Someone Stole My Girlfriend's Bike Tires

Deebo

Deebo

Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
737
Yeah. The title basically says it all.

I live in the city and my girlfriend and I had our bikes locked to the same parking meter. My bike seems to be totally untouched yet when I went outside for a cigarette today I noticed that her bike was... missing the back tire. This seems a bit outrageous to me because my bikes got the quick release tires so all they would've needed to do would be to release the clamp and unscrew the tire off.

Her bike has the hex head nuts in place which means whoever stole the tire actually came prepared with a pair of pliers or a wrench. Man, if I see that silly bastard riding around with a white walled beach cruiser tire I'm going to take their bike first and then ask questions later. :/

Update: Someone stole her front tire last night. So now it's just a tireless bicycle. Really?
 
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I carry a Leatherman, no back tire is safe. Mwuhhhahahahaha!

I hate fixing flats. It is easier to just take another one.

Thanks man!

Seriously,

Thievery is a very low life form. Sorry to hear that. You have to make it harder for losers to obtain your stuff. Next time lock through both tires as well as frame. They would have rolled past if was. Bike locks and chains are cheaper than new back tire and rim. It will not prevent a bolt cut, but you have to play the odds. I ride a beater mtn bike I bought at a garage sale, barely worth the stealing effort, but still fun to ride.
 
...riding around with a white walled beach cruiser tire...
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I take it that this was a one-of-a-kind tire and no one else there could legitimately own one? Or are you saying that you will just join the bike-tire-thief cadre? Might be lucritive for a while, but hard to put on a resume. :)
 
That sucks, but it could have been worse.


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Codger_64 said:
I take it that this was a one-of-a-kind tire and no one else there could legitimately own one? Or are you saying that you will just join the bike-tire-thief cadre? Might be lucritive for a while, but hard to put on a resume. :)
Click to expand...

Oh no. I'm just going to jump them. Yes, every single person in the city of Boston who rides around on a 26" white walled beach cruiser tire. Every.Single.One.
 
We had a guy who locked his bike to a tree every night. Came out one morning and the tree had been cut down and the bike stolen.
 
i was in windsor canada back about 1973 standing outside a grocery store. this guy rides up on a nice 10 speed and locks it up before going in the store. a few minutes later this kid comes out and sees the bike and tries to unlock the combination lock muttering that he has trouble with the lock. i go in the store, find the guy and tell him whats going on. he comes out with me and stands back watching the kid.

he asks me to go in and have someone call the police while he watches the kid. when the police show up he walks up to the kid and asks why he is trying to steal his bike. the police walk up about the time the kid stands up and starts to head the other way. they grab him and the guy tells them the kid was trying to steal his bike. i waved at the kid as the police drive off with him in the back seat :D
 
Being in "campus" law enforcement, I'm intimately familiar with all the vagaries of bike theft.
Many folks don't seem to realize that large numbers of bike wheels are essentially identical and easily swapped. It's not unusual at all to see a scenario as Uffda shows...With the front wheel gone from another bike in the area.
Other parts go missing as well; saddles (also often equipped with quick-releases) are a common target.
Seldom do we see bolt-on wheels taken, as noted you kind of need a wrench. Also, most bolt-on wheels are dreadfully cheap. Still, if you need a wheel...
Pedals require a special wrench as well in most cases.

If you have QRs (quick-release levers) on your bike, the best security method is to remove the front one (the quickest and easiest), place it alongside the rear, and run your U-lock through both wheels and the frame.
Bit of a hassle... Second best is frame and rear wheel, the rear being considerably more valuable.
You can, if in a high-crime area, buy locking or difficult-to-remove skewers for your wheels like these:
http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/pitlock.asp

Saddles/seatposts may be secured by a short cable, there are numbers of these available.
There used to be a clever device you could buy which locked the seatpost internally.
You jam a "star-fangled nut" into the seatpost, and insert an eye-bolt with a length of cable with a seat-tube-sized flange on the end.
To use, you drop the cable down the seat-tube, then screw in an extra-long water-bottle-cage bolt.
If you lift the seatpost, the flange snugs up against the bolt...
Fairly easy to make one.
 
Update: Now someone has stolen the front tire sometime last night? Really? :/
 
My cousin had the back passenger side tire stolen off her pos Mazda once in a parking garage! She didn't realize until she started to drive away lol!!
 
Lucky you don't live in NYC; last I checked we were in the top three cities nationwide for bicycle theft. I ride around a nice, older steel-framed single speed and try never to leave it outside, even if I'm only going inside somewhere for a few minutes. In New York, anything bicycle-related that isn't bolted, locked, superglued, chained, wrapped with a crimped-on cable, or otherwise completely secured is liable to be stolen. Sort of takes the fun out of riding when one has to carry 20+ pounds of locking equipment everywhere you go.

Quick release components (wheels, seats) are obvious targets, but removing bolt-on components (which are not all cheap) isn't really any harder if you're a thief with a folding allen set and 15mm wrench and an intent to steal. It's recommended by a lot of cyclists in my area that if it can't be locked or chained somehow (like handlebars), you fill the bolt-heads with ball-bearings and epoxy them in there so anyone with the right tool can't just steal it.

Paranoia helps. Good luck.
 
Dieselashi said:
Lucky you don't live in NYC; last I checked we were in the top three cities nationwide for bicycle theft. I ride around a nice, older steel-framed single speed and try never to leave it outside, even if I'm only going inside somewhere for a few minutes. In New York, anything bicycle-related that isn't bolted, locked, superglued, chained, wrapped with a crimped-on cable, or otherwise completely secured is liable to be stolen. Sort of takes the fun out of riding when one has to carry 20+ pounds of locking equipment everywhere you go.

Quick release components (wheels, seats) are obvious targets, but removing bolt-on components (which are not all cheap) isn't really any harder if you're a thief with a folding allen set and 15mm wrench and an intent to steal. It's recommended by a lot of cyclists in my area that if it can't be locked or chained somehow (like handlebars), you fill the bolt-heads with ball-bearings and epoxy them in there so anyone with the right tool can't just steal it.

Paranoia helps. Good luck.
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What are the other two cities in the top three?
 
As I recall from a "shoot-out" of such devices some years ago in Bicycling magazine, the best lock available was the Kryptonite "New York Chain". A massive, square-section case-hardened item with an equally massive padlock. Whole thing weighed over 20 pounds...
Most folks wouldn't want to lug one around when they paid through the nose for an under-20-pound bike.... Still, if you can leave it somewhere it's fine.

In the many years I've been in this business, I can count on one hand the number of Kryptonite U-locks we've had defeated. It can be done but it's a hassle. Most of our theives come equipped with a small-ish bolt cutter and target bikes locked with cables.
One quick snip and you're done.
 
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