Lost and Forgotten
February 2nd, 2005 by Tim GrahlAbandoned Bicycles of New York
New York has a lot of abandoned bicycles. I don’t know why. Do people forget the combinations or keys to their locks? Do they forget they had a bike? Most of the bikes pictured here are pretty cheap bikes. Some of the bikes appear to have been abandoned long ago. Consider this ever-growing photo album a way to remember those forgotten bicycles. Click on a picture to see a larger photo.
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It’s not just a “New York” thing, allthough, they are a little more creative in their abandonment. We have lots of lost bicycles right here in Iowa, too. Seems that some people don’t see value in a $60.00 mountain bike. Hey, who can blame them? Crap gravitates to crap, right?
a common issues for abandoned bikes is bike theft
someone may steal a bike… ride it…. break it… and toss it aside
as it is easier to steal another bike rather than to pay to fix one
when working in a shop here in DC on Capitol Hill you would not believe the number of people who came into buy platform pedals for their thousand dollar plus rig and were shocked that pedals would cost fourteen dollars!
then they expected me to swap the pedals for free….
I usually offered to swap the pedals in exchange for the old pedals….
which gave me a chance to feel out the situation
most often the new owners claimed them bought the bike off some crack head (when some of them were “that crackhead!”)
I tried to explain the law and that having a stolen bike was as illegal as stealing the bike themselves
also looked for registration or to see if the bike was familiar
more than anything I just wanted to pick their brains
blowing the whistle is not really my thing
if I saw the theft occuring live….
but after the fact….
I am afraid the risks out weigh the gains
(trying to answer some questions… like “why didn’t you call the police?”)