Commuting - Back tire - Stolen!

I was walking to work this morning, as opposed to riding my commuter, looked over at my bike, back tire was gone! I had the front tire and frame U-locked to the parking meter, I know I am at-fault here for not chaining/locking the back tire somehow, but I'm still upset.

Just wanted to vent, there's not much I can do now besides ride my road bike to work and take the bike in the office with me.

The tire or the whole wheel?

parked at home outside over night outside with only one u-lock???

here in philly i'd actually call you lucky that they didn't just take the whole bike.

i dunno where you live here but in the city a u-lock is really only very temporary protection. i'd get a nyc chain for the bike and maybe an additional u-lock to secure the back wheel to the frame. it ain't cheap but neither is a new bike...

YIKES! bummer

I build my own wheels, so I lock them up tight!

Replacing the back wheel and tire is both a hassle and a major expense. That is why I lock up with the "Sheldon Brown" method, with a u-lock around the rear wheel and the parking meter.

I've replaced the quick release on my front wheels with bolt-on skewers, but use a second lock around the front wheel if the bike is going to be out of my sight for more than fifteen minutes or so.

The idiots who steal rear wheels will have little luck pawning them or selling them. And odds are, the rear wheel from one of MY bikes won't fit the crook's bike...most of my bikes have five speed, six speed, or seven speed freewheels from twenty years ago...the crook ends up with a paperweight.

I too use the SB lock up method.

But I don't lock my front wheel with quick release. I want it to get stolen. Its a old 27" wheel and I am itching for an excuse to buy a new 700c one. No luck yet.

(If it does get stolen I have a bus card and plan to take bus directly to my favorite LBS where wheel has already been pre-selected ;) )

Al

All my wheels are rigged up with 6 ounces of plastique and a proximity sensor. If a thief steals one of my wheels but leave the rest of the bike behind, the explosives will detonate after about 20 feet.

j/k ;)

jeff-o, what if you pull the trick that the racer in Mexico did...where your front wheel comes right off as you're finishing?

Gives new meaning to the sticker "This bike is a pipe-bomb," no?

:D

I have nothing to offer but words of support. My rear wheel got stolen a few weeks ago, and it was an expensive replacement. :( I looked and looked through used bike shops and pawn shops, and I kept checking craigslist, along with going to the local homeless shelter down the street from where it was stolen and posting pictures, plus talking to the local people and cyclists in the area. After a few weeks, though, I was completely convinced I'd never find the wheel. :( Now my bike just sits here, and I don't have much intention to ride it often.

I hope you get your wheel back. It's an expensive lesson, though. :(

Koffee

always lock the back wheel and take the front one with you (so your rear der. don't hit the ground) if you only have one lock.

Anyone using Pitlock (http://www.urbanbiketech.com/secure_shop.html) bits as an added measure? I'm contemplating adding them.

Anyone using Pitlock (http://www.urbanbiketech.com/secure_shop.html) bits as an added measure? I'm contemplating adding them.

Those look pretty sweet. I initially thought that they were a different product that has been found vulnerable to defeat with a simple vice grips. Looks like pitlock's design is quite a bit better.

Has anyone ever heard of a wheel with a nutted axle being stolen? I personally think avoiding QR axles is probably one of the easiest ways to avoid crimes of opportunity. While I'm sure that there are plenty of theives with a wrench or vice grips that can take off a bolt-on wheel, I know for a fact that pretty much 100% of thieves have the proper tools to open a QR with them at all times.

MacG-

People steal Phil Wood alan wrench nutted wheels. I don't see why they wouldn't have a problem with a 15mm...

However, the usually means a theif that knows what they're looking for - a sweet a$$ track wheel.

To the OP, my sister asked me to post a stolen rear wheel on here last night. I asked what made it stand out. Hub? Rim? Tire? Cassette? ANYTHING? The girl it was stolen from didn't even know. If it had of been something unique, I could have asked people to look for it. Unfortunatly...

Had a bike stolen from me, got everything back BUT the back wheel. A newly re-built wheel (rear-ending got me no injuries and a new wheel!) was gone, replaced with a crappy MTB 26" wheel when I found the bike the next day...

Odds don't look good.

I keep all my bikes inside now. Almost never out of my sight for long. It's really the only defense.

Anyone using Pitlock (http://www.urbanbiketech.com/secure_shop.html) bits as an added measure? I'm contemplating adding them.
Both my wife and I use them on our commuters. We've used them for over a year with no problems.

Our wheelsets are Hope XC laced to Mavic A719, XT laced to Mavic A719, and 105 laced to Mavic Open Pro. As you can see these are not cheap wheelsets. Our bikes are parked outside in the downtown, CBD of Riga every day.

Pitlocks are wonderful skewers.

I'm real careful - generally, if I'm going to have to lock up anywhere, I ride my beater, which is a 30 yr old Falcon Tourer, rusty rims, dusty, dirty, rusty chrome fork - it looks like crap. Even that I double lock.

I had however been in the habit of keeping bikes in my locked back yard (nothing expensive mind) when I'm working on them. I'd built a cool chopper - an MTB with 24" ape hanger bars and a banana seat, and someone climbed in during the night and stole it. Now I'm afraid someone will bust into my garage.

nyc chain for front wheel & frame locked to the rack.

a u-lock locking the back wheel to the frame.

if you commute to one spot everyday leave them there.

I guess thats why I don't bother taking the bike to the iMAX when i visit it once a week or once every other week. :p Somebody needs to invent an affordable and decent space invasion detector that goes off when somebodey gets too close to a bike :D

I looked into the Xena motorcycle disc locks at one point. Xena disc locks are super strong, and have a built in shock/movement sensor and 110dB alarm. The only problem with them is that the threshold for shock and movement is set for a motorcycle which, once parked, stays very stationary. A bike on a rack would likely be subject to much more jostling. I would imagine that the only useful way to use it would be to use something like a cable lock and wind it around until it became taught, thus keeping the bike still.

Both my wife and I use them on our commuters. We've used them for over a year with no problems.

Our wheelsets are Hope XC laced to Mavic A719, XT laced to Mavic A719, and 105 laced to Mavic Open Pro. As you can see these are not cheap wheelsets. Our bikes are parked outside in the downtown, CBD of Riga every day.

Pitlocks are wonderful skewers.

Fantastic. Thanx!