General Cycling Discussion - Bike locked to yours

Have you ever walked out of a resturant/grocery store/bar whatever and had someone else bike locked to yours?

Well I just walked out of a resturant and someone decided to lock their bike up to mine. I walked home no big deal but I did lock the crap out of their bike with my chain. I left my number with the place so if someone else complains i now know who it is. BUT the big thing is....I'm leaving town tomorrow early morning so I don't have time to deal with it. I want to just go and cut the lock but it is a regular wire lock and all i have is a general wire cutter (which might take hours). BTW the resturant told me its ok if I do that....

Can I call the police and have them come and cut the lock? anyone have experience with this?

I doubt the police will cut the lock for you, that isn't their job and it opens them to a lot of liability. How do they know you actually own the bike you claim to own? What do they do with the bike they have not cut the lock for? If it was me, I'd cut the lock and screw the other guy.

dude. lame.


cut it.

any advise for a first time lock cutter? The lock looked like a regular wire lock with a plastic wrap around it. Only thing I can think of is pealing back the plastic and then just snipping one wire strand at a time. might take an hour but hey...that's better than leaving my bike sit out for 5 days.

If someone ever pulled that asinine crap on me let's just say that I would now be the owner of a "new used" bike. :p

Just cut it if you don't want the extra bike.

This is why I own bolt cutters.

Actually, it's not at all why I own bolt cutters. But I do own them, and I'd use them.

Take a hammer, and something that can serve as an anvil, something that has a 90° edge on it (even a rock). Lay the cable across the 90° edge, and hammer on the cable. It'll be toast in under 10 seconds. A piece of sturdy pipe would make a good anvil too... stand it on end on the ground, lay the cable across the open end of the pipe, commence hammering.

I need feedback on my two plans:

#1 - Take my car jack and place it in between where the cable inserts into itself and the metal bike rack. start to raise the car jack until the lock breaks apart from itself.

#2 - Take a knife and stripe the plastic outer casing. twist the cable as much as i can and cut single wire strands until the cable is done. (this might take a while)

#3 - Locate a pipe and jack the cable with a hammer and pipe. (problem here is I don't have a pipe)

After you break the cable, be sure to lock the other guy's bike up to a good solid post so it won't get stolen. Use a Kryptonite lock. :D

I would go into the store I am locked in front of and announce that the owner of said bike has 10 mins to unlock it before it is removed from my bike. If they have an overhead page, I would ask them to use it, so the person can come out there.

At the least make a goodwill effort to let the fool fix things.

didja get your bike?

#3 - Locate a pipe and jack the cable with a hammer and pipe. (problem here is I don't have a pipe)If you don't have a pipe, just find a rock that's got an edge to it. You could probably just hammer the cable directly on the ground and pulverize it, it's just faster if it's being hammered against something pointy so the impact is focused on a smaller piece of the cable.

I'm setting out with a backpack full of goodies to jack this bike in about 45 minutes. I'm definatly going to tell the people that own/work at the place to let them know/inform their customers that someone is going to get their bike jacked in about 10 minutes. That'd be the EASY way and no hard feelings especially if it was a mistake! Plus it might be kind of suspious if someone IS stealing a bike and the people inside don't know why they are doing it.

I will keep you all informed!!

If you don't have a pipe, just find a rock that's got an edge to it. You could probably just hammer the cable directly on the ground and pulverize it, it's just faster if it's being hammered against something pointy so the impact is focused on a smaller piece of the cable.

have the rock under the cable and hit the cable with the hammer or....have the rock above the cable and hit the rock onto the cable?

Place the cable against other bikes frame, then place chisel against wire, then hit with sledgehammer

have the rock under the cable and hit the cable with the hammer or....have the rock above the cable and hit the rock onto the cable?Imagine the upside-down pot in the photo below is your rock, and the green garden hose is the cable.

If their bike is just locked to my bike, I would first give the dumass a chance by having the store page him. After five minutes I would be struggling home, to my angle grinder and oxy/acet setup, with two bikes. After I had removed the offending tumor I would bring it back to the rack and leave it there, unlocked.

That blows.

