uncle uncle

I started college in the fall 1982 semester at the same college my older brother attended. By the spring of 83, being surrounded by my brothers house mates who were all members of the college crew team and used bicycles as a mean to train and get to campus, I had purchased a "nice" bicycle to ride with them. My black Puch "Odyssey", upgraded with alloy rimmed wheels and rear rack, was stolen within 3 months of purchased. The bicycle was parked outside the math building, while I was studying at the student center nearby, and stolen by someone who used bolt cutters to cut through the thick cable (a length of the cable was still lying near the bike rack) at around lunch time. Many of college friends had their bicycle stolen... it was an almost inevitable rite of passage at the time as bicycle theft was rampant. The lost rides included a Centurion LeMans, a Takara, a hand full of Schwinn LeTours, and some model of Ross Tourer. How about you?

merziac

Ah yes, the old "I thought a thick cable would be ok" misstep, many a young lad and his bicycle separated by this, quite a large false sense of security.

I had several stolen from being even more trusting but no cut cables and none in the last 10 years since I jumped back in.

Cougrrcj

How 'bout one that was stolen from my High School bike rack. Why, oh WHY did they put the bike rack behind the building right outside the Shop class windows? Easy access to cutting tools! Anyway, it was my first Fuji - a low-end one, a '74 Special Tourer, in Orange. Serial F9B18529 Stolen at less than three months old. My parent's homeowners insurance covered it since it was locked.

I went right back to the store where I bought it and got the exact same bike as a replacement. Same color, size, etc. - and the serial number was 17 bikes from the first - this one was F9B18546.

clubman 

Grade 9, my first 10 speed lasted 2 or 3 weeks before being stolen. It was an Eatons Glider, a rebrand of a Grand Prix, tout Simplex, gaspipe with a nice paint scheme. Similar to this. They cut the cheesy vinyl covered 'loop lock'


But the insurance money got me an Orbea 'OCI' with Zeus Alfa Jr, equipment. Still entry level but the Campy guys would actually look at it before dismissing it. It was exotic in surburbia.

3speedslow

UNCW sophmore year. My cherished Bridgestone 10 speed which took me all over Okinawa all those years was walked out of the communal area shared by two rooms at night.

Campus police found it 3 hours later kissing the concrete after a 6 floor dive. Total destruction. Found out next year it was the loser in the next room who took it and pushed it out of the dorm window.

wrk101

First week of college at University of Illinois my Schwinn Continental was stolen. I promptly got a U08 to replace it, and stored in my dorm room (forbidden but hey, I wasn't going to buy a bike every week). When I reported the bike stolen, campus security laughed as hundreds if not thousands were stolen that week...

Cyclist0108

I had a 1981 Miyata 1000 touring bike. It got stolen on October 17, 1989 when I was in grad school in Berkeley. I loaned it to a friend to get home to Oakland, after the earthquake, and he got mugged. He was trying to intervene to save some guy who was being attacked by a bunch of other people.

nlerner

Right around the same time wgscott was in grad school in Oakland, I was finishing up grad school in San Jose and would take the Caltrain to various teaching gigs in the South Bay. My strategy was to park really crappy bikes at each station, which I’d use to commute to the various campuses. I also figured really crappy bikes only needed really crappy locks, but the bike thieves seem to take that as a personal affront and would subsequently boost my crappy bikes. I think I had three stolen before I invested in a decent lock.

thinktubes 

In 6th grade I lost a chopped mid-60s Schwinn Stringray. 3-foot chrome fork and sissy bar. Bike rack was far from the school building and the lock was cut. The chain was about as secure as a women's braclet. Small town. Pretty sure I knew who did it and the cops agreed, but couldn't prove it. I had delivered a lot of Chicago Tribunes to pay for that bike...

