Sad sight: Lone wheel

[ABlipInContinuity]

I walked past this cycle rack daily for two weeks whilst working away in Leatherhead and on the last day I spotted this.

Having had two bikes stolen this year I sympathise with the owner. It shows in this instance that the thief/thieves were most likely opportunists, given that the wheel is secured with a fairly flimsy cable lock. I would speculate that the owner of the wheel had forgotten to secure his/her frame to the rack. Although I believe the racks design to be a factor in this.

Maybe the manufacturers of cycle racks should be compelled to label them with clear instructions on safely securing a cycle to them?

Anyhow, I believe the stolen cycle to be a Specialized Hardrock Pro. If anyone is offered such a bike in the south east with an odd back wheel (i.e.   not an Alex rim and not shod with Specialized rubber) then be sure to reject it. It is clear from the condition of the cassette that the stolen bike had little use.

Or maybe the cycle wasn't stolen at all and the owner of the wheel was literally that. Not the owner of a bike.

[Dave]

Maybe the manufacturers of cycle racks should be compelled to label them with clear instructions on safely securing a cycle to them?

No-one would pay any attention to them. What I suspect has happened here is that the bike had QRs and the thieves (noticing that the frame wasn't actually locked to anything)just popped the wheel out. Then all you need to do is wander round until you find a bike where the back wheel isn't locked to anything and have away with that.

Moral: Don't put QRs on your commuter, or, if you do, make sure you put the lock through both wheels, the frame and the stand...

[domesticated ape]

There's been a front wheel locked up outside my local Sainsbury's for about 18 months now. When it had only been there a couple of weeks I thought about asking the security guards if I could try to 'liberate' it as there's a fairly nice Schwalbe tyre on it, but I never got round to it so it's just been laying there slowly rusting away ever since

[mr magnolia]

At work I lock my front wheel to the rack with the lock I leave there and my frame to the front wheel with the lock I carry.  I say to myself each time I do it that no one could be arsed nicking the rear wheel from the bike.

I know I'm wrong as it has happened to me in another time and place, but I still can't quite bring myself to believe it will happen again...

[fruitcake]

Maybe the manufacturers of cycle racks should be compelled to label them with clear instructions on safely securing a cycle to them?

Better to get bike vendors to supply allen head skewers as standard, QR ones being on the shelf as an optional extra (the reverse of the current situation). 

[blackpuddinonnabike]

Not really a lone wheel, but someone obviously got fed up trying to fix the puncture in the rear wheel before leaving it (and the bike) behind....