Back in March I said I would give away a Kryptonite Evolution U-lock to a randomly selected bike theft victim. To be eligible, you had to list your stolen bike and provide me with a case number from the Portland Police Bureau.
The first winner is Jay Fields! Jay lost her blue Trek hybrid to theives back on April 4th. Here’s what she had to say about winning the lock:
“Thanks so much for the lock and for this program — it helps to take the sting away from having a bike stolen and instead emphasizes all the wonderful, kind, and helpful people in our community.”
There’s been a big rash of thefts lately, so be careful out there. I’ll have an update soon on the work I’ve been doing with PDOT and the Police to help stop theft from happening in the first place.
Ouch – 17 bikes in 2 weeks!! Is this an increase in theft or increase in reporting to the stolen bikes list? With the good weather, I could see it being a little of both. My condolences to everyone who’s lost their bike.
Congrats Jay! It’s like a Zen tale. Hope your new ride is treating you right.
There was an interesting testing of bike locks in Slate recently. Kryptonite’s New York lock won, but it’s others didn’t fare as well. It’s less common for thieves to break through locks than for them to make off with bikes that are, for whatever reason, unlocked. I’ve been there; I feel your pain. Here’s the link:
http://www.slate.com/id/2140083/
Besides the more common (at least in the US) Kryptonite and OnGuard locks, there are several other brands of high security U-locks available, including Abus and Squire (both may be hard to find in the US, although Abus locks have been available on-line) Locking wheel skewers are also another good theft prevention device, the best I have found are made in Germany by Pitlock, they now have a new North American distributor, urbanbiketech, in Canada.
http://www.abus.de/us/main.asp?ScreenLang=us&select=0104b
http://www.squirelocks.co.uk/html/newcycleintro.htm
http://pitlock.de/en/onlineshop/indexshop.html
http://www.urbanbiketech.com/
Here is a good a place as any to link this I guess.
Cyclocross bike found
Anybody missing this bike?
Here is a good a place as any to link this I guess.
Cyclocross bike found
Anybody missing this bike?
Jay – we certainly hope that your new bike is safe with the lock we sent.
It’s such a bummer that bike theft is up out there. Truly, no matter what brand you choose, lock your bikes properly every single time you can’t see them (even when they are at your home) and tell your friends to do the same.
benschon – funny, I thought our New York Chain rocked in that Slate test, too! But, yes, our new ‘baby’ just kicked some serious butt! 🙂