Bike thieves should...

Die? Be locked away in prison cells? Be locked to a bike stand with bike locks? Or get understanding and sympathy? We at Ensliga Bergens cykelklubb are not advocates for hard, severe punishments. We believe that crime is a sign that something in society is wrong, most people who steal do this because they need money and/or use drugs or alcohol. We get that, and we feel sorry for all people who are in that situtation.

Still, when our bicycles are stolen we just get furious. About a week ago someone broke into the bike storage room of our block of flats and stole my Orange Clockwork mountain bike.

As you can see it's an old 26" hardtail, so it's really quite out of date. What's more, it's made of steel. It also has a custom paint job and has been renovated, so it's instantly recognisable. In conclusion, it's not really worth a lot of money, but it's the mountain bike I've got and I like it. I would like to keep it.

Last week, when I got into the bike storage room in the morning, though, it was gone. Just gone. Fortunately I went to the back of the house to see if there were any traces or evidence of the theft and then it stood there. I don't know what happened, if the thief had tried to steal the bike but was interrupted or if he had planned to come back later and pick up the bike then. I got the feeling that someone had been sleeping in there, in the storage room, and maybe had had to move the bike to be able to sleep there, but then why had he put the bike on the outside? Or had he planned to sleep there, and then just taken the opportunity, because the bike looked shiny and fancy (I had just cleaned it the week before)?

I don't know and I don't really care. I took the bike up the the flat and kept it there until yesterday when this lock

arrived, from Bike 24 in Germany. Now my mountain bike is down in the bike storage room again. Locked with three sturdy locks, of which this one ties it to a central heating pipe. It's crazy, though - this is my eighth bike lock, my sister has two and these locks are distributed on four bikes, each bike is locked with three locks. (No, it doesn't add up. Let me know if you're interested and I'll explain how it works.) My most valuable bike, both because it has cost the most and because it is my most treasured bike I have to keep in the flat if I want to get a good night's sleep. It would be nice if it didn't have to be this way.

(We borrowed this picture from Dustin Quasar's Flickr page. Hope that's OK!)

Ride safe!