Bike thieves are back in the news with a post from the NYT City Room Blog. The comments are the best part with gems like
Did anyone accidentally buy my Fuji royal blue 5-speed bike with a mixte frame last year, thinking the salesperson was legit?
and
Try having your bike stolen from your apartment, by your neighbor!
In this photo from Beijing, I used the obstruction technique to obscure our nice, new bikes among crappy, ancient, Chinese ones. All I had was a cable lock. Did not get stolen.
Also the Kryptonite ball-pen legend still has legs.
When I’m traveling, my folding bikes go where I go and that’s everywhere. Training, racing, and touring we use the buddy system and the bikes just aren’t out of our sight.
On Bettie, I use Val’s immobilization techniques. Those include toe-strapping the front brake, disabling the motor, and cable U-locking the front wheel to the fork.
That bike weighs more than an hundred pounds and it’s gonna take at least 3 or 4 tweaking meth-heads working together to hoist her into a truck. Discussed in this post from last year.
I think until we get bike parking like Asian and European cities, this is a perennial problem.
Updated
Photo: REUTERS PICTURES
Reader Josh Boggs forwarded us an email from Grand Fondo Bicycles in Nashville that had 50K worth of high-end bikes stolen from their store. Earlier in the year, it was Lance’s bike and Zabriskie bikes as well.
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We frequently use the buddy system for running errands, etc. At work, the bike is either in a secure locker or in my cube with me; anything else is asking for trouble. I agree - damn thieves!
Yep. I take the Dahons and Bromptons everywhere. El Brommo fits under a desk.
Ball-point pens… I thought it was a hoax when i first heard it but then at the shop we watched the online videos demonstrating it. That week all the Bic pens ended up being disassembled to make lock-picking tools as everyone in the shop tried their hand at the trick. My fastest was 8sec.
All newer Kryptonite and On-Guard u-locks have newer, Bic-proof key mechanisms.
Apparently Byron doesn’t spend much time on Craigslist, otherwise he’d know that those Chinese bikes are not old, but vintage. His folder is practically worthless, by comparison.
I never got my old Krypto open with a Bic, but I did get a cylinder replacement out of the class action settlement. It sure would be nice if they’d go back to more keyring-friendly handles, rather than those bulky plastic wads. Between the U-lock, Pitlocks, plus a disc-and-chain at work, I’ve been theft-free for several years.
well there’s vintage and then there’s Peoples Party edition; those bikes are all at least 50 years old and maintained by [Mechanic Mao](http://bikehugger.com/2007/04/mechanic-mao.html).
Also, Champs, click on your name there and see your profile.