On 3/9/2017 9:35 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 3/9/2017 8:34 PM, John B. wrote:
On Thu, 9 Mar 2017 11:10:03 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 3/9/2017 9:45 AM, Radey Shouman wrote:
John B. writes:

On Wed, 08 Mar 2017 23:55:23 -0400, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Wed, 8 Mar 2017 14:51:14 -0500, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

when
parking it at the mall, it's in a place where it's
out of sight and
cable locked to secure pipes.

I, on the other hand, look for a place where dozens of
people have a
clear view of anyone who might feel like messing with
my bike.

I've never had a bike part stolen. Well, not that I
remember -- I was
born with chronic amnesia -- but once I came out of
Aldi to find that
someone had affixed a five-dollar bill to my
handlebars. Since this
was shortly before I gave up trying to find a
replacement for my
worn-out Avocet WII and bought the only women's saddle
at the
Trailhouse, I suspected that the donor thought that I
needed the
money, so I passed it on to someone who did.


I locked my keys in the pickup one day. Parked on a
fairly busy street
and was sort of peering in the window trying to figure
out if breaking
the window was the only option. A guy walking down the
sidewalk says,
"Locked your keys in the car, huh?" I said yes and he
popped into a
hardware shop (apparently knew the shop owner) came
back with an 18"
steel ruler and popped the lock. I thanked him
profusely and got in
and drove away wondering, "could I get a new pickup
that way?"

I'm not sure whether being in a crowd is really any
protection for a
bicycle :-)

Sometimes it is. Years ago, when I was a gradual
student, I was walking
across campus with my girlfriend. She told me to go
back the way we had
come -- she had seen someone stealing a bicycle. At
first I did not
believe her, because I had noticed nothing. It was the
middle of the
day, and there were many people around. She said she
had seen him
trying to cut the cable with a pair of dikes, so we
turned around, just
in time to see a small and bedraggled looking guy being
frogmarched
authority-ward by two burly students.

I assume justice was served.

While one can't rely on bystanders protecting your
bicycle, it's a
better bet than imagining that some secluded spot is
unpatrolled by
thieves.

Depends on the spot. My parking place at the mall is not
even
recognized as a "place" by most people. It's completely
inconspicuous.
And if a thief decided to start checking it - what?
daily? hourly? - for
parked bicycles, he'd starve before he found one parked
there. AFAIK
I'm the only one who ever uses that spot, and I don't go
to the mall
very often.

About protection by passers-by: One bike shop employee
once told me
about having to "steal" his own bike. He'd locked it in
place behind
the library using a thick cable or chain lock (I forget
which), but
somehow lost the key. He walked to the bike shop,
returned with tools,
and hacked away for quite a while before getting it cut.

He mentioned that several people passed by saying
nothing. One young
kid told his mom "He's trying to steal that bike!" The
mother said
"SSSHHH!" and kept on walking.

But as I say, I've had no problems. My most frequent
longish-term
parking places are the library and the grocery store. I
don't even
bother with a cable lock there. I jam a little wedge
into the front
brake lever to lock that brake on. In some other places,
I use a thin,
homemade cable lock. It all depends on the environment.

I think it also depends. probably to a large extent, what
the bicycle
in question looks like. Traveling around Bangkok I see a
large number
of bicycles parked at bus stops, MRT stations, etc. Some I
have been
seeing for months and some aren't even locked. Universally
they are
NOT the latest Carbon Fiber $3,000 model. :-)

I have thought about that. There are four bikes I use for at
least occasional utility work. None of them look the least
bit fashionable.

Although I remember one time my car needed new tires. As
usual in such cases, I threw my bike in the back, dropped
the car off, and rode away on the bike. I hate sitting in
those waiting rooms.

When I returned, one young guy came out to look over the
bike and remark how cool it was. This is the one with the
huge blue handlebar bag, hub dyno & headlight, rear rack,
fenders, and old steel frame. No accounting for some
people's taste!

And as long as I'm on the subject, the three speed I built
out of a good Reynolds frame plus my junk box parts once got
the same attention. I was in the post office after hours
when someone came in and asked if that was my bike outside.
When I said yes, he plied me with questions and gushed over
the bike for at least five minutes. Turns out that, for
whatever reason, he just loves three speeds!

I don't think either of those guys would steal my bike, though.

"he just loves three speeds"

a man of rare refinement and discernment.

--
Andrew Muzi
www.yellowjersey.org/
Open every day since 1 April, 1971