have you ever wondered if the bike rider has stolen the bike?

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

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?

+++++1 Good post.

[papaver]

Last night I was painting in the house with my scruffy paintcovered clothes on... but i ran out of masking tape, so I took my racing bike and drove of to the nearest store. Then I thought of this thread and I couldn't stop laughing.

[Crankin]

I haven't seen any mismatched riders and bikes, but we do see a few "invisible" cyclists around here.
You guys are scaring me. I don't know anyone who has had their bike stolen. I do lock my Jamis outside stores or on a rack when doing errands, but I never leave my Kuota anywhere. It comes with me or someone watches it.
Heck, half the people in my neighborhood don't even lock their doors. And we live within 2 miles of a medium security prison...

[papaver]

I do lock my Jamis outside stores or on a rack when doing errands, but I never leave my Kuota anywhere. It comes with me or someone watches it.

That's the best way to do it. Love Kuota's by the way!

here bike theft is a big problem in the cities. That's why you hardly see any good bikes unattended in the streets. People ride the most crappy bikes, with the most silly colors so it won't get stolen, and if it does, they'll quickly find it back. Who steals them? Students mostly. They just unlock the bikes, go to wherever they need to go, dump the bike there and move on... It's a problem that excists at least 50 years. Now they are developing a solution for this problem. Free bikes (or practically free). Cities throughout Belgium are offering bikes on every corner on the street. You put in a coin to unlock the bike, and you are on your way.... You leave the bike at another stand and that's it... it works a charm.

This is one example in Brussels (not free)... http://en.villo.be/comment_ca_marche (the site is in English)


The more expensive carbon racing bikes are often stolen 'on demand'... but that doesn't happen often.