4 ms·

My elder brother used to build bicycles out of bits he pulled out of a river. Like, literally. He once built a bicycle that was so awful that it lasted him a c

My elder brother used to build bicycles out of bits he pulled out of a river. Like, literally. He once built a bicycle that was so awful that it lasted him a complete undergraduate session at university, then a complete postgraduate session at a different university, and then I got it and it lasted me a complete (four-year) undergraduate session at a third university, and didn't get stolen once. I only managed to get rid of it by leaving it, unlocked, in the hall of residence bike sheds, over the summer vacation. Even then it was possible the bin men just threw it away. But I like to think that it got thrown back into a river, and is waiting to rise again in future generations and make some other poor student's life a misery...

castratikron 10y ago
Back in college I got rid of my old bike by just leaving it unlocked outside. It was gone in a few days.
- david-given 10y ago
  Tried that. Turns out, even bike thieves have standards.
  - mattmillr 10y ago
    In Brooklyn, I got rid of half a bike (missing front fork and seat) by setting it outside for about 20 minutes. I guess you could say I got rid of the first half by setting it outside overnight, poorly locked to a post, but it was unintentional.
    - seltzered_ 10y ago
      Worth watching this timelapse of a bicycle left locked outside for a year in NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcXF10Ir9Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcXF10Ir9Q It holds alright until little things start to get missing, after which the rest of it quickly gets stolen.
      - saddestcatever 10y ago
        That's pretty funny. The entire bike was gone in a few days once the water bottle and seat went MIA.
marincounty 10y ago
Yea, there's something liberating about having a bike that looks so terrible, even despirate thiefs, won't take it. "Desperate thiefs"? In my world, they haven't been desperate--just stole out of habit. Behavioral? The times in my life where I had a new expensive bike, I didn't put many miles on it. For no real reason? The points where I just had a beater bike, I put miles on it weekly? Not related to income? Maybe chilhood memories? I had the worst bike as a kid, although I thought it was special. It was an old English bike, with metal brake calipers, and a metal bar that run from the handlebars to the tire.

castratikron 10y ago

Back in college I got rid of my old bike by just leaving it unlocked outside. It was gone in a few days.

david-given 10y ago
Tried that. Turns out, even bike thieves have standards.
- mattmillr 10y ago
  In Brooklyn, I got rid of half a bike (missing front fork and seat) by setting it outside for about 20 minutes. I guess you could say I got rid of the first half by setting it outside overnight, poorly locked to a post, but it was unintentional.
  - seltzered_ 10y ago
    Worth watching this timelapse of a bicycle left locked outside for a year in NYC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcXF10Ir9Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZcXF10Ir9Q It holds alright until little things start to get missing, after which the rest of it quickly gets stolen.
    - saddestcatever 10y ago
      That's pretty funny. The entire bike was gone in a few days once the water bottle and seat went MIA.

marincounty 10y ago

Yea, there's something liberating about having a bike that looks so terrible, even despirate thiefs, won't take it. "Desperate thiefs"? In my world, they haven't been desperate--just stole out of habit. Behavioral? The times in my life where I had a new expensive bike, I didn't put many miles on it. For no real reason? The points where I just had a beater bike, I put miles on it weekly? Not related to income? Maybe chilhood memories? I had the worst bike as a kid, although I thought it was special. It was an old English bike, with metal brake calipers, and a metal bar that run from the handlebars to the tire.