Commuting - Craziest lockup seen today

I'm walking around Harvard Square today when I see:
a) a Huffy, locked with
b) a Kryptonite New York U-lock, attached from
c) the frame to
d) the wheel, with the bike held up by
e) the kickstand.

So not only is the lock worth more than the bike, but it's not even locked to anything.

I'm not sure why I felt the need to bulletize this, but it's all the craziness going to my head.

Ari

You loose key? You no get nookey!

A few days ago, I saw a Xmart bike parked in front of Safeway with an oh-so-cute little chain (I've seen bigger chains on rappers - literally) and a little teeny padlock like the ones that come with suitcases (the ones the TSA baggage inspectors snip off with dykes).

I'm pretty sure that if I jumped on the bike and rode away, the chain (or lock) would have snapped with no noticeable effect.

(By the way, I just love to use the word "****" in a sentence. I'm going to try to do that more often).

(the ones the TSA baggage inspectors snip off with dykes).
DIagonal CutterS, large wire cutters commonly used by electricicians, just for the unknowing.:D

DIagonal CutterS, large wire cutters commonly used by electricicians, just for the unknowing.:D
I've always heard them being called dykes, and I'm aware that it comes from 'diagonal cutters', but your highlighting of the letters brings up a question--shouldn't they be called 'dics'? So which is it? Maybe this should be a poll: Dics or Dykes? :D

I saw an old department store bike parked on the sidewalk at a lightrail station with the lock through the frame and wheel like the op describes. It was right on the sidewalk so that people had to walk around it and the owner was nowhere in sight that I could tell. I doubt anyone took it, but a UTA employee may have moved it out of the way. :)

I saw an old department store bike parked on the sidewalk at a lightrail station with the lock through the frame and wheel like the op describes. It was right on the sidewalk so that people had to walk around it and the owner was nowhere in sight that I could tell. I doubt anyone took it, but a UTA employee may have moved it out of the way. :)

I've seen plenty of bikes locked this way, so I'm only mildly surprised any more. It was the combination of a $80 bike lock with a $.50 bike sitting this way right next to a bike rack that was so startling.
Ari

I've always heard them being called dykes, and I'm aware that it comes from 'diagonal cutters', but your highlighting of the letters brings up a question--shouldn't they be called 'dics'? So which is it? Maybe this should be a poll: Dics or Dykes? :D
Diagonal Cutters, Diagonals, or Diagonal Pliers. If you're going to shorten it, it's usually spelled DIKES, however, it's one of those words that I usually only shorten when speaking. Otherwise I'll usually call them diagonal cutters in writing.

Also, when I will be able to see my bike and there's nothing to lock to, I'll freelock my bike. I wouldn't dare leave it like that unattended though.

That's old messenger wisdom: the lock should be worth more than the bike. Nothing crazy about that, if you don't want your bike stolen. Also, always lock up next to a more expensive bike or a cheaper lock, or both. But always lock TO something. I never understood air-locking.

I always called dikes "linesmans' pliers". Is that wrong?

My favorite lashup was the officlal employee bike rack outside of the Rohnert Park Costco. The whole rack could be taken apart with the little 6" adjustable crecscent wrench I always carry. Including the bolts that held it to the sidewalk. I know cause I did take it partway apart then put it back together. When I reported it to Security he didn't care. It seems I was the only cyclist working there and I was locking my bike inside the employee break room. I never saw another bike locked or not outside that store in the 9 days I was there.

On one or two occasions, I forgot my lock. I used my multitool to remove a few bolts from the steering, so that it would be impossible to ride away. It worked, my bike was there when I came back...

My favorite lashup was the officlal employee bike rack outside of the Rohnert Park Costco. The whole rack could be taken apart with the little 6" adjustable crecscent wrench I always carry. Including the bolts that held it to the sidewalk. I know cause I did take it partway apart then put it back together. When I reported it to Security he didn't care. It seems I was the only cyclist working there and I was locking my bike inside the employee break room. I never saw another bike locked or not outside that store in the 9 days I was there.
Rohnert Park, my city, is notoriously terrible for bike parking.
I shop at Costco at least once a month and do so by bike (Still the only cyclist Ive seen crazy enough to haul bulk goods on a bike). I've never actually seen bike parking there and always lock my bike around a tree out front.

