Bike Jedi

You haven't been to my neck of the woods then. They would steal the underwear too. Even with a pile of poo on it. They would gladly move the pile of poo aside, and they might not even use a stick.

I think you give most thieves way too much respect.

conspiratemus1

Yeah, if they'll inject dirty crap into their veins, they certainly won't care about handling soiled underwear in their quest to score dirty crap. Watch "Trainspotting".

3speed

I'm amazed at how many people have such casual attitudes about locking up. I Always lock my bike. Why wouldn't you? It's worth the peace of mind alone. It's not difficult to do. I personally carry a small Kryptonite chain lock. The smaller ones aren't too heavy, are Way more secure than a cable lock(which are a joke and what bike thieves look for), and still give you the flexibility to lock up to larger poles, trees, picnic tables, etc.
Well I Completely agree with you on the part about making your bike fly under the radar. My last touring bike was spray-painted flat black, sanded off derailer/component names, etc. It didn't look like I had a nice bike with Shimano XT, hand built wheels, and Chris King headset. It looked like a pretty blah thing, and even if you knew, you'd get no money for a bike with all of the part names sanded of. "I swear man, it's a King headset. Look at the profile of one online and it's the same!"

But you think your bike is safer at walmart than Whole Foods(which doesn't make you look filthy rich...)? Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, but theft of items like bikes and cars happens by poor people. No need to get into all of the reason why. It is what it is. The guy at Whole Foods is probably getting some groceries to take home and make dinner with his wife, for their children. He's not snagging a bike on the way out. He also probably has a bike worth more than mine if he's into bikes. The bum or punk kids hanging out in front of walmart? They may well decide to snag it if it's not locked down and/or might be worth some cash. That's like saying your bike is safer in the ghetto because people assume you're poor if you're there... And it makes sense to lock up at a library too. Again, kids and bums hang out there. Though I'd feel Much safer leaving my bike outside of a library unlocked than a walmart. Walmart would pretty much be just above the local known junkie hangout(which may well be walmart anyway).

indyfabz

I'be seen more than one person get arrested for shoplifting at my local Whole Foods.

3speed

You must live in a rough area. I think I've only seen one person arrested for shoplifting in my entire lifetime. But anywho, of course people steal from Whole Foods. People steal from everywhere.

Eggman84

It is called a lock. I don't care what type you have, but use it each and every time you leave your bike unattended (yes I include when I am sleeping in a campground as unattended) and it will cut down the chance of your bike being stolen. Eliminate the chance, no. Bad things can and do happen even to those who take all the precautions (that they or others thought worthwhile/prudent).

Bike Jedi

This isn't for your bike but components, which I have more fear of them yanking off my seat then I do them stealing my bike...

Remove one of the water bottle seat post screws and get a longer one that will got through to the wall of the other side of the post. DIY, get something comprable, or rig some type of cable like you see externally on seat posts like this.

attache one side to the under side of the seat, drop it down into the seat post so that it is long enough to just catch where you are going to replace the water bottle bolt with a longer one. Put the screw in and thru the loop you dropped down inside the seat post and tighten the rest of the way so it holds the loop in place. Your seat is now secure a bit more than meets the eye. If measured out properly, they shouldn't be able to remove the seat and won't/should not think to remove the water bottle screw that you replaced that was longer than normal. I never heard of this tip before.

The other one was to put silicone in all the places an allen key would go in. they would have to spend time chipping it out and might turn them away.

indyfabz

That WF is not in a rough area, and it's actually the second largest one in the U.S. But it is in Philly, so not suburban.

staehpj1

I have had a couple small items go missing when on tour. They were items that were in plain sight and easily just picked up and carried off in someone's hands. I should not have left them out in plain sight.

Generally I don't worry too much about theft other than try to use good situational awareness and do the following:

• Use a minimal cable lock where I feel it makes sense.
• Try to park the bike where it is in my sight if I am in a diner or whatever.
• Don't leave the bike unattended if I think a place seems high risk.
• Take the bike inside while shopping if the area seem really sketchy, either parking it up front by the registers or more often just wheeling it up and down the aisles.
• Ride a bike I can afford to replace if need be and accept that some day I may have to replace it to continue a long tour or end a short one if the bike goes missing. I don't think this is likely but accept it is a possibility.
• Use gear I can afford to replace if need be.
• I tour mostly in rural small town areas avoiding larger towns and cities for the most part, but am especially careful when I do visit larger towns especially "bike friendly" ones. Those are the ones where bike theft is a problem.
• Consider getting a room when staying in cities or really large towns.

The bikes I tour on are not all that attractive to a bike thief and they are loaded with used camping gear and dirty laundry. I splurge a bit on some of my gear, but it is all well enough within my means that I could write a check to replace it all if I needed to. While I like my bikes and gear they are not all that great of a prize for someone looking to turn a quick buck to buy drugs.

indyfabz

+1. I have previously told the story of how two local kids (with a car) in DuBois, WY tried to steal my stove by hopping over the post rail fence that separated the campground's tent area from a road that led to a residential area. Never should have left the stove out. Cannot even remember why I had unpacked it. It wasn't dinner time. It's possible that I had used it to heat water to wash one of my pots. The night before I had camped at a primitive site without water. Fortunately, I saw the kids from my position outside the laundry room and was able to frighten them off.

saddlesores

having trouble visualizing the seatpost cable. unless you're using one of those cheapie open-post bolt-on style post and seats, how do you send the cable through the top of the post without drilling a hole....large enough to thread the loop through also....which would compromise strength? why not just replace the binder bolt with a torx head?

silicone in the heads sounds like more trouble for you anytime you need to adjust anything. either replace all with torx heads or go completely paranoid crazy and jb-weld everything in place.

Trevtassie

Abus Frame lock with the accessory cable. Easy to use for a casual dash into the shops and the cable for locking to trees or benches in campgrounds. Bike is never parked in the street overnight (and sometimes not during the day either) in cities or some larger towns even if it means carrying all 21kg up a couple of flights of stairs. Except in Japan, then not in plain sight. Sprayed the dynamo hub and Rohloff with removable (I hope-that's what the can said) plastic spray.

gauvins

+1

3speed

I like the idea of replacing a few key bolts with torx heads.

I’ve thought about melting a hard wax and filling bolts like stem and seat, but torx is easier. The wax would be fairly simple since you generally don’t need to unbolt those on a regular basis. I think I move my seat-post once/year when I overhaul my bike.

zacharyhoyt

My bike is 20 years old now and looks it, with a milk crate on the front and an obviously homemade flat rack on the back, plus it's a 63 cm frame with the seat post extended about a foot, so the only person who would want to steal it would be a very tall and very underfunded person, I think. I don't worry about leaving it outside stores briefly, but overnight I hide it in the woods when I'm traveling, more from a concern about vandalism than theft. Anybody of a normal size would look pretty conspicuous walking away with it in daylight and wouldn't be able to ride it without getting an Allen wrench and lowering the seat.

Bike Jedi

That won't help me...I am paranoid...they will still get it.

To answer your other question, I am not sure how the cable works exactly. The guy in the LBS mentioned it to me the day I put the post up. Haven't given it much more thought than that.

Personally, I just think I will change out the bolts for some type of security locks there instead. I think when I get my bike all said and done for touring, if I don't have some type of special skewer/locks by then, I will do the ball bearing with crazy glue thing or wax instead. I would be more worried about sketchy areas, where the folks who target bikes on chance more than anything, are going to have a hand bike tool on them, and can quickly loosen the bolt and walk off with my seat. The new wheel build will be Quick release setup, but they will have special skewers in it to prevent a lever there and easy release. I see too many bicycles in my area with missing seats out in front of stores, missing front wheels, or way too many front wheels saved with a UBolt to the bike rack and everything else is ironically missing.

I thought the cable down in the seat post thing was a clever idea, but I don't see myself doing that in the end. I don't worry about the rest of my bike, I just always seem to worry about coming back and finding my seat missing.

saddlesores

the world is a scary place filled with bad people who do bad things.
you sure you want to do this?
camping in the woods.....alone....in the dark?
imagine you're nestled in your bivy and you hear the haunting
sounds of an accordion being played poorly.....spooky!

maybe stick with organized tours for the time being.
there's safety in numbers!
they can carry your luggage, arrange lodging, even provide the bike.

