October 31, 2005
October 20, 2005
Somewhat Locked...
Usually my morning routine consists of waking to my alarm at 8:35 and busting out the door at 8:48. Funny times, they’re somewhat dictated by Caltrain that I take to San Mateo for work. This morning headed out the door and up the steep San Francisco hill and found a bike locked up against a pole at the top of the hill. What really caught my eye was the bike wheel that was locked to the same pole, through the spokes, I was thinking how easy it would be to clip those spoked, take the wheel, and replace the spokes. Then I cast a closer look at the bike that was locked up there and it looked like this…
So the wheel was locked up through the spokes but the frame was completely free. Takes a quick flip of the quick-release and the bike is properly stolen. Ouch. I headed to Thinker’s Cafe where I’ve been getting my morning routine coffee and got a to go food bag and used their sharpie to write a note to the bike owner that this was a very precarious method of locking up a bike and that it was a fortune that the bike is still there. I went back and tucked it into the spokes of the front wheel of the bike.
40 minutes later, already in San Mateo, walking to work, I came to the realization that the lone wheel that was locked to the same pole… probably belonged to a bike that was locked up by someone using the same technique. That bike had probably already been jacked.
Fast forward to the end of the day, I walk past on my way home, and I found no trace of the bikes, locks, or wheels,… save for my note, lying next to the pole.
I wonder if the second bike got jacked as well and my note ended up being a smartass insult as opposed to an earnest warning. I guess someone learned their lesson either way.
Had I made the mental connection that there were probably two bikes there earlier I might have gone back and locked the bike to the pole properly and left my phone number when they wanted it back, or left a key at the cafe… something… I’m still not quite sure what the right strategy would have been.
So on this note… here’s another picture from August 31. I’m pretty sure this one would have required a front and rear wheel removal, but either was I think someone was trying to be tricky but actually just put their bike at risk… I look at bikes a lot, seeing how they’re locked up. Sometimes I cringe, sometimes I marvel at the ingenuity.
