I know you're pissed about your stolen bike, but....

don't leave behind your good front wheel and lock. SE corner of Lake and Wacker.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on June 23, 2011 at 5:20pm

Does the "phantom" 1/3 draw more heavily from the range of: BIKE ADVOCATE - Jane Fonda; people who ride a bike - Spiro Agnew; or does it add in equal shares to each constituency?

H3N3 said:

That's about 2/3 of the continuum. I don't think you'd remotely qualify as "anti-advocacy."

Kevin Conway said:

Jeez- I hope so. I'm not sure I am familiar with the "anti-advocacy" crowd (which probably means I'm part of it), but I view the continuum of people on the chainlink as ranging from: BIKE ADVOCATE to people who ride a bike.

[snip]

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 23, 2011 at 5:37pm

People who lock a bike up like that are not using a bicycle as their daily transportation. Anyone who using their bike as daily transportation is going to be more aware of it and place enough value in it to lock, at the very least, the frame and not just a Q/R wheel.

My 'wallowing in blame and derision' is not something I do as a bike advocate. It is something I do as a member of the human race. The fact that a person locked their bike like that in Chicago and expected it to be there like that is not a bike advocacy issue; it an issue of basic human intelligence. Maybe I am just a really cruel person but if we continue to feel sorry for and shepherd people through life for doing such dumb stuff we are doing both them, and society in general, a disservice.

If you want to be mad and do something about this and make the world a better place locking up look at it from this angle: That looks as if it s actually a kind of cheap wheel, probably from a entry level bike bought at a big bike shop (it's better than box store but still not quality) purchased because of the point. The lock is from the low end of the u-lock spectrum that most shops carry. What ever shop sold them that bike and lock should have made sure they know how to lock up there bike.

As far as me, personally, doing something there is not a single person looking at locks that I have contact with in the shop I work at who does not leave there knowing how to lock a bike properly.

H3N3 said:

Even if you were unable to feel compassion for another human being, a person interested in bike advocacy would feel concern for the person's future likelihood to continue to choose a bicycle as their daily transportation. You have claimed to be a bike advocate, so I don't understand why you choose to wallow in blame and derision. What do you get out of that?

notoriousDUG said:

I think that you can only make so many excuses for people. You cannot do something that dumb and expect sympathy.

H3N3 said:

Maybe the person was simply doesn't have good mechanical/spatial skills and had not had access to the necessary education?

Do you guys think losing the bike was adequate punishment, or should there be public flogging as well?

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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 23, 2011 at 5:51pm

At what point did you become the arbitrator who can and cannot be a 'bike adovcate' and what the rules and requirements are? Maybe I need to get a copy of the rules as to make sure I am not misrepresenting myself... Or more to the point maybe I need to ask this: Who the hell are you to judge me, or anyone else, when it comes to their level of commitment?

I qualify myself as a bike advocate because I work, actively, to see more people not just on bikes but using bikes as transportation; to the point that I changed jobs to be in a better position to do so. I work hard to help where I can and try to help educate people where ever I go. I have, over the last few years, changed my thinking, and my lifestyle, to 'practice what I preach.' Is all the stuff I try to do offset by the fact that I believe stupid should hurt and refuse to excuse people for being foolish?

More to the point you want to know what is hurting 'the cause' more than me not feeling sorry for somebody failing to lock up their bike properly?

Sorry I see the world different from you Howard.

Sorry I have different life experience and come from a whole other direction to cycling than you.

Sorry I feel differently about things than you do.

And most of all sorry I don't like bikes enough to advocate for them...

H3N3 said:

That's fine. And why I specifically mentioned that Doug has declared himself a bike advocate.

I'm painfully aware that there's no rule that you have to be a bike advocate to ride a bike.

Despite not directly relating to my response to Doug, it does sound like an interesting 'study question.'

Although I think it's come up many times before and we've learned each time that the anti-advocacy crowd also tends to unleash the most unbridled venom in trying to "win" the discussion.

Maybe it will be different next time around.

Kevin Conway said:

Howard, you have raised an interesting philosophical question, and quite possibly the subject for my next bicycling manifesto. I do love to ride a bike. I do feel compassion for others. Just because I ride a bike doesn't mean I think everyone should do it-or that everyone doing it will enhance or improve my experience, or the experience of others.

H3N3 said:
Even if you were unable to feel compassion for another human being, a person interested in bike advocacy would feel concern for the person's future likelihood to continue to choose a bicycle as their daily transportation. You have claimed to be a bike advocate, so I don't understand why you choose to wallow in blame and derision. What do you get out of that?