My three favs:

1) Nice Lemond with U lock through the front wheel and frame...leaning against a barred fence. Plenty of room to go through the wheel,frame,and fence.
2) Xmart bike locked through the rear brake cable where it runs above the top tube. Why not put it through the top tube?
3) Cruiser with a U lock around the seatpost. And it had a QR.

It is normal to free lock here in China. I am looked at oddly when I lock my bike to a pole (I can not always find a convinent pole to lock to though). I can not recall seeing a single bike rack in this entire country.

Some of the larger stores do have attended bike parking and that helped prevent some, casual, bike theft. However, there really are no bike facilities and there is a clear effort to push people away from bicycles as a mode of transportation.

*** here in China**** there really are no bike facilities and there is a clear effort to push people away from bicycles as a mode of transportation.


Robert, please tell them to stop that, it will make life much worse for the rest of the planet. Maurice

A building manager was showing my VP and I the gym facilities and we were discussing cycling. We passed the bike rack next to the garage and a nice cyclocross bike was sitting unlocked. It's a safe area but people today have no problems ripping CDs, downloading music etc. and I'm sure white collar workers are capable of lifting such a prize.

I see bike messengers do it all the time, and the bikes are typically nicer than a Huffy. Of course, they are only leaving the bike for a few minutes at a time. Maybe the bike was a loaner while the finer steed was being worked on.
Still, it's rather risky and I'm not sure I'd do it with my only means of transportation.

Air-locking is often used for a quick in-and-out when no anchor objects are nearby.

I've done this a few times in better areas (left like that for under 10 mins and the bike is still in line of sight). What it does is it's enough to stop the casual thief (like a kid/teen who wants a bike for free, cutting tools cost money).

Robert, please tell them to stop that, it will make life much worse for the rest of the planet. Maurice

Somehow I do not think they are going to listen to me. After all, rich prople drive private cars and China wishes to become a nation of rich people (tongue firmly in cheek; but, reporting real observations).

Okay gs3, that is pretty random if it was right next to a bike rack.

To chime in with Robert: when I was living in Berlin, (when I started actually getting interested in biking!), around the university area there would be twenty or thirty bikes lined up along each edge of the main building, just freelocked with a U-lock from the frame to the back wheel. For the first couple of weeks it still startled me that they weren't stolen, but I guess that's how it works.
Here I wouldn't imagine doing that, though-- university town, and lots of conscienceless suburban kids with not enough to do.

In Japan most bikes I saw were free locked using a little locking mechanism attached to the frame that went through the rear wheel. Many bikes were not locked at all. I freelocked my rental bike that way for the two weeks I was there, outside, overnight with 0 problems.

^ yep, that's the norm here in Holland too.

Messengers are wise in spending more on the lock than the bike. Just never seen such wisdom from a Huffy owner. Interesting that bike locking norms vary so much across borders.

Ari

I think it's mainly that there aren't so many truck drivers in those countries willing to toss free-locked bikes into the truck beds for later lock picking. But that's just what I'm guessing. Anybody want to offer a better explanation?

I'm walking around Harvard Square today when I see:
a) a Huffy, locked with
b) a Kryptonite New York U-lock, attached from
c) the frame to
d) the wheel, with the bike held up by
e) the kickstand.

So not only is the lock worth more than the bike, but it's not even locked to anything.

Ari

' shows why he owns a Huffy. :D

In Japan most bikes I saw were free locked using a little locking mechanism attached to the frame that went through the rear wheel. Many bikes were not locked at all. I freelocked my rental bike that way for the two weeks I was there, outside, overnight with 0 problems.


Thats because in Japan and other coutries where freelocking is rampant, 99.9% of those bikes aren't worth stealing because they are cheap and there are millions of them everywhere. Those kinds of bikes are for getting the the store and the train station and no one in their right mind would bother stealing one. My mother-in-law (Japanese) has one of those freelocking bikes and I've ridden it...it sucks and I feel like an idiot 6'2" gaijin riding it around her neighborhood in Niigata, Japan. I guarantee you that anyone in Japan or any other "freelocking" nation with a valueable or stand-out trendy bike is not freelocking.

