Interesting Bike Nerds

I am just reminiscing so why not write it down. When I was 15, I heard of a man named Herman, who was a mechanic at a Southern California bike shop. I only heard of him through the road bike kids grapevine. He was often discussed as he always seemed to have an interesting bike for sale, and at a bargain price. It went like this "Herman has a Simplex equipped Peugeot for 25 bucks." How did he do it? When bikes and bike parts were fixed on warranty, the defective part was thrown away. It seems Herman would raid the trash cans. He might collect a Simplex derailleur with a broken spring and another with a bent cage. A little work and he would have one good derailleur. Frames replaced on warranty were tossed, not fixed, so he would collect them and replace broken tubes or lugs with those he salvaged from similar frames. Often he would upgrade a bike for someone with the take off parts as his pay. His bikes were always nice; salvaged parts made into a nice bike.  You get the idea; Herman was an interesting bike nerd.

Anyone else with an interesting bike nerd story?

Cheers
Jim