Handlebars stolen?

Hi all,

I hope this is the appropriate place to post, and if it's not then please forgive me on account of my surprise and dismay at what happened.

Tonight I locked my bike for about 6 hours while I was volunteering which took me far from the bike.

It was locked with a U-lock and cable wrapping together the wheels and frame. When I got back to it I saw that my handlebars had been broken off and were nowhere to be seen.

My two questions are:


Is this common?

What can/should I do now (as a general question about bike-related theft)?


I walked the bike home and it is sitting in my garage. Nothing else was taken and the locks were not broken.

This happened at Ravenswood & Leland (just south of Lawrence) somewhere between 6:30PM and 12:30 AM.

Is there any point in filing a police report? *Can* I file a police report? I don't know what to do in this situation.

Thanks for any help!

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Permalink Reply by cutifly on November 7, 2009 at 8:18pm
So sorry for your loss, but it's history. I will be happy to stand outside with you and one of my bait bikes at the same spot, phone in hand to report an armed robbery in progress. I don't live to far away and am not afraid of punk bike thieves. Any more brave vigilant persons to add to our crew ?
Permalink Reply by John on November 7, 2009 at 8:21pm
What kind and what size bars? Those are good questions I am too inexperienced to answer. :-) How do I find out?

M.A.R.K. said:
Filing a police report would be pointless as there really is no way to identify the bars as yours. I guess you could report the crime, but I don't think the police will file a report to be honest. The only thing you can really do is watch CL for your bars, unless someone really wanted them for their bike, which in the same watch out for them on bikes, you never know.

What kind and what size bars? I may be able to replace them for you on the cheap..
Permalink Reply by Anne B. on November 8, 2009 at 12:26pm
Hey John- Anne from TNM here--- still can't believe they took parts off your bike but not mine!

What can someone even do with hacked off handlebars? What could the resale be on such an item? Bike seats and lights, I can understand a bit better, but handlebars are just weird. But I'm certainly no bike thief criminal mastermind so perhaps someone can enlighten me on this.

That whole Ravenswood corridor seems to be a graveyard of depleted, disintegrating bikes so I'm unsurprised but it still sucks and there doesn't seem to be an alternative to locking up there.
Permalink Reply by Amber K on November 9, 2009 at 10:16am
Sounds like the person or persons who did this was probably just being an ass. Did they actually break them off or did they take the time to unbolt them? It was probably a scrapper.
Permalink Reply by dav on November 9, 2009 at 11:09am
I agree. Probably a scrapper.

Amber K said:
Sounds like the person or persons who did this was probably just being an ass. Did they actually break them off or did they take the time to unbolt them? It was probably a scrapper.
Permalink Reply by mattbikes1 on November 9, 2009 at 11:44am
John, message me and I will get you my number. I have a set of bars that might work for you, they are older drops off of an old Schwinn. I live in Ravenswood close to Swedish Covenant. Sorry to hear someone messed with your ride.
Permalink Reply by Micah Ariel on November 19, 2009 at 6:47pm
Amazing! The same thing happened to me today!

Somebody took my stem and my handlebars off of my bike on the Lawrence side of the very same train station between 8:30 am and pm. is it an epidemic?
Permalink Reply by mattbikes1 on November 19, 2009 at 7:00pm
Sounds like it is most likely a person that lives near this location and picks and chooses what to steal off of bikes. I am sorry to hear about this. I would be pretty pissed off if this happened to me. Talk about adding insult to injury!

Micah Ariel said:
Amazing! The same thing happened to me today!

Somebody took my stem and my handlebars off of my bike on the Lawrence side of the very same train station between 8:30 am and pm. is it an epidemic?
Permalink Reply by Ryan L on November 20, 2009 at 9:24am
The corner or Ravenswood and Leland is a pretty secluded area. I ride through there quite often and am always amazed how many nice bikes are locked to the racks under the Metra tracks. One night I rode over to check out some of the bikes and take pictures, which I do sometimes like a creepy person. I was probably there for 30 min before a car or anyone went by. I would never feel comfortable leaving a bike there for a long period of time, day or night.

Maybe what you are dealing with is a man/woman on a mission. Goal, build a bike only using stolen parts off bikes locked to racks. Rules, You can only steal one part per bike. Feel like a winner on your newly constructed Bicycle of Broken Dreams. Maybe he or she call themselves 'The Collector'. lol

Seriously though, with all the crazy f-ed up people that occupy the same space as those who would rather hug a stranger than punch them in the face, it wouldn't surprise me if someone was building a freak bike only using stolen parts.

I caught a homeless man twice the other night trying to steal parts off the bikes locked to racks outside our building, behind locked gates. All the quick releases had been removed and a saddle was lying on the ground (I assume he dropped it). I was confused as to what he would possibly do with these parts that came off of crapy bikes. Who would buy them? Steal the whole bike I get. Deep V's I get, but only steal the front wheel off a $100 bike?
Permalink Reply by S on November 20, 2009 at 10:22am
Ryan L said:
The corner or Ravenswood and Leland is a pretty secluded area. I ride through there quite often and am always amazed how many nice bikes are locked to the racks under the Metra tracks. One night I rode over to check out some of the bikes and take pictures, which I do sometimes like a creepy person. I was probably there for 30 min before a car or anyone went by. I would never feel comfortable leaving a bike there for a long period of time, day or night.

I'm also amazed by the bikes that the triathletes lock up at the Ohio St beach rack when they do a swim workout. There are some pretty expensive bikes locked up there. A friend saw a Cervelo TT bike locked there overnight. I have no idea why anyone would leave a 4+k bike locked there overnight since it's pretty isolated.

Permalink Reply by heather s on November 21, 2009 at 5:09am
Re the triathletes at Ohio Street beach, I think that is actually a case of the community policing its own space. I did the triathlon in 2008 and spent quite a bit of time at that beach. There is almost always someone by the bike racks, getting dressed, locking up, etc. Maybe it was just naïveté, but I came to believe that any one of those people would have confronted a theif. I actually left my bag locked to my bike, with keys, wallet, and phone inside-- for an hour-- and nothing was ever taken.

S said:
Ryan L said:
The corner or Ravenswood and Leland is a pretty secluded area. I ride through there quite often and am always amazed how many nice bikes are locked to the racks under the Metra tracks. One night I rode over to check out some of the bikes and take pictures, which I do sometimes like a creepy person. I was probably there for 30 min before a car or anyone went by. I would never feel comfortable leaving a bike there for a long period of time, day or night.

I'm also amazed by the bikes that the triathletes lock up at the Ohio St beach rack when they do a swim workout. There are some pretty expensive bikes locked up there. A friend saw a Cervelo TT bike locked there overnight. I have no idea why anyone would leave a 4+k bike locked there overnight since it's pretty isolated.

Permalink Reply by Anne B. on November 20, 2009 at 11:42am
I recently saw a ghostbike on Lincoln near Irving Park also with the handlebars taken off.

Ryan, your post cracks me up because I've been at the same place taking pictures at night before too and probably 3 cop cars drove by while I was out there and did not give me a second look- I think they could just tell, what with all my reflective/safety gear that I was up to nothing bad, just being a total geek.

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