I hate it when I use my nether-regions to adjust my bicycle seat…just plain dislike the very essence of my saddle shifting out of it’s highly physically-resistant placement by nothing else except my bike-short-chamois and 180 pounds of Jeff.
I did it twice today.
So in what, to me at least, is a very natural progression of logical thought, I wondered to myself:
Have clipless pedals ever acted as a theft deterrent? Has someone ever tried to steal a bike and been so rushed to pedal away - whether because the bike owner was chasing the thief, or the thief was just plain scared - and had their feet slip off the clipless pedals, resulting in the agonizing pain of groin meets top-tube?
I am sure someone out there has a story, or knows someone who has a story…
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7 responses so far ↓
1 Moe // Feb 11, 2008 at 5:49 pm
You know, I’ve wondered the same thing… what would happen if some idiot decides to take my fixed gear bike with crank brothers quattro’s…
2 Ghost Rider // Feb 11, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I’ve actually watched someone try to steal a fixed gear bike. At the first turn, the dude tried to coast and the bike threw him off. He left it where it fell and ran the hell away.
A happy ending, too — the owner got it back with just a couple scratches on it.
3 Jeff the Veloteer // Feb 11, 2008 at 10:07 pm
I knew I could count on Jack to have a story! He’s like the cool old guy on the block that always convinces the kids to come over and have a beer while he tells stories of the “olden days…” hehe just kidding Jack.
4 Ghost Rider // Feb 11, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Talk like that is a good way to get cracked over the head with my cane, ya damn whippersnapper!
When the kids come over, I tell them about the “marbles in my pocket”, too. Do you want some?
5 Val // Feb 12, 2008 at 11:19 am
Got an even older one for you…my good freind Bob Zumwalt (the Zoomer!) tells of a summer in Sacramento that was plagued by bike theives, the beach being a particularly perilous destination. He and his buddies at the bike shop decided to do something about it, so they got a Sachs Automatic 2 Speed Hub ( http://hubstripping.wordpress.com/fs-torpedo-automatic/ ) and did a very special overhaul. This hub shifts from low to high gear at a predetermined speed, activated by the RPM of the rear wheel. They removed the pawls that allow the high gear to actually transmit power to the hub shell, so that the low gear worked, but once the wheel got spinning fast enough, the hub would shift, and the cog would spin freely - pretty much the same effect as breaking a chain. They put this wheel in a nice cruiser, and took it to the beach, where they leaned it up without a lock. One group took their beach blanket about 50 yards down the beach in one direction, and set up with their cooler, radio, and umbrella, and another group went the other direction. They waited, and sure enough, misguided fool jumped on the bike, and proceeded to pedal furiously through the sand, until he got going fast enough for the hub to shift, at which point he was incapacitated enough for the intrepid vigilantes to arrive and vehemently express their displeasure with his behavior. Once they had disposed of the miscreant, they put the bike back, and returned to their beach blankets. Bob says they spent all day out there, and managed to reeducate quite a few potential bike theives. He also says that there was pretty much no more bike theft for the rest of the summer. Bob’s one of my heroes.
6 RL // Feb 12, 2008 at 11:25 am
Wouldn’t it be easier if you were to remove the seat and hike up the seat post at the highest position available….
7 steve dave // Feb 18, 2008 at 11:42 pm
a guy at a bike shop told me he was at a bike factory in chicago for a major bike manufac. and in the winter they would leave a fixed gear up against a pole and watch people steal it, ride 2 pedals then fall and run off, they would go and put the bike back against the pole and let someone else take it.
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