Bike Jedi

Yes, I am sure I want to do this. I wouldn't have spent years of my life researching, planning, studying, learning, riding, riding, riding, building a custom bike, minimizing my life down to nothing to make sure I can do it in the psyche, and pretty much spend as many hours of my life as I have the last couple of years planning for this. So yes, of course I am absolutely sure I want to do this. "Want" has NEVER been questionable internally.


Yes, there are parts of that that scare the heck out of me. Mostly bigger game hunting or coming up on them surprisingly, being territorial, etc... I had a raccoon decide to get territorial with me at 3 am in the dark while I was sleeping, and proceeded to tell me it wasn't happy about every 45 minutes for the rest of the night. Stupid stuff like that scares the **** out of me. This was while sleeping inside infested areas with Coyotes. That scares me. I would assume that enough practical time of doing it, encounters, getting through them, whatever...will forge a stronger man in me that those things won't be such a factor over time. I also worry about drunk/tweeker rougher kids going out into the woods at night to party and stumble upon me with not the best intentions either. But I live in the hood and they are sex trafficking girls and selling meth outside my window. I will take my chances statistically in the woods than what is now.


Like paranormal haunting? That stuff is a walk in the park. Not a bivy guy either. I will have the super strong tent lining walls to protect me from all those monsters in my imagination during those times I guess. You know the thin liner of a tent is actually way stronger than my imagination against those monsters. The thin plastic nylon wall of a tent can suddenly become 10 feet of encased concrete, with re-bar, that God himself can barely penetrate! You know when you were a kid and pulled the sheets over your head and pretended like nobody can see you? That's what a 10 foot encased concrete thin nylon plastic liner can do. Ear buds and ear plugs hopefully will take care of the rest.




All true. Until I thought through reality of things and put it into context of current surroundings. Then the accordion magically turned to crickets, the wind, and the beauty of tomorrow's ride.


Reverse psychology? Cool! It's working well to be honest.


Obviously you haven't seen how things REALLY work....


It is why I am getting on the bike...to get away from the Zombie Apocalypse!



Back rubs with happy endings too? Sounds like rich folk amateur stuff. I would like to do one of them as a volunteer kind of ride where you are helping folks along the way...but the Happy ending stuff isn't for me.


Not a fan of gory things with the pic. It's ugly and I don't like it


There isn't anything out there that is much scarier than coming outside and them stealing my Brooks saddle in many ways if you really want to know the truth. I can handle Heaven, Hell, God, Lucifer, etc... but I simply can't handle coming outside and seeing my saddle gone! It has never happen, and I don't want to go through that horrific, terrible, frightening, experience! If you are going to take it, then take the whole damn bike and make me walk home! But don't make me ride home without a saddle and be one of "those" guys!


I currently live in the hood, with sex trafficking and meth being sold right outside my bedroom window (literally), swat raiding the motel next door on a pretty frequent basis (that's quite a show), and a local ex-gang banger had words with me in the last 48 hours about how not to, "talk to his momma like that..." as he has already rushed me in my doorway once in a violent manner simply because he decided to come home drunk and had beer muscles on in the hood.

One of the many reasons why I am ready to do this


Yes, I am 50 years old and can't believe myself I am dealing with "mommy" stuff at the moment, except now it seems to be for your life instead of playground nonsense. Well it still seems like play ground nonsense, but these folks seem to want to put their and your life on the line over it now instead of what it was like when we were on the playground as kids. Only difference is they never grew up. I thought the mommy joke days were over, but I actually was threatened over a bipolar ex-gang banger coming home, threatening the entire complex, and of course I am the dumb one that has to go out and confront him because he is doing this outside children's bedroom windows. Then there was they guy I had to chase off of one of the properties yesterday that looked like this. When I say "chased" I don't mean like tough guy chased him off, just asked him to leave telling him it was all private property acting like property owner for a friend. I got the gang signs flashed as he left saying, "respect," something or other as he left. I honestly have no idea what he was saying, flashing, or doing, and didn't think it was the best time to ask further questions. I slowly walked back up to my house with my chest slightly puffed out, trying to pretend I wasn't bothered by him, trying not to crap my pants in other ways, and trying to act like an adult in other ways.


That's just the last 48 hours at my house.