Rage

I might have grown up in the bike theft capital of the world.
Not entirely sure I even know how many it’s been...

sced

My Raleigh Sports Ten was stolen from my family's front porch in 1970 in Norfolk VA when I was in 8th grade. I just found this thread https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-v...d-dynohub.html with pics of a bike just like mine, except mine had a Wright's racing style saddle. My dad was a Navy pilot and we brought it to the US in 1969 when we moved back from England where it was purchased in the PX at Mildenhall.

thumpism 

A used Trek 720 hybrid that I got from one of my dealers while I was still repping, with an eye for it to be my commuter bike when I quit the bike biz and went back to school in 2001. Bike got stolen that April while I was in a C++ programming class. I still wish I had the Brooks Team Pro and the MKS pedals back.

jimicoltrane

Yellow Schwinn Continental. Thief pulled apart my deck in Gainesville, FL. It was '76 or '77. Bike was about five years old. I'd put a LOT of miles on it. Still sad about it.

bwilli88 

Never had a bike stolen. Not yet anyway.

JohnDThompson 

When my son went to college, I gave him my old Olmo-built "Velital" Italian city bike. It was a basic bike-boom era gas-pipe frame, but I'd built it up with a funky collection of components, including an Atom drum brake, Gian Robert shifters and derailleurs and (my favoriter part), "Condorino" handlebars. It got stolen, of course, but my son said he thought he spotted it in town as part of a "tall bike" someone built. I don't miss the bike particularly, but I do miss the handlebars.

ramzilla

1972 model Bottecchia Professional stolen in 1975 at the University of Arizona in Tempe.

Kilroy1988 

One time I was drunk and rode my fixie to class, then walked back to my apartment (this was in San Francisco). The door happened to be ajar and I entered seeing that my bicycle was missing. I blamed both of my roommates and they were very sad. I went to class the next day and found my bike locked up just where I left it.

I didn't drink for a while after that, and gave my roommates all my good beers to make up for it!

obrentharris 

I made it all the way through school without losing a single bike. In 1980 My wife and I bought our first house in Oakland California. Shortly thereafter our basement was broken into. They got my only bikes, a Pogliaghi, and a Falcon. After that I fortified the house and basement and commuted to work on a Schwinn Hollywood for a few months until I could afford another bike.
Brent

CliffordK

One of my first "Road Bikes" was a used Viscount. Powdercoated red when I got it. I rode it to my High School, I think my Freshman year, and locked it up, but lost my key that day, so perhaps I dropped it by the rack.

It was recovered about 2 years later, but the person with it wasn't charged because of an improper search. But, it had been insured, and left for the insurance company.

In the meantime, I purchased a really cheap Astra which I rode around until my trip to Italy in 1982 when I bought my Colnago.

Sometime in college, , maybe just after college, early 90's, I loaned the Astra to a friend, who was lax with locking it, and it was also stolen.

I still have the Colnago Super. I was pretty careful with locking it throughout college. I did keep it under my roommates bed one year, and somehow one day it had a bunch of spokes pull through the rim. I never figured out what happened.

Charliekeet

Giant RS940

SuperMutt

1980's Miyata 110 off UCF campus in 2007 (I lived on campus). They even took the bike lock which threw me off. Made me think I parked it somewhere else.

Rocket-Sauce 

1988/9 Masi Nouva Strada with Campy Croce d'Aune.
I saved all my messenger money for a year to buy that.
I would visit it and drool over it like Wayne and the guitar.
I purchased it December 28 1989 from International Bicycles in Allston, MA (RIP).
It was stolen from my apartment January 2 1990 in broad daylight.
I owned it for 5 days. It hadn't even been ridden yet (too snowy!).
That one still hurts.

russtopherb

My younger brothers sold my '86 GT Performer for $20 while I was away at college. I consider that one theft for sure.

Almost had my Specialized stolen right out of my garage here at home (I was in grad school at the time so I'm counting it). Thankfully my former neighbor saw the kids trying to ride it along with my wife's bike out of the garage and her husband ran across the street and yanked the kid right off the bike and held him until the police showed up a few minutes later.

Pompiere

Not at school, but my Fuji Royale was stolen from in front of my dorm when I was living on a Navy base while my ship was undergoing an overhaul. A few days later I saw a guy riding it on the base and alerted the base police and was able to recover it. Unfortunately, it was stolen for good at my next duty station.

merziac

It may have partied a little too hard with a room mate and willing partner on the topside of the bed.