Maybe you LOST your bikes.....

[gatordog]

I only say this because there are so many postings for "Lost" cameras, backpacks, etc....but all the missing bikes are listed as "stolen"
If people are getting so loaded and silly that they are walking away from their three hundred dollar NIKONS I gotta think some of you are just walking away from your bikes and forgetting where you left them. My wacky tandem was constanbtly lit up with lights and I had trouble finding it in the piles sometimes.
Also, I notice very few of the lost bikes describe their "decorations" or lighting. The burners I hang with have foundover the years that decorated bikes tend not to go missing as easily.
Just some thoughts....

[Taniwha]

When the time came for us to pack up and leave this year my 12yr old couldn't find his bike .... we assumed it had been stolen, doom and gloom set in ... I suggested he try the local porta-potties, maybe someone had borrowed it to go there ..... he goes off looking rather sad and reappears a few minutes later on the bike ..... seems he'd biked to the PPs and forgotten how he'd got there and walked home ... (no drugs, no booze, no darkness ... just being spacey in the heat)

[Angry Butterfly]

I ride a ride a LOT and just always lock it up by habit. I was too busy with other projects to decorate my bike, but I locked it to stuff (or itself) and didnt have a problem. I let people borrow it on the condition they lock it, which was a first because Even though I am pretty generous with other stuff, I am a paranoid freak when It comes to my bike. This helps. Next year if I can afford it i am going to buy a box of those cheap O dollar store locks wholsesale and give them out as gifts along with some laminated bike safety tips, that is all you need on the playa, people only take bikes for transportaion, most people have beaters that they have only owned for a week or so, so they dont even know what they look like, so they just take off with some bike thinking that it is theirs or that it is another beater and it doesnt matter. To be honest, as someone who owns two bikes and almost never uses a car, I don't think I will bother even bringing one next year, BRC is just not *that* big, and I had a lot more fun walking than i did on a bike, when I was walking, people offered me drinks and conversation and food and shelter, when I was on a bike all I could think of was how I wanted to go faster and how there were 30,000 people on bikes, 29,000 of whom probably only ride them once a year and ride as if they dont know basic bike ettiquette ( keep right, ect ) So most of the time I was on my bike i was annoyed, and just whe I started feeling self righthous, I would get distracted by something and act like a complete moron myself!

[Jordan 10-E]

opps... see below..

[Jordan 10-E]

I seriously doubt that is the real reason people's bikes ended up missing. I know I didn't LOSE mine. I looked at every bike in the area about 10 times before I gave into reality that some loser had taken it.

Also while we are on this subject of messed up people taking bikes...this is part of what I wrote in another thread...

Personally I think this idea floating around that people make the mistake of picking up someone else's bike instead of their own and riding away on it to be a pile of crap! The same goes for bags. People take bikes because they want a new bike, want to sell it for money, are tired of walking, or want to go for a joyride. Hey, this is Burning Man! If people are that stupid and messed up they need some help.

Theft is theft no matter how you look at it.

[Kinetic]

My $0.02 on this is that many bikes come up missing because people on the playa especially around the esplanade are maybe chemically out of it, or in various altered states of consciousness, and when your like that shit happens. I almost grabbed the wrong bike twice myself. So that's why I'm speaking up here.

I'm sure there are the assholes who know what they are doing and go scoping out good bikes to steal and strike when they can. But I still feel this is the exception, not the main reason why bikes come up missing.

Having had my sister's bike stolen....and yeah we screwed up by not decorating it and I couldn't find the second bike lock....this hit home for us this year. I've gotten over it, next year we're going to bring our Manhattan locks, and buy a hell of a lot more CoolNeon and spend more time decorating the bikes. Lessons learned, life moves on.

One good comment about stolen bikes...while Playa Info was rude this year, the Rangers actually took a report and were very nice to deal with. I hold the Black Rock Rangers in high regard as a result.

[Angry Butterfly]

yes, bike theves are pure evil, It is amazing what they will do. I Providence, someone cut through a fence that was holding like 20 bikes and took all of them AND THE FENCE. Like I said, I am paranoid about mine so I kept it in my house, I still do. I really wouldnt be suprised if there are profesional bike theves scoping out burningman, It is a paradise for them, The whole time I was there I saw ONE other person using a lock. ONE. Look at it this way, "professional" bike theves pay $300 for a ticket, one or two decent bikes (like papabear's) and it is payed off, they come in with an empty rental truck, no one suspects anything, they leave with a truck full of bikes destined for EBay or local papers or a crooked shop. CHA CHING! And even with the theives I have heard HUNDREDS of biked go unclaimed at the end of the week. A lot of my friends who had put on large theme camps told me that a ton of bikes were left over when they packed up. I saw it happen, Our camp had about 20 extra, as of tuesday, we took the best and sent the rest to the bike graveyard, a bike hearse comes and picks them up.

