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Have you experienced bike theft?

Old 11-10-14, 05:42 AM
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The dee_bag who had 5 bikes stolen from them, each supposedly at 3000+ USD, had it coming IMO.

Once, maybe. Twice, you really cannot take a hint can you. Three times or more...
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Old 11-10-14, 07:26 AM
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Originally Posted by eye_vee_dee_bag
So it's called TRVCKS. It trvcks where your bike is at all times.
I'll bite. How does that prevent it from being stolen.
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Old 11-10-14, 10:26 PM
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In college not only was my bike taken, but also the bike rack that it was locked to. Fortunately it was only a Pacific mtb.
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Old 01-08-15, 02:23 PM
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Originally Posted by Dave Horne
Yep, I've had two bikes stolen, but I live in the Netherlands ... and that is not so uncommon. This is two bikes in 20 years.

One bike was stolen from my front porch and the other was stolen outside of a restaurant where I was working. I even saw the guy walking away with a bike. I saw this out of the corner of my eye and didn't realize what I had seen until later. Had both bikes been secured to an immovable object, they would not have been stolen. Always use two locks.
2 bikes in 20 years is actually quite good. We did some research and in Europe we have average 6 stolen bikes in one minute, that makes almost 9000bikes in 24h! In Estonia we have from last year bicycle registry with special frame marking system (almost invisible titanium tags with ID). Main problem for police is that they don't have good working bicycle registry..
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Old 01-09-15, 12:05 PM
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Yes. I've been a victim of bike theft. I have nobody to blame but myself though, as I didn't lock my bike up while at the library. The bike is still being used though and actually saw it last year. It's now known as a "rez" bike, as it's used by various members of the local 1st Nations (Native Canadian) community.
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Old 01-09-15, 12:27 PM
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Lost my fair share, probably 5-6 in 40+ years. Most were stolen out of locked garages, a couple were taken from racks. Only one was ever recovered and that was dumb luck. Kid that probably stole it stripped all the accessories off of it and was riding it around the neighborhood. Caught him at the corner store on it and took it back. Walked past his house an hour or so later and found some of the stuff he had stripped off of it in the trash. Cops could have cared less.

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Old 01-09-15, 03:09 PM
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Only one bike so far and that was almost 30 years ago. I was living in a basement suite with a roommate. One thing I don't miss about being young, is being poor. My roommate liked my bicycle more than his, so he was riding it with no regard to keeping it locked up. His bicycle was never locked up and nobody bothered to steal it. My bicycle was a Falcon I bought in London, England and I rode it all over Europe back in the summer of 1976. I really loved that bike. I even broke two of my top front teeth when I slipped on the gravel and could not get my feet out of the toe clips in time. Face first into the gravel and asphalt.

I moved into a different place soon after that happened. I didn't even get an apology for losing my bike. I sort of got revenge. My ex-roommate is still working at the same menial job when I first met him. More than 30 years delivering parcels. He put as much effort into his career as he put into caring for my bicycle.

I am obsessive when it comes to locking up my bicycles. A Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit U-Lock through the frame and back wheel. And a cable with a heavy duty key lock through the wheels and frame. The bike is locked up whenever it is out of my sight even when it is in the basement of my house. This is my commuter. My vintage Raleigh never gets locked up outside my house because I never leave it unattended. [h=5][/h]
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Old 01-09-15, 07:34 PM
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I had 2 stolen from me during my lifetime, luckily neither were particularly valuable. Learned my lesson thoroughly though, so now at home I keep my bikes inside in my living room, at work I now park in my company's underground parking which has regular security guard patrols and live monitored security cameras with a U-lock and cable.

So far so good. At the very least if someone steals one of my bikes I at least have 4 others I can hop on. N+1 has it's uses right?
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Old 01-11-15, 05:38 PM
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I rode my bicycle to Eastern Market in Detroit over the summer and I was about to lock my bike up, when I saw a bike locked up lying down, so I put it back up as I did 2 guys said is that your bike, I said no I just thought I would pick it up, They said a guy just cut the lock off another bike next to it and took off. In a crowd of people a guy cut the lock off and nobody said a thing.

After that I just walk around with my bike, I have a bunch of bikes none worth too much, but I would hate to get stuck 20 miles from home without a way to get back.
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Old 01-12-15, 11:30 PM
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Two bikes stolen, both locked with cable locks. Now I use u-locks. No thefts since.
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Old 01-13-15, 02:01 AM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by prathmann
The SFPD has indicated they're doing some 'bait bike' stings and some of the other departments in the area have posted video surveillance shots of bike thieves to see if anyone recognizes them.
My good friend just had her beautiful white 1987 Kestrel 4000 stolen out of her car, windows smashed, while ordering take-out. Would you know what would be the best course of action to recover something like that? I've known friends recovered theirs with the help of bike messengers. Would there be a way to reach out to the SF community?
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Old 01-13-15, 09:05 AM
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as others have stated, not much you can do to stop theft completely

if stolen directly from inside your home, no different than taking your jewelry or electronics

when I ride where I live, I rarely leave it unattended

When in the city take my 9mm hardened steel chain with a mini-U lock and a second U lock or lighter chain
- always secured to fixed object
- always secured in a busy location
- never leave overnight
- recognize a "pretty" bike will draw more attention

I seem to be hyperparanoid with bike security in NYC, more than anything else (lived there for 10 years)
getting a bike stolen really sucks
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Old 01-13-15, 02:21 PM
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Originally Posted by qclabrat
as others have stated, not much you can do to stop theft completely.
As an adult, I've had a number of bikes stolen. Never in the same circumstances.

