Urban bike wisdom says do not get attached to your bike. It’s not whether it will be stolen, it’s when. I’ve lost several bikes over the years but my current street bike has had a good 10 year run. I u-lock frame and front wheel and use a separate small u-lock for rear-wheel. But recently I’ve had not one but two saddles stolen. The first one was a $100 saddle, the second a $75 saddle attached with a $15 cable. Parked both times in front of the Westfield mall on Market street, highly visible and only left for an hour. So do I give in, get a crappy saddle? Where does it stop? They could just as easily take my carbon fork, or disc brake. So I bought pitlock – a coded nut head, now protecting my axles, seatpost, headset bolt, and front-disc brake. How will the street denizens react to this escalation? Move on to the next bike or escalate their assault against mine? I’m at a disadvantage in this conflict as with most defensive/offensive escalation scenarios, especially now to simple vandalism. So it remains to be seen whether my bike is just too nice to ride, but at least we are riding again.
Jeff Vroom's Blog 