the beef

Dear friend,

You stole my seat/seatpost.

I've been commuting on my old ratty Schwinn Super Sport to the same spot at a busy bus transit center for over three weeks now as a part of my new job. It's got peeling decals, two wheels slightly out of true, ripped bar tape, the works. So I was pretty pissed today when I got back after my 7 hour workday to find my seatpost and seat just gone.

What the hellllllll. It was an old rusty post with an ugly old Serfas seat. Here I am, a high school kid who needs to get home, and you've taken my seat. I don't have a car. Why did you want it, anyway? Did you want to sell it at the pawn shop up the street for five bucks? I hope you got laughed at walking into the store looking like a tool carrying a big ol' seatpost and trying to pawn it off.

I ended up having to bike the five miles home standing up in 52-14 the whole way. So basically, I'm pissed, and now I'll have to get one of those locking seatpost bolts or something so that you don't get your grimy hands on the next seat that I buy. Or maybe I should hook up a slab of plywood to the seatpost and call that my seat. That'd be a laugh.

Screw you, person. The thing I don't get the most is why you didn't take that Selle Italia on the bike next to mine. It even had a seatpost bag attached to it with tools and probably an energy bar that you could have eaten to fatten yourself up a little more. You ought to die.

Sincerely,
The Beef

Guest

That's messed up. I'm so friggin tired of opportunists stealing whatever they can off your bike. I bet if yu bolt your seat down, they'll steal the dang brakes.

Sorry to hear about your seat. Stay strong in the struggle!

Koffee

squeakywheel

Geez 2 hard luck stories in one day. This is depressing. Glad I live in Minnesota where all the students are above average...and um people steal things worth more than rusty old heavy seatposts with worn vinyl excuses for seats on them...Unbelievable.

cooker

I had a seat stolen. Such a pain. I always lock my current one with a cable even though it is 20 years old and badly scuffed

thelazywon

Sucks. You know they make these little alarms for motorcycles that go off when it is tipped or bumped. That would be cool, I bet no one would steal anything off your ride with the siren going off right in their ear!

barba

Odds are they stole it just to be jerks. Somehow that makes it is even worse.

CastIron

But it might get kicked for going off in the ear of the guy locking up next to it. Those locks are designed for 400+lb bikes.

catatonic

The alarm would be in essence a provocation.

When I was a kid, alarms meant "hey, mess with me"....those were the cars that often had the horn for the alarm stolen.

Kids will steal anthing, just because they can.

Your best answer is a locking skewer, and security bolts.....full bike.

Then watch as they steal your bartape, or a light bracket.

Seriously thieving kids are annoying as hell.

barba

Someone posted a bit ago about having their brake pads nicked.

jyossarian

Lock your saddle down w/ some old bike chain wrapped in an old innertube. Both free from your LBS. Wrap around the saddle rails and rear triangle and close it w/ a chain tool. Makes it harder for thefts of opportunity, but won't deter a serious thief.

mcavana

i welded a chain around mine... lol... i actually have grown to love the looks of it! I also put a plastic "beware of dog" sign on my rear rack. It is so much fun watching the homeless guys pass by my bike at lunch time. you can always tell which ones can read because the ones that can will immediately get nervous and scan the area for the dog!!!!

Mike

evictionsurplus

There is a special circle of the inferno for any sort of bike theif. I believe it is near the bottom. Ask Virgil, he will inform you.
I think stonings are in order for any form of bike theft. Go jack a friggin' Escalade or something. Don't mess with the innocents.
I have feel great anger for you. PM me and we can talk about a late 80's Schwinn World Sport seat and post that has never seen much use. When I say talk I mean I don't need the thing, and you need a seat. Karma!
j

supcom

Thief probably has a beater bike and was afraid the fancy seat post wouldn't fit.

Sorry about your loss. At least it will be cheap to replace.

bmclaughlin807

Naw... the guy with the nice Bianchi with the brand new seat that got jacked REALLY needed a seat to get home. Didn't you see it locked up two down from you with no seat when you locked yours up?

shakeNbake

Sorry to hear about that.

Hey at least you got some stand-up training. Remember when Lance attacked L'Alpe D'Huez? He trained standing up alot.

jkreuzig

I started locking up my seat while a student at UC Irvine. I can't tell you how many times I came out to the bike racks and saw many a bike missing the only two things people didn't lock up: The seat/seat post and quick release front wheel. It wasn't just the expensive bikes that got ripped. Beaters and old MTB's were just as likely to get hit.

If you don't get the locking seatpost bolt, at least get a second lock. I carried a u-lock and a cable lock. The u-lock locked the frame and rear wheel to the bike rack, and the cable went through the front wheel, frame and was locked to the seat.

MichaelW

Grrrrrrrrrrrr.
Ive had some odd things removed from my bike, including an old leather ankle-band with reflective piping. It was a really dirty/manky scrap of leather.
Ive also had a dirty old waterbottle containing a lead acid battery swipped. They didnt have the charger or the home-made connector plug so it was completely useless to the thief.
It seems that the criterion for stealing is stealability. Value and usefuleness come way down the list of thinks flickering through the few brain cells of a bike thief scumbag.

Saintly Loser

That might have been me. It happened to me some time back outside the Chrysler Building in New York. I also posted about having the rack stolen off my bike: