bike thefts

Nickites · Post by **Nickites** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:45 pm

Anyone else have a bike stolen at BM2006?
I rode my partners to the bloorroms for the morning routine and discovered it missing upon finshing my business. It was at 8 am on tues. I waited around thinking, someone must have taken the wrong bike, they'll be right back when they discover their error, right? Needless to say, no one ever returned with the bike (a comfortable cruiser, but by no means luxurious), so I left signs on the portapots. Found a sign the same day at the same portapots saying, "I have your bike, come get it at____, and give me mine back". I thought, jackpot, I found my GF's bike, but alas it was not the trusty Ross she had used the previous two years to explore the playa.
Long story short, it kinda soured me on the event. I did still have fun, but I found myself preoccupied at times with finding the bike, looking at centercamp bike racks, theme camps, open playa...
While I don't mind participants with generally bad attitudes, thieves are scum.
I don't care how anarchistic you feel BM is, if you steal from people, you are violating the whole community. I even heard neighbors talking about stealing bikes to bring to burning man, stealing them from kids down the street in their own hometown. Low, low, low scumbags at BM are lame.

Post by **mdmf007** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:42 pm

Stealing from little kids is low, rmeember what it was like when you were a little rugrat?

Think about that - besides a brand "f"ing new bike from walmart costs less than 50 bucks. I have seen adult bikes for 30 there as well.

dirtbags

MikeVDS · Post by **MikeVDS** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:17 pm

I even heard neighbors talking about stealing bikes to bring to burning man, stealing them from kids down the street in their own hometown.

I hope you said something to them. I want people like this to realize they aren't welcome in my home. Though from what I've seen the BM population is more honest than the general population it doesn't mean that scumbags don't come as well.

There have been some great ideas about putting trackers on their bikes or even remote controlled stun guns in the seat. A great idea would be for someone to set up a lost and found. Has there been one? If so I don't know about it.

motskyroonmatick · Post by **motskyroonmatick** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 4:47 pm

There is an after event informal lost and found at the center camp bike racks and people(I have heard) are encouraged to bring abandoned bikes there so they can be reclaimed. I spent some time there monday afternoon looking for a campmates bike to no avail. I found that there were just as many people looking for a bike to take home as there were looking for a lost one. Not really ending the stolen from so steal cycle. I later found out that the official word was not to take an unclaimed bike untill thursday after the event is over. There is a crew that picks up abandoned bikes and consolidates them so that they can be looked through. They filled the Playa Info shade shelter completely with bikes and there were still hundreds out on the playa left by people who don't give a fuck.

I am sorry you lost your bike.

I bought 4 pair of handcuffs off ebay for my camp bikes this year. They fit arround the front wheel and frame tube making the bike nonoperational. Hopefully that will be enough deterent.

I wounder how cheaply one could get a wildlife taging and tracking setup for and then let the games begin!!!!!!!

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:26 pm

So don't bring a fucking bike. Less to worry about.

unjonharley · Post by **unjonharley** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 6:07 pm

For a little fun about dusk, Gradfather and I are bringing an extra bike.. We will tether it with with a stake and cable.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sun Jan 14, 2007 7:56 pm

thejohnstamos · Post by **thejohnstamos** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:35 pm

my good friend had it happen to her- went into the loo and came out- and her bike was gone...

So...she got some chairs and sat outside the pottys and watched- one bike didn't move after about 30 minutes- and it was similar in style to hers....

sometime later she was riding her newly acquired bike and saw the girl that had mistakenly taken hers...good fortune i guess

BAS · Post by **BAS** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:33 pm

I brought my old Schwinn from the late 1970s-1980s. I swear that thing weights as much as I did when it was new! I kept it locked when I wasn't on it, but I am not certain anyone would have taken it anyway-- a bike from that era was pretty distinctive. I worried about it less around the time the Man burned, because by then I'd gotten a flat tire, and felt it was too late in the event to mess with tire repair.

When I left, there were mounds of bikes all over the place. It was almost tempting to grab a few extra to bring home with me and donate to some charity or another.... If I hadn't run out of film, I would have taken photos just to prove to people I wasn't exageratting about the bike mounds!

B.

ibdave · Post by **ibdave** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:41 pm

We take a bungie cord and wrap it around the forks and spokes when we park the bikes.. Saw one of the bike moved about 8 feet from where we parked it. It was on the ground, we all laughed thinking who ever moved the bike went over the handbars when the bike slammed to a STOP.....

BAS · Post by **BAS** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:01 pm

I'll have to try to remember the bungee cord approach! It seems just nasty enough without going overboard.

Post by **Eric** » Thu Jan 25, 2007 8:06 pm

Mine gets locked anytime I'm not on it. Always.

Even when I'm popping into a friends camp and I can put my bike in their private area, I lock it since you never know what will happen. I've gotten "otherly centered" in the past and by the time I remember I had a bike it was the next afternoon. When I got back to the camp I had left it at they had forgotten who it had belonged to. If it hadn't been locked, it would have been gone, and not by a thief- just because it had sat in their camp for 18 hours.

I wouldn't even think of using the JOTS without locking up.

My basic feeling- it's a city of 40,000+ people. If you lose your bike because you think you're in HappyHippieLand and didn't lock it, it's your own damn fault. Sorry to burst the bubble.

HEADBANDMAN · Post by **HEADBANDMAN** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:18 am

Same advice from me. If I am not on it I lock it to itself.

This is how most bike theft happens. Some dumb ass stays up all night partying is walking back to there camp at 10 AM in the morning. they no there camp is on the other side of the circle. their dead tired. They see your bike and they are gone.

I had mine stolen too. I didn't lock it for one secound when I came back an hour later there where like a hundred bikes parked where mine was but mine was gone.

then it was hiking man for me.

bike thefts

bike thefts

Lock the damn things

Lock it to itself