How Not to Get Your Bike Stolen

biker with bike tattoo

The helpful chaps at Ask.MeFi have a good thread full of advice on avoiding bike theft. Some of the advice is pretty straightforward-- but a few go right over the line to nuttiness. We leave it to you to judge which are which:

1 - Remove all of the stickers. 2 - Rattle-can the bike a dull black or primer color. Or have a professional give it a nasty color powder-coat. 3 - Have the suspension changed out for a solid fork. You don't need suspension in the city, it robs you of your ability to accelerate as quickly. And it is attractive. 4 - Remove stickers from your components. Or replace them with a decent grade that you won't mind losing. 5 - buy multiple locks, all different brands and styles. You aren't going to stop a thief, you're just buying time. He/she will probably head for an easier target before hitting your bike. 6 - Be prepared to have it stolen. It will probably happen. 7 - Keep it inside.
You need two locks. One a heavy u-bolt. U-bolt locks are EASILY PICKED, so this cannot be your primary lock, but it's a good secondary one. The primary lock should be a heavy chain with an indestructible circular or warded padlock. [Maybe not the Kryptonite locks that you can pick with a bic pen though.]

A friend of mine taped black bin bag (garbage bag?) material over the tubes and put an old saddle on his bike. It certainly made it look much less attractive upon a cursory inspection...

I U-lock the back wheel to the frame, then c hain lock the frame and front wheel to whatever i'm locking into. Also you can take a little bit of chain and link it through the rails in your saddle through the seat stays to prevent seat theft. Furthermore, if you have a threaded stem, you can drop a little bit of glue and then a ball bearing into where the allen wrench goes. Then you just need to poke it with a screwdriver to get the bolt out if you ever need to swap stem/bars.

Take everything off the bike that can come off - losing lights is a real pain. If you can be bothered, get a seat that comes off and take that with you when you leave the bike as a bike without a saddle is less attractive.

Spraypaint the bike some godawful colour.

I did think about getting a small and cheap cellphone to conceal in the frame of my bike. If it got stolen, I could use a location service to find it.

Register it with the NYPD etching program.

I'm an ex-NYC-bike-messenger and daily rider, currently of a pretty Specialized frame with a nice fizik seat. My hub, stem, and seatpost nuts are filled with solder, which I have to wick out before any repair. I lock up with a colossal square chain and shielded St. Pierre padlock that have kept my bikes safe for almost 25 years.

Now if they could only solve our bike-related problem: the size of the GothamistHQ requires that we keep our bike securely locked to the railing in the hallway outside the apartment. This is fine, except at least twice a month, someone steals our breakpads. Yes. OUR BRAKEPADS. The first time it happened we went headlong into traffic before realizing there was a problem. While we naturally assumed someone was out to kill us, other people in the building pointed the finger at the food delivery guys. Apparently, they need the brakepads because theirs tend to wear out pretty quickly. Now, nobody loves delivery people more than us, but after losing six pairs of pads, we're getting a little desperate for a solution. Does anyone have any ideas on how to keep the pads on the bike, short of epoxying them in place?

Picture by Jesse Chan-Norris.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jake Dobkin in Miscellaneous on March 23, 2006 1:13 PM

Comments [rss]

m

For a city beater bike, I like an old fashion coaster brake. They are bomb proof.

As for not having your brake pads stolen, use the advice in the column about putting soder in the nut.

Victor

If you owned one of those new-fangled folding bikes, like a Dahon, you could take it with you and avoid all of these problems. Except the bikejacking at gunpoint. That's a tough one.

m

some parking garages actually have bike racks that one can use for a fee. check out Transportation Alternatives at http://www.transalt.org/info/garages.html

pedestrian

This is why I walk. The time you save by biking is eaten up by the time you spend locking up and disassembling the damned thing. On top of that, you constantly play a game of Frogger with traffic, and the police are always trying to arrest you. Thanks, but no thanks.

fat stinking hog

the secret is to ride a really nice bike and lock it in high foot traffic areas. You see thieves steal crap bikes and know that people are paranoid about parking new bikes anywhere that means that if the bike is parked in plain sight and is relatively new that tells the thief that the owner is pretty much nearby- he'll make a mental note to come back later at night but by then if your smart you would have moved it into your apt. remember that tv show streethawk where the dude had a secret bike garage in the village somewhere? that would be fucking awesome!

Gwinny

I have a crappy-looking 3-speed girlie bike. I don't feel the need to have anything fancier, since it's not necessary for city cycling.

Nevertheless, I have had wheels stolen in broad daylight in Midtown. Now I lock both wheels up both at home and work.

More recently, the seat was stolen in front of my apartment (I live on Allen below Delancey). I got it replaced and had the bike shop solder a bike chain around it, attaching it to the frame.

A couple of weeks later, I heard a bunch of young punks out hootin' and hollerin' in the street. Yep, my bike seat was missing again the next morning. So I got the bike shop to install a quick-release lever and now I take my bike seat indoors with me.

It's a lot of extra work just to be able to ride a crappy bike in the city, that's for sure.

evamn

Ahh the days

Once had it stolen in a small town, saw the perp a few days later on my bike and accosted him. (me 120lbs: he taller and screaming for his mama) I just wouldn’t let go and didn’t mind causing a scene in the middle of the street.

