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Sorry to hear that. Reminds me of a "best of craiglist" post where a "free washing machine" was left untouched for weeks.. but as soon as a price went on it, it

Sorry to hear that. Reminds me of a "best of craiglist" post where a "free washing machine" was left untouched for weeks.. but as soon as a price went on it, it was stolen that evening.

agumonkey 11y ago
Harsh reality : cable locks below 4cm diameters are useless (only useful for young kids I guess). Even fat 2kg cable lock are useless, anyone can rob a bike in a street, the bolder the easier. I'm still waiting for a cheap bike gps 'self powered' tagger so I can use a bike again.
- nikatwork 11y ago
  I've always wanted to build a spring loaded 30cm titanium spike that would shoot from the seat pole through the seat if not disarmed. Obviously completely illegal, but a satisfying mental exercise.
  - mirimir 11y ago
    "this bike is a pipe bomb" https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/3011586006_42403e0788.jpg https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/3011586006_42403e0788.j... It was a folkie punk band ;) With that promotional sticker. I had one, but didn't put it on my bike.
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      Nice alarm system that consists of a sticker.
      - mirimir 11y ago
        Maybe. Except for the "brought in for questioning by police, bike impounded, paying for a lawyer, etc" parts :( I must say, however, that after my new (expensive, and lovingly customized and maintained) bike was stolen, I did fantasize about remote-controlled explosives. But then I just filed an insurance claim, and replaced it ;)
    - nikatwork 11y ago
      In most first world countries that sticker would just get your bike taken by the police instead of a thief.
  - zw123456 11y ago
    When I was in college, like many struggling students, I didn't have much money, my means of transportation was a 3 speed Stermy-Archer 3 speed bike that had the best security system ever, I never locked it. It had something wrong with the 3 speed and if you stood up on the pedals it would slip and the rider would end up with their taint on the center bar, ouch. It was fine if you were not in a hurry and took your time. There were a number of times when I came out of class and would find it laying on the ground about 30 feet from where I had parked it.
    - agumonkey 11y ago
      You must have had a nice grin seeing that. I also read reverse psychology tricks on biking boards such as not locking the bike, which convey a sense that the owner is not far / in sight and scare most robbers. Requires balls.
      - zw123456 11y ago
        OK, one more of my dopey stories.. I live on the shores of Lake Washington and some years back (when I was a lot younger) I was into wind surfing and I had a pretty nice rig. I was moving to a new place and I had long since drifted away from the hobby of wind surfing to I list my board and rig to sell, but I didn't get any responses so for a fun experiment I carried it across the street and rigged it up and just left it there and went back to my place and sat back to see how long before someone would steal it. It was there for a day and a half and a nice young man called and said he wanted to buy it. He seemed nice so I told him where it was and that he could just go get it and it would be his for free (he could barely believe it). About 30 minutes later I saw a young guy packing it up and taking it away. I felt kinda good about it I guess, hoping he would have fun with it. A few hours later he called sounding very anxious and apparently his parents did not believe the story. So I told them to come by, which they did. His father insisted that they pay me something for it, I relented and told them I would give the money to charity. Sometimes something like that happens, and it just renews your faith in people.
        agumonkey 11y ago
- anon4 11y ago
  Or do what the Japanese do: every bike has a serial number etched into the frame and is registered to you (similar to a car). If your bike is ever stolen, the police can trivially find it by the serial number and return it.
  - Moru 11y ago
    In Sweden we use our personal number etched into the frame but the thiefs just files it away and sells it as second hand.
  - cillian64 11y ago
    I believe every modern bike has a unique frame number stamped. If the police recovered a known-stolen bike it could be returned. However, buyers and bike shops don't make a habit of running frame numbers past the theft database, so it's mostly useless.
  - na85 11y ago
    Nobody in Japan owns a file?
    - kuschku 11y ago
      No one will buy a bike without a number.
      - Grishnakh 11y ago
        This is another example of something that works great in Japan and wouldn't work at all elsewhere. In other countries (esp. anywhere in the Americas), this would never work, because there's no shortage of someone willing to buy something that may be stolen.
        kuschku 11y ago
        Well, in Germany such concepts seem to be very successful, too.
  - 11y ago
- adrianN 11y ago
  If you can read German: https://fahrradjaeger.de/ https://fahrradjaeger.de/

