jomconra

To the Individual Who Stole my Rear Wheel Yesterday,

My hats off to you, I don't know how you managed to cut the cable, remove my beautiful rear wheel (Mavic Aksium) without anyone on the street noticing you. I hope you treat her well, and give her a good home. I have enjoyed my time with her, she is a good wheel...she will stay strong and true.


To All of the People on the Street, the Very Crowded Street,

Apparently, some guy using a bolt cutter (guessing) to cut a cable, then removing a wheel, and walking away didn't seem a little odd? WTF? Seriously, didn't it dawn on you that maybe the owner of the bike would use a key to unlock the cable, and maybe ride off with the bike, instead of just taking the rear wheel.


To All of my Fellow Chicago Riders,

Please keep an eye out for someone riding a bike with just a rear black Mavic Aksium Wheel. My front wheel misses its brother.


Best wishes,

Jomconra

BroadSTPhilly

It is a horrible feeling to go outside and see something gone that should not be gone. Sorry

rlrct

Not to mention the PITA it would make the commute home that day.

Myqul

Sorry to hear about your wheel . Im not in the least bit suprised that no passers by did anything. I saw a programme on bike theft in London a while ago. As an experiment to see what would happen they locked a bike in the centre of London. A little while later (during the day) someone else from the programme came along with an portable angle grinder and proceeded to very publicly and noisily angle grind the lock off. Of course, noone did a thing.

mconlonx

They did that same thing in New York... except in one clip, a cop or some other uniformed city official helped the guy hold the bike while he got the lock off...

Sucks that you lost your wheel.

The guy who cut the cable might have used a tool a lot less conspicuous than bolt cutters. Combine that with general indifference/unattentiveness, and there ya go: people suck.

Quickbeam

Sorry about your wheel. Unfortunately I'm not all that surprised that no one stopped the thief.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7zb8YXrmIA

Edit: This is what mconlonx was referring to I think

vestarita

One of my co-workers had to cut the lock from his bike to be able to get home one day and nobody said anything or tried to stop him, so I wonder how you'd be able to prove to people walking by that the bike belongs to you. It's terrible that some people feel the need to take things that don't belong to them, so I'm sorry about your wheel.

lmxloco

I saw that piece. It would be funny if it wasn't so darned depressing.

Sorry about your wheel dude. I'm sort of curious as to why he went through the trouble of cutting a lock off your bike, and only stealing the rear wheel. Seems a bit odd...

jomconra

Thanks for the condolences,

It really sucked carrying the bike home last night (because I couldn't put it on the bus rack and the CTA wouldn't let me bring it on the train). Anyone know if Mavic's MP3 Warranty covers theft...I am guessing that it doesn't.

jomconra

I have a U-Lock through my front wheel and frame, and a cable running from the U-Lock through my rear wheel.

edw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m68-oWBh9Ow

jomconra

Classic

apricissimus 

It's a common attitude, especially in urban environments to just MYOB as you go about your business. It is what it is. For what it's worth, I wouldn't expect a stranger to confront a thief in the process of stealing my bike. That seems like too much to ask someone who doesn't know you.

Hot Potato

I know that my friend once caught a Chicago thief inside his car, removing his stereo. When confronted, and using less polite language, the thief suggested that my friend go away for a while until he was done. The described consequences of interfering with the thief's work were rather severe, involving unpleasant anatomical modifications. My friend went out of sight, phoned the police, and was able to give a great description of the thief who was long gone with his stereo when the police arrived.

So, confronting a thief in an urban environment could get you hurt. Even at the long end of 6 minutes to hack through a lock, the police won't even be half way through their donut before responding to your call. When threatened, you might even let someone steal your own stuff rather than get hurt, so don't expect strangers to stop thieves.

It still sucks though.

buzzman

this story sucks. I hate hearing stuff like this.

