BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

yeah, this got posted on the roboto board, too.

Maybe the robber was more confident in the improving Pittsburgh bicycle infrastructure and recognized that he could finally use a get-away bicycle, and is no longer confined to using a get-away car

I wonder what the chances are the bicycle was stolen

if I'd gotten more sleep, I'd be able to assemble the snide comment about agility, getaway, necessity for bike cops, and ninja cyclists that is swimming around nebulously inside my head.

I wonder if there are any non-cyclists (or people close to cyclists), who will look at this and fixate on the bike part like cyclists do. Chances are people will more see the bicycle as part of the guy's "crazy" rather than see this as evidence of crazy cyclists.

So embarrassing. Not because he was on a bike, but because he used a gun - and a BB gun at that. What a pansy. How are we ever going to alter the perception of the non-biking public if cyclists use BB guns in hold-ups.

A viking cyclist, which I think we all agree is the better image to promote, would have bonked those folks on the head and taken their valuables.

a ninja cyclist would have picked their pockets soundlessly as s/he invisibly cycled past, the only indication of crime being the missing money ('cause ninjas ride fixies - no sound)

Hitting people over the head to steal their valuables is like shearing a sheep by ripping its skin off...you only get to do it once per sheep.

It's far better to treat your victims as a renewable resource; leave them mostly unharmed now, so you'll have a better chance of robbing them again later, once they've bought new stuff.

Viking Economics 101.

The devil's advocate in me looks at this article and says to me, in the would-be conversation I would have with a naysayer, "Look at this. Anyone intent on making a quick getaway from whatever, uses a bicycle, not a car. Learn from the crooks."

$10?

In Cash ? ! ? ! ?

He's really hitting the big spenders there, isn't he?

The bank my sister works at in NJ was robbed by someone who got away on a bicycle.

A bank vs a bicyclist? I kept discreetly quiet on whom I might get behind in that one.

Pittsburgh's finally catching up with the sustainable mugging scene in Portland.

Did I ever tell my cow manure story?

SUNY Geneseo, May 1980. Someone apparently had it in for the dean, and staged a brazen attack in broad daylight. The first thing they did was telephone the Lamron office (school newspaper) and ask they send a photographer up to the dean's office with a camera with instructions to show up for a 1:00 appointment. A freshman dutifully complied, was questioned why he was there as there was no interview scheduled, but he assured them there must be or otherwise he wouldn't have been sent. Take a seat, they said, we'll make some calls. Five minutes later, someone flies in with a bucket of cow manure, dumps it on the dean's desk, disappears down an adjacent staircase, jumps on a waiting bicycle, rolls down campus (it's on the side of a pretty big hill), dumps the bike, hops in a waiting car, and never was caught, AFAIK. The photographer, of course, took several photos, and was grilled by any number of administrators, town police, and state police, as was the newspaper. The poor kid was innocent, as was the paper, but that whole caper could not have been done without having a bicycle at the ready.

Chances are people will more see the bicycle as part of the guy's "crazy" rather than see this as evidence of crazy cyclists.

that's a distinction without a difference, no?

"Did I ever tell my cow manure story?"

Only good things could ever follow that question.