Dumb & Dangerous bike part thefts

[galgal]

Anyone here who lives in a metropolitan area (or even suburban ) has probably walked down a street and shaken their head at a bike locked outside stripped of parts. I've locked bikes outside while commuting in US cities in San Fran, Berkeley and NYC. Nice bikes, and one forum member remarked about my "moxie" in doing so. Always used a couple of sturdy locks when doing so. Still had problems over the years, A Record seatpost and pricey saddle stolen, but that didn't deter me from continuing. The other day, in the Wall Street area in NYC, someone stole the front QR from my bike. Why in heck would anyone do that?! It's pretty miraculous that I didn't end up badly hurt and ruin the bike when I got on and rode it without noticing skewere was missing.
To commuters who lock your bikes outside, please check before you get on and ride! Anyone have any as dumb and dangerous bike part stolen.

[ultraman6970]

They took the Front QR just to f.. with you :) Sure the guy was looking at you from somewhere nearby.

[fbhidy]

Ever consider commuter skewers, ones that use an Allen wrench to remove?

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[Ken Robb]

Well, how about all the classified ads offering wheels but no skewers? That has been a mystery to me since every set of wheels or hubs I have ever bought came with skewers but obviously some skewers disappear over time so there is a market for used skewers.

[Ken Robb]

Grant Petersen had a great idea when he was head of Bridgestone Bikes USA. The seatpost collar on my 1989 MB-3 looked quite normal but it had a little knurled knob and a slotted collar. Manipulating the knob and collar would either make the "Normal" lever inoperative so the post couldn't been released or allowed the lever to be removed so there was no non-destructive way to loosen the collar.
One of our fellow forumites bough my MB-3 recently and I was careful to tape seat collar instructions inside the box with the bike. :-)

This is a great system but if it became common the thieves would catch on and carry their own levers to use on victim's bikes . :-(

[galgal]

They took the Front QR just to f.. with you :) Sure the guy was looking at you from somewhere nearby.

There is a helicopter helipad nearby with guys marketing the helicopter rides. Have gotten to know some of them as they walked over to admire bike. When I asked them about this, guy said he didn't see but must have been a black guy or a homeless person. Check. What?!

[Peter P.]

Decades ago, I rode my decent Trek 610 sport touring bike to the mall and locked it up appropriately, at an entrance of one of the "anchor" stores where there is very little pedestrian traffic. I thought it would be safer there than presumably a more visible/tempting high traffic area.

When I came out, I discovered someone had stolen BOTH Campy Nuovo Record skewers.

After that incident I bought a conversion kit which replaced the lever on ONLY Campy Nuovo Record skewers, with a Torx bolt. Of course, I never had an incident after that. Too bad they never made a Shimano version.

[Veloo]

I use the Pinhead system of skewer and seat clamp locks. Has worked for me for many years.
I got tired of removing the front wheel to lock it up.

[gpendergast]

When I worked at a shop, we saw multiple people over the years that had a single brake pad stolen from both front and rear brakes. Strangest thing was it was always a left & a left, or a right & a right, so the thief didn't get a usable set. Crazy..

[sandyrs]

Maybe the "assailant" was trying to remove the whole wheel and settled for the skewer when it became clear the wheel wasn't going anywhere.

[John H.]

Your personal safety is likely pretty low on the list of concerns for a bike thief.

[pjbaz]

crazy!