[pan]

My bike disapeared while I was painting myself green at the body paint camp. I went back every day ( for touch-ups ) to see if it would return.
It had a sticker on it that said "Jaimes Taxi"
And then, one golden morning, there it was again! Wherever it went, it must have had a good time. There were ribbons on it, and its chain had been tightened. My faith in humanity was restored.
Thank you, whoever brought it back.
It was not decorated , but next year it will be !
Pan

[freakboy]

Well, I know for certain that some were outright stolen. I kept mine locked almost all of the time. On friday at 7PM I came back to our camp and loaded more stuff on the rack, put on the headlight and ducked into the kitchen tent to look at the What When Where. When I came back out less than 2 minutes later the bike (and all my stuff) was gone. The bike itself wasn't such a big loss as it was purchased as a potentially disposable piece of transportation. But the stuff that I had on it tripled the value of the bike! It had ~$60 worth of EL wire and controllers on it, my wifes Blackburn rack, the cable lock, my wristwatch, my bag with my gifts and dust goggles, the headlight and probably a few other things I can't remember right now. I find it very hard to believe that somebody just happened to grab the wrong one in the daylight parked next to a shade structure. Our camp also had two others disappear. One vanished at the porta-pots and one vanished on the playa late at night. Those I can believe were accidental. But there were definitely some which were stolen. All you have to do is leave it unlocked for a minute in your own camp...

[BlueBirdPoof]

And even with the theives I have heard HUNDREDS of biked go unclaimed at the end of the week. A lot of my friends who had put on large theme camps told me that a ton of bikes were left over when they packed up. I saw it happen, Our camp had about 20 extra, as of tuesday, we took the best and sent the rest to the bike graveyard, a bike hearse comes and picks them up.

I've wondered what happens to those bikes that remain unclaimed.

Ever hear of those programs that they have in some cities where they get a bunch of used and donated bikes, fix them up, paint them some gawdoffel yellow color and then leave them at stations around the city for public use? I keep thinking it's a natural for BRC, especially as they must have a PILE of unclaimed bikes every year. Of course, I'm sure that there must be some legal ramifications for commandeering someone's bike like that, and it's hard to imagine a color so gawdoffel that a couple hundred playans haven't already painted their bike that, but I just cant help but think it's a better end than rusting away at teh work ranch.

[DE FACTO]

My bike disapeared while I was painting myself green at the body paint camp. I went back every day ( for touch-ups ) to see if it would return.
It had a sticker on it that said "Jaimes Taxi"
And then, one golden morning, there it was again! Wherever it went, it must have had a good time. There were ribbons on it, and its chain had been tightened. My faith in humanity was restored.
Thank you, whoever brought it back.
It was not decorated , but next year it will be !
Pan

that's what happened to a burner friend of mine in 94. not quite as nice though (tightened chain? really nice)
hope more of that sort of thing happens next year. then again never expect anything at BRC.

[leslielandberg]

My bike was stolen in 2003 and it was a pretty nice one. The best one I could afford, though not an expensive one, with a nice basket and rack...

Anyhow, heres my idea: upon coming to BM, all BM bikers can proceed to Playa Info, where they will register their bikes and recieve a registration card. They put this in their wallet. It describes their bike and has their name and address on it. When they leave the event, just as when they came in, "greeters" will look into their trailers and cars to see if there are bikes in there...we don't want people to smuggle peope in and we don't want people to smuggle bikes out, right? If you bring in a bike, you need a registration card to prove its yours when you leave.

No more moving vans full of stolen bikes will ever leave the playa and the theives will know to just stay home from now on.

What do you all think? It needn't slow down the line (which is very slow going out, I know) because there's ample time for "greeters" to go down the line of often stationary vehicles and check them before they get to the exit, paying careful attention to all the larger moving vans, of course.

[Ranger Genius]

The moving vans thing is an urban legend. Most bikes that are swiped are not swiped for profit or to keep..usually they're swiped on a flimsy, chemically-enhanced rationalization such as "I'm just going over there, they won't mind..." The guy who'd had his bike stolen that I talked to during one of my shifts actually found it. I told him to walk around center cafe, and sure enough, it was right there. Some people swipe bikes maliciously, but it is, I'm sure, quite rare.

[Zephryus]

Can you imagine how much it would slow everything down to register and keep track of every damned bike on the playa?

In this case, some good education/propoganda would go a lot farther than a massive bureaucracy.

