4 ms·

In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Put a $100 u-lock on a $300 bike, and you can almost be assur

In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Put a $100 u-lock on a $300 bike, and you can almost be assured that you'll have neither. Put a nice enough lock on yours, and you can be pretty sure you won't have the most easily stolen bike either. At least in the US, road bikes are pretty much immune to being stolen because they're seen as terminally uncool by the lay population. Would I leave a $5000 road bike locked up at a subway station? Not likely, but I'm not fast enough to justify owning one anyways. $2000, yeah probably, as long as I'm not leaving it there daily. Anecdotally, police won't do shit to recover a stolen bike in the US. Having some kind of tracker is only going to help you once it's already been stolen. I'd focus my efforts on preventing the theft in the first place.

Bluecobra 4y ago
Having a dumpy old bike helps. I have accidentally locked my cheap u-lock to the bike itself instead of the bike rack a few times at a train station and nobody took it. The worst thing that has ever happened is that someone stole my quick release skewer, so I have a screw on one now.
microtonal 4y ago
In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Right, in The Netherlands, where there are a lot of bikes, this is the basic rule: just make sure that there are other bikes that are more attractive to steal, even if it's a new bike. The second basic rule is: use a chain lock to attach your bike frame to an unmovable object, so that a thief cannot just throw your bike in a van and remove the locks elsewhere. What I do: - Use a ring lock for the back wheel. Makes it unattractive to steal just the wheel. The lock needs to be unscrewed from the frame to remove the wheel. - Use a chain lock and make it go through the frame, front wheel, and attach it to an unmovable object. In order to steal the frame, the thief would have to saw through the chain in plain sight. - If there is no supervised parking, park the bike in an area where there are enough people where someone will notice a thief trying to break the locks. - Get bike insurance. It's usually only 10 Euro per month and if your bike gets stolen, you get back the bike's value. - Some insurers also install a tracker. This has double value: bikes with a tracker are less attractive to steal. Secondly, bikes with a tracker are usually moved to a 'cool-off' location first. This is usually just some place removed a few streets from where the bike was stolen. If it's still there after a few days, the thieves know that nobody is actively tracking the bike and they can take it somewhere to comfortably break the lock. So, it's likely that the insurer will find the bike at the cool-off location without much damage.
- merely-unlikely 4y ago
  Unfortunately here in NYC the public won't bat an eye while your lock is cut off[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8
  - danenania 4y ago
    I wouldn't want to confront a potentially aggressive person with a saw in hand either. I might call the police, but I'd assume that by the time they got there, the thief would be gone, and that's if the police even cared enough to send someone. I think this is mainly an enforcement issue. The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it.
    - happyopossum 4y ago
      > The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it. That's a bit of a myopic view - in many of these cities, the DA will refuse to prosecute someone for thefts like this, so it does no good to arrest someone. Police in many cities are underfunded and understaffed, and if they're getting no support from the DA they have to prioritize.
      - danenania 4y ago
        Fair enough. "Police" in my comment should be expanded to include prosecutors and even the mayor I suppose.
nuclearwast 4y ago
This is something I never understood. Why so many bike theft? a regular new one is 3-4 hundred$ and cannot be sold that easily (Say vs electronic goods). Why theft is so popular? I mean thief can steal one for their own purpose, but then what? He steal another one every weeks? I dont get it.
- cogman10 4y ago
  Steal the bike, sell it on craigslist/facebook marketplace/etc for $100, profit. It can often take less that 5/10 minutes to steal a bike which is a pretty good RoR. How could we stop it? Probably the best way would be stronger regulations on community marketplaces/pawn shops/ebay/etc. ATM, they don't GAF about selling stolen goods.
  - wpietri 4y ago
    I also think the police just don't take it very seriously. Certainly that's the case here in SF. I've reported a number of stolen bikes over the years and my impression was of massive indifference. After bike number 7 was stolen, I just gave up. A few years later I'm thinking about buying a bike again, and risk of theft is my number one concern.
    - cogman10 4y ago
      Well, not to defend the police, but after a bike is stolen I don't know what you could expect them to do. Even if they had a dedicated bike recovery task force, the most they could do is visit local pawn shops and browse community marketplaces for a bike matching the description (assuming it wasn't broken down for parts). Now, before a bike is stolen, I'd expect police to actually patrol places where bikes are being commonly stolen from (or for that matter, places where cars are commonly broken into). That part is something I do blame them for. The fact that SF is basically synonymous with "don't leave anything in the car" is an indictment on local police.
      - wpietri 4y ago
merely-unlikely 4y ago
My experience having recently had my road bike stolen would disagree. You're spot on about fancy bikes automatically being a target and the importance of your lock job being at a minimum more difficult to get through than the neighbor's. I now have a cheap single speed for my "around town" bike along with a heavy kryptonite ulock.
jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago
This very much varies by location in the US. In the central areas of most major metros your bike WILL be stripped if locked up on the street and not attended/guarded. I live in one of the most bike friendly cities in the US, and I can't even lock up my bike outside of a bar/restaurant downtown without having to chase off aggro dudes trying to strip parts off it in the broad daylight. And I'm talking a dirt cheap commuter bike from bikesdirect.com. A $2k bike locked up downtown here would last 2 minutes. They use battery powered grinders, so how uber your lock is doesn't matter anymore either. It's a really frustrating problem, and has changed the way I feel about this city a lot. Being able to just casually ride around with friends socializing in summer evenings was really great. Now it's everyone taking ubers.
- aghostincarrot 4y ago