To balance this, however, I had this odd occurrence around this same time last summer in NYC outside of this Starbucks at Astor Place. You can see a bike at the rack where I "locked" my bike.

I was locking my bike up and noticed a friend in the window of the Starbucks, after making some sign languaged gestures back and forth and laughing I went off to buy a sandwich nearby and then headed to where I was working leaving my precious black Buzz commuter "locked" for 6+ hours. As I headed out of the building to go back to get my bike I noticed my bike bag was heavier than usual and I reached inside and THERE WAS MY U-LOCK!- STILL IN MY BAG!-I HADN'T LOCKED MY BIKE!!!. I ran to that spot fully expecting the bike to be long gone and there it was, still leaning on the bike rack unlocked, completely untouched! for 6 hours!


Go figure, huh?

There's bad luck and there's good luck. I got the good kind that day. It sucks when you get the bad.

sinner

It's stories like this that make me glad I can take my bike inside at work and park it at the empty cube behind my desk.

uke

Yikes, that sucks.

FWIW, it's better to have the Ulock through the rear wheel, frame, and rack, and then to run the cable to the front wheel. This might just have resulted with the person running off with your front wheel, but at least you wouldn't have to replace the cassette as well as the wheel that way. For still greater security, you could try a cable and two U-locks, each independently bolted to a wheel, the frame, and the rack. This stops pretty much anyone but those walking around with portable grinders...

mwmcginn

APB - - I bet the suspect is on a tricked out unicycle.

Anyway, re: buzzman's comment about his bike still being there. My wife came downtown to meet me for lunch last summer. She parked at the the spot next to the bus stop in our shiny new-ish impreza. She was walking up to me as I was walking out, so we just went and got lunch.

After being gone for an hour, she went to get her keys out, but couldnt find them. I had mine, so I walked up to the car with her thinking she probably locked them in the car.

The car's windows were down, and the keys were in the ignition, on a busy street. Thank god the car was still there. I gave her the "WHAT????" look, she gave me a smile. And that was that. Sometimes the bad people must be somewhere else cutting a lock.

mikesdca

To All of the People on the Street, the Very Crowded Street,

Apparently, some guy using a bolt cutter (guessing) to cut a cable, then removing a wheel, and walking away didn't seem a little odd? WTF? Seriously, didn't it dawn on you that maybe the owner of the bike would use a key to unlock the cable, and maybe ride off with the bike, instead of just taking the rear wheel.


That is a serious drag. I had an Eddy Merckx taken a many years back. Puts a hole in your gut, no doubt about it. That no one would help is absolutely no surprise. I see much the same in cyclists. People ride past a crash with not so much as a `hey, are you ok?` Everyone is in their own little world doing their own thing. That, too, is a serious drag.

fcormier

Sorry about your loss.

I have two different stories related to this:
-I once got my brake stolen on my bike locked downtown. It was locked on a busy street, next to the subway station, during rush hour for maybe half an hour. I got in the store, got what I wanted, looked for other stuff, and when I came out, brakes were missing, bolts were on the ground and the cap of the stem was missing (maybe the thief was going to remove my handlebar when I got out). The brakes were blue anodized Dia Compe 987, very flashy back then.
-When I was in college (the college was downtown), there was a guy commuting on a Jake the Snake (didn't know him). One morning, I saw his bike with the lock on the bike rack, but the bike not locked (he must have locked it too quickly to see it was not locked). I said to myself "That bike will be stolen today". When I got out at the end of the day, the bike was still there, unlocked. He got lucky I think.

cg1985

That'll about do it.

på beløb

My normal ride was moved slightly in the parking garage, and the rear was feeling mushy on the ride home the other day, so when I arrived thought I'd have a look for a broken spoke. No, someone had away with the nut off the drive side. Why would someone want an old rusty nut?

BroadSTPhilly

The thieves were probably scared off by an unlocked bike. I mean what kind of idiot wouldn't lock his bike up? Seems suspicious to me. Must be a sting.