alanbikehouston

Looking at the photos in this thread reminded me of something else. Most adult bikes in Europe and Japan have fenders and front and rear lighting systems.

Today, in road bikes, a guy posted a photo of his new road bike and it had REFLECTORS. Of course, someone had to post to warn him to remove the reflectors. American cycling is dominated by the Sunday morning "boy racers", who assume that removing reflectors, and avoiding lights and fenders will cause their neighbors to think they are the next Lance.

The "lights are for dorks" bunch are the same guy who whine "I can't ride my bike in December cuz its dark so early and the roads are wet...gotta hang it up until May".

One of the coolest photos I've seen of bikes in Europe was a long line of dozens of bikes in Holland on a cold winter day. While the owners were at work, each bike had accumulated a couple inches of snow...it looked like a line of "snow sculpture" bikes. I guess in Europe someone forgot to warn cyclists that "December is dark and wet and its impossible to ride".

jmbranum

A good number of people do not lock their bikes here in Oklahoma City (but it's different in Stillwater and Norman, OK both college towns with lots of bike thieves).

I always lock my bike, but if I'm making a quick stop in a 7-Eleven or something like that, I'll just lock my front wheel to the frame. Certainly someone could steal the bike by picking it up, but the odds of that happening are slim to nill. The only real danger is some kid or a drunk taking a joy ride, which is why I lock the wheel to the frame.

MrCjolsen

If you ride a bike with low-end components, like an entry level road bike, the rear wheel is probably worth about $40 more than the front. The thing is that if I clip a front wheel, I can use it on any bike. But if I clip a rear wheel, I have to start getting picky.

CommuterRun

The thing that would bother me about that is the brands of hubs and rims may not match.

hooversalem9876

well i must admite it would be nice to live in a place where you did not have to lock up. i was at a resturant last year about 9 or ten pm locked the bike up but did not take off my light guess what when i came out light was gone and they tried to steal other things but could not get them off.

nathank

i currently live in Munich Germany and it is somewhat similar: maybe 5% of bikes are not locked at all, a small few "correctly" locked usually a substantial lock to a fixed object and the large majority are locked with a lightweight cable-lock fixing the rear wheel to the frame that simplay prevents a lazy person from jumping on and riding away. (but you could cut with a pair of hand wire cutters)

for me it is often quite frustrating as bike racks here consist of a slot to put your front tire but no place to lock to - as no one does.

as Thomasd states in Japan, a lot of the reason is that the bikes in general are not worth a lot -- most people here ride either a "trekking bike", "holland-style" bike (a heavy steel bike that looks like its 40 years old but is not) or an old mountain bike (i.e. canti brakes and no suspension).

from what i see and hear, if you have an "average" bike in munich there is very little danger of it getting stolen with the small cable lock as there are thousands of other bikes some of which are not locked at all. It is only for "expensive" bikes which basically means something that theives particularly look for which basically means a new-looking full-suspension mountain bike with some name-brand stuff (i.e. specialized or Marzocchi or Fox or whatever).

although the bike theft in germany is really low, some other european countries like Italy and the Netherlands seem to be a lot worse.

but yes, compare to in the US where i was always paranoid about parking my bike (with reason as i knew so many people whose bikes were stolen - geez, in college my girlfriend's $100 old women's road bike that was locked to a pole with a u-lock was stolen - my guess was that some guys in a pickup truck - this was Texas - lifted it 12 feet off the ground to get it - there was no sign on the pole)

here my bike is often the ONLY bike of 50+ locked with something other than a flimsy cable (Specialized Weblock)

wow dude, we had our first snow Friday and as i left the office the bike rack fit your description above... i would say that it was "idilic" but most of the people who normally bike to work opted to use the subway and about half of the bikes parked were left over from the day before. --- P.S. i mounted my studded bike tires the Friday morning after waking and looking out the window to see white and i commute year-round in munich (but it doesn't really get too cold here - under -20C or about 0F is rare)

and part of it in Germany is similar to what was said about Japan: your average person in Germany is "more honest" than your typical American so theft is really seen as a socially unacceptable thing -- (for the Americans here i don't mean this as a personal attack, but from my experience, say 60% of Americans are super-honest or "overly helpful", about 30% are "opportunists" meaning that if they think no one will notice they will take and then the real criminals are not so many) -- of course this is also apparent in other crime statistics (Munich is one of the safest cities with lowest crime in the world --- but yes, i pay high taxes!)

Roody

I don't know where in Michigan you live, but I'm not surprised. About half the people here in Lansing don't lock their bikes either. I just use a cheap cable lock and I've never lost even a decent bike. I did have a blinkie stolen off a bike once.

Nearby, in East Lansing, by the university, is another story. I guess a lot of bikes do get stolen there. I'm careful when I have to park in E.L.