aarider

Today, my FOURTH bicycle was stolen. Ok, it wasn't technically mine, but that makes it even worse.

The first bike which I really considered mine was a 24" tour bike with a 3-speed Sturmey Archer hub. It's probably still at my parents' place.

Fifteen years ago or so, I got a mountain bike as a present. No suspension, nothing fancy. I remember that it had a Shimano Exage derailleur. But it was a nice bike. I had it for several years, until one day I lent it to my sister, and it got stolen. That was in Italy. I suppose it was locked with a crappy cable lock, I don't know.

As a replacement, my sister gave me an extremely crappy old mountain bike. Shortly after that, I pretty much stopped cycling for several years.

About three years ago, I got a Specialized Allez Sport. It brought me back to cycling. I then sold the old mountain bike.

This March, I got a Specialized XC, my first bicycle with suspension. In June, I took it to Barcelona on vacation, where it got stolen. The lock (a cable lock) got cut during the day on a very populated street. I cursed Barcelona and Spain and thought that this would never happen in Switzerland.

Two weeks later my Allez was stolen in Zurich. Same lock. I cursed again and bought some high-quality U locks.

Now I'm in San Francisco and I borrowed a friend's bike. It came with a cable lock. Today I locked it to a traffic light in a well-lit, highly frequented street (Martet and Powell, just where the cable car turns, for who's familiar with SF) and went into GAP to get a pair of socks. I came out five minutes later and it was gone. That makes it the THIRD in the last 4 months.

The bloody irony is that I even brought a good U lock from home, but I didn't have it with me because I had removed it from my backpack for a longer tour yesterday.

Being responsible for having someone else's bicycle stolen sucks even more than having your own stolen.

This makes a total of 7 bicycles I have owned. 1 is at my parents', 1 I sold, 2 are my current bikes and 3 were stolen. Plus my friend's which got stolen. I'm still against having more police, harder punishments, or more surveillance.

Am I just extremely unlucky?

Garilia

sounds like you're a slow learner when it comes to crappy cable locks.

but seriously, i agree that it sucks having someone else's bike stolen in your care.

I had a few stolen as a kid, I had one attempted stolen.

So Many Roads

I lost a bike once.

Until ski season, when the ski patrol guy saw me and told me it was in his garage. Guess I left it there after a party in October....

Of course, I try not live in places where if it's not nailed down, it's yours to keep.

travelmama

Check Craigslist and Backpage.

Northwestrider

Just One, while it was left for one night UNLOCKED in the outside storage area , behind a major hotel in Anchorage, AK. Fortunately it was an old un suspended mountain bike

prathmann

Three. The first was my first bicycle - a 20" red Schwinn which I left unlocked outside a grocery store while getting a candy bar in the mid '50s. We reported it stolen and it was recovered a week or two later when someone left it in the street and someone else ran over it (broke some spokes) and reported it to the police. The second was an English 3-speed about 10 years later. Also left unlocked - this time outside a campus building while I went in to visit my father. The third was about 10 years after that. A 10-spd Schwinn Letour kept in a closed, but unlocked storage shed. None in the 35 years since then although I do frequently leave my bike outside stores and other businesses with just a cable lock.

GriddleCakes

Just one. A co-worker (nice guy, real friendly, addicted to meth) borrowed it to run to the store for some cilantro. He told me that he couldn't figure out my lock (which I believed ), and asked if I wanted to go lock it up myself. I was getting off work in ten minutes, so I said that it was fine. Ten minutes later, no bike.

So Many Roads

That might be a warning sign.

GriddleCakes

Yeah, hindsight can be a real b****.

vol

OP, you seem to have not so good luck (beside using cable locks, were your bikes also eye-catching?). So it's not just NYC. All those beautiful cities also have plenty of bike thieves. I met someone at the bike shop who told me he had lost 2 bikes, both locked with cable locks. He was away for only 2 minutes, and the bike was gone. Mine was not stolen yet, but I'm already nervous enough when in the post office and bike locked outside.

Nermal

None. I paid for all of mine.

Garilia

+1

mustang1

One. A Raleigh Massif mtb which was insured so I got a new one the next day for only £11. That was back in 1991. Left it at uni and after lectures, it was gone.

Bought a new U-lock (same model I had before, under insurance) and I still have the same one now. But now I use a couple of abus chain locks.

vol

JanMM

Only one: A '76 LeTour converted to a single-chainring, flat bar commuter was stolen from outside the Mail Order Dept of the Sears on Ponce deLeon in Atlanta around 1985. I had left it unlocked...................doah!

wiredfoxterror

Buy a folder and take it with you.

tsl

No, you're just extremely hard-headed.

So in the past four months' you've used a cable lock to lock a bike, FOUR times and EVERY TIME had it stolen. Even I can discern a pattern here.

I'm sure you have heard the old saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.

Cable locks are teh suxxor. Never use one. Friends don't let friends use cable locks. If you borrow a bike with a cable lock, either use your U-lock, or don't borrow the bike.

Did I mention cable locks suck?

EDIT: And for the record, I had one bike stolen, from inside my locked storage room, in the locked basement, or the locked building where I lived. I had thought about locking the bike inside the storage unit, but decided it would be too much like paranoia. In less than a month, it was stolen. Now I lock all my bikes inside my living room.

cehowardGS

No, I don't think so, I think it is your habits, or where you leave you bike.

In other words, and you may not have had a choice, but I wouldn''t have left my bike under the circumstances.

I am eyeballing my bike 99% of the time. And on a busy area, I am taking my bike with me..Security guards have told me, "you can't bring that in here", I tell them I am leaving now, or I just need a minute, or whatever.. One time, at a Roy Rogers eating some lunch, I see a hoodlum stop by my bike, drop a bag, look around, pull out wirecutters, and by that time, I am running full blast at the thug. He sees me, grabs his bag and runs, then stops about half block away, does some funny karate moves, like come on. Sheesh, gave him the finger, and went back and finished my lunch. My bike was save not only because it was locked, but because I was eyeballin it too. That was a real busy area too. At work, I bring my bike inside, right near my cubical.

In summary, I would advise you changing your habits, because it is plain to see that something isn't working.

Luck to you,

vol

What impressed me was OP lost his bikes in all these different cities in the same way, Barcelona, Zurich, SF... I would have thought some of these cities were better than NYC. (shouldn't there be a bike thief smilie?)

009jim

I've had very few things stolen. First up I have more locks than Fort Knox. I also write my name on everything so that tends to turn off most thieves. Also I tend to buy stuff that has little value to others. For my bikes I have an ABUS U-lock and a Condor.

akansaskid

1995 I unknowingly left an almost new Trek 930 MTB outside the garage overnight. Gone the next morning. This is a modest house on a quiet cul-de-sac a half-mile from the 160 acre estate of Charles Koch, 5th richest man in the country.

On the other hand in 2003, upon completing her masters, we left my daughter's lightly-used 3-speed unlocked in a bike rack in the married student housing area at Kansas State University with the intent that someone one take it and use it. A year later it was still there, unmoved, so I scrawled a "Free" sign and stuck in on it.

slowandsteady

A person makes their own luck......

DVC45

1

23 years ago.

dynodonn 

I consider myself fortunate in not having any of my bicycles being stolen.

cehowardGS

Both of the stories were great!!