wheel theft

[lordofthemark]

Sympathies, theft sucks.

I don’t have a bike or wheels to offer – I have a pair of tires (35s?) I would be happy to “pay forward” but I suspect that is not of much use to you?

[bentbike33]

W&W, this just makes me angry. Especially when it happens to someone like you who’s bike is primary transportation. Years ago when I rode a regular bike to metro and used the old clam-shell bike rack things, I actually had quick-releases stolen from my wheels twice (the wheels themselves were well secured). So I got something like these. You keep the key in with your flat repair kit.

I would get another cable as well for additional discouragement.

[Steve O]

@wheels&wings 155995 wrote:

Thanks, everyone!! Y’all are the best medicine. And I appreciate the many offers. I’ve been emailing with Phoenix Bikes tonight and will bring my skeleton there tomorrow. If no luck, I will be in touch… As for a cable, I used to use both a cable and my U-lock outside my office building at Van Ness…until a few months ago when someone cut my cable off. Since then I’ve only used the U. I’m not sure what the best solution is…maybe carry two U’s and insert one through each wheel?

Use one U to lock through the rear wheel and triangle of the frame to the rack. (Or use the Sheldon Brown method). Keep another U locked to the rack (no need to carry it back and forth, just leave it there permanently). Use that one to lock up the other wheel, either to the frame or to the rack. I have an old u-lock I never use any more that you are welcome to have for the one you leave at the rack. If it got removed by “management” or something, I wouldn’t care.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14029[/ATTACH]

Sheldon Brown method:
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Oh, and I’m really sorry. It’s an awful feeling that way too many of us have experienced.

[cvcalhoun]

I feel your pain. I have ended up using the ridiculously priced bike room at my office, because I just don’t want to have to deal every day with locking up the bike and both wheels, and then stripping the bike of two headlights, a Garmin, Bar Mitts, three tail lights, and a set of panniers filled with my biking clothes and tools (and then reversing the process in the evening). The good news for me is that the ridiculous price keeps anyone other than me from using it, so it ends up being very secure indeed. (If someone else starts to use it, there are individual lockers, so I can still keep my bike and all my stuff in one and use a padlock on the outside of it.)

[Steve O]

Have you checked out this garage?
Looks like it’s pretty close by.
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Not that garages are necessarily better, but sometimes…depending.
I have used the strategy of parking my bike at the very bottom of a garage before (when I’ve forgotten my lock). No one ever goes all the way down there, particularly thieves, who are more likely to check out the actual bike rack in the garage.

[cvcalhoun]

@Steve O 156021 wrote:

Have you checked out this garage?
Looks like it’s pretty close by.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]14031[/ATTACH]
Not that garages are necessarily better, but sometimes…depending.
I have used the strategy of parking my bike at the very bottom of a garage before (when I’ve forgotten my lock). No one ever goes all the way down there, particularly thieves, who are more likely to check out the actual bike rack in the garage.

We have a garage in our building. However, I recently locked my bike up in a parking garage, one floor down (so the thief had to go past a lot of other bike racks to get there). Even though the bike itself was locked, thieves stole the Bar Mitts, Garmin, headlight, gloves, and jacket from the bike. You may have gotten away with it so far (I did, for several months), but I would not count on a garage to keep my bike safe.

[accordioneur]

I’m so sorry to hear that this happened to you! To me, the worst part of this sort of crime is the way it taints something that should be purely pleasurable.

When I’m in NY I see a lot of people using those super heavy chains, either by themselves or in combination with a U-lock (added bonus: they make an excellent fashion accessory and workout enhancer when worn as a belt). Back in the day I used to secure my quick releases to the fork & seat stays with pipe clamps. It’s rather inconvenient when you do actually want to take the wheel off, but it also inconveniences the potential thief – hopefully enough to send them on to a different target.

[Birru]

Steeling someone’s horse is NOT cool. I don’t know what it is about Van Ness either, but I had a laptop stolen from a 4th floor client’s small conference room in a matter of seconds. Her purse was stolen too. Bike security in general has me concerned as I don’t have one regular office I can use. Has anyone had any experiences with the bike lockers at some of the Metro stations?

[ginacico]

@bentbike33 156009 wrote:

So I got something like these. You keep the key in with your flat repair kit.

I also have locking skewers on Vaya. Mine are made by Pitlock. The “key” is a little gizmo that works like a socket wrench, but machined specifically for the odd-shaped nut that screws onto the skewer. It’s small, I just keep in on a key ring.

[bentbike33]

@Birru 156029 wrote:

Has anyone had any experiences with the bike lockers at some of the Metro stations?

I have, at West Falls Church. They are 6-month or annual rentals. My wife insists I keep my lease (just in case) even though I have not used the locker for almost a year (gave up on Metro because Safe Track, etc.). Generally, it is a pretty safe place to store a bike as the bikes are out of sight, so you can leave all the little removable things on the bike and they won’t get stolen. The locks don’t seem that sophisticated, but I think a thief would need at least rudimentary lock-picking skills to open them nonetheless, and there are probably more profitable opportunities to apply that skill than opening a possibly empty bike locker.

