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> If anything, having a tatty, battered old > bike affords more status as it attests to > a long and lasting love. As an Amsterdam resident: What a rom

• dtech 9y ago
  As a fellow dutchman, duct-tape the shit out of everything on your new bike. If you're really brave even partially paint it in a hideous color (purple or something). You'll still have a bad looking bike, but at least it will be mechanically much nicer than your fifth-hand rusting omafiets. Since I started doing that I never had a bike stolen in 15 years, despite living in Rotterdam and Utrecht (big cities) and buying 3 new bikes in that time.
  • rollingpebbles 9y ago
    There should be vinyl wrap for bikes that provides a paintable, duct-tapeable substrain for camo tape and radioactive fuchsia and orange also camo ejaculation. Flat (no shine) paint makes a bike even less attractive. PS: I had a old/ugly bike that I had for 16 years in Davis, CA that I still locked and it was stolen from an apt complex the one and only time I forgot to lock it. There are thieves whom ride around in cargo trucks stealing bikes wholesale, in addition to people whom just "borrow" bikes and dump them whereever.
    • bamboozled 9y ago
      The idea for Amsterdam is to make the bike look unique, not always unnatractive, the more homogenous looking and mechanically sound, the more attractive to thieves. Amsterdam is a smalll place so having a fluro green bike with a number plate of your name welded to the frame is a good deterrent.
      • mschuster91 9y ago
        Take care with welding - not every material likes welding, and especially not home-made welding without proper stress relief. Drilling for rivets is also dangerous when done incorrectly. You do not want to be riding at full steam when the frame cracks, it's nasty.
        • deleted 9y ago
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        • slackingoff2017 9y ago
          Really though it's probably mild steel which is not heat-treatable. Mild steel fairly weak (for steel) but it doesn't get much stronger or weaker from heat exposure and isn't brittle. High carbon, stainless, and fancy stuff is where you can run into problems. In general you won't see this on car or bike frames, too expensive in bulk. If it's a newer bike it's probably aluminum which you can usually still weld with impunity. If it was high grade alloy the heat could matter, but as far as I know nobody cares that much about bike frames. Heat treatment, or "seasoning" in the case of some aluminum is expensive. Source: used to cut up old bikes and weld the frames into crazy chariot contraptions we would tow around
        • xapata 9y ago
          > frame cracks Steel is real, man. It'll bend, not break. But in seriousness, yeah, I was following very closely behind a fellow who snapped his fork jumping over a bump in the road. I almost went over him. Despite the helmet, he lost memory of the accident. I called an ambulance for him and left my number. He called me the next day asking what had happened. It was a nice aluminum frame, looked in good condition. Always check carefully for hairline fractures when buying a used aluminum bike.
      • Cthulhu_ 9y ago
        There's a specific brand of bikes that does just that (welding plates with an ID to it) from production, like https://www.fietsenwinkel.nl/bsp-bold-2016-heren-sale https://www.fietsenwinkel.nl/bsp-bold-2016-heren-sale and https://www.fietsenwinkel.nl/batavus-quip-heren https://www.fietsenwinkel.nl/batavus-quip-heren
    • semi-extrinsic 9y ago
      Protip: "Plasti Dip" spray paint is like vinyl wrap on a spraycan, it comes in all sorts of matte (or even sparkly!) gaudy colors. I think they even sell a desert camo tri-pack. I've seen it sold in car part/accessory shops in Europe.
      • pizzetta 9y ago
        There is also hydro-dipping"[1] It's usually used to add complex graphics to irregular surfaces, but I imagine they could make "ugly' irregular patterns for something like to this to make it unique and unwanted. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrographics_(printing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrographics_(printing)
    • askvictor 9y ago
      Kind of surprised that bike manufacturers don't offer new bikes painted to look old and crappy, as an option, or as an after market service
      • ramy_d 9y ago
        Like jeans!
  • deleted 9y ago
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  • agumonkey 9y ago
    I used to believe my ugly old cheap bike would never be stolen. I was wrong.
    • Cthulhu_ 9y ago
      There's the other part of theft; if someone got their bike stolen or lost, some people just steal another.
