Yo bro! I learned my lesson when my $99 Magna mtb was stolen 16 years ago. OP got his **** jacked 4x already. I live in NYC and I DO NOT lock any $1,000+ bike for longer than 5 minutes. Maybe I am just too cautious : X

i seriously wonder what the legal implications are for beating someones a$$ that stole your bike. like say, you catch them red handed, or they're riding down the street on your bike, and you beat the ***** out of them, would you walk away scott-free, or could you possibly be arrested?

You can be arrested. Not worth it.

You're only allowed to stop them from stealing. You can't continue kicking them after that.

Right, your reaction has to be proportional to the action. Then again Chicago cops probably wouldn't do anything if you stomped someone for stealing your bike, especially if your white, real talk.

Defining how long it took you to stop them from stealing the bike is a wide open area. Cops around here would not have a problem with the guy needing a trip to the hospital. And if he happened to be on my property when the attempted theft was happening; his life would've been mine to decide upon.

A good way to deter thieves is to let them know beforehand that they could very easily die during their endeavors. Letting thieves know ordinary citizens can't do jack against them is like giving them the keys to your house.

Anyways, the OP has been a total doofus who deserves what he got because he didn't learn anything from the first three bike thefts.

I must say, I REALLY detest the idea that you shouldn't ride a nice bike for fear of it getting stolen. I ride a bright orange bike that I've put ~$1200 into and Am still buying parts for, all said and done it will be around $1800. It's my only means of transportation and the idea that I can't enjoy riding it, ESPECIALLY if I were a messenger and spen 6-8 hours a day in the saddle, seems silly to me. As others have said, If someone REALLY wants YOUR bike, they will probably get it.

That's not to say precautions shouldn't be taken. If I can bring my bike inside, I do. But sometimes it's not a good idea as you may have to leave the room you left your bike in, and an unlocked bike inside is much less safe than a properly locked one outside. I see posts all the time on various forums chastising people for having the audacity to ride a nice bike and it irritates me. Having nice things is nice and paranoia shouldn't keep you from experiencing that.

For the record, I have had two bikes stolen. both ~$500, the first was locked properly, but outside overnight. Learned my lesson. The second was stolen off the front of a city bus while I was on the bus. I got off and no bike, no one saw who took it. People suck, and sometimes you get bent over and ****ed, but that shouldn't keep you from enjoying a nice bike that you worked toward.

Just a personal rant. Commence firing.

no firing from here, what you said makes sense. but having four bikes stolen, thats a different story ha.

No one said anything about not riding the bike. What should be obvious is that one should not be surprised if their super expensive bike is stolen after it is locked outside.

You want to ride an expensive bike? That's fine. Just don't be an idiot and lock it outside unattended. Oh look, it was stolen. This is a surprise how?

Also, more money != nicer bike. Just saying.

This is funny because you've used the time does not exist paradox. You can't disprove a negative.

What I can say is that quality of parts, equipment's overall weight and other variables can be directly linked to cost. Therefore, more money is functionally less weight, stronger materials and usually correlates to a better living wage for those associated in its production.

tl;dr

uWrong. Sorta.

What? I have no idea what you're talking about here.


Also, I did not say anything about whether higher quality parts are correlated with higher costs. What I did say is that spending more money does not automatically make the bike nicer.

There is a difference between buying expensive parts that are better quality and expensive things that are just expensive.

sorry to hear about your ride, I live in Harlem, only ride my 'nice' bike when I'm not going to lock it up anywhere, and have an old trek conversion for when I need to lock up somewhere, and both stay inside at night. That said, there is a beat up track bike at the end of my block, locked up outside always and its still there (today)

I do my best to lock up near a hot dog vendor or parking garage attendant or something similar...bummer about your bike getting stolen, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

SKIP TO END FOR TL;DR


Okay just a few shots...

1) If you are locking your bike up, you are no longer riding it. You did not leave your house with the intention of going on a bike ride for the sake of the ride; it was a means of transportation to get you from A-B. In this situation, riding a $1200 (or, **** my eyes, an $1800) knowing you will get off, lock it outside, and leave it for ANY amount of time is not a risk I would willingly take, period. Perhaps this is because I cannot stand to lose 1800 dollars and you can, so if this is the case more power to you. If this is not the case, you could have accomplished the same task (going from one place to another) without risking all the $1k+ you have tied up in your bike. The way I see it, a thief would not normally have access to that much money, as people rarely carry or leave that around. In sinking all that into one object, you have created a concentrated deposit of wealth that is very appealing to an opportunistic thief. In addition to advertising an easy paycheck, the bike further facilitates the thief's job by doubling as a getaway vehicle.

In this one scenario, having a $1k bike provides no more functionality than a $100 dollar bike, so it becomes more a question of how badly you want to keep your extremely nice bike vs. how badly you want to be seen commuting on your extremely nice bike.

2) You said you plan on eventually having $1800 dollars in your bike, and also that it is your only mode of transportation. Since you are already talking about close to $2k, why not spend $1600 on your bike and buy a used Kilo(anything) off craigslist for ~$200 so that you aren't risking your pride and joy every time you run to the store? Or just spend as much as you want on your nice bike and get a beater anyways? It doesn't seem like you are necessarily hurting for disposable income, so why not spend a trivial (in comparison) amount to ensure you get to enjoy your nice ish for years to come?

