have you ever wondered if the bike rider has stolen the bike?
Lately, around my neighborhood, I see lot of very high end bicycles. This itself isn't so strange. But when you look at the rider, the way they dress, and their form I just have to go :confused::confused: Is that bike stolen?
I've seen high-end Specialized, Cervelo, Orbea being ridden by someone in street cloth with regular tennies on their feet. Their riding style is just plain atrocious to say the least. And they sure don't look like they can afford a $3,000 or more bike. And these bikes are relatively new!!
Am I being too cynical? Would you ride your clipless pedal with regular tennis shoes or flip flops? I just have to really wonder sometimes. Every week I see a police report, care of neighborhood watch group, and we must have about half a dozen cases of bikes being stolen. Mostly out of garage or "parked" out on a street with chain/cable lock.
I really want to engage in some conversation with these riders. "Hey what kind of pedals are they?" "How do you like your brifters?"... I swear, the bike must be stolen... The rider and the bike just don't match.
:confused::confused::eek:
You know what they say about assumptions….
I’m a bit sad reading this thread, particularly the link to the Bicycling article and implication therein. I thought the article was a great and sympathetic portrait of hardworking and hard BIKING day laborers – by taking just the small part where a few guys buy stolen bikes it seems to me that there’s an unfortunate equation being made, and overlooking the main thrust of the article. Which to me is summed up in the article by "What's surprising is how committed these riders are to the activity of cycling--even more, it's hard to admit, than those of us who love the sport."
In the article, and in my experience, the vast majority of bike-riding day laborers, and other lower-income folks, wouldn’t dare put their livelihoods and families at risk by stealing bikes. And pretty much none would have an interest in the kind of bikes the OP describes. Why would someone who puts more miles in a week on a bike than some of us do in a month or even a season, and in the worst conditions (and who have a fierce incentive to not have their only transportation stolen) mess around with carbon fiber and low –spoke-count wheels? Yes, they may want and save for an upgrade from Wally World bikes, but you can bet they’d go for a basic decent mountain bike over anything like the “mismatched” road bikes mentioned here.
We had a rash of high end bikes stolen locally, too. Ones that were locked up and/or garaged, and clearly targeted for their value. Turns out a well-organized theft ring, likely meth related, was broken up because someone not only reported their bike was missing, but had their serial # and gave it to police. So like the others say above, make sure you have that info in a useful place, keep your bikes close, and don’t buy suspicious-sounding stuff off craigslist, ebay, etc…but maybe we can check our assumptions, eh?