I once cut my own cable because I lost the keys. I used a wire cutter, I did it like 2 strands at a time. Took me about 10 minutes,

Everything ended well. I gave my number to the resturant and told them if someone complains that THEIR bike is chained to someone elses give me a call. And that is JUST what happened.

No fuss...and I couldn't complain to the people cause it was a young girl and she really was sorry. At least i live only 3 blocks from this place and I'm doing nothing else but searching the internet. yeah!

Thanks everyone for the help!!!! I think in the future I might make a swear jar and save up for a big bolt cutter :) Emergency use only!!

Is she cute?

Not to be an ass, but is she also really stupid? She locked her bike to another persons property. Did she consider locking it to the bumper of a car? Was she ten? We get this same excuse when people lock their bikes in front of the doors(By "in front of" I mean BLOCKING) to the store next to ours. I had a guy park his bike so close to our door he had to move it to get the door open. People, PEOPLE, THINK. Please.

I'm sure if she was driving a car, she would have parked, blocking in another car, because she obviously thinks she is the only person at the restaurant. I F**king hate people like that!

...
No fuss...and I couldn't complain to the people cause it was a young girl and she really was sorry.
...

The male condition is a funny one.
A guy does something rude and we can be rather slow in accepting an apology.
On the other hand, a member of the kinder gender does the same thing and we will cut them all kinds of slack.

I'm not calling you out on this.
I do the same thing.
Is it some sort of misplaced chivalry?

I better shut up before I dig myself into some sort of chauvinistic hole.;)

On a team ride this week I had someone lock up to my bike. I think it was because of lack of anywhere else to lock it. There was about 20 bikes parked behind mine keeping it so I couldn't get out anyway. I stayed, had another beer, and once the team parked behind me left my bike was free to hit the trail with. I wasn't so worried about it knowing it was either a teamate or a member of a team we know. If someone did that **** outside of a store or something I'd be pissed.

gerkea, I'm glad you got your bike back.

But I'm with catatonic on this one. I would have asked them to make an announcement at the grocery store (or wherever else the cyclist might be shopping), just as they would if someone parked their car illegally or double-parked, blocking another car. It's no different with bicycles, really. I call this philosophy, "vehicular bicycle-misparking dispute resolution". :)

EDIT: Whoops, you were at a restaurant. I didn't read carefully enough. Well I don't know if such an announcement would have been appropriate at a restaurant. Plus, they might lose a customer from embarrassement. So maybe it's best what you did.

Thanks everyone for the help!!!! I think in the future I might make a swear jar and save up for a big bolt cutter :) Emergency use only!!

Bolt cutters ain't worth a good do-diddly for cutting cable.

Pick up a pair of cable cutters. These are the ones I have and I haven't found a cable they won't cut if it fits in the jaws. I tried it when I first got them and they go through regular bicycle lock cable like it's cool. I haven't tried them on solid metal, like a chain link, but I have other cutting tools for that.
http://www.performancebike.com/product_images/400/40_1144.jpg
http://www.performancebike.com/shop/Profile.cfm?SKU=14874&item=40-1144&slitrk=search&slisearch=true#

I normally don't carry these with me so in this situation I'd have been so PO'ed by the time I got back with them I'd have either left her bike unlocked, or locked it so well she would have had trouble getting to it with a K-12 saw.
http://www.wfrfire.com/website/rescue/saws/k12saw.gif

Cable locks are easily broken...go find a broom stick....heck even a frame pump can be used to defeat one....place it in the joint between the locking peg and the lock body, and yank hard. You will either break the pin, or damage the lock internals, causing it to slide out.

those pins are usually "pot metal", and as such, break pretty easily after they are bent a little.

The male condition is a funny one.
A guy does something rude and we can be rather slow in accepting an apology.
On the other hand, a member of the kinder gender does the same thing and we will cut them all kinds of slack.

I'm not calling you out on this.
I do the same thing.
Is it some sort of misplaced chivalry?

I better shut up before I dig myself into some sort of chauvinistic hole.;)

cause you wanna get into her pants

cause you wanna get into her pants
:p :p

That's what we are thinking, but if we say it out loud, we call it chivalry.

:p :p

I bet you could cut through the bikes frame with a hacksaw faster than breaking the lock.

