The Chainlink

What happens to stolen bikes?

My heart goes out to all those who have posted about stolen bikes and they raise this question: What happens to stolen bikes? Are they resold locally? On craigslist? Taken out of town? Broken down for parts? Repainted? Are these crimes of opportunity of one person or do multiple thieves scour the city for bikes? Are some bikes more prone to theft than others? Knowing the answers could help us attack the problem from the other side of the equation. 

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Permalink Reply by Gene Tenner on December 21, 2011 at 5:33pm

Superb idea, Joe.

Are you okay with this: You start a separate string "How not to get your bike stolen," and I will compile the results, give it back to you as a summary and then you can re-post it.

Gene

Permalink Reply by Joe Willis on December 21, 2011 at 5:39pm

Sure why not!

Permalink Reply by David on December 21, 2011 at 6:05pm

I don't think there's really much knowledge to pool.  It's pretty much...

1.  Lock your bike to a bike rack with a flat-key u-lock. 

Corollary A:  Rule 1 applies for basements, porches, open garages, etc. as well as on the street.

The advanced stuff is what to do if you're forced to leave your bike in an ultra-vulnerable place: metra station, college campus or outside overnight.    Now maybe multiple locks start to make sense.  But #1 gets you much safer than 95% of cyclists, and there's very little you can do to be safer than that.  


Joe Willis said:

We could pool all of our knowledge together and make a "How not to get your bike stolen" article with everything for first time riders to final touches for the pro's.

Permalink Reply by Joe Willis on December 21, 2011 at 6:13pm

That is overly simplified. If you do everything above your bike should be there but missing the seat! Not to mention how to tell if the rack is usable.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on December 21, 2011 at 6:39pm



Gene Tenner said:

Superb idea, Joe.

Are you okay with this: You start a separate string "How not to get your bike stolen," and I will compile the results, give it back to you as a summary and then you can re-post it.

Gene

Permalink Reply by David on December 21, 2011 at 6:43pm

Component theft is one of those thing that absolutely nobody has numbers on.  Sure, wheels and seats go missing sometimes, but whether the extra effort is worth it in protecting them is different for everybody.  Still, it's useful information.

When I first came to Chicago, I read bunch of those long how-to-protect-your bike articles and threads that included all sorts of complicated advice on putting candle wax in the seat post and things like that and it all just made the whole concept of protecting my bike seem complicated and hopeless.  

But it isn't complicated at all.  Lock your bike with a good u-lock to a bike rack.  In a city the size of Chicago, it's really stunning how little bike theft occurs among people who follow that simple rule.  

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on December 21, 2011 at 6:51pm

David, you're partially right, in that if everyone followed your advice there would be much less bike theft in Chicago.

However, Chicago's busiest thieving crew =loves= to cut U-locks, so it's far from the whole story.

Re: component theft-- my theory is that it rises when the bike community is working to make life hard for the thieves, and drops back down when the thieves feel like they can get away with anything.  With some exceptions, most components are stripped for sale from bikes that are stolen whole.

We've had a few cases recently where it seemed the only explanation was that the frame was sawed to steal the bike (unfortunately this is crazy easy to do compared to defeating a lock.)

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on December 21, 2011 at 7:28pm

I wonder how much of this is because of new riders to the ranks who have yet to learn that bike floss isn't going to cut it in this city, or making other mistakes of just not knowing how things work.   It's a learning curve with some people.   Also disturbing is the trend that fewer and fewer people even know the serial numbers of their bikes.   Is this a newbie mistake -do most people wise up after their bikes are stolen?

I'd love for more information tracked about how long a person has been in Chicago, how long they have been riding, how many miles/week they do ride, if they are new to riding/commuting daily, and if this is the first bike that has been stolen from them.  

There is no way to know but my gut would say that as the experience level in these things goes up the probability of a theft goes down.  Some of the things that help deter theft are beyond the control of the bike owners but many of them are simple things that help a lot.  Some, like taking the bike inside overnight might be a huge PITA but after a bike has been stolen people might reassess the bother versus the risk.

Kevin C said:

For the period 4/1/11-10/31/11, it appears that we're getting worse at locking our bikes. Over 60% of the thefts reported to the CSBR during the 2011 prime theft time were either not locked or were locked with a cable lock. That's pretty pathetic.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on December 21, 2011 at 11:59pm

I think a significant portion of bike theft is attributable to new riders, new to the City and to the fact that the population of bike riders is skewed to younger people. I have been one of the administrators of the CSBR for about 15 months. That means I have read and approved, read and edited, or at the very least read, every stolen bike report that has come in for the last year and three months. When the reports come in via email for review and approval, as I scroll down the fields, my eyes almost always scan the area code field. Depending on the area code (and mindful of the fact that in our mobile society, long term residents of Chicago may retain an area code from another part of the country for years), I'm better than 75% accurate at guessing when the type of lock was some form of cable lock based solely on the area code.