1 Peugeot, gave to girlfriend, it was stolen in Hawaii.
2 Peugeot, carried across Europe in SNCF train, misrouted the bike to another destination than I was going to, never sent the bike to me after contacting me to get it from where they misrouted it to, despite 6 months efforts of a professional importer/exporter.
3 Centurion, bike jacked while I was riding it.
4 Pegasus, chained to a post, with 4 cops on the intersection. They left the chain and lock.
5 Bianchi, taken from garage that I believe was locked.

It's been a while since I've lost a bike, fingers crossed.
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Old 01-13-15, 09:42 PM
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Here is a video of a thief stealing my son's locked bike on a busy street in broad daylight.

https://youtu.be/_zi0T8DH0_s

You can see how he does it in several steps so that nobody actually sees him steal the bike. My son had just spent 4 weeks restoring that bike :-(

Ride Safe,

Joe
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Old 01-13-15, 09:57 PM
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Originally Posted by bmwjoe
Here is a video of a thief stealing my son's locked bike on a busy street in broad daylight.

https://youtu.be/_zi0T8DH0_s

You can see how he does it in several steps so that nobody actually sees him steal the bike. My son had just spent 4 weeks restoring that bike :-(

Ride Safe,

Joe
I can relate to the disappointment that comes from the loss of a child's bike. My son's bike was stolen from the school rack on the last day of 6th Grade. He'd just completed a horrible first year of middle school during which more than one of his teachers declared that he must be suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or possibly dyslexia.

The cable lock was still attached/locked to the bike rack, he hadn't even threaded it through the wheel or frame. Lots of tears and self-loathing on his part. I was only coming to grips with his attention challenges and it took a big effort to ignore the reason for the theft and buck-up with a replacement bike for what had been a very nice Novara child's mountain bike.
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Old 01-13-15, 10:11 PM
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Bike jacking, that's really pushing the limit, unfortunately even if caught it's likely considered a misdemeanor crime unless force was used
any stolen bike should be a felony charge


Originally Posted by Artkansas
As an adult, I've had a number of bikes stolen. Never in the same circumstances.

1 Peugeot, gave to girlfriend, it was stolen in Hawaii.
2 Peugeot, carried across Europe in SNCF train, misrouted the bike to another destination than I was going to, never sent the bike to me after contacting me to get it from where they misrouted it to, despite 6 months efforts of a professional importer/exporter.
3 Centurion, bike jacked while I was riding it.
4 Pegasus, chained to a post, with 4 cops on the intersection. They left the chain and lock.
5 Bianchi, taken from garage that I believe was locked.

It's been a while since I've lost a bike, fingers crossed.
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Old 02-17-15, 02:05 AM
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Yesterday, my bike almost got stolen.

My lock is similar to this one, but from another brand:
ABUS Steel-o-flex 1025/100 (33561)

The outer black plastic looks like being cut off, or it has been torn by the cold weather by always rolling the lock open and back around... don't know the real reason.
The outer metal shells around the cable are a little loose aswel, so by folding the lock open, you can clearly see the cable (which is only 5mm thick):


What should I do?

Better buy a new lock, better a U-lock ?
Maybe something like this:
ABUS U-Lock 640/135HB230+TexKF black (39703)
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Old 02-17-15, 07:38 PM
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I had a Klein stolen. Turned out it was a friend of mine who stole it and sold it for drugs.
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Old 02-17-15, 11:09 PM
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Yup. Had an old BMX bike stolen from a friends driveway one day when I was in junior high.
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Old 02-18-15, 01:35 PM
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Had my old JC Penney 10 spd stolen when I was 18. Used to work with a bunch of Manpower kids and being a naive 18 year old would let them take turns riding it at work. One of them decided to steal it. Luckily I knew where he lived, had one of the managers drive me to his house and there it was. They fired his butt the next day.

Rode that thing all through college with the cheapest $4 lock I could find, amazingly was never stolen. Never could figure out why. Maybe it was the JC Penney brand or the black brush paint job I had given it.

My son has two nice bikes, but when he went to college I bought him a used Huffy on Craigslist. Doesn't look to good but works fine. I told him to lock it up next to nicer looking bikes. He still has it.
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Old 02-18-15, 07:56 PM
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Originally Posted by bmwjoe
Here is a video of a thief stealing my son's locked bike on a busy street in broad daylight.

https://youtu.be/_zi0T8DH0_s

You can see how he does it in several steps so that nobody actually sees him steal the bike. My son had just spent 4 weeks restoring that bike :-(

Ride Safe,

Joe
Holy crap. I saw in the video that you used two locks. What kind of locks were they? U locks? Cables? Combination of both?
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Old 02-18-15, 09:06 PM
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They were two light weight cable locks with combinations. I now refer to these as my "country locks". I now have a U-lock with a thick cable. This is my "city lock". He took the locks, so I don't know where he cut them.

Ride Safe,

Joe
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Old 02-25-15, 03:49 AM
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Originally Posted by bulevardi
Yesterday, my bike almost got stolen.

My lock is similar to this one, but from another brand:
ABUS Steel-o-flex 1025/100 (33561)

The outer black plastic looks like being cut off, or it has been torn by the cold weather by always rolling the lock open and back around... don't know the real reason.
The outer metal shells around the cable are a little loose aswel, so by folding the lock open, you can clearly see the cable (which is only 5mm thick):


What should I do?

Better buy a new lock, better a U-lock ?
Maybe something like this:
ABUS U-Lock 640/135HB230+TexKF black (39703)


Broken Bike Lock by Dirk Desmet, on Flickr

This bike lock got torn all the way.
I guess by rolling it off an on each day for a year now.
And the plastic probably broke by the 'soft' winter we had last weeks... it barely froze...
Anyway, the only thing inside these locks is a small steel cable. Wouldn't recommend it to anyone! I'm happy the bike didn't get stolen...

Got myself a brand new U-lock today which should be much more secure.
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