3) If I were a messenger with a nice bike, I would make sure it looked beat to ****. If you only care about how it rides, make it as ugly as you possibly can, and very few people will be tempted into stealing it. The people who will still be able to recognize it would have been able to do so before you mucked it up so this is a non-issue. This is me personally, but I don't see many messengers on fresh paint or racey decals.

I have nothing against riding nice bikes. It is something that I myself aspire to do, and I always get envious/drool on myself when I see someone out for a ride on a nice bike. I am legitimately happy for those people. If you have a nice bike, you absolutely SHOULD ride it and enjoy it. But I still think you should buy a nice bike for when you want to ride, and a cheaper bike for when you want to get somewhere.

Would you enjoy riding it to pick up groceries? Would you enjoy that ride less if your bike got stolen while you were there?
Or, would you hate every second on a beater because it wasn't your nicer bike? Would you enjoy riding a beater more if it meant you got to protect your big-$$$ bike from potentially being lost forever?

My .02.

TL;DR
You'll enjoy your nice bike for a potentially longer period of time if you proactively prevent it's theft by not using it for risky stuff in the first place.

Thanks for the lesson, Laoshi Lao_shi.

If the elimination of potential is the purpose of riding junk, then wouldn't walking be an even cheaper alternative?

I've ridden $50 FS Walmart bikes at the pawn shop and wouldn't wish them on my worst enemy. I could not, honestly, fathom the idea of forcing myself to ride one to discourage others from doing so (or stealing mine). This logic is on par with taking a chainsaw to your own leg and screaming "see, this hurts! Don't do it!"

There has to be some happy medium. The OP hasn't found it, but neither has anybody who suggests they enjoy riding a bike that's subpar or substandard to keep it safe. This would be on par with making my wife wear Hefty trash bags and burping in public a lot to keep people from SUPSQRLing. Gotta figure out where you draw the line.

If I rode something I didn't enjoy, I wouldn't ride it. Then I'd drive. Which would be counter-intuitive and actually be giving in to the idea that bikes are for entertainment and stealing only.

Not if cost of walking > cost of bike being potentially stolen. If I think that the x% chance that my bike is stolen is worth the cost of taking a much longer time to get somewhere, then I will take the bike for sure.

I do disagree slightly with Lao_shi's implication that only "junk" bikes should be used for errands, since it's certainly possible to have a cheap bike that is not junk.

For example, I use my singlespeed to run errands: going grocery shopping, picking up things from the post office, etc. I like my bike. It's not junk, and it doesn't look like junk, but it's not expensive either. If it got stolen, I would be pissed off and sad, but it wouldn't be a $1800 loss, for example.

On the other hand, I also like my titanium road bike. I would never lock that up outside and if, for some unusual reason, I were locking it up, I wouldn't leave it out of my line of sight for more than five minutes. In the same vein, I do not use the road bike to pick up groceries, since that would be silly.

However, some people might not have the same qualms about locking their expensive bikes up outside. This is fine. BUT they need to be aware of and okay with the risk of the bike being stolen. It is naive to think that that is not a possibility.

For me, the singlespeed is used for errands and rides for fun. Road bike is used for commuting and rides for fun. Just because the bike isn't locked doesn't mean it's not being used. :)

I think you and I are on the same side. I certainly wouldn't lock up a Geekhouse Rockcity anywhere, but on the other hand, my M80 is lucky if I use a U lock on it. Nobody knows what carbon fiber spokes are, let alone old-school synergy rims/hubs. My custom made Devil goes into classes with me and I've never thought about leaving it unattended outside.

Wait.. someone built up a $2400 bike, and locked in up with a $30 padlock.. In NYC? I'm sorry folks, this is a troll. NO WAY anyone can be that stupid. I lock up every day here and have never had an issue, because I use common sense and a good lock.

That $30 dollar lock can't be cut without electric tools. Also the kryptonite padlock costs only 15 dollars more.

I think the best precaution to locking up and expensive bike is using more than one lock.

FTFY. :notamused:

Gee, I wonder why professional bike thieves USE ELECTRIC TOOLS. You obviously read the entirety of this thread and have lots of common sense.

If you are going to lock up a $2,400 bike - this is how you do it:
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=241988

Chill out brah. No need to be a smart ass over nothing.

We all make purchases for different reasons. I built my bike to commute to work and to the gym. Unfortunately most establishments don't permit bikes inside so a lot of new yorkers resort to locking their bikes outside.

You're suggesting that I (and dare I say most new yorkers) refrain from riding a bicycle as a means for transportation if we invest enough money into the bike to consider it expensive.

Sounds pretty unreasonable.

the insurance on kryptonite locks is only for it it defaults in someway and thus making them responsible for the theft of your bike i.e. a part is already worn down or something so it's easy to undo the lock without the key. if someone simply cuts it, and since the OP wasn't even using a kryptonite padlock, they probably won't get anything from the lock's insurance