dutret

While I am not opposed to bike liberation a rusted chain is a bad indicator. People ride bikes with rusty chains all the time and hardly anyone ever lubes their chain. Abusing your bike should not be reason to have it taken. Abandonment is a different story but determining that is much harder.

Zombie Carl

Don't take other people's bikes.

jussik

well, as I said earlier, at least here an abandoned bike is often not abandoned in reality, but it's probably already stolen and then left somewhere.

dirtylaundry

do it. Libertate yourself. Since it's been there so long, someone doesn't give a **** about it.
I would investigate it first though. Maybe someone uses it daily but at hours opposite of yours. If things like the tires are full... then leave it alone. If someone depends on it is or going to be hurting from theft... leave it alone. Thats my logic.

NitroPye

Be very careful of the Bike Liberation Front.

CF4L

my feeling? TAKE IT.

I'm quite serious. I took a bike for my GF that was locked at the dining hall for 3 months. I wouldn't take one from a dorm or somewhere where maybe someone just hasn't gotten back to. but I knew at the dining hall, they passed it every day. so i took it. cause i wanted it. its that simple.

here is a thread I started on this a while ago... got pretty similar responses.

https://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=162544

red house

There was this brand new Specialized CF bike spec'd out with shimano 105 components that was just left locked at the bike rack (located in a well-lighted alley) at my work for like two weeks. At night it would be the only bike left on the rack. At times I thought about ''liberating'' it just becz the guy/girl who owned it was either dead/comatose or quite obviously just did give a **** about it. The bike was too small for me.. but there's always somebody on ebay whom it would have fit. Anyways the owner came back for it eventually, I didn't see it for a week or so and then it turned up again.

oceanfx

Haha you're sayin that cause you were the victim. But that's only cause you left your bike locked up over the summer. There's a statute of limitations for this kind of thing...I'd say anything over a month, you're actually just taking up space that people probably need to lock up their bikes. Less than a month, it's hazy, and less than a week could just be someone locking up their bike. So, I would liberate a bike (especially an unlocked!? one) that's been sitting out for longer than the statute, and feel totally not guilty about it cause i know that I'd never leave my bike locked to something for that long unless I WANTED someone to have it.

That's also a very common possibility, by the way. I knew tons of kids at high school that just left their crappy bikes they used to get to school locked up to random ****, as sort of a....donation/monument.

blickblocks

though I think bike liberation isn't unreasonable

there are enough bikes for me in the trash

and most abandoned bikes are from walmart anyways

you want one of those

?

blickblocks

Who the hell locks up a race bike???

time bandit

^college kid with roadie dad who dropped 1500 dollars on their kids "campus ride"

mathletics

In Madison, WI, the campus police will tag bikes for removal. If it's still there after the removal date on the tag, it's fair game.

oceanfx

That's actually a really sweet system.

BLIMP

Same here in AZ. They turn them out again as "yellow bikes" that you can ride wherever you want, and leave em for someone else to pick up/ride around. Pretty sure they do the same thing at UT Austin.

teiaperigosa

I disagree...a chain with a little rust is one thing, but a chain that is rusted OUT...(ie bound and caked up with orange) is clear indication that someone needs a lesson in bicycle ownership...rusted bolts/other parts is a whole different story....chains need to be lubed. If you can't de-rustify your bicycle, you shouldn't have/ride it

I'm surprised at your position on this...don't you go around feeling on people's..... .... to see how tight/loose they are? hmmmmm

I'd be careful...bikeophiles are not getting off (get it? getting off?!) easy these days....

ilikebikes

Ill keep tabs on all of you that would steal someones bike for whatever reason (I think theyre just looking for reasons to steal bikes) Ill be sure not to invite any of you into my home

oceanfx

Not-uh, we said we'd steal bikes that have been left outside for months. Unless your house is outside and you keep your bikes in a....time machine??....then you should be good if you follow peoples justifications for stealing lool

wroomwroomoops

I'm sorry to say this, but I kinda feel the same way.

lukeC

Tonight on my way home I passed a beat up old raleigh that was sitting there on the footpath missing a back wheel and not locked to anything.

Its hard to tell though if it is the remanants of a failed theif from the night before - and perhaps the owner will come by and grab it and fix it up later.

- would be nice to grab it though - can probably do something with it.

ilikebikes

Please read carefully and pay special attention to the highlighted areas, "Ill keep tabs on all of you that would steal someones bike for whatever reason (I think theyre just looking for reasons to steal bikes) Ill be sure not to invite any of you into my home" understand now? or do you really think that stealing a bike can ever be justified? doesnt matter if I leave my bike outside for ten ****ing years its still my bike and youd better hope that I dont find you trying to steal it Id break your ****ing hands and leave you there begging for help

dizzy101

If it's abandoned, take it. But make sure it's abandoned.

I once had a bike I used to get to the bus stop early in the morning, and to get home late in the evening. It was locked up at the bus station all day, every day. Some people thought it was abandoned because it was always there, and they took it. *******s!

Judge_Posner

i hope the guy who 'liberated' my cannondale last month sold it for $40, bought a bag of heroin, overdosed, and died.

crushkilldstroy

How is liberating a bike not a crime if there is a victim involved?

I used to think that I was the dumbass around here. It's nice when threads like this come up and prove me otherwise. I can't believe that some of you blowhards would steal a ****ty bike that has been sitting outside for 6 months or however long. Are you really so poor that you can't go to a thrift store and buy something that actually works for like 30 bucks? Or are you just trying to live out some Mad Max post-apocalyptic hipster bull**** where anything you need is free? I really hope that someone breaks into your apartment and liberates your stereo while you're out breaking the chains on these old destroyed bikes.

red house

Man.. I once left my friends trek road bike (which was a little too big for him anyways) at the Davis Square T-stop bike rack for pretty much an indefinite period of time after the U-lock seized and/or froze up on me.. I believe eventually the police or the T authorities ''liberated'' it - along with all of the other bikes that had been left there chained up in bondage, probably to be emancipated in the local land fill or maybe melted down for scrap. I really wish somebody who knew how to pick or saw through a U-lock could have liberated that bike along with the others that were left to rot there. What a waste.. what a shame.

RenoMpls

I don't need anymore bikes, nor am I inclined to fix old bikes to give away, but...

I'm really sick of abandoned bikes taking up all the lock-up space. There are places where it is just outta hand. There is a cafe I like to visit, where it's hard to find a spot to park because of all the junkers locked to every available post and rack. I don't care whether they get rescued, I just want them to disappear.