Thefts at DePaul

Yesterday my Brooks B17N along with my seatpost (and tail light and clip on fender)
 was stolen from in front of the library on campus at DePaul. I also noticed a bike that seemed to have its rear wheel stolen at roughly the same time. 

Any idea where to track down stolen parts like this? I filed a police report, but I'm not optimistic about the police tracking down a bike seat. I've trolled through Craigslist and ebay, but I'm wondering if there's a local place where something like this might turn up.

Any help is appreciated. In the mean time, I guess I have to be thankful that the rest of my bike was still there.

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Permalink Reply by Michael Hulburt on October 3, 2013 at 4:22pm



Julia 3.5/7.5 mi said:

Did you file a report with Public Safety on campus as well?


Yes, I did file reports both with CPD and DePaul Campus Safety. Hopefully they can try to crack down on bike thefts on campus and in the neighborhood, but at the very least I think they need to have an accurate picture of how often things are getting stolen.

Permalink Reply by El Dorado on October 3, 2013 at 5:02pm

You can use a old bike chain to loop it around your seat & frame. There is a homeless shelter at the church across the street from the Depaul gym. The theft rate around there is very high.

Permalink Reply by Michael Hulburt on October 3, 2013 at 5:33pm

Could be, although that's the other campus. My seat was stolen from in front of the library on the Lincoln Park campus. I'm a grad student there, so I'm only on campus about once or twice a week now, and I don't really have any connections with any of the student bike groups on campus. I might have to look into what's what and see which groups can try to get Campus Safety/CPD to look into campus bike thefts further.

h' 1.0 said:

Or maybe it's just a DePaul thing?

Permalink Reply by Michael Hulburt on October 3, 2013 at 6:03pm

Here's my new setup. Since they were in stock at Johnny Sprockets when I went over today, I ended up getting the same seat and seatpost I had before. Since I'm there often enough (support your LBS!), they were happy to help me out and secure the seat with a length of bike chain they had lying around and even put an old tube over it to protect the frame. It's a little more Kenda branding than most bikes need, but hey, that part was free. I plan on melting some wax (candle/crayon/something) in the Allen bolt too, now that I've had two seats and posts stolen.

Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on October 3, 2013 at 11:25pm

Just found this nice little roundup of suggestions about parts theft:

http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2010/03/eight-solutions-to-fight...

I'm liking the combo of a seat leash PLUS an exotic fastener like a security Torx screw or Pitlock PLUS the screw head filled with either a Superglued ball bearing, lead buckshot or dripped-in solder.  The Superglue reportedly takes 20 minutes per screw to remove, which might be a good deterrent, but a definite pain to you, if you want to adjust or tighten anything down.  I'm kind of liking the idea of solder:  easy for you to add or remove in a shop with an electrical outlet and soldering iron, and it seems unlikely the average crackhead will be carrying a battery-powered solder gun in his kit.

Permalink Reply by daWillinChi on October 4, 2013 at 3:49am

Johnny Sprockets folks are awesome!

Michael Hulburt said:

I got all new everything today at Johnny Sprockets, and they did a nice job hooking me up and installing a chain loop for me with somebody's old chain and a busted tube. I didn't buy a new tail light yet because I'm holding out to see what Knog has going on at their Heritage Bikes popup tomorrow night (http://www.thechainlink.org/events/knog-pop-up-shop-heritage-genera...). I'll post a pic with my new setup soon. 


Permalink Reply by Anne on October 4, 2013 at 10:06am

Can't solder chrome or stainless, most fasteners are treated this way to prevent corrosion. Difficult at best to remove the chroming inside the socket to get the solder to stick. Pin-in Torx or other security hardware is the best to go. Or these guys from England: http://atomic22.com



Thunder Snow said:

Just found this nice little roundup of suggestions about parts theft:

http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2010/03/eight-solutions-to-fight...

I'm liking the combo of a seat leash PLUS an exotic fastener like a security Torx screw or Pitlock PLUS the screw head filled with either a Superglued ball bearing, lead buckshot or dripped-in solder.  The Superglue reportedly takes 20 minutes per screw to remove, which might be a good deterrent, but a definite pain to you, if you want to adjust or tighten anything down.  I'm kind of liking the idea of solder:  easy for you to add or remove in a shop with an electrical outlet and soldering iron, and it seems unlikely the average crackhead will be carrying a battery-powered solder gun in his kit.

Permalink Reply by Michael Hulburt on October 4, 2013 at 4:17pm
I think expecting a thief to be sympathetic about anything regarding a bike he is dismantling is pretty unreasonable. Seems to me that speed is the name of the game, plus the seat post would be something else to sell with no added time to steal it.


Michael Perez said:

But why take the seatpost? This thief must have not been sympathetic about the owner getting a new seat.

I'm sure the only thing he was interested in was the Brooks saddle.

Permalink Reply by Michael Hulburt on October 4, 2013 at 4:35pm
This one was pretty new, so not broken in yet. Unfortunately my well-broken in Brooks was also stolen a few months ago. I can't imagine riding a "bouncy" seat as that seems like it would be inefficient and not that comfortable. The stiffness is actually pretty good support, especially once you spend enough time in the saddle to mold it to your derrière. I'm still pretty torn up about losing the first saddle since I lost not just a seat but 6 or 7 years of every day riding breaking it in along with it.

Michael Perez said:

Well you are right, although I've seen seats laying there with no seatpost and vice versa. You had a very seat though. Was it nice and bouncy? I've only sat one once before but was kind of stiff.

Permalink Reply by El Dorado on October 4, 2013 at 5:06pm

Paying money to the bike thief to get YOUR property back is counter productive.

Permalink Reply by Vilda on October 4, 2013 at 5:25pm
Both reports u filed wont matter i'm sorry to say. Posting on here is likely not helpful either as the thieves are on here too and know all the tricks. And lastly u r battling the "community" as well. Since the thieves are bikers they operate under the guise of being humans when they are not. Oh and i think since there is no real recourse against Beezodog i'm gonna end all my posts with: Fuck you Beezdog! :)

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