Tales from the early days

Like an old man on the porch outside the general store, I’ve been reminiscing about my early days of bicycling, before I knew what I was doing, before I considered myself a bicyclist. Each of my stories has a moral.

12. Theft

I kept forgetting my helmet. If I was less than halfway home when I noticed I didn’t have my helmet on, I’d go back to my office for it. If I was more than halfway when I noticed, I’d keep going and I’d get my helmet the next day. It annoyed me when I forgot my helmet because I was very proud that it took me 20 minutes to bicycle, or 15 minutes to drive my car, park, and walk into the office. For just 10 minutes extra each day, I got 40 minutes of exercise. But when I forgot my helmet and had to go back, my efficiency was shot.

Finally I hit on the brilliant solution of leaving my helmet on my bike instead of bringing it inside. It’s habit now. When I take my helmet off, I hang it on the handlebar. When I reach for the bike, the first thing I touch is the helmet and I put it on my head.

I put my bike gloves inside my helmet too, until they got stolen. After that I brought my gloves inside but I left my helmet on my bike. No one ever stole my helmet. (My bike, of course, is always locked.)

I’ve never had a bike stolen. I usually use a U-lock and I also carry a cable lock in case I can’t find a bike rack and the only thing to lock up to is a fence or a tree. Those are not good places to lock up to, but anything is better than not locking up.

The only other thing I’ve had stolen is my flat kit and spare lights. I was in Phoenix for 2 weeks and I rented a bike. I had a set of cheap lights that I put in the seat pack in case I got caught in the dark. I asked the bike shop to rent me a flat kit. I parked my bike every morning on campus and one day I came outside and the seat pack was unzipped and empty. I had to pay the bike shop $50 to replace the flat kit. I don’t think it was worth $50.

The moral of this story is that I could be paranoid all the time, but unless I’m in downtown Phoenix I am probably ok making sure the bike is secured and not worrying too much about the other stuff.