Bike thieves suck!

[Tricia]

Within the past 2 days I've heard of two bike thefts.
First was in Carson City. Several high end bikes were stolen from participants of the Carson City Off-Road event held this weekend.
Carson City investigators ask for help in locating these suspects

Then, a friend of mine from Michigan, and owner of Northern Edge Ski Shop, which is a little mom and pop ski shop in Muskegon Michigan, was on a vacation at Niagra Falls. His bike was locked on the back of his camper. Thieves cut the lock and took it in the night.
Not many K2 bikes around.

And look what he found in the pawn shop.

Seems that its a regular of the pawn shop so they know who it is.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I loathe people who steal things and i get so bummed when i hear of someone having their bike stolen.

 

[coskigirl]

I can't believe the even left the water bottle on that bike when they sold it to the pawn shop.

I'm paranoid regarding my mountain bike especially. When I head to Steamboat next weekend I'll be taking it inside my mom's condo. I know my stepdad won't be happy but he's gonna have to deal. When I thought I might be buying one up there that I'd ask them to pick up for me he said he'd just lock it to their front porch with their cruisers. I was clear that that was not acceptable. Their $300 cruisers are not that attractive. My $3200 bike is.

 

[Philpug]

Hmmm..with that "Northern Edge" sticker on it..it could be anyone's...

 

[Philpug]

I can't believe the even left the water bottle on that bike when they sold it to the pawn shop.

I'm paranoid regarding my mountain bike especially. When I head to Steamboat next weekend I'll be taking it inside my mom's condo. I know my stepdad won't be happy but he's gonna have to deal. When I thought I might be buying one up there that I'd ask them to pick up for me he said he'd just lock it to their front porch with their cruisers. I was clear that that was not acceptable. Their $300 cruisers are not that attractive. My $3200 bike is.

The $300 cruiser is just as attractive to the average crack junkie...They are just not that discerning.

 

[coskigirl]

The $300 cruiser is just as attractive to the average crack junkie...They are just not that discerning.

Maybe so although I think it's going to depend on the area and general bike knowledge but it's not the same financial hit.

 

[Ron]

most bikes that are stolen are not locked. The use of any lock will dissuade the low-level thief. Any high end bike is subject to theft regardless of the lock used however. If a pro bike thief wants your bike, they're going to get it. up here, if i stop at a store or lunch, i bring my bike with me.

 

[Drahtguy Kevin]

Yet another reason I don't ride a bike...

 

[Ron]

Excellent rationalization!

 

[scott43]

Yes they do.. Well, all thieves suck, don't they?

 

[Monique]

There was a bike stolen from one of my LBSes a couple of weeks ago - it walked off the showroom floor, I think. The shop has two rooms, so if you timed it right ... That's a big financial hit, although I assume there's insurance. There's a lot of traffic coming through these bike shops with people demo'ing bikes, techs taking a quick spin to test a fix ... the three shops I frequent all have back doors; two of them have garage-style bays that are open during business hours. Once again it's a spectrum of convenience vs security ...

I'm paranoid regarding my mountain bike especially. When I head to Steamboat next weekend I'll be taking it inside my mom's condo. I know my stepdad won't be happy but he's gonna have to deal. When I thought I might be buying one up there that I'd ask them to pick up for me he said he'd just lock it to their front porch with their cruisers.

most bikes that are stolen are not locked. The use of any lock will dissuade the low-level thief. Any high end bike is subject to theft regardless of the lock used however. If a pro bike thief wants your bike, they're going to get it. up here, if i stop at a store or lunch, i bring my bike with me.

Back in the day, the place for mountain bike people to chat online was alt.mountain-bike ... what I learned there was as Ron says - any lock is pointless to the determined thief. I view the lock cores in racks as a way to keep the bike on the car - nothing more. Especially once I realized there are only a hundred or so keys that you can order, but no one's going to bother with that. Every lock buys you a few seconds.

I haven't brought my bike into a store, but for lunch, I try to park where I can see it through a window. When I worked at a place where the parking was exclusively our company, I would leave it on the rack, but check on it periodically (stupid - if it's missing, it's missing). False sense of security, as we realized when someone broke into a co-worker's car. Now, with a public parking garage, I bring the bike into the office.

I feel slightly protected by driving around in Boulder - so many nice bikes for the thief to choose from!

