Topic: The Mother of All Cycle Salvage Yards - Phoenix AZ

[desertrefugee]

I mentioned in another thread the maddening cycle salvage yard - Bob's Cycle in South Phoenix.  It's always a treat, whether you're looking for ATV, Cruiser, Bobber, Stock or Harley parts. "If it ain't there, it don't exist."   They are seemingly unorganized, but can direct you fairly well to what you might need.  Lots of stuff is simply ruined from weather - and poor storage habits (lack of space?).   Mountains of both junk and treasure.

Over the years, I have sourced a LOT of bits from this place.  Sometimes you get lucky.  Sometimes not.  But you really need to know what you're looking for - or you'll go old searching for that nebulous widget.

So, if anyone is ever in the Phoenix area and has a couple of hours to kill, this is a good place to do it. Oldwings and new things (and absolutely EVERYTHING else). It's all here.

Common stuff goes outside to await its fate. Much of what they consider "the good stuff" has been pulled and is on shelves in a couple of large buildings. Rows and rows of seats, fenders, lights, motors, motors, motors, forks, tanks and wheels. Words cannot describe this place. Pictures don't do it justice.

I once ran into two guys from England who'd been there for a couple of weeks. They were filling a couple of shipping containers to send back to England. I asked what they targeted. Wanna guess what one of the main targets were?  Four cylinder Goldwings!

Snooze and lose.

[PeWe]

-They do not sell on eBay?

Perfect place to collect parts and build a junk parts bike. No need to destroy a good stock. Build an own bike, frankenbike or Phoenix.
You can get a parts bike like that roadworthy with registration in USA, right?

Photos of all those bikes look sad, like a holocaust.

But it would be nice to stroll around there for days. Too far away for me though!

[carnivorous chicken]

Bob's is amazing, and the guys there are good guys too -- although they can be a little gruff at first until you get to know them. I've been going there since 1997 -- lived in PHX for 20 years.

It's not as unorganized as it might appear. Aside from areas of the yard being divided up by manufacturer, rows are generally -- but not always -- devoted to year ranges and types. OR at least it was probably set up this way, and then as it expanded and bikes got pulled, other bikes got put into their place. SOHC fours are in the first yard, the first rows on the L and R out of the building, and in the second yard in the first two rows.

They do sell on Ebay sometimes, but usually only rarer, high dollar stuff. They have so much stuff and such an established reputation that they don't need to -- they're business plan of just having people come to them works. And people call them up to haul old bikes away, some in good shape. I've bought maybe a dozen bikes from them over the years, and several more as parts sources.

You can put together a bike from them -- I am going to get a 350F frame. Not all of the frames are titled, but the ones that are come with a salvage or non-operational title, and all it takes is a MVD inspection to get them back on the road legally once they are road worthy.

I believe some cafe racer show filmed an episode there, and people come from Japan as well as the UK in order to fill up containers and ship them home. But the stock keeps getting replenished, and a few years ago they bought out an entire yard from Rye, AZ -- which is now the third yard down the street.

Definitely a must-see mecca for people into old Japanese bikes.

[desertrefugee]

...and I believe the reason they will only sell salvage titled frames or salvage titled bikes… regardless of whether they are truly wrecked or not... is due to liability concerns, coupled with the legalese intricacies being a vehicle retailer as opposed to remaining a salvage-only operation.