The Chainlink

What is the forum for abandoned bikes?  Somebody abandoned a perfectly good Tange steel Bianchi Advantage in my neighborhood with a 3T stem.  They left it there ALL WINTER. It makes me furious every time I see it, because it's a lot like a Volpe, or one of those go anywhere do anything bikes you could happily ride every day for years and years.

Yet it sits and it rusts.  

There was a pile of snow on it for awhile.

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Oof. That is a crime. I have a Volpe and I love it. 

It's still in decent shape and the wheels are true.  The fact that the owner is simply leaving it there is insane.

Close...wrong color...

It's not yours. Don't mess with it. 

Not your bike to be upset about; people can do what they like with their things and it is no harm to you.

Up to a point, yes. I grant you this isn't the same category as an abandoned car, but after a certain amount of time it stops being just the problem of the owner.

The correct attitude is not to try to "save" the bike, but to treat it as abandoned property, and ask the police or the alderman's office what to do if they can't or won't handle it.

I saw a gray market M535i left in a parking lot for a few years that just broke my heart.

Yep...that's where this thing is headed. Lots of people see it every day so maybe it still has a fighting chance. I just felt like venting.

Call police non-emergency number.  They can put a notice on it.  If the notice is not removed within the ordinance specified time frame, they will remove it, and once the waiting period is over they can auction it or give it away.

The CDOT Bike Parking program has a map-based website for reporting abandoned bikes here: http://abandonedbikes.chicagocompletestreets.org/page/about . They can also be reported through 311.

About once a month, we send someone out to tag bikes that are reported to us as abandoned with a notice stating that they'll be removed by the City if they aren't claimed within 7 days. Any remaining bikes are then cut off and donated to Working Bikes.

Well, GUESS WHAT?  The owner moved it once this week.  This was an unexpected shock.  It's not abandoned, just severely neglected to the point of appearing abandoned.

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