Rhodabike

I think we must have the safest bike rack in town where I work. Bikes get left there untouched for months at a time, the previous record being 4 months.
That record has been broken by an old white Trek 800 mountain bike which was locked up last October with a flat tire and broken off mirror. The owner chained his helmet up with it and left a bottle on. The chain has gone to solid rust from snow and rain, but it seems to have been a halfway decent quality bike in it's day, just looking at the dropouts.

My question is, how long should a bike be left in a non-residential rack before it's considered to be abandoned? If the owner doesn't want it, there is an organisation in town that teaches inner city youth to do bike repairs, and they could restore it and find an appreciative home for it.

cudak888 

We've been here countless times before. Speak with the building's landlord - ask them when the next bike rack purge will be.

-Kurt

rhm

I think after the spokes rust away it's fair game. But I've heard my ethical standards are sub-par.

sailorbenjamin

About a year ago one of the residents at the community where I work was getting ready to throw away a bike that had been leaning against the side of her apartment for long, long time. The tires had rotted off. I took it home, greased it up, put some better tires on it and gave it to the son of one of the other residents. Well the next door neighbor of the first res has a daughter in college and she came home for the summer. I guess it was her bike.
No one has said anything to me about saving the bike or giving it new tires, but then no one has said anything to me about stealing it either.
Whatev'.

jon c. 

We've got a Pug that's been in the rack untouched since the first of the year (or the end of the fall semester). Definitely abandoned, but it appears to be bottom end and after this much time is not likely worth rehabbing.

auchencrow

Time limit on abandoned bikes?

3 to 7 minutes, depending on your lock and your neighborhood.

Velognome 

+1 In lawyer speak -The time limit on an "abandoned" bike is established by: #1 the material you must cut through and #2 the tool you use to do it, to fee said biKe from its mooring point.

Of course, this will work for you bike theives as well as envoking the "Idaho Stop Law" did for me in the great State of NJ

sgnl2nz

I left a mid 60's lower-end Gitane road bike with all original components (and bright orange paint!) locked with the flimsiest cable lock to a busy bike rack in an unsecured parking garage in the financial district in San Francisco.

I bought it to commute to my job at the time in the building next to the garage and didn't know much about frame sizing then. It was $20 ( which was affordable) and orange (which was...safe?) I'm 5'9" tall with a 32.5" inseam and it had a 60cm frame so it took me only a paycheck or two for me to build a better ride. I left the Gitane there for one purpose. Riding around Telegraph hill for my 30 minute lunchtime Golden Boy Pizza/Gina & Carlo whiskey chug fun run that could bail me out of the worst of days. Which were becoming every day.

Before you rush to judgement, I was working as the Assistant-Assistant-Facilities Manager for a tanking asbestos litigation firm at the time. Defense attorneys and counsel. I was quickly promoted for doing nothing else other than not ever **** up, which many of my co-workers apparently had a harder time with. I liked that I was making more money, but I also had to learn fast how to manage a staff of a dozen. And actually dress sharp for work, which was still a very physical job- running up and down three floors with multiple mail carts, faxing, filing, copying, handling reception and the telephone system. I was 21 years old at time and the youngest of all of the staff. I performed very well against all odds, but it was clear that this was not anything resembling a future for me. The high points were filling in for the regular bike messenger service for court runs (buddies that used to become gracefully 'unavailable' when they knew I needed to get out of the office for a bit. I argued to the higher ups that I had a bike and prior court filing and process server experience (the legal world is a close, dense market for jobs) and that's all they needed to send me on my way on any given day. It was a good distraction but I would always return to an empty mail room, broken equipment, or my capable staff getting into a shouting match with an attorney or the UPS agent.

The final straw was when I got back from one of said lunches and my own manager told me that I had to fire the receptionist that afternoon. He only said that she had "a confrontation with one of the partners" (which wasn't a complete surprise to me) and he would explain the rest later. Which I was just about to do when I discovered the backup receptionist passed out drunk and snoring loudly in the bathroom stall next to me, empty schnapps bottle on the floor (Which wasn't a complete surprise, either). I didn't hire either of them, but I couldn't see how firing both of them on the same day would make things any easier for anyone. I wasn't about to leave him slumped there with his pants up, so I crawled under the stall door and pulled him out fast, shuffling down the back hallways and service elevator before waiting for a cab with him downstairs. I guess the journey was enough to sober him up some- he was lucid enough realize what was going on. He was only mildly belligerent and I told him I'd give him a story to stick to if anyone asked. I rushed back upstairs and pulled the other doomed receptionist aside and casually asked her if she wanted to work there. She said 'not really,' which made the firing process pretty much effortless. I told my manager that schnapps had left due to a 'family emergency' which then left only me to cover the reception desk. My first call was to schnapps. He picked up immediately. I asked him if he was coming in tomorrow? He said no faster than I could finish. I told him I'd cover for him and write a letter of recommendation while he worked out his 'family emergency.' Did I want to work there anymore? No. Was I coming in tomorrow? Nope.

After I quit I didn't forget about it, but I had learned much more about bikes by then and reasoned that I had no need for an oversized frame, steel rims, brittle aluminum stem and bars and other French curiosities. I had honest intentions to retrieve it at some point to sell or donate but couldn't be bothered to hop on a bus and go get it. It was six months later that I was driving my car near there and thought I'd check on it. It was immediately visible from the street to the far end of the garage where I had it parked, maybe 100 feet away. There it sat, dusty and unmolested with visible but superficial corrosion. I knew I definitely fit it in of my Honda Civic if I removed the front wheel and seatpost but I didn't have any tools with me.

That was 2006. Corner of Francisco and Montgomery streets. In the unlikely case it's not scrap metal by now, please take it away.

23skidoo

Around here you can call the police and if the officer decides it's 'abandoned property' you can ask for a case number to file a claim on the property; if it's unclaimed in 30 days it's yours for the asking.

KonAaron Snake 

This is going to vary by local law.

Philadelphia:

Public Property - In our area the police get a complaint, or they see one abandoned, and they put a piece of paper on it notifying the owner they have a week to move it. If it's still there, and they bother, the bike gets removed. At that point I believe it's taken to the same dump site stolen bikes get to and they are supposedly auctioned off. I've tried finding out about that auction and no one knows anything. Someone is making cash keeping that quiet and with the "right" people. Maybe scrappers.

Private Property - the property owner/management develops policy, but they run the risk of a suit without giving notice or holding the bike for an appropriate period.

Gravity Aided

Ask security, if there is some , they may have a policy about this.

CardiacKid

A Trek 800 does not warrant a moral dilemma.

TimmyT 

Email the people you work with to see if it's someone's. If so, offer something, say $25 for it. At that point, I would say you've done due diligence. I tend to err on the side of moral rectitude, however. I've seen a lot of bikes cannibalized in the neighborhood, and mine get kept in my apartment.

1987

I like that one.
Though there is no time limit for theft. I guess that's why you ask.

puchfinnland

Finland is full of bikes, and people throw out perfectly good bike all the time.
I go to the dump and bring some of them home.
I see it like this

if it has flat tires-earmark it
if there is some parts missing the owner will most likely never return

the county will come and sweep up the abandon bikes maybe 2 times a year.
I watched a 2 very nice bikes for 8 months before giving it a good future.

1987

The proper way to do it in Sweden is like this: take the abandoned bike to the police > if no one picks it up from the lost and found department it's yours.

Gravity Aided

Generally, the police in the US tend to keep the bike and auction it off on some website . They used to have public auctions but that seems to be going away in favor of sites like property room .

1987

Interesting, didn't know about Property Room.
https://www.propertyroom.com/c/bikes