I locked my bike in front of Paragon Sports once and forgot to take my frame pump with me, when I came back it was stolen. I was really pissed off too!

Wangster, sorry to hear dude. This is the #1 reason that I don't ride my bike other than enjoyment/fitness.

I know that once I lock it up, it'll be gone. I've had my share of bikes stolen when I locked it up for 1/2 hour. Mind you.....those were CHEAP BMX, mountain bikes from Toys R Us!

Mind telling me where in Bklyn this happen....just curious.

I would have just gave up and walked to the station.

By Union Square? I bet it was during the middle of the day when there are thousands of people around huh?

Holy cow. Thats when you park your bike and pretend like your off to work and go somewhere and stake your bike out and wait, then catch the dude in the act. Nothing like walking up to someone and saying while they arent not paying attention...hey WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH MY BIKE. Ive done it, I parked a brand new (five mins old) cannondale cross bike outside a pawn shop once and there wasnt anything to lock it too, so I went in with my friend while he took care of his business while i watched the bike through the window. It wasnt five mins before some joe blow walked up and started to walk away with my brand new bike, i ran out, (slightly pleased that I got the guy) and said "hey stupid f*** where you going with my bike?" the dudes look was worth the risk of loseing the bike...all he could muster was "aaahhh i thought this was my bike" I had to fight the urge to punch him square in his grill, I just walked up and yanked the bike out of his hands, he so thought I was about to attack him...it was funny.

I like riding to work, it's a lot better than taking the train or bus. I get there in 1/2 the time, and save 4 bucks a day. I work directly across the street from borough hall, right by cityhall. High foot traffic all day and being NYC, no one bothers to stop a theft in progress.

It's annoying, now i'm all paranoid about my bike.

Yeah, it was Paragon sports on 18th & Broadway, at 2pm in the afternoon.

I never lock my bike now unless I absolutely have no choice.

sorry to hear about this wangster, but as a militant grammarian, the title of this thread is KILLING me. btw, like someone mentioned earlier, fortunately those bars are definitely on nashbar sale for 15 bones if you want to purchase them again. like you said, you save 4 bucks a day riding your bike to work everyday. just think that you made up the cost of the stolen bars in less than a week. that's the way i would think about it. i don't know how much face plates run these days. good luck with all this.

yeah...the title's bothering me too, couldn't change it. As you can tell i'm not an English major. i don't care about the bars, they're cheap and i'll probably get a couple more when i get the chance. It's the principle of it all that pisses me off.

Bike comes everywhere with me. Cubicle, store, crowded restaurant, bathroom stall - even the movies (!). 9 out of 10 times nobody says nuthin - I think most people understand. A few nasty looks are better than no bike.

I'll have the lab team get started on converting one of those dynamo hubs into a Electric Theft Deterrent System.

Ride along, build up charge in batteries hidden inside the tubes. Someone touches the bike anywhere but the secret disarm spot and their heart just might get stopped.

The building my office in is run by bastards that won't allow bicycles. sigh...slouch... bastards...

You mean the missing colon after "needs," right?

is there anywhere online you can order any size bolt with a star head/square head?

I sneak my bike into the office everyday, either through the freight elevator or, if that is in use, one of the emergency stairs — carrying the bike 6 flights is really the only justification I have for paying the premium for the lighter parts. oh whenever I do lock a bike outside I try to make sure I can see it from inside. so far, nothing stolen. maybe chicago is just safer that way.

I second that! Some poo poo head stole my helmet. It made me maaaad.

I gave up locking any bicycle anywhere (that means even a well lighted, busy street) when my Schwinn World's U-lock was smashed a couple of years ago. The lock was destroyed but the bike was fine. I felt I was pushing my luck too much. So I purchased a folding bike and take that everywhere with me, dirty looks and all. No more worry, no more problems-that is true liberation!

That story just made my day.

Last week I had a super sweaty nasty three year old helmet stolen off my handlebars outside of emeryville (ca) police station. A few months ago someone stole the front wheel from my beater mountain bike and left a much nicer wheel (though theirs had a slow leak in the tube.) I patched it and got a very nice parts upgrade!

People are just getting WAY too lazy nowadays. They rather "downgrade" instead of taking 10 minutes to patch up a tube.

I had my seat stolen a couple months ago, that was annoying. Its very strange riding a bike without a seat, and probably a little dangerous also. The LBS guy gave me some good advice though, pour hot candle wax into the allen wrench holes, they could easily get though it, but it's just enough of a deterrent for the thief to move on in most cases.

I was just gonna say, wax is a lot better than solder to fill the holes.
I'd like to apologize, I'm seriously not making fun, but I spent the last 5 minutes trying to figure out how Wangster could've gotten home, I imagined he would just steer with the nub coming out of the headset like a joystick.

YOu could've dropped by gotham to see if they had anything they could loan you. Maybe even like, a piece of pipe you could zip tie to the stem?

or just put a ball bearing in there and drop candle wax into it.

Super easy...
I put a BB in each of my hex holes, then filled them in the rest of the way with heavy-duty hard-as-hell epoxy. I have to carry around solvent in case I have to undo it. But it's totally worth it. My stem, seat, and brake lever all have marks where some ****** tried to chip it out, to no avail.

ha ha

wait

ha ha

I was lazy and took the train. I'm sure I looked like a jacka$$ with my chain around my waist and mtn shoes and a bike with no bars. Oh well...