What's the newest definition of a slow news day in Oklahoma City?
Sending a reporter out to do a story on a bicycle that's been abandoned for a year. Channel 4did just that on Monday.
As a bicycle nut, I'll admit to noticing locked up bicycles that have been sitting around my neighborhood for a few days. I didn't think the general public would notice, though, or care.
Usually the bikes sit around near a bus stop for a few weeks then disappear.
Disrespect
Last year there was one at a bus stop for about six months. Over time, it got the crap kicked out of it by bicycle-hating passersby by who caved in the wheels and pulled the cables out. That kind of made me angry. You shouldn't disrespect a bike like that.
It is kind of amazing to me that this Oklahoma city bike survived with
only its saddle stolen. When the reporter mentions
it's a Murray bicycle, I realized there's probably nothing else worth
taking.
Locking up
I've seen bikes chained up over in Seattle with the saddles and wheels missing. If you don't lock up your bike correctly [Sheldon Brown told us the right way to lock a bike], you're liable to lose all or part of it.
Once my friend used his sturdy Kryptonite lock to secure his bike, by the front wheel, to a street sign outside a restaurant. After lunch, all he had was a front wheel.
WashCycle portrays how the pieces of an abandoned bicycle disappear over time.
Mystery
How can someone leave a bicycle behind? That's was asked earlier this year at Bike Forums. Most respondents gave anecdotes about bicycles they've seen (a frequent occurrence on college campuses).
Some considered rescuing the bikes — at least pumping up the tires — so they might find a good home. One guy owned up to simply forgetting that he'd left a bike behind when he got relocated.
I couldn't forget my bicycle, but I suppose some people could. What's surprising is the hundreds of bicycles left behind on transit bus bike racks every year. Columbus and Seattle both report about 400 abandoned bikes a year, more than one a day.
The King County Metro Transit turns over all abandoned bicycles to the Bicycle Alliance of Washington, which runs the Metro Lost Bike Program. Unclaimed bicycles are donated to charities, so at least they go to a good cause.
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