dwango

My coworker left early from work today to start his vacation, and shortly after he left the office he called me and told me that some guy had locked him into the rack. I got out there and realized he was right. My friends bike was between the other bike and the end of the rack, and my friend's cranks were perpendicular to the ground in such a way that the left pedal was above the other bike's chain stay and the right pedal was below the bar of the rack. We couldn't lift the other bike up because my friend's pedal blocked its chain stay. We couldn't lift my friend's bike because his pedal got caught on the rack. We couldn't move the other bike away because there was no room left in the U-bolt.

The easiest solution would've been to take the pedal off. I went around the corner to the nearest bike shop and asked if I could borrow a pedal wrench (offered to leave my wallet or whatever he'd want). He said no, and I wasn't going to spend $25 on the same Park pedal wrench that I have at home.

So we ended up having to take the other bike's back wheel off as well as my friend's back wheel to get his bike out. I had a multi-tool in my pocket that made this possible. We finally got the bike free, but I was unfortunately unable to get the other guys wheel back on with it locked to the rack. We left him a note and hoped he had the right tool.

So, I feel bad about taking apart this other person's bike. Was I wrong to do so? What should've I done instead?

On a side note, it was disconcerting to me that so many people on smoke breaks saw my friend and I very obviously messing around with tools and locked-up bikes and said nothing.

timmhaan

nobody cares about bikes so you can pretty much do whatever you want at any time. it's like when you hear a car alarm going off...does anyone really care?

CommuterRun

If the other person was dumb enough to lock their bike over someone else's bike, then they deserve what they get. You shouldn't feel one bit bad about it.

powerglide

sounds reasonable to me. in fact it's unreasonable that the other guy put you in this position to begin with. hope the back wheels doesn't get stolen...then there will be some issues.

PS my guess is that some folks would have done worse (purposely damage other guys bike to "teach him a lesson".

mike

Rear wheels were made for taking off. No big deal. Doesn't sound like you did any damage.

Blue Order

yep.

Dahon.Steve

This is why I avoid bike racks. Tell your friend to park his bike somewhere else because the guy might want to seek revenge

SweetLou

Well, it sounds to me that the bike rack is pretty full. That person might not have seen or noticed that they were preventing someone else from leaving. I will give the benefit of the doubt to the other cyclist and that they didn't know they were "locking" in someone else. But I agree, they get what they deserve. No need to feel anything about this.

mike

Of course, they did not offer to help. They were busy; smoking ...and watching you.

Cyclaholic

Sounds to me like you took the best allround course of action under the circumstances. Someone else created the problem and you found a satisfactory solution in order to help out someone else. You should be happy about that.

dwango

Thanks all.

I saw the same bike locked up this morning with the rear wheel reattached, so I guess everything worked out.

maddyfish

Right on. The guy is lucky you had the right tool for the job, and not a hacksaw.

Bluechip

Back in my messenger days I locked up other bikes a couple of times. Mine was locked up by others too. It happens but since we were not usually in a building for very long it was just a minor hassle. I don't think you did anything wrong. The fact that you even tried to put his back together was more than most people might have done.

M_S

As an aside, I can't believe the bike shop wouldn't let you borrow the wrench.

JeanCoutu

+1, Few years ago in my neck of the woods theives would lock people's bikes like this, using some pos bike. At night they'd come back and steal the good bike.