Ghost bike thefts

[Johnny_L.A]

I only heard about ghost bikes about a month ago. For those who don’t want to click on the link:

A ghost bike or ghostcycle is a bicycle set up as a roadside memorial in a place where a cyclist has been killed or severely injured (usually by a motor vehicle). Apart from being a memorial, it is usually intended as a reminder to passing motorists to share the road. Ghost bikes are usually junk bicycles painted white, sometimes with a placard attached, and locked to a suitable object close to the scene of the accident.

I’m from L.A., and so I have a poor opinion of human nature when it comes to leaving things of value, or of seeming value, unattended. In Belltown (Seattle), stripped frames locked to bike racks and other things are a common sight.

I have NWCN on, and they had a story out of Portland. A TriMet (bus) driver confronted a man who was carrying a ghost bike and attempted to put it onto the bus’s bike carrier. The guy said that the bike belonged to a friend, who had given it to him to fix up. The driver told him what the bike is, and the guy listened and left the bike with the driver. It will be returned to its place.

So a good ending in this case. But:

Eli Gibson rides by ghosts bikes every day and has noticed more and more missing parts on those memorials. “Handlebars, cranks, wheels, all sorts of stuff like that,” said Gibson.

Now it appears entire bikes are being ripped off, likely for a few dollars in parts. “It’s really messed up that people are taking them,” said [nearby resident Judd] Palmer.

This is exactly what I thought would happen when I first heard about ghost bikes.

I’m no fan of roadside memorials. But it’s still messed up that people can’t keep their mitts off of things that don’t belong to them.

[running_coach]

On the cycling board I frequent, one of the common threads was “There’s this bike that’s been locked up for weeks/months. Can I take it/strip parts?” Almost always from the fixed gear/singlespeed crowd. :rolleyes:

TPTB there seem to have cracked down as it’s been awhile since there’s been a recent thread like that.

[SmartAleq]

Seems like it might be worth the time and effort to take a welder to the ghost bike and completely ruin every single part before chaining it in place. Remove teeth from the gears or drill a hole through the gear pack and weld in a bolt, weld everything that moves, cut almost through the rims, make cuts in the frames, etc. Try to strip THAT, motherfuckers!