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One of the better ways of preventing the theft of a bike in a city (aside from bringing it indoors), is to use an old, junky, beater bike. The Yerka’s unique de
by cush 5y ago
One of the better ways of preventing the theft of a bike in a city (aside from bringing it indoors), is to use an old, junky, beater bike. The Yerka’s unique design is an absolute thief-magnet that’s begging to be stolen.
- couchand 5y agoA friend clarified this strategy for me the other day... Apparently you walk a fine line between beater not worth the effort to take and assumed abandoned and so fair to strip.
- cush 5y agoIt’s easy to tell an abandoned bike from one that’s in use. Abandoned bikes become rusty, tires are deflated, they get kicked over, etc etc.
- Gigachad 5y agoMy favorite method was the guy who doesn't lock his bike at all and just sticks airtags on it and when it goes missing, calls the police who recover the bike and collect the thief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fn0yCdqHg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fn0yCdqHg
- tgsovlerkhgsel 5y agoAssumes police that gives a shit (and has the resources to give a shit).
- numlock86 5y agoBe careful with that. Depending on where you live this can be seen as "incitement for robbery" (or whatever the correct term is) which is a crime in itself at some places even.
- chrischen 5y agoBoo, this is victim blaming. Is this actually a real crime? Or are you referring to when police do it?
- bluGill 5y agoIn some places. If in yours start complaining to local politicians. Ideally with a group of people.
- rlpb 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrapment Read up for yourself, but I don't think that merely leaving a bike unlocked would be entrapment in any jurisdiction. The law generally requires something more, like a police officer inviting someone to go steal a bike for them.
- glandium 5y agoA friend of mine had an old junky beater bike, with a fancy new lock. He once found the bike where he left it... but, I shit you not, the lock was gone! (that was > 20 years ago)
- tromp 5y agoIn my younger days, I would sometimes consider a combination lock on a bike as a nice puzzle to solve. If I managed to unlock it, I would reattach it in an obviously different place to let the owner know they need a lock upgrade.
- zw123456 5y agoWhen I was in college, I didn't have much money, like a lot of us when going to school, so I bought a beater bike at a garage sale for $5. It was a 3-speed type with big tires back before that became cool. The security mechanism was not only that it was ugly, but the 3-speed shifter mechanism was messed up and the pedals only worked if you had it just so between 2nd and 3rd gear, sort of halfway in between, otherwise the pedals would slip if you stood up on them or put much pressure on them. I never locked it. I would just put it in 1st gear and walk away. On campus I don't think anyone tried to swipe it except I noticed a few times it was laying on the ground instead of the bike rack. One time I went to the 7-11 just to grab a soda and while I was in there I hear a scream outside. I went out and saw my bike laying on the ground and some guy hobbling away grabbing at his groin. My friends would ask me "how can you ride that thing" and I would say, very carefully.
- djmips 5y agoWhere I live, your bike would still be stolen. Bike thieves here don't generally ride the bikes they steal, they ride their own bike and kind of hold the stolen bike with their other hand and tow it along. Also they would steal any bike.
- zw123456 5y agoYa, I heard in some big cities now days they drive around in trucks with bolt cutters and grab the bikes and toss them in the back of the pickup and are gone in seconds.
- dddw 5y agoI've witnessed that happen to my own bike. Seems to happen in university cities where lot of student have bikes.
- eloisant 5y agoWhere I live it's not the fancier bike that gets stolen, it's the easiest to steal. If they can flip it for $10, so be it! They're not going to find the customer who accepts to put $500 in a quality stolen bike anyway. Also, sometimes people steal a bike just to use it for a few kilometers then throw it in a ditch when they no longer need it.
- dazc 5y agoSadly, this is the answer to many of the problems of modern life. Having nice things just isn't worth the hassle anymore.
- cestith 5y agoDid you recently have kids?
- _jstreet 5y agoYou're basically saying "don't own something nice if you don't want it stolen". More needs to be done to tackle bike theft. Be that education, physical deterrants (cameras, good quality bike lockup locations, etc). I've had a bike stolen, and the police can do nothing. A bicycle is small, easy to disassemble, relatively low-value, and they are untraceable items. A car is higher-value, but more easily traced than a bike - due to a large number of factors; size, colour, shape, insurance/legal documents to prove ownership, ANPR cameras, etc.
- dazc 5y ago> A bicycle is small, easy to disassemble, relatively low-value, and they are untraceable items.. I once followed a bike thief to his home, phoned the police explaining what had occurred and that I am stood outside his house right now. Nothing happened.
- hallway_monitor 5y agoA better strategy for this and other problems might be "don't live in a city".
- dotancohen 5y agoThen you need a car or motorcycle, not a bicycle, to get to the place you were trying to go to. That said, I live in a small village myself.
- cush 5y agoNo, I’m actually basically saying, don’t leave expensive bicycles unattended. If you want to choose a bike based on theft resistance, a cheap one is much better than the Yerka.
- dan-robertson 5y agoI’m not sure how true this is. I think in general thieves steal things they can easily sell rather than things that are expensive. I would guess one could more easily sell an ordinary looking bike than a fancy looking one but maybe it can be converted into valuable easily sold parts or it just isn’t that hard to sell.
- cush 5y ago> in general thieves steal things they can easily sell rather than things that are expensive I’m not following your logic. An expensive item is much easier to sell than a cheaper one. Easiness to sell is correlated to value.