What's next for the abandoned bikes?

fwiw the BSR yard near Marzahn is technically a "Wertstoffhof" so you can drop stuff off but not pick through the pile. the bikes that actually have decent parts usually get stripped before they even reach the yard, there's a crew that works for BSR that pulls the good components off during collection. i've seen them doing it on Weserstraße, they toss the frames in the truck and keep the wheels and shifters separate.

if you really want a cheap frame without the visa drama, check out the Selbsthilfe-Werkstatt in Friedrichshain on a wednesday evening. they have a donation bin of old bikes out back, you can grab a frame for like 5 euro and they'll even let you use their tools to build it up. the Polizei thing is real though, a friend got a 100 euro fine for cutting a lock on a bike that had three stickers, not worth it

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the yellow sticker system is mostly about giving people a chance to claim their bike before it gets hauled, but after that it's really just a waiting game. the BSR doesn't do auctions for the public, the bikes get crushed and recycled at their yard near Marzahn, not Lichtenberg or Hohenschönhausen like others said. if you want parts without the hassle, check out the Fahrradmarkt at Boxhagener Platz on saturdays, there's a guy who strips abandoned bikes legally and sells everything from gears to frames for like 10-15 euro. the night time thing with the angle grinder is a bad idea, the Polizei in Neukölln are pretty sharp about it and it's a quick way to get a Anzeige that could mess with your visa

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nah the yellow sticker thing is just the first step, they tag em and wait like 4-6 weeks before BSR actually moves on them. sometimes they just cut the lock and leave the frame leaning against a pole if it's really trashed. there's a guy on my block who collects the seats and handlebars from the ones that get cut, he's been doing it for years and nobody bothers him. the actual BSR yard near Hohenschönhausen is where they end up, but it's not open to the public for picking. if you want parts without the visa risk just hit up the flea market at Mauerpark on a sunday, there's a dude there with a pile of bike parts for like 5 euro each

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Worth noting that Berlin street names have official umlaut and ß rules that trip people up, so a sign showing "Strasse" versus "Straße" is not actually a spelling error, just an older transcription. Same with "ue" versus "ü" (e.g. "Kantstrasse" vs "Kantstraße"), both are considered valid renderings and you'll see the ß version on the blue Schilder and the ss version on older plaques or in databases that predate Unicode. If the difference you're seeing is between those two forms, there's nothing to fix and both are technically correct.

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if the signs u mean are the old enamel ones on the house facades those are often protected as Baudenkmal so nobody's allowed to correct them even if the spelling is outdated. the binding version is whatever is in the Berliner Strassenverzeichnis plus the entry in the Liegenschaftskataster, so if u tell me the street i can point u to the right Bezirksamt Mitte or Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf page. tbh the merged district thing is real but the facade signs are a separate story, theyre basically museum pieces at this point

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honestly thats super common in Charlottenburg, the district offices were merged from older Bezirke and nobody ever fixed all the Schilder. if its a real street you can check the official strassenverzeichnis on berlin.de, that list is what the Burgeramt actually goes by. which street is it? some of the Kaiserdamm / Kantstrasse signs are notorious for this.

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