      • agumonkey 9y ago
        Fair point, althought some people told me a third option: metal frame reselling; apparently it's worth a few bucks; that was the only valuable part on this (everything else was plastic or lowest quality possible)
  • teekert 9y ago
    I think it still is most important to make sure you can't carry the locked bike away. It's mostly tool-less homeless people roaming the streets at night looking for an opportunity imo. Only bikes I got stole were not locked to a pole because I forgot or assumed I would be back in a minute and wasn't. I agree about the shitty-ness, it is less likely to attract attention and you feel less bad leaving it out on the streets but I think most people would prefer to ride a nicer bike if only people with keep their hands off your property.
    • mcv 9y ago
      There are also professional thieves with good tools and a van they quickly load up with everything that's not sufficiently nailed down.
  • mcv 9y ago
    Anything goes, as long as your bike doesn't look like it's the most expensive bike in the rack. Some people, particularly teenagers and students, can be quite creative in dirtying up their bike. A friend in school had glued sand to her bike, and then painted it. Quite a unique look. But it got stolen anyway, and when she found it, the thief had scraped all the sand off. But there are many reasons why a bike might look ratty. The owner really could have had that bike for a long time, it could be second-hand (or more likely fifth-hand or something), it could have been stolen, it could have been found in the trash and refurbished, it could have been ratty'd up to prevent it from getting stolen, or it might be someone's artistic expression. But in big cities it's certainly not unusual that the lock is the most expensive part of a bike.
• ramy_d 9y ago
  I don't get it - that competition is of bike thefts for unguarded and _unlocked_ bikes. Surely it means nothing. Do people not buy bike locks in those regions? Is it typical for a 13mm+ Ulock in Amsterdam to get broken?
  • chrisseaton 9y ago
    > Surely it means nothing Well I guess it means that you can't leave your bike unlocked in parts of Amsterdam, which is a shame.
    • ramy_d 9y ago
      You can't leave your bike unlocked anywhere. Ever. At anytime. How come this isn't the initial reasoning? In fact, you can't leave anything unattended or not secured. This goes for cars, bikes, luggage, homes, i don't know what else.
      • vpribish 9y ago
        our brave total surveillance future does have this silver lining!
      • chmod775 9y ago
        There's still quite a few places on this earth where people don't even bother to lock their front doors, or don't worry about leaving their bike lying around somewhere unsecured. What you said is mostly for true for major cities though.
        • honestoHeminway 9y ago
          Places where paranoia is still a disease..
      • pfranz 9y ago
        I was surprised to see hundreds of unlocked bikes in Japan. Sounds like it's common over there: https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/3loaqx/bikes_parked_outside_my_lab_in_japan_not_a_ulock/ https://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/3loaqx/bikes_par...
• vincentmarle 9y ago
  In Rotterdam I used to "buy" my bikes from the homeless by offering a €5 kapsalon [1] in return for a bike. As a result, I didn't care too much if this bike got stolen and never bothered locking it, allowing others to take my bike. And then I would do it all over again. In hindsight I realize I was probably wrong to contribute to this ecosystem, but the way I saw it, I was feeding the homeless to provide a social good. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon
  • Camillo 9y ago
    > In hindsight I was probably wrong to pay homeless people to steal bikes. :D :D :D You don't say?
    • mercer 9y ago
      Just to provide context (without justifying it!): in my student days it was completely socially accepted to buy junkie bikes. The justification, to the degree that we bothered having one, was that we all had bikes stolen multiple times. Most people I know stopped buying junkie bikes once they started making a bit more money though, so it's still generally frowned upon. It's just culturally not quite the same as outright theft (again, I don't approve of this personally but even I once bought a probably-stolen bike once).
  • mcv 9y ago
    > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapsalon I've never heard of that, and it even has its own English Wikipedia page! How can I be so out of touch?
• eecc 9y ago
  Sure beats paying for a car, insurance, road tax, gasoline, parking... did I forget anything? Yeah, having your bike stolen sucks, particularly if on your way back home from a night at De School but whatever... still cheaper (and healthier and fun) Get it over, or you can go live a couple years in Rome and learn what it means to live in a hideous car-infested city.