For full disclosure, these are the problems I’ve had over the years:

1. The doors and locks can ice up in thoroughly frustrating ways when the conditions are right (e.g., cannot remove the %&^$*# KEY!)
2. Hornets built a nest in my locker. Metro did take care of it.
3. One morning, someone else’s bike was in my locker (maybe I had left it open the previous night?). Again, Metro took care of it.
4. The rental fee may be a random variable. For many years it was $70 per year, despite rampant fare and parking fee increases. Then one year it went up to $200. Since at the time I was not doing the full bike commute in winter, I sucked it up and paid. More recently, it has settled at $120 per year.
5. Administration of the bike locker program seems to be a 1-person, paper-based operation, and does not always run like clockwork. For example, this past year I did not receive the annual rental bill when I expected it. Since I wasn’t really using the locker, I thought it no big deal if the lease expired, but Mrs. Bentbike insisted. So I inquired, and Metro sent me the lease renewal several months late. I have no idea when the next notice will come.

[wheelswings]

I really, really appreciate all the input and the virtual hugs. We may be on different teams (and writing crazy limericks about making each other cry and squishing each other…!), but really we are on the same team. Grateful for all the support.

Thanks for mapping the garage, Steve O. I am intimately familiar with that garage, but I think my experience would mirror cvcalhoun’s…. I might not even have the frame by now. I think my bike is safer on the street.

It’s an interesting idea about leaving U-locks attached to my destination racks…! And about the lockers.

I never heard of “locking skewers” before, so it’s really good to learn about them too, and those will be my first line of defense. I asked Edoardo about them when I was at Phoenix Bikes just now…he says they’ve worked well for him… he uses the Pinhead ones that Ricky’s been eyeing. Phoenix sells them about $15 cheaper than the Amazon price. (So Ricky, time to pay a visit to your friend Edoardo at Phoenix!) I will be using them from now on [so any thieves reading this Forum: Don’t even *think* of trying to steal __&w’s bike when it’s got the new wheels and new tires I just ordered!!].

Edoardo was full of crime stories. He has an incredible record of catching bike thieves. One time, he left his bike outside for a couple minutes, and it disappeared. Three weeks later he spotted it locked up at a Harris Teeter three miles away. He immediately clamped a big fat lock on it and deflated the tires. Then he rushed back to the bike shop and got power tools. He blasted through the thieves’ locks. There were lots of people around, but nobody questioned him until eventually a fire truck passed by and asked what he was up to. He explained that he was re-stealing his bike. Other times he’s carried out successful sting operations after spotting friends’ bikes on Craigslist. Never have the police helped or even bothered to show up… And then there are the stolen bikes that make their way to Phoenix. There’s also a lot of looting of the used bikes outside the Phoenix shop…it’s a shame they don’t have a proper warehouse in which to store the bikes. Maybe one day.

[cvcalhoun]

@Birru 156029 wrote:

Steeling someone’s horse is NOT cool. I don’t know what it is about Van Ness either, but I had a laptop stolen from a 4th floor client’s small conference room in a matter of seconds. Her purse was stolen too. Bike security in general has me concerned as I don’t have one regular office I can use. Has anyone had any experiences with the bike lockers at some of the Metro stations?

I used one at Bethesda for years with no issues.

[Steve O]

Here’s the link to the wmata page about bike lockers: https://www.wmata.com/service/bikes/

According to the station page, there are 8 at Van Ness: https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/stations/van-ness.cfm

Personally, if you are parking there every day, I like this solution better than multiple locks and deterrent technologies. $10/mo. is pretty cheap to keep your bike totally out of sight. And protected from weather, too.

[drevil]

@Steve O 156055 wrote:

Here’s the link to the wmata page about bike lockers: https://www.wmata.com/service/bikes/

According to the station page, there are 8 at Van Ness: https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/stations/van-ness.cfm

Personally, if you are parking there every day, I like this solution better than multiple locks and deterrent technologies. $10/mo. is pretty cheap to keep your bike totally out of sight. And protected from weather, too.

Me too.

I used to use one for years at the College Park Metro station until they inexplicably tripled the price from $70 to $200+ annually. It’s great to hear that their prices have come down again.

[bentbike33]

@Steve O 156055 wrote:

Here’s the link to the wmata page about bike lockers: https://www.wmata.com/service/bikes/

According to the station page, there are 8 at Van Ness: https://www.wmata.com/rider-guide/stations/van-ness.cfm

Personally, if you are parking there every day, I like this solution better than multiple locks and deterrent technologies. $10/mo. is pretty cheap to keep your bike totally out of sight. And protected from weather, too.

That count of 8 lockers is just that. One would need to send an email as directed on the first link to find out if any are vacant and available. Seems to me rental bike lockers might be a good thing for DC to offer as a way to encourage cycling.

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