My bike was stolen.

Bill Henry wrote:
Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain
View, CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to
the rack with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had it
locked up better.

Anyhow, fair warning - use a U-lock at least when parking your bike in
broad daylight, unless you can keep your eye on it. These thieves are
quick.

:-(


This kind of thing is why I do take my car once in a while. There is
almost no safe way to lock a bike when you are inside for an extended
period of time.
1. Guy locks his front wheel with speed detach. Comes out and wheel is
still but not the bike.
2. Guy locks his bike by threading through both the frame and front
wheel. Back wheel has speed detach and now it is gone.
3. Smart guy locks up both his front and rear wheels. Comes out and the
seat and post which had a speed detach was gone.

Thieves will sheal anything that isn't bolted/welded down. If I just
HAVE to take the bike for some reason I lock up both wheels to the frame
and a large bike rack and then take the seat in with me. Sure I get odd
looks and the occasional question, but when I tell them why they agree
with me.
Bill Baka

Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain
View, CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to
the rack with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had it
locked up better.

Anyhow, fair warning - use a U-lock at least when parking your bike in
broad daylight, unless you can keep your eye on it. These thieves are
quick.

:-(

In article ,
Bill Henry writes:
Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain
View, CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to
the rack with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had it
locked up better.

Anyhow, fair warning - use a U-lock at least when parking your bike in
broad daylight, unless you can keep your eye on it. These thieves are
quick.

:-(

Having your ride stolen really sux, and you have my condolences.

FWIW, sometimes they get stolen no matter what extremes
you go to, to secure them. But I know your anger & pain.
I wish I could ship a replacement to you.


better days,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

Bill Henry wrote:
Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain
View, CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to
the rack with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had
it locked up better.

Anyhow, fair warning - use a U-lock at least when parking your bike in
broad daylight, unless you can keep your eye on it. These thieves are
quick.

Bites the big fat one, for sure.

FWIW, someone posted on AM-B a link to a story about a guy's stolen /$6K/
race bike in NYC; seems the owner locked it up while he attended a film
festival! So don't beat yourself up TOO much about yours getting ripped
while you played tennis. (Especially if the rack was almost in sight.)

Keep your eyes open; maybe the thief will do something careless. (Then you
could REALLY use that U-lock!)

Bill S.

"Bill Henry" wrote in message
news
Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain View,
CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to the rack
with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had it locked up
better.

Yeah. The thieves had no choice but to steal it. Your fault, 100%.

I often daydream about bike theft countermeasures, but I'd have to be really
sick to beat one device that came up in a bull session about the subject one
day.

"The Shaft (TM)": A spring-loaded harpoon is placed in the seat tube.
Normally the spring is unloaded, and kept that way by a secret "interlock"
only the owner knows about. The whole system is passive as long as the
interlock disables the system. When the owner parks (and conventionally
locks) the bicycle in a high-theft-risk area, the act of locking the bike
also activates the device. If the lock is opened conventionally with a key,
no problem -- the system is deactivated and remains passive. If the lock is
cut and the bike stolen, pedaling loads the spring on the harpoon until a
specified number of crank rotations has taken place, whereupon the harpoon
is launched upward with great force, through the hollow seat tube, through
the saddle and into whatever is seated on the saddle.

A barbed tip is present on the harpoon, preventing its easy removal. The
harpoon is tethered to the bottom of the seat tube with a lightweight but
strong aramid fiber cable.

The perpetrator gets to reconsider his career options as he crawls along
trying to leave his newly-acquired bicycle, the product of probably the last
crime he'll ever commit, behind him. It, however, follows him, painfully
tethered to his nether regions. To add insult to injury, the
"after-the-fact voice alarm system" loudly announces the obvious: "The guy
with The Shaft up his ass is a THIEF. The guy with The Shaft..." repeatedly
until the solar-powered alarm battery is depleted.

Anyone want to do a patent search?

"Roger Houston" wrote: (clip)Anyone want to do a patent search?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How about just firing a Bic pen up the guy's ass? Certain poetic justice in
that.

Yeah, but the fountain pen collectors I hang with would suggest a
MontBlanc instead -- shiny,oh so shiny, but the plastic, excuse me,
black precious resin, shatters notoriously easily. And since it's
plastic, nice simple Xrays can't detect the fragments....

Yup, I too don't lile bike thieves.

Robert Leone

Roger Houston wrote:

"The Shaft (TM)": A spring-loaded harpoon is placed in the seat tube.
Normally the spring is unloaded, and kept that way by a secret "interlock"
only the owner knows about.

Great idea, but I'd be to worried about a "misfire" to ever ride the
bike.

My Grandpa, who lived on a farm, once spent countless hours rigging his
mailbox to "fight back" when some kid took a wack at it with a baseball
bat out the car window. And all that time was turned into great
satisfaction the next time his mailbox was knocked down because around
it were hundreds of shards of broken window glass.

Rich

Leo Lichtman wrote:
"Roger Houston" wrote: (clip)Anyone want to do a patent search?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How about just firing a Bic pen up the guy's ass? Certain poetic justice in
that.


The pen is mightier then the sword???

Sorry, couldn't resist.

W

Bill wrote:
Bill Henry wrote:

Someone stole my bike. It was a 2004 Gary Fisher Marlin, silver with
black hardware. XL size.

It was parked in Rengstorff Park near the tennis courts in Mountain
View, CA. I was playing tennis when it was stolen. It was locked to
the rack with a cable lock only. My fault, 100%. I should have had
it locked up better.

Anyhow, fair warning - use a U-lock at least when parking your bike in
broad daylight, unless you can keep your eye on it. These thieves are
quick.

:-(


This kind of thing is why I do take my car once in a while. There is
almost no safe way to lock a bike when you are inside for an extended
period of time.
1. Guy locks his front wheel with speed detach. Comes out and wheel is
still but not the bike.
2. Guy locks his bike by threading through both the frame and front
wheel. Back wheel has speed detach and now it is gone.
3. Smart guy locks up both his front and rear wheels. Comes out and the
seat and post which had a speed detach was gone.

Thieves will sheal anything that isn't bolted/welded down. If I just
HAVE to take the bike for some reason I lock up both wheels to the frame
and a large bike rack and then take the seat in with me. Sure I get odd
looks and the occasional question, but when I tell them why they agree
with me.

The solution for the seat at least, is to remove the speed detach, how
often do you adjust the seat anyway, use a Allen key bolt and a regular
metric nut, and quit worrying about the seat. Very few bike thieves
have many tools with them, as for cable locks go with the heavy duty,
the kind where cable cutters will not work well, nobody is gonna sit
there for 1/2 hour with a hacksaw, trying to steal your bike.
Especially after you whack them across the back of the head with your
tool kit..

W