Last December, my prized bicycle was stolen from a Silverlake residential neighborhood. Granted, it was partially my fault for believing that area could be safe for overnight parking when you know, cars are frequently broken into. But I thought, hell, the rent is so high here, there's no way "riff-raffs" can afford to live in this neighborhood.
Ank! - wrong answer.
Truth is, even with a steel cable lock, your bicycle is not safe anywhere in Los Angeles, even in your own home. That's the sad fact: nothing you can do can prevent your bike from being taken away from you.
Last night coming from City College, a very somber upset 50 year old man was standing in the subway station, telling people around him that his bike (along with three others, including one locked with a kryptonite lock). It shook me up because it was just so sad and I felt his pain from firsthand experience. These people naively trusted their locks, the campus security, and the world that their bikes would stay there until they came out to get them.
It hit really, really close to home. I still can't stop thinking about.
Since that fateful December, I haven't ridden my new bike at all which I'm sad to say I don't "love" like I did my first bike. Maybe it's the style of the frame, or the ugly color to dissuade thefts, but I just don't feel that spark. Actually, the boyfriend had to convince me to buy it. It was a good deal, still is, but I just don't fawn and favor it. Where is my new bike now?
Sitting as a coat rack against a wall, dusty and ignored.
Everytime I look at it, I feel guilty. I can't even ride it around the block because I'm just so scarred by what happened before. The sensation of paranoia takes over me and my boyfriend's words come back to haunt me: No matter what you do, you cannot prevent your bike from being stolen.
So I sit here and I think, "God, why can't there just be this taboo on stealing someone's transportation?" I mean, it's heartbreaking, like someone's only car that they depended on to get to their work.
I've resolved to continue a search for a tracking device for a bike. I've come up with the following searches:
Memoryc.com
Pegtech.com - This is only available to Law Enforcement for bike theft sting operations.
Chinavasion.com - This looks a bit shady.
SurprisingGift.com
SpyHawk
Zoombak - I've heard hit and miss stuff about this. Inexpensive (relatively compared to others) tracking services, but it is not real-time and can actually promise more than it delivers.
Makezine also posted on a DIY tracking device, though I'm not sure how a Boost mobile phone can be incorporated on a bicycle, but it's probably cheaper than anything else out there right now.
The problem with this search boils down to several detterants:
Price
Availability
Usefulness
Effectiveness
It SEEMS like a genius idea: a tracking device to a bike would mean even if it got stolen, there's that chance you can find your bike and nab the guy who took it. But when you look closer at it, it's riddled with faults.
First of all, a GPS tracking system is expensive. Like at least 400+ USD. Second, the subscription to live tracking which is what you want (versus taking a GPS and logging it where it's already been - utterly useless if the bike is stolen with the GPS on it) could come out to 400-600 a year. So we're talking at least a $900 investment for say, a $600 bike.
For a practical, everyday, hardworking but not necessarily rich person, this price is ridiculous, especially now when layoffs are common and minimum wage is the median payroll.
So let's say we shove that factor aside and price is not an option, especially for someone who invested in a quality bike, doesn't have other financial commitments to tend to, and has a fairly well paid job: the availability for a bicycle tracking device is not there. It took me several hours of hunting on the web to find fairly good choices, but it's not like you can go into a bike shop and casually mention, "oh can you wrap up a GPS tracking system to go? I'm on my lunch break."
It's just not sound economics since the demand isn't there because the price is so high.
If we shove that factor aside as well, then it comes down to usefulness. You shell out the cash, you install the programs, you attach it discreetly to your bicycle - but guess what? It doesn't work!
Who's to say you'll even get your money back? If you will get your money back? Will it really prevent a bike theft or lead to bike recovery?
And of these tracking devices, very few I think could be retrofitted to a bike for minimal discovery, just because they're -well- huge.
Why can't it be simple? Why can't there be some sort of electronic microchip inside the bike?
The most you can do right now is this:
- Get a quality lock. Probably two.
- Do not leave it outside, overnight, anywhere, no matter what sense of security you have about the place.
- Learn how to lock your bike correctly.
- Get a bike license from your local fire or police station. Fee should be relatively low.
- Know your serial number, write it down, keep it safe. Trust me, I wish I did this for my first bike.
- Know the make, model, color of your bicycle, down to the wheels.
- Do not let anyone "test ride" your bicycle you don't know well.
- Write your name and serial number on a rolled up piece of aluminum from a soda can and stuff it inside one of the handlebars. Nifty cheap trick.
- Take pictures of your bike and inventory the parts, their receipts and prices, just in case it is stolen.
- Get renter's insurance. It can probably cover the theft of your bicycle and help pay for a replacement.
This advice only enhances the safety of your bike. It doesn't necessarily prevent the theft. Given enough time, any bike can be stolen, but if you put enough deterrants on there, the thief might go, "Aw, hell, forget this fixie, I'm gonna steal that Mountain Bike instead."
Recap:
- Cable locks are only good if you live in a town of 100 people or if your bike is super crappy that no one would steal it, even if you advertised: "Steal this bike. Please. I have cancer."
- By themselves, u-locks aren't perfect. And not all of them are created equal. But they're harder to break than just cable locks.
- My boyfriend recommended that American Lock be used instead of a kryptonite u-lock to lock the New York Noose Chain. Sturdier, much harder to break, and well, American.
I'll keep my eye out eternally because despite its cons, I think tracking devices for bicycles should be available to the public at an honest price, that work well, that can be concealed and not removed easily, because if we want bicycle commuting to work and for automobile traffic to go down (as well as pollution, weaning gas dependency, establish a better relationship between drivers and riders), we have to give the same assurances to a cyclist that we do to a motorist that their bike has the same chance of recovery as a car, as well as the same protection.
Enough ranting for a day!
See you at the Critical Mass tonight.