Actually - I've been thinking recently that the smart thing to do, if you have to leave your bike somewhere, might be to remove pedals. They're small and portable, they're not hard to attach or detach, and while they wouldn't keep someone from rolling away, they couldn't move faster than a run ... thoughts?

 

[AmyPJ]

I'm hitting the Adventure Gear Fest tomorrow at Snowbird, mostly for a women's MTB clinic, but also to fart around for a bit and check things out. Definitely a bit worried about my bike. I have locks on the rack and will bring two additional heavier cable locks and hope those are enough of a deterrent. Not sure if we'll be able to check our bikes anywhere before the clinic or not. That'd be a nice perk. I guess the good thing is most thieves are near the city trailheads, and probably won't head up to Snowbird, but still...
Bike theft is HUGE around here, as you can imagine.

 

[Jilly]

The idea with any lock is to make it difficult for someone to break it. If they come equipped with bolt cutters, nothing is going to stop them. But make sure you get the best grade of chain, wire, stranded wire, whatever you can get and padlock. If it's going to take them longer than 2 minutes to cut it, they might try the next one. But coskigirl has the best idea, get it inside.

I sell security for a living. My bike lock is stranded wire encased in plastic with a padlock. The wire is at least 3 ft long with loops on both ends. Now I don't have a expensive bike, but like Philpug says....any amount of money is all that some people need.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I think I've mentioned that I used to own a bike shop. In my shop it was a rule that someone always had to go for a ride with the person test-riding bikes. People will just take off and never come back. It sucked having to give people the third degree, asking for ID and whatever, but this is the world we live in.

 

[Don in Morrison]

My oldest son's first bike was a Frankenbike that I built for him out of parts I scrounged from various sources. It was a decidedly ugly bike, but it was stolen twice. Fortunately, we recovered it both times, but I had to scrounge another fork for it once, because the thief crashed it and bent the fork. He liked to leave his bike out on the driveway and later two other bikes of his were stolen. He still had the Frankenbike as a backup, so he rode that after the others got taken.

One day he was riding the Frankenbike in a nearby neighborhood and another kid offered to trade bikes with him, so he did. He brought home this worn-out looking mountain bike that had obviously seen better days. I said to him, "Someone got ripped off, but I'm not sure who."

 

[Tricia]

Surprisingly, there are still a few K2 bikes floating around out there.

 

[Monique]

I think I've mentioned that I used to own a bike shop. In my shop it was a rule that someone always had to go for a ride with the person test-riding bikes. People will just take off and never come back. It sucked having to give people the third degree, asking for ID and whatever, but this is the world we live in.

Whoa.

At the factory demo, they kept my credit card for the 21 hours I had the bike. With the shop inventory, I pay my $100, they photocopy my ID, and off I go for a few days.

I realize that I could cancel my credit card and leave them in the lurch ... but you'd think the photocopy of the ID would be sufficient? How long do your employees spend with the person? I would find that nerve-wracking, and I can't imagine you'd be willing to send an employee off for several hours to drive to a trailhead etc ...

 

[coskigirl]

I think I've mentioned that I used to own a bike shop. In my shop it was a rule that someone always had to go for a ride with the person test-riding bikes. People will just take off and never come back. It sucked having to give people the third degree, asking for ID and whatever, but this is the world we live in.

I was amazed at how easy it was to take bikes out for test rides.

 

[coskigirl]

Whoa.

At the factory demo, they kept my credit card for the 21 hours I had the bike. With the shop inventory, I pay my $100, they photocopy my ID, and off I go for a few days.

I realize that I could cancel my credit card and leave them in the lurch ... but you'd think the photocopy of the ID would be sufficient? How long do your employees spend with the person? I would find that nerve-wracking, and I can't imagine you'd be willing to send an employee off for several hours to drive to a trailhead etc ...

I think he's talking about quick test rides from the shop, not demos.

 

[Don in Morrison]

On several different occasions, over a period of a week or so each time, I encounter a bike locked to a rack in downtown Denver that's been locked to the same rack in the same position every day. Over a period of a couple of weeks, different parts seem to disappear from the bike; first the wheels, then the seat, handlebars and sometimes finally the rest of the mechanical components. After a couple of weeks there is a frame attached to the rack by a Kryptonite lock. It stays there that way for a couple more weeks before the frame and the lock both disappear. I get the feeling the owner decided to abandon the bike after a few parts had been lifted. Just last week I found another stripped bike at the Light Rail station where I get on the train every morning. It's been there like that all week.