Sorry to hear that. Reminds me of a "best of craiglist" post where a "free washing machine" was left untouched for weeks.. but as soon as a price went on it, it was stolen that evening.

agumonkey 11y ago

Harsh reality : cable locks below 4cm diameters are useless (only useful for young kids I guess). Even fat 2kg cable lock are useless, anyone can rob a bike in a street, the bolder the easier. I'm still waiting for a cheap bike gps 'self powered' tagger so I can use a bike again.

nikatwork 11y ago
I've always wanted to build a spring loaded 30cm titanium spike that would shoot from the seat pole through the seat if not disarmed. Obviously completely illegal, but a satisfying mental exercise.
- mirimir 11y ago
  "this bike is a pipe bomb" https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/3011586006_42403e0788.jpg https://farm4.static.flickr.com/3277/3011586006_42403e0788.j... It was a folkie punk band ;) With that promotional sticker. I had one, but didn't put it on my bike.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    Nice alarm system that consists of a sticker.
    - mirimir 11y ago
      Maybe. Except for the "brought in for questioning by police, bike impounded, paying for a lawyer, etc" parts :( I must say, however, that after my new (expensive, and lovingly customized and maintained) bike was stolen, I did fantasize about remote-controlled explosives. But then I just filed an insurance claim, and replaced it ;)
  - nikatwork 11y ago
    In most first world countries that sticker would just get your bike taken by the police instead of a thief.
- zw123456 11y ago
  When I was in college, like many struggling students, I didn't have much money, my means of transportation was a 3 speed Stermy-Archer 3 speed bike that had the best security system ever, I never locked it. It had something wrong with the 3 speed and if you stood up on the pedals it would slip and the rider would end up with their taint on the center bar, ouch. It was fine if you were not in a hurry and took your time. There were a number of times when I came out of class and would find it laying on the ground about 30 feet from where I had parked it.
  - agumonkey 11y ago
    You must have had a nice grin seeing that. I also read reverse psychology tricks on biking boards such as not locking the bike, which convey a sense that the owner is not far / in sight and scare most robbers. Requires balls.
    - zw123456 11y ago
      OK, one more of my dopey stories.. I live on the shores of Lake Washington and some years back (when I was a lot younger) I was into wind surfing and I had a pretty nice rig. I was moving to a new place and I had long since drifted away from the hobby of wind surfing to I list my board and rig to sell, but I didn't get any responses so for a fun experiment I carried it across the street and rigged it up and just left it there and went back to my place and sat back to see how long before someone would steal it. It was there for a day and a half and a nice young man called and said he wanted to buy it. He seemed nice so I told him where it was and that he could just go get it and it would be his for free (he could barely believe it). About 30 minutes later I saw a young guy packing it up and taking it away. I felt kinda good about it I guess, hoping he would have fun with it. A few hours later he called sounding very anxious and apparently his parents did not believe the story. So I told them to come by, which they did. His father insisted that they pay me something for it, I relented and told them I would give the money to charity. Sometimes something like that happens, and it just renews your faith in people.
      - agumonkey 11y ago
anon4 11y ago
Or do what the Japanese do: every bike has a serial number etched into the frame and is registered to you (similar to a car). If your bike is ever stolen, the police can trivially find it by the serial number and return it.
- Moru 11y ago
  In Sweden we use our personal number etched into the frame but the thiefs just files it away and sells it as second hand.
- cillian64 11y ago
  I believe every modern bike has a unique frame number stamped. If the police recovered a known-stolen bike it could be returned. However, buyers and bike shops don't make a habit of running frame numbers past the theft database, so it's mostly useless.
- na85 11y ago
  Nobody in Japan owns a file?
  - kuschku 11y ago
    No one will buy a bike without a number.
    - Grishnakh 11y ago
      This is another example of something that works great in Japan and wouldn't work at all elsewhere. In other countries (esp. anywhere in the Americas), this would never work, because there's no shortage of someone willing to buy something that may be stolen.
      - kuschku 11y ago
        Well, in Germany such concepts seem to be very successful, too.
- 11y ago
adrianN 11y ago
If you can read German: https://fahrradjaeger.de/ https://fahrradjaeger.de/