BUt Mayo, if you were to leave a note for the owner to either step forward and retrieve their property, who's to say some other bike afficionado who has been eyeing the same bike won't step up and free it before you do?

Check with the laws in Chicago and if they say go, I'd PROUNCE on it!

think of it as doing your part, your civic duty to clean up the streets and to be part of the reduce, reuse, recycle (intended), little green sort of triangle (sort of shaped like a piece of pie......) thingie

:)

you have to take it!
abandoned bikes are eventually taken by the council to the dump and trashed, most are not even recycled.
its well worth taking any abandoned bikes and making them of use for people who maybe cant afford a bike.

I watched a perfectly nice Kona disintegrate over two years ... I wish I had stolen the usable parts...

Oh, I thought that the Bible was only meant for holding doors open.

no, it is actually intended for a variety of uses. My favorite of which is fiction.

My favorite of which is fundamentalist crusades...

I am going to steal it. I know it hasn't been ridden in years. The tires are flat, the seat is gone. I've watched the bike so closely that it would be impossible to remove it and put it back without me noticing the difference.

I think I'm going to call the city and tell them it's my bike and that I lost the key and would they be so kind as to meet me and cut the lock off.

Call it stealing, call it liberation, call it whatever you like. Why should I let this beauty rot any further when I can give it a good home and almost irrefutably determine it's been abandoned?

Certainly to everyone reading this bicycles are more than mere commodities, that they have a spiritual power. Certainly many, most even, don't think this way. They cast them off like skrink wrap. I want to rescue this bike before it goes to the junk heap, melted down for scrap.

Totally.

I called the city (311) adn asked them if they'd come out and cut off the lock. No, the lady told me. I called the Chicago Bicycle Federation and they told me to call a locksmith. When I brought up the Bic pen, the guy opened up and said that's what he would do. I'm going to go tomorrow and give it a shot.

Good luck, Mayo.

My suggestion: I'd go ahead and take the bike, leaving a laminated "FOUND" note in its place with a vague description & a number or email. That way the owner could contact me & provide a description if they wanted the bike back back.

3 years, it's probably safe to say it's abandoned. However, I once had my bike locked up for 6 months without riding it. It didn't mean I didn't want the bike. It just needed maintenance that I didn't have the time/money/effort required to give, and I didn't have the space to bring it inside. I would check periodically that the city hadn't tagged it for removal (they give 30 days notice), but I would've been seriously bummed if someone had just taken it.

The lovely people of Glasgow take advantage of bikes left on public property whether they are abandoned or not. I saw one bike deteriorate in a matter of weeks from buckled wheels to no wheels to no seat to bent frame to gone. Alchohol is evil in the hands of mindless idiots. I really feel sorry for anybody who has the misfortune to leave their bike near a club on a Friday or Saturday night.
I know this doesn't have much to do with the main issues raised by this thread but I wish abandoned bikes lasted more than a couple of weeks before getting destroyed by the local wildlife in this city.

Steal it. Then ride it like you stole it.

I made a good attempt at stealing that old Raleigh. I brought my Bic pen, can of WD-40, and a hacksaw. Even Downtown Koffee Brown was scheduled to meet me with her bolt cutters (sorry KB, I didn't blow you off, I waited as long as I could but had to go). The Kryptonite lock had a barrel that was slightly larger than my Evo 2000 and wouldn't accept the Bic. I worked with it for awhile and no one paid me any attention whatsoever. Anyone wants it, be my guest. It's a blue Raleigh 3sp at Pearson and Rush, right across the street from the Bently dealership. It's the one with no seat and two flat tires. It'll need tyres and tubes, a seat and seat post, and probably a new chain, but from what I've seen and what I've read, that bike hasn't even approached middle age yet. Harris Cyclery has all the gear you'll need. Like falling in love with a lost puppy, I want that bike in a loving home.

And just like a puppy there's another one someplace that needs a good home. Too bad you couldn't get this one, but im sure there's another one out there.

dude
get a crowbar and/or a tire jack (a smaller one that can be wedged into the open space on the lock).
these WILL pop that lock, used properly

how dare you give up...
you gotta get out there and find that ****ing dog.

yeah man, you cant give up...The bikes is calling you. You need to help it out of its miserable state.

YOU MUST SUCCEED OR THE BIKE WILL DIE!

This thread has inspired me to free an old Shogun that has been in a rack for a couple of months (tire is now flat, too). I gotta say the draw is potential to build a singlespeed with those sweet bull moose bars...

Well, it's inspired me to break into my neighbors garage using my own opener, and ride his bike all day while he's at work, and to put it back in the same place everyday.

Too bad I am so far away. I have a car scissors jack that would fit in most u locks and generates 3,000 lb ft of lift. You slide one of these in, crank it a few times........
Maybe I should pop it into my secret stash pocket before I head out tomorrow.

Maybe we should have a DCC "Bike Liberation meetup", I'm sure we could get that bike free somehow. Between a car jack and extensive hacksawing, I'm sure something would work. Anybody got a plasma cutter?

I am in for a saturday purloinment

Count me out. I cannot cycle to Chicago by Saturday.