A free lock would have kept me from getting robbed. I rode my mountain bike to the park. The Giant Sedona was totally beat up I had already rescued it from the river where I found it. It got robbed while I was playing Basketball. I ran home 1.5 mile and called the cops. I gave them the decription even though they did not seem interested. An hour later a rookie brought the bike up in the trunk of his cruiser. I couldn't believe it. He found it in the middle of East Main street Downtown. He heard the desription on the radio. Some "Crackhead" (confirmed by the ball players) needed a ride to buy dope.

I freelock when I'm eating lunch. I park it against a tree a few feet away. That's the only time.

I see unlocked bikes all the time here. It's not a big deal. People here have a pretty healthy respect for other peoples' private property. Never really locked my car too often either.
Must......fight........urge.......to.......go.......to......Pacifica..........with.........van...... ...

I think it's mainly that there aren't so many truck drivers in those countries willing to toss free-locked bikes into the truck beds for later lock picking. But that's just what I'm guessing. Anybody want to offer a better explanation?

It is actiually rather common. There are mornings that I go out to the bike parking area and find it, pretty well, picked clean. It is just treated as one of the costs of owning a bicycle and is not taken seriously by any authorities (the police will not even take a stolen bicycle report).

I have air locked on occasion, but for really quick trips into my post office (which has a large window overlooking where I park my bike) I usually downshift before stopping, then once stopped shift to the highest gear. That way someone's going to take a little extra effort to ride away if they don't end up skipping the chain in the first place.

Being from Portland, bike theft is simply a part of life. To me, "cable lock" is an oxymoron. Imagine my surprise visiting Missoula Montana, where on the college campus scores of mountain bikes are held to the earth with no more than a cable through a wheel and a prayer. Some of these bikes were quite nice, with disc brakes, etcetera. The only decent locking job I saw, out of literally hundreds of bikes, was u-lock through the frame and front wheel of a volpe.

I asked someone about it, and they said "oh, well yeah, we get a bike or three stolen every year, but for the most part a cable is all you need."

This is in a town of 70 thousand full of starving college kids.

:eek:

Paradise!

Thats because in Japan and other coutries where freelocking is rampant, 99.9% of those bikes aren't worth stealing because they are cheap and there are millions of them everywhere. Those kinds of bikes are for getting the the store and the train station and no one in their right mind would bother stealing one. My mother-in-law (Japanese) has one of those freelocking bikes and I've ridden it...it sucks and I feel like an idiot 6'2" gaijin riding it around her neighborhood in Niigata, Japan. I guarantee you that anyone in Japan or any other "freelocking" nation with a valueable or stand-out trendy bike is not freelocking.

I did see a couple of nicer bikes freelocked. The really nice bikes I saw were locked, but with somewhat wimpy locks.

Being from Portland, bike theft is simply a part of life.

Same with Seattle. Here on the east side, you can leave a bike on the racks in front of the grocery and not take off your headlight/computer/blinkies/etc. and it will all still be there when you come back.
Head downtown to Pike Place Mkt, and you see people locking up $20 thrift store specials with 5 pound Krypto NYC chains and mini-U's.

Well, in some colleges, bikes aren't popular for stealing. I know at mine people use cables and Wal-Mart quality U-Locks. The only people that put effort into locking their bicycles are the ones with the really nice/expensive road racing bikes (Treks/Cannondales/Specialized/etc.). Those people tend to lock the front wheels with the back wheels + seat tubes (probably because they use Quick-Release front wheels).

Of course, about 90% of the bikes are Wal-Mart clunkers and beach cruisers anyway :p

Same with Seattle. Here on the east side, you can leave a bike on the racks in front of the grocery and not take off your headlight/computer/blinkies/etc. and it will all still be there when you come back.
Head downtown to Pike Place Mkt, and you see people locking up $20 thrift store specials with 5 pound Krypto NYC chains and mini-U's.

Gee, if I ride in downtown Seattle, would any mini-U be sufficient, or should I invest more money into a New York FAHGETTABOUDIT mini-U? This is assuming that I'll be riding something NOT from the thrift store (but not high-priced either), and also using other locks to support it.

I was figuring on getting a generic On-Guard mini-U when I move on up there.