Our pal Doug from Ice Tubes got jacked:
I was enjoying some after work drinks on Election Night when I decided I had one too many to safely ride my bike home. I put my bike on the front rack of an outbound #71 at Market and 2nd, and took a seat on the front of the bus. I was on the sixth seat back, and had a decent view of my bike. The next stop was Stockton and we pulled up to a red light. As people were boarding the bus I had my head down until the driver called out that someone was taking my bike. By the time I stood up my bike was gone. I ran off the bus and headed back down Market assuming the thief was riding off in that direction but I couldn’t see anything among the lights of Market Street rush hour traffic.
Read on. And never take your eye off your bike. And if you see Doug’s bike, please let us know.
Always lock the wheel to the frame that way someone can’t ride off with, but will have to carry the bike.
I used to try to lock my bike to the rack as fast as possible until a driver told me I wasn’t allowed. I asked him if he would keep an eye on my bike and he said “no”.
.
Muni drivers, always helpful and personable!
yeah this is seriously one of my big fears about the bus. I’m surprised it doesn’t happen more often.
this is why i don’t take my bike on the bus. those racks are an ‘unvitation’ for cyclists to take the Muni and an invitation to get your bike stolen.
this happened to me once on the 14 stopped at 16th and Mission. the dude had gotten my bike off the rack was walking away with it and had nearly turned the corner when I saw him. I leapt off the bus, ran towards him and just after he mounted my bike and started riding it away, I grabbed the back wheel yanking it out from under him, screaming “that’s my fucking bike.” i think he got up and ran away but i don’t remember because the whole thing happened in a crazy adrenaline-fueled frenzy. I marched back to the bus (still there loading people) with a bloody hand and boarded via the middle door with my bike in tow at which point the busdriver tried to stop me until I told him what had gone down. done plenty of drugs, but never experienced a high as crazy as the victory/adrenaline cocktail from that experience.
that being said, I still put my bike on the bus on occasion, I’m just super vigilant about sitting/standing right by the front door and keeping crazy watch over my precious bike.
do drugs!
You know what someone should invent, a lock on the axle that’s built into the wheel. It wouldn’t slow you down when racking and unracking the bike. And it wouldn’t completely prevent your bike from being stolen, but it would slow things down just enough to beat the crap out of the piece of human debris stealing your bike.
In Europe you pretty commonly see aftermarket locks that do, essentially, that. You lock it and a metal bar crosses through the spokes of your rear wheel, preventing it from spinning.
why not just ride your bike?!
That really sucks. Getting shit stolen is never fun. I will try to keep my eye out for the bike. My condolences.