With rain expected all day, I decided to take advantage of my workplace's covered bike parking. I usually leave my bike out in the rain because that area is closer to my desk, but today I decided that since there's lots of covered parking and probably not many people using it, I may as well. I was happy to see that despite the weather there were 12 bikes already there when I arrived. Upon closer inspection, I'm not so sure they're all going home today, but you never know.
Anyway, the thing that prompted me to post was the character of the bikes with which I'm sharing the space. I'll start with a tame example:
Previously I thought nothing says "Fred" like aerobars on a commuter bike, but now I see that the Fred effect can be enhanced by adding a light to the end of the aerobars. Nicely done.
Turning now to the vehicle parked to the right of mine, we see that even in the 'burbs where I work the Portland spirit is alive and well:
But the real treasure of the day was the bike to the left of mine. I'm going to post a larger photo so you can see the details of this one:
The first thing I noticed about this bike was that though it's a Huffy, the owner went to the trouble of securing the rear wheel, which is particularly odd because security at our campus is pretty good and crime is pretty low.
The second thing I noticed was that this security-conscious bike owner had "secured" his bike and wheel with a very thin cable lock. The lock is probably appropriate for the value of the bike and the local risk level, but if you're worried about your wheel, why not do it right?
The third thing I noticed was that the "secured" front wheel had the tube hanging out the side of the tire. Maybe the determined thief who has been scoping out that Huffy tried to at least make off with a tube but was caught in the act and forced to flee.
The fourth thing I noticed was the noseless Schwinn saddle. A cheap Schwinn saddle on a Huffy makes sense to me, but a cheap Schwinn saddle that's at least austensibly designed for comfort seems like a contradiction. Maybe I'm wrong. It also looks like the saddle may be "secured" by that cable lock.
Finally, I noticed the big oddity about this bike, which may have jumped out immediately at some of you. I don't know if I would have noticed at all if it hadn't been for the series of other things that grabbed my attention. If you have noticed, look at the picture again. The suspension fork is on backward.
I'm starting to feel a bit nervous about the fact that my clip-on rear light is more valuable than most of the bikes locked up in this area. I felt more at ease when mine was the only bike locked up in the uncovered area.