[leslielandberg]

Hey I hate beurocracy, too. I think a combo approach of common sense, people looking out for each other more, more locks on bikes, plus registration would be a good idea. It only takes a moment to fill out a card or two and drop them by Playa Info, to be placed in a card file. You hang onto one copy, they have the other; when you leave, if you have 2 or three bikes in your vehicle, while you're stuck out there, waiting to get to the gate, a ranger approaches you and asks to look in your van. You have your reg cards ready. The cards match the bike descriptions and you are on your way.

You lose a bike...you report it missing to the Playa Info. It goes on a list: ALERT! Possibly stolen. They will be sure to find it, if someone has taken it by accident and are on their way home with it...I'm sure that happens! (Hey, whose bike it this, Dude??) Well, there you go, it's now in Montana.

More often, if it's not out on the playa (a lot of them are abandoned) then is may be on its way to a chop shop. If we can catch those MF's with their hands in the candy jar, as they leave with 100-200 of our bikes at a pop, I won't lose any sleep, let me tell you. And after one year like that, you can bet they won't be back anytime soon. In fact, the mere fact that we are registering bikes, will keep them away. So much is stolen at BM, it's really sad: expensive cameras, DJ equipment, etc, etc. And it's senseless. Let's stop the bike theives!

According to BM info and rangers, tons of bikes are stolen every year by pro bike theives who come in and round up all unlocked bikes (usually during the burn or just after) and leave in the middle of the night or early morning hours. It's a racket, and a lock does not deter them, anymore than it does when they're in town. This is a bonanza for them, and it will stop, but it will take some organization. Sorry if that is off-putting, but I sympathize a lot with your reaction: there are tons of people who don't come to BM anymore for that very reason.

[Dork]

Every now and then a rumor floats around that someone is planning on bringing RF tags that people can put on their bikes, allowing them to track it down if lost. I don't think anyone has completed a project like that yet, but it seems like the best way to go. The scope of the project might be a little too much for a volunteer group to take on, unfortunately.

[tandembride]

My stolen bike was also a tandem, heavily decorated. I watched e-bay for months and sure enough they auctioned it off around Christmas. (Didn't even get what I had paid for the last trip to the bike shop for it.) TAKE a BIG LOCK!!!!

[Rian Jackson]

yes, bike theves are pure evil, It is amazing what they will do. I Providence, someone cut through a fence that was holding like 20 bikes and took all of them AND THE FENCE. Like I said, I am paranoid about mine so I kept it in my house, I still do. I really wouldnt be suprised if there are profesional bike theves scoping out burningman, It is a paradise for them, The whole time I was there I saw ONE other person using a lock. ONE. Look at it this way, "professional" bike theves pay $300 for a ticket, one or two decent bikes (like papabear's) and it is payed off, they come in with an empty rental truck, no one suspects anything, they leave with a truck full of bikes destined for EBay or local papers or a crooked shop. CHA CHING! And even with the theives I have heard HUNDREDS of biked go unclaimed at the end of the week. A lot of my friends who had put on large theme camps told me that a ton of bikes were left over when they packed up. I saw it happen, Our camp had about 20 extra, as of tuesday, we took the best and sent the rest to the bike graveyard, a bike hearse comes and picks them up.

sigh. i know. someone cut apart my porch to steal my bike and ignored my housemate's.

i'm still a little sore about it. and bikeless.

[bdongray]

My stolen bike was also a tandem, heavily decorated. I watched e-bay for months and sure enough they auctioned it off around Christmas. (Didn't even get what I had paid for the last trip to the bike shop for it.) TAKE a BIG LOCK!!!!

My bike was not stolen, but I am paranoid about locking it EVERY time.

My 2003 bike was also a little easy to spot:

I thought it possibly would have been a target for someone wanting to have something fun to ride!

By the way, the intent was to have it look like this:

but even the lightest of breezes would cause the surfaces to become a sail, making cycling into the wind impossible, so off came the fabric

[papabear]

Back for another year... This time i am prepared for the bastards that wanna try and snatch my bike. I have nothing to do with this website. and I am not trying to sell anything... actually I am thinking of buying a crapload and giving them as gifts. they're cheap. i was surprised!

I thought peeps might want to get the same sorta thing for their rides.

http://www.guarddog.net/calarm.htm

Cheap Child Radio alarms tha go off if someone moves your bike away from you. So as your kicking it in a nice camp... you'll here if someone moves your bike. 8-25 feet of distance to play with. Shit if someone takes my new bad ass stretch cuiser this time... I will hear it coming. and tackle their ass right then and there.

NO MORE THEFT. have fun this year everyone and be prepared.

papabear

[Guest]

Hey guys