keyholder. Craigslisted that one, too. Turns out the local Snap-On driver had lost them. He had his son come get them so I couldn't turn down the gift he told me he would bring, which was a very nice ratcheting screwdriver/bit set.

[Tickdoc]

My best was a 24" Ridgid Aluiminum pipe wrench in the weeds on a back road.
Not easy to ride home with so I drove back to pick it up. Craigslist ad without takers so I still have and use it.

Next best was a set of shop keys on a retractable keyholder. Craigslisted that one, too. Turns out the local Snap-On driver had lost them. He had his son come get them so I couldn't turn down the gift he told me he would bring, which was a very nice ratcheting screwdriver/bit set.

nice.

[Hank Scorpio]

About three weeks ago I found a full fly rod set up that I gave to my daughter. She is pretty wild with her back casts and immediately thinks she hooked a fish the millisecond the fly touches the surface. Same night I found two single dollar bills.

Then more recently I found a iPhone 13. The screen wasn’t broken and it hadn’t rained so I figured it would be worth a shot to see if I can get it working. Plugged it in after the ride and it comes back to life saying. “This iPhone has been lost. Contact Kelly for a reward”. I called the number and it turns out Kelly was a single mom from Owensboro KY and this was her work phone. We chatted a bit about my grandparents living their whole lives in Henderson KY which is the next town over from her. I was hoping she would offer to drive by their old place and take some photos for me but she didn’t. Anyways Kelly has her phone back and I didn’t ask for the reward. Maybe she will send me some burgoo.

[verticaldoug]

many dead deer, snapping turtle, badger, fox, woodchuck, squirrels, chipmunks, skunk, snakes, pheasants and a black bear in PA one time only. .

Automobiles are the alpha predator from what I can tell.

Come to England in the early spring which is fly tipping season- sofas, beds, chairs, old tvs.... you name it.

[Bob Ross]

Not recently, but back circa 1980-81 I found a gram of cocaine, that was probably my best haul. :banana:

there is one thing you don't see much of these days, dirty mags

Was it here or ATH where there was a similar thread about "Road Porn"? Pretty common in the 'burbs. I still have vivid memories of my first "Woods Porn" discovery at the age of 9 or 10...can't recall if we were on our bikes or just walking.

[duff_duffy]

This was not the easiest to ride home with but found a skim board on a shore ride. My son had wanted one for a long time, it’s been awesome for two summers now at the beach!

[KJMUNC]

Love these 12yr old zombie threads!

Recently I found a brand new Rusty surf shop baseball cap lying in the middle of the road about a mile away from the Rusty shop in Del Mar. I'm sure it was probably placed on top of a car and then forgotten about.

[Louis]

This is LA after all….I turned around and gave it to an animal shelter.

Bravo! :hello::hello::hello:

[Tramp]

A guitar amp, nearly buried by the side of the road as I stopped to fix a flat. I’m a guitarist and a gear head, but wouldn’t have much wanted the amp, even if it had been pristine, which it definitely was not.

[pinoymamba]

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[2LeftCleats]

Oddest thing I’ve found on every ride outside the city: the county puts down fluorescent green rectangle lane markers and there is raccoon poop in various degrees of freshness on most of them. Apparently they differ about whose territory this is.

[2LeftCleats]

One of my sons lives in rural Japan. One day riding he saw what appeared to be a body up on a wooded hillside. He rode to the local police station. They quizzed him for a couple of hours before investigating. Turned out to be a discarded sex doll.

[rounder]

It was not on a bike ride, but one day I was cleaning up trash on the side of the road in our neighborhood. I found a bag of empty beer bottles and in there was a $50 dollar bill. We went to lunch on that.

[klasse]

Every morning I ride by pine needles, which I use to mulch my blueberry bushes. The dust is appealing as well.

Also found two crisp $100 bills years ago.

[ggdave]

I found a bmx bike that was in good condition but I didn't want to lug it home.

[sailorboy]

Several wallets and phones, all returned to their grateful owners with a little research after getting back home.

a few decent tools and a swiss army anniv edition knife as well as a gerber multi-tool that I still use to this day.

Best find was a complete 100+ piece husky socket set. Tried to flag down the work truck it came off of but never caught up to them or got a plate/company name to find them later. I put it in the bushes and came back in my car to pick it up.

