I found this article the other day: Stolen Bikes - How to Catch a Bike Thief

It has some interesting parts, particularly about theft statistics, but at the end I was just annoyed with the author for pouring more and more money into something he explicitly states is a problem.

Other thoughts?

Too tedious to read in its entirety. That dude has more time, money and persistence than most people I know, but he's not real big on taking of care of his own business - by his own admission, he lost at least three bikes to half-assed lock jobs. You would think he would learn from the first one if he truly "loved" each of his bikes.

Im pretty sure he wrote it all off his taxes as "work related expenses". Research and all that.

I painstakingly read the entire article.

The guy wasted a lot of money to tell us all things we already know.

- Don't use a cable lock.
- The thieves are very quick and efficient.
- Bicycles are sold on an underground market or on CL.
- Technology for bicycle tracking is not quite there yet, but it is making advancements.
- No matter what technology comes out thieves will find a way around it. (Unless we can get one of those robots from Robocop posted by every bike rack.)

Necessity is the mother of invention and when you need a crack rock near your mouth you will find ingenious ways to steal shit.

Case closed.

haha, nice summary.

For some reason this magazine is sent to my husband. We never subscribed, but it's been coming for about a year. We keep meaning to contact them and tell them to stop sending it. As far as I can tell its main purpose is to advertise expensive gear to people who like to think of themselves as being outdoorsy, but prefer to spend time being indoors thinking about the outdoors.

I like to call these types "gear whores" or "REI Rangers."

Ha.

I get that rubbish sent to my office address and I have no idea how I got subscribed. I work in a law office and some marketing system must have picked up that I do stuff outside. That description is spot on. A lot of the stuff advertised is beyond REI expensive. ($125 flask, $800 jacket, etc.) It also highlights all these travel destinations you'd have to be pretty wealthy to even consider. I love the outdoors and even like some good gear-porn here and there but I still can't get into it.

Somehow we were getting TWO of them every month. Less interesting than the Nashbar catalog. I don't think we've gotten one for a few months though. Never really saw anything in there that made me want to pay for it.

+1! I was interested enough to subscribe for an extra year, but this last issue with the bike theft article (and Lolo Jones, rawr) will be my last.

I like Outside magazine. It lets me know when it is time to replace this year's outdated Cervelo with next year's must-have Cervelo.

I read Outside from time to time. I don't consider myself a person that sits around and reads about gear and doesn't use it. It's hard enough for me to just sit still period. I have to be doing stuff. I'm not even sitting right now. My laptop is on the kitchen counter and I'm pacing back and forth waiting for a phone call so I can get the hell outside.

I don't even work inside. Trust me you're probably inside sitting on your ass a hell of a lot more than I am.

ya'll got SERVED

I don't think so..I have a cell phone. I haven't had to sit inside to wait for a phone call in over ten years.