The Monday Roundup: Stolen bike statistics, glowing road paint & more

sad sight

A permanent parting?
(Photo by J.Maus/BikePortland)

This week’s Monday Roundup is sponsored by Urban Office Renewal, now offering newly renovated bike-friendly office space at SW 9th and Oak.

Here are the bike links from around the world that caught our eyes this week:

Theft facts: Seven percent of bike theft victims never replace their bikes. That’s one of eight depressing (and unusually interesting) factoids about bike theft.

Theft investigation: Seattle police dedicated months to investigating used-bike shop Bicycle Pull-Apart, concluding among other things that “more than half of the bikes bought by the shop between February 2013 and January 2014 were bought from convicted felons.” Owner Eric Patchen said he “always followed the letter of the law.”

Phosphorescent road markings: A “sort of amped-up version of what is found on many wristwatches” is being tested for glowing road striping in the Netherlands. Fans say it might make streetlights less necessary.

Borrowed ride: A Los Angeles triathlete placed second in a series after using peer-to-peer bike rental site Spinlister to rent a $9,000 bike for $50.

Femininity and bikes: “Wait, what does ‘feminine’ actually mean,” and what does it have to do with biking? Portlander Elly Blue’s tweet penorompted The Atlantic Cities to gather interesting answers from 22 women.

Mobile manufacturing: A a team of Taipei tinkerers have outfitted a bicycle with its own 3-D printer that can convert used bubble tea cups to flashing spoke lights.

Law abiders: The fact that only 1 percent of Copenhageners bike through red lights is just the beginning of this very interesting exploration of the best-behaved bike city in the world.

Biking for dear life: If all 26 of Western Europe’s capitals went Danish (26 percent of trips by bicycle) the healthier riders and lower emissions could prevent 10,000 deaths each year.

Dear drivers: British bike writer Carlton Reid has a very nice explanation, from a car driver’s perspective, of why people often bike down the middle of the road.

Portlandizing Seattle: Seattle has officially scrapped its recent sharrows-on-big-streets bike plan in favor of one that combines neighborhood greenways on side streets with protected bike lanes on big ones.

Biking to Big Pink: New Relic’s Chris McCraw takes a look from the inside at the bikey digs inside one of Portland’s bike-friendliest tech firms.

“Cycling’s most infamous rider has been looking for work lately,” writes Outside Magazine. Lance Armstrong is actually funny and self-deprecating in your video of the week, in which Mr. Asterisk sits down with a few thingies to show you how to change a tire.

If you come across a noteworthy bicycle story, send it in via email, Tweet @bikeportland, or whatever else and we’ll consider adding it to next Monday’s roundup.

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen (Contributor)

Michael Andersen was news editor of BikePortland.org from 2013 to 2016 and still pops up occasionally.

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Mike Quigley
Mike Quigley
9 years ago

Locals who lost their bikes to theft might want to check with Bicycle Pull-Apart from time to time.

Dan
Dan
9 years ago

Middle of the road link goes to bicycle pull apart article.

Oliver
Oliver
9 years ago

I’d definitely have a ‘no racing’ clause in any rental contract.

JL
JL
9 years ago

I thought the story about a bill in Washington that would allow motorcyclists to go through red lights after 1 missed cycle would be a good Monday story too.

JL
JL
9 years ago

wow, I probably saw it here first!

TOM
TOM
9 years ago

>>Dear drivers: British bike writer Carlton Reid has a very nice explanation, from a car driver’s perspective, of why people often bike down the middle of the road.

links to “bike pull apart” article

spare_wheel
spare_wheel
9 years ago

colville-andersen:
In most cities, the reason for what is percieved as “bad behaviour” is simply the fact that bicycle users haven’t been given adequate infrastructure or, even worse, none at all.

except that “bad behaviour” is common in amsterdam even though it has higher mode share and better infrastructure.

Paul
Paul
9 years ago

Cable lock in photo looks exactly like the one I use. Not encouraging! If you see someone walking stiff-legged, maybe he has a bolt-cutter up his pant leg.