But if you really want to know the truth, I am afraid of the dark in bigger settings at times. So maybe you are right and staying where I am might be safer. I should rethink this.


I am afraid of the dark also...but I am told to be a light wherever I go...so the woods should be a walk in the park and a nice rest from the **** hole I live in now.


That picture is ugly. I wish you wouldn't post it


It also doesn't help to be posting pictures of be bloody nasty clowns to put seeds in people's minds as they are thinking about going off into the big scary dark world as you put it. Not something I want to be thinking about in the middle of the night when I hear bump in the night. No reason to introduce clowns into the other hundred things to be afraid of if it happens.

Any suggestions on security measures against bloody clowns in the middle of the night?

saddlesores

this is the only relevant part of your answer, as here is your problem.
if you've spent years in preparation and still haven't gone out on an overnighter, well, there ya go.
not much more needs to be said; it's a bike ride, dude, not a lunar landing.

you got a bike. you got your gear. put whatever you wanna keep, if anything, in storage.
sell the rest, or give it away. give notice to your landlord. you have 30 days, then head south.
have fun storming the castle!

Bike Jedi

The folks I follow online, it's both. For me, it's both.

It's not just a bike ride I am looking to do.

Done.

That's what I am trying to figure out now. Should I sell off tools and those things at $60 a month in storage. In 10 months, that's $600 alone in storage costs. I can replace all the tools I need and have at less than that. If I utilize storage, I can put some other things in it too, but that still doesn't add up to very much money long term. The time and effort of gathering those things again is a hassle, but the cost of it all isn't much when you start adding up storage costs and what if it ends up being a few years, say even two years. That's $1,500 which is now more than what I have in tools, bike stand, and the other crap I would throw in storage. And if I don't make it back to this place again at all, then I have clean out fee's to deal with long term on top of all that storage, and that's isn't worth the cost of trying to hang on to my stuff. At the same token, having a storage and central place to come back to and keeping residence in my state is still important to me, so I am not sure what to do. Not to mention the headache of dealing with listing everything on Craigslist, dealing with all those people, ugh...lot of effort for a few hundred maybe when you have to sell stuff in a rush and time sensitive.

What I end up doing most of the time.

Done. The 15th of this month or I can take up to the 30th. I prefer the 15th so I can get two more weeks of riding in with the weather. Plus the local natives are getting restless and good reason to use it as an excuse to just go.

Less.

Why does everyone say "south?" Why would I go through New Mexico and down to Mexico, when I can go through the Rockies for the rest of the summer, and head out North West instead for now?

OK whatever that means. That sounds dangerous and perhaps requires weapons. I prefer my bike and a little love thanks.

indyfabz

Yet still had to crowd source where to go in the winter. Things that make you go "Hmmmm?"

saddlesores

lemme get this straight.....after years and years of research and study and learning, you wanna head into the mountains at the end of august, with little (or no!) touring experience, and then head northwest?

in your other post you stated "I don't want to ride in the winter in Utah, Colorado, Montana, or Wyoming."

Bike Jedi

Funny video, never seen the movie.

And yes to your question. Isn't that bizarre?

I honestly don't know which direction to go. The beauty and downside of not having a plan and circumstances and timing dictating things more than anything. I was also thinking of getting the rest of summer in Colorado, then heading up North West and getting what warm weather I can out of the year, and either parking it for a few weeks/months in Oregon while exploring that for a while to see if I want to make a new base camp there, and then next Spring do Alaska down the coast. Or I can still do most of that and then take a train/plane to somewhere warmer and pick back up from there. Or I can enjoy a late summer on the west coast, ride down south at that point when I get to it, and then head down to Arizona area for coldest part of winter, and then resume when weather breaks. Or catch a flight/plane/train out to a southern state and pick it pack up ending in southern Florida for the winter until weather breaks.

I honestly don't know. The beauty and downside of my madness I guess

KraneXL

I clicked on because I thought you had some jedi mind trick up your sleeve. My advice, don't let the bike leave your possession.

I keep having this recurring dream (nightmare really) that my bike is stolen and I am devastated. Any bike shrinks in the house? 🥴

indyfabz

Framed arrived on 7/29. Hmmmmm? Must be a fast builder. I'd love to see a photo.