BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

There are two bicycles U-locked to 3Rivers racks on Shady Ave in front of Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. Every time I roll in to work in the ceramics studio, I see these bikes and wonder what to do about them. They were abandoned weeks, if not months, ago. Both are smallish cheapish bikes and I wonder if someone should just cut them off and take them over to Free Ride. I do have the tools to do such things.

So basically, how long is too long to let a bike sit out in the weather? What has been done in the past in such situations? Those racks were just recently installed, and they are hijacking one rack each and are rather an eyesore. Thoughts?

in that same vein, what's up with that bike locked up to the rack next to Golden Triangle Bike Rental?

It's got an amazing odometer, and it's been there for nearly 2 years. When is that odometer up for grabs?!

a bike-friendly council member

This is to remove bikes. You could just send it to a bike-unfriendly one.

There was also a bike left in Junction Hollow locked to the new Pgh Parks sign there. After a few weeks someone stripped it of it's wheels and whatever else they could. I noticed last night the remains of the frame are now gone. it was a unique looking setup, wonder what it's story was.

there was a thread about this bike. i'm too lazy to look it up though. basically the girl broke her chain and was just too lazy to ever go get it after she left it locked there. don't know if she finally got it or if someone cut the lock. it was there for months though.

B.L.F - Bike Liberation Front

Looking at the interwebs, "Abandoned" in some ordenences is as short as overnight, and some as long as 14 days.

Chicago

http://www.chicagobikes.org/public/abandonedbikes.php

Coloradohttp://www.colocode.com/boulder2/chapter7-7.htm

UCDavis

http://taps.ucdavis.edu/bicycle/abandoned.cfm

Norfolk

http://www.norfolk.gov/PublicWorks/bicycleordinance.asp

Tempe

http://www.tempe.gov/citycode/07bicycles.htm

Des Planes

http://www.desplaines.org/ReferenceDesk/AgendasandMinutes/CityCouncil/CouncilPackets/091005/20091005ConsentAgenda-item3.pdf

Phoenix

http://phoenix.gov/CITYCODE/PTIITHCO_CH36VETR_ARTIXBI_DIV3ABBI.html

DC

http://www.dc-attorney.com/lawyer-attorney-1440477.html

I just met someone who moved here from somewhere much flatter than here. Can't remember exactly where, somewhere in China. A friend of his (in the same situation) was expecting to be able to use her bike for commutting here but was completely unprepared for the hills. I don't know where she lived or which school she was attending, but his story was that she rode her bike to school one day and was either intimidated by or unable to handle the climb back home. So her bike sat there for a while (weeks at least) until she was able to make arrangements to retrieve it.

I met a guy from florida who came to Cranberry to long term visit relatives with his bike, and "had" to buy a new bike to "handle the hills". As he said the word hills, he gestured to the mostly flat area around Cranberry, barely a gentle roll in sight.

Flat places creep me out big time, but I know people who were excited to move back to flat after being claustrophobic in the hills here. That makes so much more sense as a reason to leave a bike somewhere than just "didn't get around to it" which is what I understood to be the case from the other thread.

Overnight seems excessive in that nazi HOA kind of way. I think two weeks from posted warning makes more sense. Or whatever the rule is for cars - there must be one for cars, right? Couldn't we use that as a template?

I know that both CMU and Pitt cut the locks off of abandoned bikes in the summer time. CMU donates them to Kraynick's Christmas program. Pitt just leaves them to be taken by whoever wants them.

The bike next to golden triangle is actually Tim's (I think that is his name, haven't talked to him in a while), the guy who often works there. He leaves it there as a decoy/experiment to see if anyone actually runs off with it. It is quite a unique bike with the odometer and all, so will be easy to track down. Thought it was interesting.

Flat places creep me out big time, but I know people who were excited to move back to flat after being claustrophobic in the hills here

Moving to cleveland in a few years (after my loans are paid off) is going to be a dream.

@RF - I'm not real familiar with Cleveland, but I look at a map and every suburb seems to have the word "Heights" in it. Does this mean City=flat, Suburbs=hilly?

No. It means city = poor, suburbs = bourgie.

There's some rolling hills, and some topography around the rivers (notably Rocky and Cuyahoga) but it's pretty flat. I loved biking in Cleveland.

There's one on Fifth Ave across from BST 3 on the rack by the bus stop near McKee. It's starting to get beat up.

yeah, what I used to call "hills" back home are pretty much like riding downtown compared to what we have here.

Noah & RF, where exactly are you from? I grew up in Berea.

edmonds-

Oberlin, born & raised. My highschool girlfriend went to B-W so I got to know Berea a little bit.

Man, Oberlin is great. Isolated like the Galopagos, but great.

Yeah, it was a good place to grow up. I ended up going to school there too.

But the surrounding area.... eek. Like night and day.

I lived in Westlake until I was 11, then moved to North Ridgeville. But I went to JVS in Oberlin.

2 months is fair, I think.

Honestly, ask yourself, how much do you really care about a bike if you leave it locked up somewhere, unridden, for two straight months?

Sure, it's someone else's property, but it's taking up a friggen parking space! Two months is more than time enough...after that the bike, and anything attached to it, should be considered fair game.

JVS catty corner from the old Ames!!!

haha, I always try to hit up jvs when I"m in town, but it doesn't work. I'm thinking great northern mall and the movie theater by crocker park today.