Racer X
Racer X
9 years ago
Reply to  Paul

…or a stiff leg means he is “excited” at seeing your bike with a cable lock.

James Sherbondy
James Sherbondy
9 years ago
Reply to  Paul

If you love your bike, get a good U-lock for it! A cable lock like the one pictured above can be cut with a good pair of scissors and some time/determination.

Scott H
Scott H
9 years ago

Patchen’s story doesn’t seem to add up. If he supposedly checks all the serial numbers, why are the police purporting that half of his bikes are stolen?

9watts
9watts
9 years ago
Reply to  Scott H

From that article it seemed that at least part of the answer was that he had (suspiciously) mis-typed a lot/some of the serial numbers.

b
b
9 years ago
Reply to  Scott H

The SPD release has some specifics not covered in the Seattle Bike Blog story re: serials, self-pawning, etc. that raise lots of flags.

http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2014/04/14/detectives-arrest-owner-of-suspected-belltown-bicycle-chop-shop/

Alan 1.0
Alan 1.0
9 years ago
Reply to  Scott H

Umm… Three stolen bikes were found in his possession, not half of his bike inventory. It’s possible he ran the required serial number check before their numbers were listed. (Lessons: 1. Report serial numbers as soon as possible once a theft is identified. 2. Require pawn shops to check serial numbers after thirty days as well as at initial purchase.)

The “half of the bikes” figure is the fraction that BPA purchased from people with felony records, “many of whom have records for burglary and theft,” in SPD’s words. While that is suspicious, it does not say that any of those bikes were identified as stolen.

Hat-tip to Brian H for stolenbicycleregistry.com, and to SPD for investigating and reporting on Bike Pull-Apart.

Stretchy
Stretchy
9 years ago

Valve covers are uncool? I’m such a square.

A.K.
A.K.
9 years ago
Reply to  Stretchy

You don’t need them on presta valves because they are screwed closed. They are included for shipping so the valve stem doesn’t puncture the tube. They aren’t needed after that.

dan
dan
9 years ago
Reply to  A.K.

That’s true, but uncovered valves tend to accumulate road gunk, so I like to leave the caps on.

A.K.
A.K.
9 years ago
Reply to  dan

Do you cover the rest of your bike with a cap as well?

dan
dan
9 years ago
Reply to  A.K.

Electrical tape 😉

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
9 years ago

Lance left out the step at the end where you should pump the tire up to ~20psi and make sure that the bead is seated properly and the tube isn’t pinched before inflating the rest of the way. Otherwise it isn’t a bad video. (And I disagree with him about valve caps, but I guess if one was a weight weenie, then ok, leave them off & deal with the road gunk.)

Also, he didn’t say anything about patching the leaky tube. It’s pretty wasteful, IMHO, not to do that.

are
9 years ago
Reply to  dwainedibbly

coulda used a script. he verbalized almost zero useful info and was nearly incoherent.

dwainedibbly
dwainedibbly
9 years ago

Shameless Plug for a local small business: speaking of tires & tubes, my bike tire belt from Rebicyclist (Saturday Market downtown) lasted 4 years of daily use & still has a little life in it but I bought another one this weekend anyway.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
9 years ago

I’m interested in a little more detail on the Netherlands’ GITD solution. Seems brighter than any light-activated phosphorescent technology that I’ve seen. The ones I’ve seen that are really bright don’t usually glow for more than an hour or two. Have they found a new material that captures and releases light energy especially well, or are they doing something really high-tech involving nanotech, or what?

BTW, my new commuter bike has a layer of GITD paint, but like most such (cheaper) paints you need to be in pretty dark surroundings to really see it. (For the record, I didn’t do it because I really thought it would enhance conspicuity, but just because I am GlowBoy).

gerald schuldt
gerald schuldt
9 years ago

The GITD paint is clever, kind of a new twist to follow the yellow brick road & leave it to the Dutch. Another road surface currently being engineered in from Sandpoint Idaho that our bicycle tires may come in contact too some day.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/apr/19/sandpoint-innovators-solar-road-panels-remove/