Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

seattlemet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 86 posts

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#31

Post by _nullandnull_ »

zht wrote: post #7

So what is the solution to bikes getting stolen? It seems like we cannot really make locks that are cheap enough to manufacture to prevent thieves from stealing bikes/harvesting them for parts. Do we put GPS trackers on all bikes? Can we enforce harsher punishment for bike thieves?

> Routinely opened with a Bic pen jammed into the keyhole (from the article).

This one model of locks. That was fixed in 2004. The whole first paragraph is fluff. The author does not know how bikes are actually stolen. I had a nice bike and lived in NYC. I used the New York Fahgettaboudit Mini [1] and a small cheap chain for the front wheel. The Fahgettaboudit has anti-theft protection up to $4,500 in US. If you are going to leave your bike in public overnight you always risk having your bike stolen. The key is to have a good lock and don't have a bunch of expensive accessories that can be easily taken.

1 http://www.kryptonitelock.com/content/kryt-us/en/products/pr...

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#32

Post by kalleboo »

ams6110 wrote: post #16
zht wrote: post #7

So what is the solution to bikes getting stolen? It seems like we cannot really make locks that are cheap enough to manufacture to prevent thieves from stealing bikes/harvesting them for parts. Do we put GPS trackers on all bikes? Can we enforce harsher punishment for bike thieves?

Ride bikes that aren't worth stealing. When I used to bike to the train station in suburban chicago, I used an old single-speed no-name coaster-brake bike bought at a garage sale for almost nothing. I locked it with a very simple cable and padlock and nobody ever bothered it.

This may be true in the US but definitely not in Europe. I guess here they get hauled off to Poland where there's still some value in them.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#33

Post by ScottBurson »

Somewhere in the last year or so I read an article arguing that the reason bike theft is so attractive is that although the reward (to the thief) of the crime is small, the risk is practically zero. The suggestion was that if the police managed to successfully investigate and prosecute even a small fraction of bike thefts, they could increase the risk to the thief by several orders of magnitude. Since the reward is so small, this could effectively deter at least casual theft.

There would probably still be professionals stealing expensive bikes, I suppose, but still, this seems worth trying.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#36

Post by lpsz »

jzwinck wrote: post #20
zht wrote: post #7

So what is the solution to bikes getting stolen? It seems like we cannot really make locks that are cheap enough to manufacture to prevent thieves from stealing bikes/harvesting them for parts. Do we put GPS trackers on all bikes? Can we enforce harsher punishment for bike thieves?

> Can we enforce harsher punishment for bike thieves? Yes, you can, but you choose not to [1]. This is a drain on society beyond the mere cost of buying replacement bikes. Bike theft discourages (even prevents) people from riding bikes. It puts us back in our cars, and makes us more sedentary. People who have never even ridden a bike before and have $200 to buy one are discouraged from buying used bikes because of th…

I'm surprised that "stronger locks" is what folks resort to, instead of trying to address the underlying issue (be it through punishment or other means.) I live in a country (in Asia) where bikes are routinely left on the street and not stolen or burglarized, scooters are abound and also easily parked, and generally petty crimes are rare. Here I can also freely leave my phone on the table in a coffee shop and go about.

I sure as heck wouldn't do this back in SF, though -- the amount of petty crime the society is willing to put up with, is, again, surprising.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#37

Post by eru »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #22
zht wrote: post #7

So what is the solution to bikes getting stolen? It seems like we cannot really make locks that are cheap enough to manufacture to prevent thieves from stealing bikes/harvesting them for parts. Do we put GPS trackers on all bikes? Can we enforce harsher punishment for bike thieves?

Harsh punishment seems ruled out by the stories of Charles Dickens. In a time when they'd hang or exile you for a loaf of bread, bread still got stolen. Theft is a crime resulting from the social context, and particularly from inequality.

Some punishment at all might be useful, though. Instead of none at all.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#38

Post by bootload »

jzwinck wrote: post #23
bootload wrote: post #19

"... Fortunately for Rosa, the Darlings were also allegedly fencing electronics, allowing the owner of a stolen iPad to track his missing tablet to the same apartment via an iPhone app connected to his iPad’s GPS. ..." Would be a nice hack to build something like this. How would you embed a device like this into into a frame & other parts? Comments: "... Ryan Scheel: Might it make sense to put a GPS device in bikes e…

If you are serious, the answer is to make the device a 1" tube that fits into the steer tube of most bicycles and can receive and transmit RF via the top cap (which would be plastic rather than the usual metal). Easy to conceal, near-universal fit (for bikes from the last 10+ years), sufficient space for a battery, radio, no visible parts. Charge using the tube as ground and the top cap bolt as hot. The problem is, i…

that's a pretty good description & solves find the frame (or potentially the bike) but not the parts being stripped & re-sold.

Maybe that's good enough. The 2007 article posted by a reader (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8817800) mentions the sequence is: Sell complete bike on Craigslist & stripping down as the last resort moving the parts to chop shops. The high cost is another form of insurance especially for USD8K bikes.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#39

Post by bootload »

aaronharnly wrote: post #3

I'm reminded of this delicious line by a San Francisco bike guru: "Bikes are one of the four commodities of the street — cash, drugs, sex, and bikes," Veysey told me. "You can virtually exchange one for another." (From this lengthy and fascinating first-hand account of a reporter's attempt to recover his stolen bicycle) http://www.sfbg.com/2007/02/13/chasing-my-stolen-bicycle?pag...

This is a great read. Nothing seems to have changed much since 2007.

Re: What happens to your bike after it’s stolen

#40

Post by bike_index »

Barnabas wrote: post #5

If you have a nice bike, take a moment to register it: https://bikeindex.org/

Thanks for recommending the Bike Index! We recommend registering even if you have a cheap bike, since it's easy and free.

Here's another article about what to do if your bike is stolen - https://medium.com/@stolenbikessfo/what-to-do-after-you-bike...

Post reply on HN