  • mercer 9y ago
    How is De School? I've been meaning to check it out and I heard it's from the people that ran the club in the Trouw building, which I kind of liked by the (relatively) mediocre Amsterdam club standards.
    • eecc 9y ago
      Yup, those guys. Never been yet, I heard they have a weird - haphazardly applied - door policy that boils down to "we'd like to be like Berghain", so don't go if you're a group of more than three not-so-sober men. You've got to admit that the Trouw was good on its own merits, not just because of the poor alternatives (but then go check out the OT or the Bunker. Have you been there?)
    • piva00 9y ago
      I really like De School, went there for their Weekender during ADE and it was one of the best parties I've ever been to, good enough to compare to some days I had at Sisyphos in Berlin... Out of ADE my last time there was back in December, wasn't really fond of many clubs in Amsterdam but De School is definitely one of the best, definitely worth checking it out and I'm going again now in the end of June :)
      • mercer 9y ago
        I love Sisyphos so that's good news! I take it they don't have chickens running around at De School though?
    • cr1895 9y ago
      I've only been once (for FourTet/Floating Points) but it was spectacular. Very good vibe downstairs; super dark/minimal light effects, excellent sound, diverse and respectful crowd, spacious. Except for all the broken glass. The concrete floor was absolutely strewn with shattered beer bottles. The small open garden is really pleasant, though unfortunately it closes early (maybe 3-4am?). It's a nice respite from the steamy floor. I like the art installations too.
• Freak_NL 9y ago
  For Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and The Hague; yeah, just get a beater. In the rest of the country, just lock your bike to something stationary (lanterns, fixed bicycle stands, bridge railings, etc.).
• dankohn1 9y ago
  Can anyone explain why police don't do a huge crackdown on bike theft in Amsterdam? I heard repeatedly when I was there about how bad the theft is. Is there something stopping cops from putting out a dozen fancy bikes without locks every day and arresting everyone who grabs one and rides off? Is the legality of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment different in the Netherlands? Because it seems like a relatively small policing effort could enable a massive improvement in quality of life.
  • zephyrfalcon 9y ago
    I left the Netherlands 15 years ago, but if I recall correctly, entrapment is mostly illegal, and cops usually don't care very much about bike theft, which is very low on their priority list. From what I understand, rampant bike theft is less of a problem outside of Amsterdam (and maybe a few other "big" cities). (I never had my bike stolen, living in an urban area in the south of the Netherlands. That doesn't mean that it didn't happen there... if you leave your bike standing in odd places, it may well be gone when you come back. One way employed by thieves was to drive around with a van and just pick up any bikes that were standing around, locked or not, in broad daylight or not.)
  • avar 9y ago
    They do decoy bikes, e.g. here's a news article about a thief being caught by police stealing a decoy bike for the second time in 6 months published just 3 days ago (in Dutch, but it Google Translates): http://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/207931/Fietsendief-in-Amsterdam-neemt-voor-tweede-keer-lokfiets-van-politie-mee http://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/207931/Fietsendief-in-Amsterda... The problem is that the police have other stuff to do, and they might as well be pissing in the wind with the amount of bike theft here. They could do a huge crackdown, but that's unsustainable and after the crackdown we'll be right back to the same theft rate. Interestingly there was a case this year (currently going through appeals) where a judge ruled that a man stealing a bicycle in a residential neighborhood should be found not guilty because the police had created the circumstances of the bike's theft: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/decoy-bikes-should-not-be-too-tempting-say-judges/ http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/01/decoy-bikes-sh... It's unclear what that means for bicycle entrapment in general, but an article in Parool (again, in Dutch) suggested that this may have implications for the methods of the Amsterdam police depending on how it goes: http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/4/AMSTERDAM/article/detail/4221116/2016/01/08/Mogelijk-einde-aan-lokfiets-als-opsporingsmiddel.dhtml http://www.parool.nl/parool/nl/4/AMSTERDAM/article/detail/42...
