I've walked, ridden, and driven past the same Raleigh 3 speed for nearly 3 years. It's locked to a rack with a Kryptonite lock. It's seen the passing seasons too many times and seems clear the owner has left it never to return. Me and my bic can free it from it's bondage and make it fly on ashpalt again. It's a lovely old bike that I now covet. Can someone give me permission to do something nasty in order to do something good?

If its been sitting there for three years, gank the f'n thing. TAKE IT. and post pics when you have it re-built :D

yeah, i agree. or maybe leave a note for a couple of days- just for the sake of your conscience.

It sounds like it has been abandoned to me- take it and give it a better home- just make sure that the frame is not rusted through though before your flight or it might be a short and painful one

Dude bad karma

I say good karma for giving it a good home. Bad karma to abandon a bike! What a waste!

I wonder if the owner just forgot the key though. What I would do is leave a note on the bike with your contact information for a few days or a week, and then if there is no response, take the bike, then leave another note. That way you are pretty safe.

Thank you for justifying my own criminal thoughts. I've been eyeing a bike daily that appears to be left for dead. My thought is to build it up for someone who really needs it. I hate to see a bike left neglected when someone else would find so much enjoyment out of it. The only thing that has stopped me is the thought of a back story that I am ignorant of. Chances are that I will never take any action but it does haunt my thoughts.

i see bikes like that all the time living in a college town, whats bad is when they are stripped down to only the frame. the whole bad karma thing has kept me off them...that being said there is this small frame that has been secured to a pole that i have been watching for the last 6 months that would be perfect fit for my girl, what she doesn't know...right
:D

I don't see it as stealing. It's liberation. The bike should be freed.

If its really abandoned take it but it could be that you might not see the owner riding it and you only see it when its locked up, so leave a note first or poke around first.


Also if any of you nyc people want cool vintage bikes I'm selling so give me a p.m.

P.S. sorry for the shameless advertising.

Put a note on the bike somewhere.

And how should the owner react if it is not abandoned? Should they leave a note back? "Please don't steal my bike?"

If I get to it first would that be considered stealing from you?

there's a nice bianchi road bike locked up about a block from my apt that looks like it's in the same situation.. hasn't moved in at least a year (that i know of), and looks like it's been there a lot longer. it's too small for me but rebuilt it would make a nice gift......................

It is pretty easy to tell if a bike has been abandoned vs. just locked up everytime you see it. If the chain and gears are a rusted blob as well as tires that are toast it is a good indication that the thing is not being ridden. If if is parked in a public place in this conditon you can almost bet on it, esp if it has fallen over or not moved in a while covered with bird s*hit. The note idea is not bad if you think the owner might still keep an eye on it. In realiy most people who abandon bikes are not serious bikers and often forget they have a bike. These are the kind of people who stop riding because they have a flat. Usually they are older bikes that even if it was given back to them they might trash it because of weathering and go buy a brand new wal-mart spercial (Vertical, next, Ozone 500, pacific...) with mega springs.

Some friends and I delt with a pair of abandoned bikes at the Co-op we lived at. They had been locked up for over 1.5 years on the propertey, we checked if anyone living in the house owned them, then cut them off and gave them to some of our house mates to use. A few days later a buddy was ridning one down the street and this girl who used to live at the house over 2 years ago (who moved down the street a bit) calimed it was her bike and my buddy stole it. Ha according to Texas Law, a tennant has 30 days to remove personal property from a residence after a lease expires, after that point the propertey manager/owner has the right to dispose of the abandoned propertey. She threatened to call the cops, but for what? We just gave her back the bikes, but the truth is we were in the right. Just food for thought

Bianchi, apartment, no wheels....Richfield?

I think I'll go get it tonight. It's been there 2+ yrs.

Only a low end 4130 steel...I looked already.

If you take the bike it's stealing.

That doesn't mean its wrong.

Anyone who abandons a Bianchi for 2 years A) probably didn't care about the bike when they left it there, B) sure as heck don't care about it now, C) are careless and negligent, and D) don't deserve that bike anyway. Other than how it may be considered legally, principally I don't think its any different from taking a thrown-out bike out of a dumpster.

do it. our country was founded on the idea that unworked resources belong to everyone. I don't mean this in a Communist Hippie way, but in the spirit of the Homestead Act of 1862. So do it with American pride.

jeff

I could do the same thing with about a hundred bikes here in Munich. I see these abandoned bikes everywhere with this wire thin rusted locks around them. The chains are all rusted and the tires are sometimes completely disintegrated. Too bad all the abandoned bikes are pieces of crap. I actually made my first frankenfixie out of an abandoned bike here.

Hey, taking a frame out of the trash is also theft under the law.

Go for it. In fact, you may be safer in the case where it's locked up for a long time. That's abandonment. In Boston if the bike hasn't moved for 60 days, it's called abandoned. Though it really only gives the property owner the right to have the public works dept come take it away.

iffy, but I would be tempted thats for sure...those old 3-sp raleighs are a treat to ride. Man I wish they made bikes that rode that smooth today.

There has been a old, old Schwinn cruiser, with the Sturmey-Archer(SP?) three speed hub UNLOCKED at the bottom of my stairs for a month. Its been moved, someone stood it up against the building after it was laying in the front lawn for two weeks. Amazing.

My wife ride's a nice bike boom ladies Columbia that a friend found in the trash. Spent WAY too much money fixing it up--new chain, grips, tubes and tires, bell, lights, lots of disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly. Workspace rental was rough. While it came in two versions, one with the SA and one with a SunTour, we weren't lucky enough to get the SA. Anyhow, it's still a treat to ride if a little bit kooky on the steering. Definitely has character.

I bet that three speed would make a kickass winter bike. I say take it, fix it up, do something nice to someone else to ease your karmic burden.

Well if the poster had the mindset to steal it outright he wouldn't really be asking about it would he, note or not. :rolleyes:

Many colleges have a problem with abandoned bikes. Students graduate, transfer, leave, and their bike is still locked to a rack. Over the years, the racks could become totally filled with abandoned bikes if the problems was ignored. So, many colleges post a notice of a week when few or no students will be on campus that any bike left on the rack will be put into storage by the campus police. If it is not claimed within a reasonable time (say, 90 days), it is then auctioned off.

However, letting each person decide for himself when a bike has been abandoned could lead to silliness. You stop for coffee every single day at 7 a.m. and lock your bike to the same post for thirty minutes. You come out one day, someone is cutting away on your lock. When the police show up, he says "Oh, I have seen this bike here every single day for six months...I thought it was abandoned".

Better that the police have a program where they "tag" a bike abandoned in a public area, and the tag states the bike will go to police storage unless moved with ten days. Then give the owner ninety days to reclaim the bike before the police auction.

Yeah, a good point. I ran into this old Robin Hood 3-speed locked up at the train station every morning at 7:15, and it was inevitably there every day, without fail, locked in the same position. It was also there when I got off the train in the afternoon, sometimes as late as 6 pm. Naturally I started to wonder if it was abandoned (foolish in retrospect) so one night I rode by the station just to see, and sure enough it was gone. It just belongs to someone with a really long workday.
So, go by the bike at odd hours. Make sure. Also, check on that chain, see if its rusted over. Report back to us!

Three years?

That's not theft if there's abandonment. Liberate that bike!

You have unbelievable control. I would have taken that bike after three months.

Koffee

I've got a whole bunch of old Schwins that I've trash picked at the end of the season at the beach in NJ. They get rusty and some people see blech. Me, I see a potential good ride that's ugly enough to leave unlocked. Some I've put air in and ridden home. Little spray on the chain and most are good to go.