POLL: College Bike Regs - Page 2

02-15-2007, 08:33 PM

Mike Kruger wrote:
> A beater's not a bad idea, regardless. Here's my daughter's experience at a
> small liberal arts college:
>
> Freshman year, old junky Roadmaster: bike semi-stripped while parked
> outside.
> Sophomore year, used pink Specialized Crossroads bought for $40: Stolen off
> locked porch (it was a screen porch)
> Senior year: Old Schwinn Breeze, acquired for free out of friend's basement,
> stolen out of dorm bike room.
> Surviving: Schwinn Caliente, bright lime green, from the 1970's.
>
> My other daughter took a new Giant Sedona to a different campus, and after 3
> years she's still got it. The Sedona's a modest bike, but worth more than
> all her older sister's models put together.
>
> So, it's a risk. A beater lowers the cost of taking that risk.

Indeed. Here at GA Tech it goes in cycles. When I first got here,
there were QR'd front wheels and popped cables on every rack. Nowadays,
you rarely here about bikes being stolen. Oddly enough, those that are
stolen tend to be the Xmart bikes since those folks are the type to
think locking the front wheel or a fork blade(!!!) is sufficient. All
of the nice bikes seem to hang around these days.