Second time … and how do you deal with this? Was slowed down by two guys riding one bike. The second kid (looked about 10 years old) got off the back and started waving this black thing and saying something like, “Gedack ga dee, Gedock ga dee!!!” My friend started fishing through his wallet and frantically handing it to him. It only dawned what was happening when my friend finally said my name, “He’s telling you to get of your bike. He has a gun.”

ian

This thread is the reason why everytime people ask, I say NYC is a shitty bike town. It sucks that you can't ride places because you are worried about your bike getting stolen. And it sucks that you have to fuck up your bike to make it look like a POS so thieves won't get at it.

alex

If I were you "JESUS" I would smite those heathen thieves and not turn the other cheek next time.

Brightliner

K, if you're going to be a dick, at least do it right. "Brakepad" isn't a real word anymore than "breakpad" is. They're brake pads.

Interestingly, while Kryptonite has swapped to newer disc-style cylinders (I had all my locks replaced in their free trade-in program), their guarantee won't cover some of their better locks in NYC, including the Evolution 2000/3000 and disc locks. NYC thieves are apparently the most ingenious on the planet. You want their antitheft guarantee, you'll have to buy the Fahgettaboudit. I use a combination of EV 2000 Mini and New York Noose (with EV disc lock) myself. Pretty heavy load, but it's not like I'm in the Tour de France.

hyperbole

OMG I had a dirty old schwinn and I chained it around a tree on the upper west side, and when I came back the thief had just chopped down the tree. It's a war zone out there.

n

my 2¢...

-use bolt on components. never qucik release. the bearing/glue trick is fine.

-lock your wheels. (duh)

-never leave it outside for more than a few hours. (take it into work)

-take it in at night. (again, duh)

-this ex-NYC-bike-messenger should know that powder coating is expensive and not the same as spraypaint

-making your bike look gross isnt a great way to save it from thieves. don't rely on that. sometimes they target those because they know people that bother to disguise a bike have something valuable to hide/protect.

the new u-locks from kryptonite aren't bic-pen-able anymore and i use 2 minis. one for the front and one for the back. it's lighter than a chain and can be put in a bag or even my pockets. i used to use the giant chain but nyc isn't as shady as it once was so i don't feel the need to anymore. i lock my bike (a nice and shiny one) up all over manhatan, brooklyn, queens and never have a problem. just don't be stupid or careless.

Aristocrat

If you're an addict that's relegated to using brakepads for a crackpipe, you must be the most desperate dreg of humanity.

Oh, and K, don't be such a d1ck.

Boots

to prevent the theft of brakepads, get a brakeless fixie.

oh, and i don't think it's the delivery guys. probably crackheads. they use brakepads to make pipes.

papercutninja

To prevent the theft of your brake pads, maybe you should try the ball-bearing thing, dropping a small ball bearing into the allen-hole and filling it with glue or wax.

JESUS CHRIST

I remember having a ten dollar bike that was the ugliest most rusted piece of crap ever, it had suicide levers and the brakes were almost useless but I got around on it. One day, I came back and someone stole my front wheel as well as my fork. I just left it to die on the street but I was just like "out of all the nice bikes in the world to steal from they cannabilize the shittiest bike in the world" then I recently got a sort of decent bike and to fuck it up I put Linkin Park stickers and a Jewel (yes, fucked up teeth Jewel) picture on it to deter would be robbers. I only lock up the bike during the day and take it in to my apt at nite but they fucking stole one of my toe reflectors, my tail light, my bell, my front light, and my brakepads all on different occassions, one time someone loosened up my quick release front wheel to steal it but I got there just in time and they ran for their lives cause I would have seriously fucked them up.. It was a hipster guy. Fucking Hipsters! Now instead of new parts to replace my shit I just steal from other people's bikes at night. The circle is complete, The cycle goes on.

bthirsch

When will the police crack down on bike thefts?

I estimate that bike thefts total more than a million dollars per year (and this is my estimate, and not based on any real numbers). Instead of one big robbery, lots of little robberies add up, affecting many more people and driving the quality of life down in NYC. Additionally, many bike thefts (especially parts) are not reported. I encourage anyone who has had their bike stolen (or even just parts) to make a police report. If not, call 311, write a letter to the police commisioner, etc... Bike thieves should be fought by the police, not by bikers (who have to spend lots of money on thick chains, locks, etc...). A small taskforce of police detectives could probably catch the bike theft rings which I assume are responsible for many of the thefts, but to my knowledge there are no police efforts currently working on this.

Also, watch out where you lock your bike up. I locked mine to the cross beam of some scaffolding downtown. The thief unscrewed and dismantled part of the scaffolding, and made off with my bike (lock attached).

Victor

First I had my seat stolen, which was my fault for leaving it on. So I started taking my seat with me, but then, someone stole the quick-release bolt that fastened the seatpost. Amazing. The best was yet to come: somebody then nicked my toe clips. My ratty, worthless old toe clips. By the way, all of these thefts occurred on 68th Street, outside Hunter College.