Bike Theft
Mar. 29th, 2017 04:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI noted this on Facebook, but when I left to go to work last Wednesday, I discovered that my bike had been stolen from our porch. I filed a police report; they’re not going to recover it. I didn’t bother with a homeowner’s insurance claim because after the $500 deductible it’s not worth having the claim on my records.
There’s some chance that I simply forgot to lock the bike and someone walked off with it. It’s also possible that someone used an angle grinder to pop my lock—apparently while the jointed metal locks like I had are very resistant to clipping and sawing, an angle grinder can pop them open very quickly, and the internet tells me that bike thieves have recently started using them.
So on Saturday, ARR and I hit the bike shop and ordered my new bike: Slightly smaller, same brand (Giant) in bright yellow. I’m getting my Pinhead locks again, along with my front basket and fancy kickstand. Instead of saddlebags I ordered folding baskets for the back rack; we’ll see how I feel about them.
And after doing a bunch of research, I determined that the best theft-deterrent lock currently available is nine pounds of fuck-off steel chain. So that is what I ordered. (Ben later noted that all the bike delivery guys in the neighborhood have variants of that for their bikes. Clearly they know something.)
I think I always knew that this bike would end its tenure by being stolen—I’ve had the receipt for it (with the serial number) in my wallet since I bought it 2.5 years ago. That was convenient for the police report. And at this particular time and place in my life, this is just an inconvenience—I’m getting a new bike, which I can totally afford, and amortized over the use I got out of the old one, this was pretty cheap. (Figure I spent about a grand on the bike, accessories and maintenance; and I rode it five days a week for about a year and a half. That’s less than $3/day to cut 25 minutes off my commuting time. Good deal!)
So it stings, but all’s well.
There’s some chance that I simply forgot to lock the bike and someone walked off with it. It’s also possible that someone used an angle grinder to pop my lock—apparently while the jointed metal locks like I had are very resistant to clipping and sawing, an angle grinder can pop them open very quickly, and the internet tells me that bike thieves have recently started using them.
So on Saturday, ARR and I hit the bike shop and ordered my new bike: Slightly smaller, same brand (Giant) in bright yellow. I’m getting my Pinhead locks again, along with my front basket and fancy kickstand. Instead of saddlebags I ordered folding baskets for the back rack; we’ll see how I feel about them.
And after doing a bunch of research, I determined that the best theft-deterrent lock currently available is nine pounds of fuck-off steel chain. So that is what I ordered. (Ben later noted that all the bike delivery guys in the neighborhood have variants of that for their bikes. Clearly they know something.)
I think I always knew that this bike would end its tenure by being stolen—I’ve had the receipt for it (with the serial number) in my wallet since I bought it 2.5 years ago. That was convenient for the police report. And at this particular time and place in my life, this is just an inconvenience—I’m getting a new bike, which I can totally afford, and amortized over the use I got out of the old one, this was pretty cheap. (Figure I spent about a grand on the bike, accessories and maintenance; and I rode it five days a week for about a year and a half. That’s less than $3/day to cut 25 minutes off my commuting time. Good deal!)
So it stings, but all’s well.