I bet you could cut through the bikes frame with a hacksaw faster than breaking the lock.

good idea when the objective is to steal the bike

I thought the objective was to remove the offending bike from being attached to yours, as opposed to stealing it.

Hacksaw +Titanium hacksaw blade. A good thing to have just in case.

I was just kind of joking, thinking back to that old Mad Max movie, you know, you can cut through the hand cuffs in 10 minutes or cut through your ankle in 30 seconds. Cut through the guys bike frame, that will teach him a lesson.

So tell us, did she do it ON PURPOSE or by accident? I.E. run the cable around the bike rack and accidentally around your wheel or something without noticing? If I thought it were an accident I wouldn't be too upset, if she did it on purpose I'd be kinda pissed.

In general I'd have no compunction about cutting the cable, but like someone said you know it was someone right around there so I'd probably search around to see if I could find 'em. Kinda like if someone parks your car in.

Speaking of which, it doesn't have to be an embarassing announcement... "Could the person with the green bicycle please come to the front of the restraunt" not "Whatever dumbass locked their bike to mine get their ugly mug out here so I can rearrange it for 'em."

Not sure it's 100% relevent, but I "stole back" my girlfriend's bike once. It got stolen, and we found it locked up outside a store. Luckily it was just cable locked to itself (through the wheels so you couldn't ride it) so I just picked it up and started to walk off. This old homeless lady comes running out of the store yelling "you're stealing my bike"... I was like "yeah? Let's call the cops and ask who this sticker is registered to?" (College police register bikes by serial number and gave you a registration sticker. Not much, but something). I was kind enough to let her take her lock off and save me the trouble of cutting it :D.

""Whatever dumbass locked their bike to mine get their ugly mug out here so I can rearrange it for 'em."
Am I feeling a little Sam Spade hee?

Not sure it's 100% relevent, but I "stole back" my girlfriend's bike once. It got stolen, and we found it locked up outside a store. Luckily it was just cable locked to itself (through the wheels so you couldn't ride it) so I just picked it up and started to walk off. This old homeless lady comes running out of the store yelling "you're stealing my bike"... I was like "yeah? Let's call the cops and ask who this sticker is registered to?" (College police register bikes by serial number and gave you a registration sticker. Not much, but something). I was kind enough to let her take her lock off and save me the trouble of cutting it :D.

I got "one" of mine back...clown was riding it down a street about 2 blocks from my house from where it was stolen. I was driving my work truck, eased up next to him at the stop light, reach out and grabbed the top tube, told him he had two choices..get off or jump. Light turns green and I took off with my bike hooked around the mirror...he got off. Another time walked up to the local Stop-n-Rob. There sits my recently stolen commuter. Reached down and took the front wheel off. Walked inside and asked to use the phone. Called 911 told them I had a stolen bike and wanted police there NOW! the D**b A**es asked if anybody was hurt?? I told them not yet. Cops were there with in 3 minutes. Got that bike back too.:D That was 2 of 5...the odds suck sometimes.

Aaron:)

I thought the objective was to remove the offending bike from being attached to yours, as opposed to stealing it.

W00ps.

The male condition is a funny one.
A guy does something rude and we can be rather slow in accepting an apology.
On the other hand, a member of the kinder gender does the same thing and we will cut them all kinds of slack.

I'm not calling you out on this.
I do the same thing.
Is it some sort of misplaced chivalry?

I better shut up before I dig myself into some sort of chauvinistic hole.;)

I know I know!

The male condition is a funny one.
A guy does something rude and we can be rather slow in accepting an apology.
On the other hand, a member of the kinder gender does the same thing and we will cut them all kinds of slack.

I'm not calling you out on this.
I do the same thing.
Is it some sort of misplaced chivalry?

I better shut up before I dig myself into some sort of chauvinistic hole.;)

it's your dick stabbin your brain.

Maybe she saw you lock up your bike, thought you looked good and did it to get an excuse to talk to you? :D

Maybe she saw you lock up your bike, thought you looked good and did it to get an excuse to talk to you? :D

I wish! She was with a guy. Plus she/they didn't even say anything to me besides, "is that your bike? sorry." Silence...End of talking.