• dxbydt 9y ago
  Don't you folks have chorbazar's [1,2]? Virtually every big city in India has one. Your stuff gets stolen, you go to the chor bazar, it'll be on sale, buy it back after some haggling over price. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor_Bazaar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chor_Bazaar [2] http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-reasons-you-should-visit-a-chor-bazaar-at-least-once-in-your-life-253392.html http://www.indiatimes.com/culture/who-we-are/14-reasons-you-...
  • 3131s 9y ago
    Phnom Penh has one too but I'm not sure how reliably you can get your stuff back. Two bikes stolen here for me, but only 40$ a piece.
  • santaclaus 9y ago
    Sounds familiar! In Berkeley and North Oakland potted plant theft is a big thing. I've had neighbors who, multiple times, had to go to the local flea market and retrieve their beloved plants.
  • airza 9y ago
    The dutch version of this for bikes is 'go to a certain part of town late at night and someone will sell you a bike (by cutting the lock off one they stole) for cheap.
• chris_7 9y ago
  Is it atypical to bring your bike inside at work/home?
• seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  Funny. In Japan, there are many places where people don't even bother locking their bikes.
  • DanielleMolloy 9y ago
    My pretty average (yet new and beloved) $75 city bike was stolen on an Osaka University campus when I left it unattended for a few days (it was locked)..
    • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Osaka is definitely not one of those places :)
• Futurebot 9y ago
  Is something preventing foldable bikes (that can be taken indoors) from catching on there?
  • dmoy 9y ago
    You can't carry a foldable bike inside everywhere you go...
  • mcv 9y ago
    They are very popular, primarily because you can take them with you on the train. They're not as fast or comfortable as a regular bike, though. And very expensive.
• bluejekyll 9y ago
  I have a rusty old steel frame. Three nice wheels and a hubs on it so that it rides great. 15 years, noones touched it... San Francisco, which probably doesn't come far after Amsterdam in terms of bike theft.
• markvdb 9y ago
  Obligatory classical film reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_Thieves
• deleted 9y ago
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• greggman 9y ago
  Maybe this is a naive question but why doesn't the local police care about solving this issue? It would seem easy to setup a few honeypot bikes and arrest the people that steal them. Do it for a few weeks a year and it would seem like the crime rate for bikes would quickly plummet. It's sad to me that people take this for granted. I've lived in place that don't and they are wonderful to expect that petty theft is rare. In many countries though it's so common that there's generations of people that seem to just think "that's the way the world is". It's not, it's the way we let it be. This is similar in SF. I don't know how quickly a bike will be stolen there but cars are broken into on such a regular basis that often you can walk down a street and see broken glass every 3rd or 4th parking space from someone breaking into all the cars on that section of the street. Again it seems super solvable with a few honeypot cars and seems like it would do much to make people's lives better (have had my cars broken into 7 times in California)
  • Grangar 9y ago
    That's exactly what they do. They place 'lokfietsen' (lure bikes) at hotspots, but still it's no panacea.
• legulere 9y ago
  It would be so awesome to have a central EU-wide bike number system, like Denmark has nationally: https://secondhandbikes.dk/en/how-to-check-if-the-bicycle-you-are-buying-is-reported-stolen/ https://secondhandbikes.dk/en/how-to-check-if-the-bicycle-yo...
• lambdadmitry 9y ago
  I'm wondering how much of that crime can be attributed to the following circular thinking: > the bike crime level is so high, no sense in buying half-decent bike > no way I buy a lock that costs more than bike > [the lock can be cut by bolt cutter in a few seconds] > [the lock gets cut, the bike gets stolen] > omg, they stole my bike! Gotta buy another cheap one
• peFcBa 9y ago
  Bike theft figures in the NL are indeed horrendous - and it is by far not just Amsterdam. (In fact, the other cities - Utrecht, Rotterdam, Groningen - are in many factors already "ahead"). We actually started an initiative to tackle this issue. So, in case you HATE BIKE THEFT as much as we do, give our FB page a like (https://www.facebook.com/AgainstBikeTheft/ https://www.facebook.com/AgainstBikeTheft/) and sign our petition (bit.ly/bikes-petition) aiming on getting more focus on the problem. It'd be a huge help for us. We're also building an active solution - again, check the website and FB.