I highly recommend registering your bikes on bike index and searching it if you’re purchasing a used bike. https://bikeindex.org/
Almost every time I go out I see $5-7,000 ebikes being locked up with $20 Amazon folding locks and nothing else. In order to own a bike you should be forced to watch a video that shows how fast a cordless angle grinder can go through a cheap bike lock. Maybe it might change a few minds at least.
Makes it easy to tell who the seasoned bike owners are and who are the ones that just bought their first expensive ebike. Another I’ve encountered is people saying “I’ll just park it in a really visible spot”. Doesn’t matter. They will cut your lock even in the middle of a crowd in daylight because nobody will stop them.
Almost every time I go out I see $5-7,000 ebikes being locked up with $20 Amazon folding locks and nothing else.
As I waited outside of a store with the bikes that my wife and I were using, I was observing the other cyclists who were stopping at the store.
I honestly couldn’t believe how many would either NOT LOCK THEIR BIKE or use something that could be broken with your bare hands. The only person I saw locking their bike up mindfully was a lady with an e-bike who absolutely looked like her bike was her main vehicle.
Same thing with schools. Parents sending their kids to school by bike, but then give them a dollar store lock. It’s not worth the hassle to cheap out on a bike lock.
This is why it’s so important to have bike lockers downtown. It saves bikes, people don’t have to buy multiple expensive locks to keep their bikes safe, and it staves off crime.
Most of the bike lockers here cost a nickel per hour. Fully enclosed, all metal, out of sight and out of mind, even if your city has addicts that steal anything not welded to the ground.
bike lockers
I wish! It’s a BATTLE to even get shitty wheelbender racks installed at multi-business plazas!
I’m fine with having basic racks, but anything is better than nothing. And bike lockers would be incredible.
All of the above is good! We have lots of racks, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have an extra long chain because there’s sometimes no racks nearby, and you have to improvise with a streetlamp or something similar.
I’m the opposite: I ride entry level bikes with good locks.
They get me there just fine, are less likely to be targeted by thieves, and if they are, they’re much cheaper to fix or replace.
I’m the opposite: I ride entry level bikes with good locks.
For real! The only bike I’m willing to lock up anywhere is worth much less than the lock(s) protecting it.
I’d still hate to lose it. Thieves could steal my car, and it would be more like “thank god, take the fucking thing!”. But my bike? Man, that would hurt me to the core.
If I caught someone trying to steal my bike or car I’d probably take it pretty personally but yeah, I think I might be angrier about the bicycle.
Food for thought, how often would people have to steal a used commuter bike from you for it to exceed the wholistic costs of owning and using a car?
Once every two months?
My commuter bike is ~5k my car was ~30k so my bike would need to be stolen six times. I don’t know why were comparing the costs of the two though.
Can I see your bike? Carbon road bike or cargo ebike? :)
I have never been able to upload photos to lemmy but if you look for GermanyChris on bike forums you’ll find multiple pictures of all my bikes.
None of my bikes are carbon or cargo they’re Surlys built with boutique parts. (https://ibb.co/sLfHbwg)
Looks like I’m not smart enough to do this via link in the desktop app either
Ooooh, nice bike!
Thanks!
No not how much your car cost to purchase, I am talking about the much much much higher cost of how much it costs to own and use your car every month, how much you pay for maintenance, parking, insurance, gas, loans etc…
I think it is worth comparing how much having and using a car costs you per month so that it puts the fear of having your commuter bike stolen into monetary context. It might suck if your commuter bike gets stolen for a variety of reasons but it might not actually be the financial hit it seems like given how much we unconsciously invisibilize the constant reoccurring major costs we pay out for using a car.
I point this out because at least in the US where I live there is a stupendously big blindspot around realizing cars cost an arm and leg to own and use.
I think for most adults in the US this isn’t an either or thing, I may commute by bike but I still need/want my car so a cost comparison isn’t valid.
Yes yes it is because there is a major cost to using your car, AAA estimates it costs upwards of $0.60 a mile (up to $1.10 a mile for a large pickup truck) to use your car. Those costs add up SUPER quick with gas, parking, and a million other costs that are incurred when you drive.
I agree with the additional costs but even with them I’m still not getting rid of my car. My gut says that most bike commuters are not living car free though that may not be a valid assumption in Boston.