[Bob Ross]

A guitar amp, nearly buried by the side of the road as I stopped to fix a flat. I’m a guitarist and a gear head, but wouldn’t have much wanted the amp, even if it had been pristine, which it definitely was not.

Ooh, that reminds me: I once found a perfectly good Bogen 50-watt tube amplifier under a bush by the side of the road. This woulda been circa 1979 or '80, and the thing was already a good 10+ years old at that time, but it worked perfectly, and became one of the house guitar amps at the recording studio in Cambridge where I worked.

But I wasn't on my bike when I found it, so it's just more Thread Drift.

[weisan]

.

I am nowhere near as prolific as pinoy pal but...

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/53103299378_567f9a8d93_o.jpg

[unterhausen]

I don't generally look by the side of the road primarily to avoid looking at road kill, but I'm glad some people get something out of it.


Every morning I ride by pine needles, which I use to mulch my blueberry bushes.
There was so much pine needle rustling in North Carolina that it's now a crime to take pine needles from other people's land. Fortunately I have a pretty good supply of pine needles, it works well as mulch in my garden.

[m_sasso]

I don't generally look by the side of the road primarily to avoid looking at road kill, but I'm glad some people get something out of it.



There was so much pine needle rustling in North Carolina that it's now a crime to take pine needles from other people's land. Fortunately I have a pretty good supply of pine needles, it works well as mulch in my garden.

I was educated Pine needles had lots of Allelopathic effects and would not be beneficial in most gardens, was I mis informed?

Seems odd people would steal something that was going to contaminate their soil, but stranger things go on?

[tmessenger]

A MS Windows office disk with the installation key, a pipe wrench, two pairs of gloves one pair was pigskin, a work jacket (good fit), a really nice large LED flashlight, a 1-3/16" impact socket, and lots of bungee cords.

Tim

[unterhausen]

I was educated Pine needles had lots of Allelopathic effects and would not be beneficial in most gardens, was I mis informed?
Pine needles are so popular as mulch that people are risking jail time to steal mass quantities of them. I figure this probably answers your question. But there is so much b.s. surrounding gardening it's hard to know what to take seriously. After sorting through a lot of speculation and received wisdom, what I found indicated that pine needles work fine as mulch. They certainly haven't hurt my garden. They don't rot quickly, so they aren't really changing the soil composition. They are there to keep the ground from drying out as quickly, nothing else. People who use pine needles as mulch aren't grinding them up and composting with them. But that also seems to be okay.

[Waldo62]

One time, I crashed descending Pinehurst and when I stopped sliding, I sat up and next to me lay someone else's busted Avocet computer and a shredded glove. Whether both belonged to the same rider, I don't know. It was a popular place to crash it seems.

[mudhead]

Found this guy on the road a couple weeks ago... brough it home and scared the crap out of my wife and daugher

1698069085

[lemondvictoire]

On a usual weekday ride I found a set of ADS loudspeakers with a 'free' sign that cut short my ride .. rode back to my car right away and picked them up. On a Sunday ride I found a espresso machine(super automatic) with a 'free' sign and 2 hrs later I went back and claimed it... Needed a little TLC and makes a great espresso. :hello:

[PSC]

I have found lots of stuff. Tools, porn and money to name a few. Coolest thing I saw was a bald eagle in the middle of the road (on military base, so no traffic) with its lunch and as it was trying to take off(big wingspan) a hawk dove down and crashed in to its head and took off with its lunch. Not just stuff you find, but what you see.

[jasonification]

Found two really nice MUSA multitools. Managed to get one back to its owner!

[nighthawk]

Off the top of my head... a snap-on mallet, machete, apple watch, cow's tongue wrapped in fabric (some weird voodoo thing?), two shotguns...

the snap-on mallet I still have. machete I kept for awhile but finally gave it away. the apple watch I just found recently and am waiting for a charger to come in the mail so I can get it juiced up and try and get it back to it's owner. shotguns went to the local sheriff, the cow's tongue stayed right where it was. still haunts me.

[paulh]

I have found lots of stuff. Tools, porn and money to name a few. Coolest thing I saw was a bald eagle in the middle of the road (on military base, so no traffic) with its lunch and as it was trying to take off(big wingspan) a hawk dove down and crashed in to its head and took off with its lunch. Not just stuff you find, but what you see.

Take the money. Leave the porn.:cool: