Bike theft - I've got a plan

Bike thieves suck. However, unless we can institute sharia law, they're probably not going away. I've been thinking about the issue of bike theft since someone I know just had her brand new hybrid bike (and child seat) stolen right out of her employer's building. Tell me, what kind of loser steals a woman's bike with a child seat? Somebody who didn't get enough love and attention from mom, that's who.


Craigslist is great. However, it also serves as a giant flea market which makes the movement of stolen bicycles easier. It also allows the recovery of stolen goods as the listings are searchable and viewable by anyone. Just take a look at this example of a stolen Guru Tri Bike that was recovered by browsing Craigslist.

Here's my plan: make Craigslist the ultimate stolen bike recovery tool, or at least take it out of the thieves toolbox by requiring posters to include a picture and/or the serial number of the bike. Here's the message I just sent to Craigslist through their feedback form:

Craigslist is a great tool for selling bicycles and bike parts, but can also be used by thieves to sell stolen equipment. Why not make this impossible (or at least harder to do)? Can you make it a requirement that each bicycle ad must contain a picture of the product (making it easier to identify stolen goods) or require that each bike ad post the serial number of the bike (discouraging thieves)? This last option would dovetail nicely with the Stolen Bicycle Registry website here: http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com/

Thanks!

Think about it, maybe send some feedback of your own. Write down the serial numbers of your stuff, register your bike, take photos and save them, engrave your initials on your bottom bracket. Thieves are stupid, exploit them for it. Link to this post, pass it on, be part of the solution!

Photo taken by me at the Truckee Tour de Fat

Tater on the Logs

This video, entitled "Tater ridin' Puglsey on the Logs" is cinematic genius, and goes nicely with our ongoing conversation regarding rollers. Enjoy:

Seen at Tour De Fat - Schwinn Varsity Restoration

I saw so many things at Tour De Fat Truckee, I have pictures galore and stories to tell. The first story is about a guy who rebuilt two Schwinn Varsity bikes. A yellow men's frame for himself and a green mixte frame for his lady. They were set up as perfect touring bikes with a Carradice style bag on the back, a triple up front and a comfortable position. Some of the really cool features included handlebar wrapping finished with cork and twine, the leather chainstay protector (also finished with twine) and the upgraded Shimano drivetrain. He was able to do this by getting a bottom bracket shim to fit a late model BB and a by using a rate changing pulley on the rear derailler to drop make an 8 speed shifter work. I'll have to learn more about those parts later. For now, just enjoy the pictures.

Picture showing bottom bracket shim adapter and leather wrapped chainstay.

Picture showing pulley cable rate changer.

Seen at the Velodrome

More half length rollers. I wrote about this way back on the very first entry to the Nippleworks blog - in an article titled Mini Rollers - Half as Heavy, Twice as Sketchy! At the time, the mini rollers were under the strong and shapely legs of a female racer, here they are used by a track competitor in one of the coolest kits I've sen in a while. Kind of makes you want to do the Haka. Notice the tight grip on the nearby bike rack. Eventually, he got down onto the bars, but he never stopped looking at those things, making sure they weren't going to squirt out from under him.
I also noticed that the drums were smaller diameter than the first ones I saw. Even lighter? Less smooth?

Seen at the velodrome...

From Gunnar

Leather toe clip sewing kit - Bicycle Blog

I thought these were cool and I was going to blog about them anyway, but then I found out I could win them if I created a link:

Win this leather toe clip sewing kit - Bicycle Blog

They might go really nicely with the fixed steel and leather motif of D's Cannoli project and let you wear your classy kicks on your bike without scuffing them up like this guy:

Taken from http://thesartorialist.blogspot.com/search/label/Men%20Milan

Mudflaps for your mountain bike

No, not this kind of mudflap, or even this kind -
But along those lines...



And this thing, which is basically a skull shaped grapefruit-sized block of aluminum:

And then this, which will appeal to your peyote smoking microbus driving Southwestern mountain biking friends:


All this bicycle finery was spotted at Ales and Trails, for sale by a NorCal outfit by the name of Dirty Dog MTB.

Sticker image from www.northernsun.com

Lots of interesting stuff from the Velodrome

Like this picture of fellow Bay Area Blogger - Beth Bikes!:

An unattached skin suit. Brilliant!

Stay tuned to this space.

Cobranding - with mixed results

If there's one thing people with money like, it's matching stuff. Like, matching luggage:

Or pets:

And modes of transportation:

Of these, who among us wouldn't desire a Ferarri themed Colnago? Less appealing - the Toys-R-Us Hummer mountain bike and the Saab 8 speed, gigantic steel framed, BMX handle-barred bike who's downtube is also a cable lock.

Photos from (in order of their theft):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/uncreated/LV%202/LVDarjeelingLtd2.jpg
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/resources/2008/05/parishiltondogs.jpg
http://us.saabexpressions.com/Products/Product1.aspx?ItemId=50000059
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2929069
http://www.colnago.com/en/tecnologia/immagini/col%20cm%20ferrari.jpg

Oooh, I bet that feels good

Northern California is on the tail end of a 100 degree plus heatwave (through which I mountain biked one day, commuter biked another day and actually drove one day it was so hot, what a lame excuse). So, as I was reading a Garmin-Chipotle rider's Tour De France blog on Velonews, I paid attention to what he calls ice socks. So, I did a little searching to figure out what that was and discovered that the soigneurs actually fill plain old bike socks with ice and the riders throw them in their jerseys on their backs. And here I thought I was going to discover some high tech medical device style cooling garment.


Photo from http://www.velonews.com/photo/77303

$12k bike with $200 engineering

According to Velonews, Scott bikes will sell the 'Genius' Limited mountain bike in the US in 2009 for $11,500. Further reading indicates that there was a patent dispute with Specialized over suspension design. So this is how they got around the patent?


It looks like the rear wheel is going to throw junk right into the shock and shock pivot. Is this some lawyer's idea of a good work-around? Or does Scott like to play in the mud?

Picture from http://velonews.com/photo/77550