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Not a big surprise here: authorities say that bike theft tends to pick up during the summer months. Although trends are not different than those from previous years, there are ways to detain thievery, like investing in a good lock, locking your bike through both the wheels and the frame, and always locking your bike when not in use (seriously). This won’t altogether prevent theft, but registering your bike with the city of Chicago can help with recovering and returning bikes to their rightful owners.
In related news, Chicago is now #2 on Kryptonite’s “Top Ten Worst Cities for Bike Theft,” with the triumphant winner being the city of Philadelphia.
Image via phule
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my bike was stolen monday at michigan/ontario. i immediately looked for a new one, and found a seller through craigslist named jonathon. he said i was the 4th or 5th person to call that day whose bike was stolen around streeterville.
he repairs used bikes and resells them. he has a decent selection (mostly road bikes), and plans on opening a store (312 Cycles) soon around 2100 n. western.
but yeah, shit sucks; cut the (cable) lock, and rode off with it in broad day light!
You can never be too careful. That being said I'm amazed at the people who walk by watching somebody trying to destroy somebody's lock or physically removing somebody's wheel with wrenches and mind their own business. Bike thefts happen in such high traffic areas that somebody's got to be witnessing them.
Completely agree, Navin.
Someone stole my wife's bike two months ago while it was locked to a bike rack in front of the main entrance to union station. She had locked the frame to the rack with a kryptonite evolution mini ulock, one of the strongest ulocks you can buy. It must have taken the thief 4 to 5 minutes to cut through it with an angle grinder or circular saw (not sure how they defeated it because they took the lock with). Dozens of people must have walked by during that time, with apparently no one stopping him/her. Its is worth locking a bike the best you can, but absolutely nothing on the market today will guarantee safety while a bike is unattended.
That's why you should be riding a beater for your around-town needs. If it gets stolen, it's nothing more than a minor annoyance. I feel bad for people that get their carbon fiber race bikes stolen, but shit, you locked a 4-figure bike to a light pole in W. Logan Square....heh.
Cable locks are really easy to cut, even the supposedly heavy-duty ones, and as such are worthless. Straight-key u-locks are the way to go while so many people still use cables, lock up improperly, etc. Yes, most can be defeated by a battery-powered angle grinder in less than a minute, but the secret is being locked up better than the bikes around you. I use a large one through the front wheel and through the frame, and then a mini-u to go through the rear wheel and the rear triangle. Call it ridiculous, but I'd rather not face that heart-wrenching moment of walking out of some place only to find my bike missing.
I use a large one through the front wheel and through the frame, and then a mini-u to go through the rear wheel and the rear triangle. Call it ridiculous, but I'd rather not face that heart-wrenching moment of walking out of some place only to find my bike missing.
Not ridiculous at all! That's how it should be done. Like you said just make your bike look like more of a pain to deal with than somebody elses.
Personally I've never spent for than $350 on a bike that I ride around the city.
I got my rear wheel stolen (a cheapie) on my last bike because I didn't lock the rear wheel as well, but mostly because I left it locked up overnight. Something I'd *never* purposeful do but I'd gotten so drunk and later got a ride home that I'd forgotten I'd ridden by bike in the first place. I had a bad feeling something would be wrong as I walked to where it was the next hungover day.
A few years ago (in another big city), I'm out walking and I go by this construction crew.
I overhear this guy ask one of the construction crew guys if he could borrow this huge pair of cutters for a few seconds.
the construction guy says 'ok' and this other guy takes them, saunters jauntily across the street and proceeds to start cutting through
someone's lock so he could steal the bike!
The balls!!!!!
When the construction crew guys figured out what was happening they stopped it and took their cutters back.
That being said, I have had almost every bike I've ever owned stolen. Except for the one I have now...and I guess I can say that until it too, gets stolen. What sucks is that this is the least favorite bike I've ever had and it's the one I've had for the longest.
When we moved to Chicago, I would say sometime within the first two months my son's bike was stolen right off our front porch! The next week I bought him a new bike and the first day he had it, a gang of kids knocked him off it and tried to take it, but some man stopped it, that was the day we registered the bik with the police.
I really, really HATE people who take things that don't belong to them. Assholes.
I lost my keys to my U-lock last summer and I bought a tungsten metal saw to it. It was on Milwaukee right near that crazy busy intersection in Wicker Park, and while I was sawing, only one person asked me anything.
The cops came, but ran my bike (registered) through the computer against my ID, and told me to go at it. I eventually had to get my dad's grinder. Blew through the lock in about 8 seconds. Sparks flew everywhere. It was awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNTq3nhuh0