I think bike theft is the ugly stepchild of bike advocacy. I really do think that people's perception of having a safe place to keep their bike is, for many, a significant impediment to broader adoption of a bicycle for transportation, errands and/or commuting. Talking about ghost bikes and bike theft is depressing. It's like talking about cancer at a cocktail party. Everybody wants to talk about protected bike lanes, and bikeways, and flyovers, and infrastructure attracts the lion's share of the bike advocacy energy. I am certain that bike theft in Chicago could be reduced significantly just by getting people to think about bike theft, see bike theft, and take reasonable precautions to prevent it. I am at a loss with respect to how to get that message out.

I try to be careful about not blaming the victims of bike theft. Typically when a report is received, it has been written by someone within hours of their own victimization. I do abhor bike theft and have devoted a lot of time and effort to preventing it. That having been said, many reports that we receive evidence a lack of responsibility on the part of the owner. 1. "I locked my bike (with a cable lock) on a busy street. Why didn't someone witness/stop the theft?" The simple answer is that a cable lock can be cut in a matter of seconds and to the casual observer, would simply look like someone unlocking their bike and riding it away; 2. "I left my bike (unlocked) in the common area of my building/common area of the garage/in the back yard/on the back porch/in the bike storage room and my spouse/significant other/neighbor/friend left the door open/someone climbed the fence/contractors were working on the building, and one of them is at fault." The simple answer is that if YOU leave your bike unlocked in an area where members of the public (or anyone who can climb a fence) have free access to it, YOU have not taken adequate precautions to safeguard your property.

On the subject of being careful not to draw incorrect conclusions from CSBR stats, five times as many stolen bikes are locked through the frame and front wheel as bikes locked through the frame and rear wheel. The most likely explanation for this is that five times more people lock their bikes through the front wheel and frame as lock through the rear wheel and frame. But just to be on the safe side, on the rare occasion when I only use one u-lock, I always lock through the frame and rear wheel.

Reducing bike theft in Chicago would be easy if we could just get more people to take responsibility and pay attention.

James BlackHeron said:

I wonder how much of this is because of new riders to the ranks who have yet to learn that bike floss isn't going to cut it in this city, or making other mistakes of just not knowing how things work.   It's a learning curve with some people.   Also disturbing is the trend that fewer and fewer people even know the serial numbers of their bikes.   Is this a newbie mistake -do most people wise up after their bikes are stolen?

I'd love for more information tracked about how long a person has been in Chicago, how long they have been riding, how many miles/week they do ride, if they are new to riding/commuting daily, and if this is the first bike that has been stolen from them.  

There is no way to know but my gut would say that as the experience level in these things goes up the probability of a theft goes down.  Some of the things that help deter theft are beyond the control of the bike owners but many of them are simple things that help a lot.  Some, like taking the bike inside overnight might be a huge PITA but after a bike has been stolen people might reassess the bother versus the risk.

Kevin C said:

For the period 4/1/11-10/31/11, it appears that we're getting worse at locking our bikes. Over 60% of the thefts reported to the CSBR during the 2011 prime theft time were either not locked or were locked with a cable lock. That's pretty pathetic.

Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on December 22, 2011 at 6:28am

That is very nteresting Keven.

I've lived in Chicago for about 7 years and still retain my 608 google voice number and probably will for life.  For someone of my generation I realize that this is unusual but for a 20-something who has grown up with a cell phone stuck in their ear it's not at all unusual.  Area codes are meaning less and less to people these days as number portability is more common. People with the grandfathered all-you-can-eat data plans might be reluctant to swap carriers and loose their older plans -retaining a plan and number when they move to Chicago.

So maybe the out-of-location area codes is more of a youth thing (somewhat related to inexperience perhaps) than a sure sign that someone is newer to town.  Most people I meet in Chicago are from someplace else originally and only a small minority are actually born and raised here.  I just want to make sure we are comparing apples to apples with our shooting from the hip statistical analysis ;) 

Permalink Reply by David P. on December 22, 2011 at 9:03pm

"I think bike theft is the ugly stepchild of bike advocacy. I really do think that people's perception of having a safe place to keep their bike is, for many, a significant impediment to broader adoption of a bicycle for transportation, errands and/or commuting."


This was certainly true for my girlfriend, who only started riding regularly in the ci andty this spring. She was fairly terrified of having her bike stolen, not unreasonable since it is an unusual highly eye-catching bike, quite valuable, and to top that it was also a loaner until recently. 


I must confess to my own lazy stupidity early on. I moved here from Detroit in 2008, and I knew damn well that the cable lock that was perfectly fine for Detroit was not of any use here. I kept telling myself that I had to get a good U-lock but kept not getting around to it...and then in 2009 my daily ride, a really nice Univega with all-around XC Pro, etc. got stolen when I had to cable-lock it outside City Hall one weekday morning for a meeting. What a dumb bunny I was!


david

Permalink Reply by Gary on December 23, 2011 at 10:08am
Instead of toting a heavy bike lock or two around snd constantly worrying about my bike being stolen, I pay a few extra dollars a year on my renters insurance which covers the replacement of my bike.   The plan cost me $125.00/yr and covers $3,000 bicycle and $30,000 camera gear. I dont worry about either being stolen.  

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