Bluecobra 4y ago

Having a dumpy old bike helps. I have accidentally locked my cheap u-lock to the bike itself instead of the bike rack a few times at a train station and nobody took it. The worst thing that has ever happened is that someone stole my quick release skewer, so I have a screw on one now.

microtonal 4y ago

In my experience it's mostly a matter of not having the most desirable bike or the shittiest lock. Right, in The Netherlands, where there are a lot of bikes, this is the basic rule: just make sure that there are other bikes that are more attractive to steal, even if it's a new bike. The second basic rule is: use a chain lock to attach your bike frame to an unmovable object, so that a thief cannot just throw your bike in a van and remove the locks elsewhere. What I do: - Use a ring lock for the back wheel. Makes it unattractive to steal just the wheel. The lock needs to be unscrewed from the frame to remove the wheel. - Use a chain lock and make it go through the frame, front wheel, and attach it to an unmovable object. In order to steal the frame, the thief would have to saw through the chain in plain sight. - If there is no supervised parking, park the bike in an area where there are enough people where someone will notice a thief trying to break the locks. - Get bike insurance. It's usually only 10 Euro per month and if your bike gets stolen, you get back the bike's value. - Some insurers also install a tracker. This has double value: bikes with a tracker are less attractive to steal. Secondly, bikes with a tracker are usually moved to a 'cool-off' location first. This is usually just some place removed a few streets from where the bike was stolen. If it's still there after a few days, the thieves know that nobody is actively tracking the bike and they can take it somewhere to comfortably break the lock. So, it's likely that the insurer will find the bike at the cool-off location without much damage.

merely-unlikely 4y ago
Unfortunately here in NYC the public won't bat an eye while your lock is cut off[1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8
- danenania 4y ago
  I wouldn't want to confront a potentially aggressive person with a saw in hand either. I might call the police, but I'd assume that by the time they got there, the thief would be gone, and that's if the police even cared enough to send someone. I think this is mainly an enforcement issue. The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it.
  - happyopossum 4y ago
    > The police could easily track these people down if they were willing to put any energy into it. That's a bit of a myopic view - in many of these cities, the DA will refuse to prosecute someone for thefts like this, so it does no good to arrest someone. Police in many cities are underfunded and understaffed, and if they're getting no support from the DA they have to prioritize.
    - danenania 4y ago
      Fair enough. "Police" in my comment should be expanded to include prosecutors and even the mayor I suppose.

nuclearwast 4y ago

This is something I never understood. Why so many bike theft? a regular new one is 3-4 hundred$ and cannot be sold that easily (Say vs electronic goods). Why theft is so popular? I mean thief can steal one for their own purpose, but then what? He steal another one every weeks? I dont get it.

cogman10 4y ago
Steal the bike, sell it on craigslist/facebook marketplace/etc for $100, profit. It can often take less that 5/10 minutes to steal a bike which is a pretty good RoR. How could we stop it? Probably the best way would be stronger regulations on community marketplaces/pawn shops/ebay/etc. ATM, they don't GAF about selling stolen goods.
- wpietri 4y ago
  I also think the police just don't take it very seriously. Certainly that's the case here in SF. I've reported a number of stolen bikes over the years and my impression was of massive indifference. After bike number 7 was stolen, I just gave up. A few years later I'm thinking about buying a bike again, and risk of theft is my number one concern.
  - cogman10 4y ago
    Well, not to defend the police, but after a bike is stolen I don't know what you could expect them to do. Even if they had a dedicated bike recovery task force, the most they could do is visit local pawn shops and browse community marketplaces for a bike matching the description (assuming it wasn't broken down for parts). Now, before a bike is stolen, I'd expect police to actually patrol places where bikes are being commonly stolen from (or for that matter, places where cars are commonly broken into). That part is something I do blame them for. The fact that SF is basically synonymous with "don't leave anything in the car" is an indictment on local police.
    - wpietri 4y ago

merely-unlikely 4y ago

My experience having recently had my road bike stolen would disagree. You're spot on about fancy bikes automatically being a target and the importance of your lock job being at a minimum more difficult to get through than the neighbor's. I now have a cheap single speed for my "around town" bike along with a heavy kryptonite ulock.

jasonwatkinspdx 4y ago

This very much varies by location in the US. In the central areas of most major metros your bike WILL be stripped if locked up on the street and not attended/guarded. I live in one of the most bike friendly cities in the US, and I can't even lock up my bike outside of a bar/restaurant downtown without having to chase off aggro dudes trying to strip parts off it in the broad daylight. And I'm talking a dirt cheap commuter bike from bikesdirect.com. A $2k bike locked up downtown here would last 2 minutes. They use battery powered grinders, so how uber your lock is doesn't matter anymore either. It's a really frustrating problem, and has changed the way I feel about this city a lot. Being able to just casually ride around with friends socializing in summer evenings was really great. Now it's everyone taking ubers.

aghostincarrot 4y ago