The Hall of Eventually Stolen Bicycles

You could easily lift this Mongoose over the pole and ride away. Of course that would only be about 45 seconds quicker than cutting that cheesy cable lock.

First of all, you have just locked the cable housing. All a thief has to do is use an allen key or adjustable wrench to remove the cable, and they can ride away with everything. A thief in a hurry could also just use wire snips (something in every thief's backpack) to make this a 10 second job.

Second of all, do not lock bikes to trees. Thieves often will cut down trees just to take your bike. It's also not good for the tree if a lot of people do it.

The interesting thing here is that the owner cares enough about their bike to remove the front wheel and make sure it gets tied up too.

Watch Craigslist for this nice Trek commuter because with a thin cable lock like that it won't be here long. Also, if you're going to bother locking your bike, it might as well be attached to something.

Any thief with a screwdriver can easily detach the plastic frame mount for the u-lock and steal this bike. With those hot green pedals I bet this will pawn for $200. That's a lot of drugs.

That's a great lock used in the absolute worst way. As it is now, a thief can clip the cable lock and leave your u-lock untouched on the pavement. With this lock you should use the u-lock to attach the seat tube and rear tire to the post, and then secure the front wheel using the cable.

At least a thief couldn't just ride it away with a lock attached to the front wheel. That is, unless they have serious skills.

Dreimanis posted his own lock fail in /r/bicycling. Everybody messes up sometimes, I'm just glad that his bike was still there when he got back.

I like to imagine that this bmx belongs to an undercover police officer trying to infiltrate the local skate park gang.

A lot of people like cable locks because they can coil them around the seat or handlebars to carry them easily without having to mount any hardware to the frame. That convenience can be great, but don't forget that if you lock up like this guy, a thief can just lift your lock up over your seat and ride away. Of course, this combination cable lock is basically a joke anyway. Watch for this bike at the pawn shop next week.

When I started mountain biking back in the 90's, all I wanted was a nice Gary Fisher mountain bike. It's sad to see this one in sorry repair and not being looked after. A thief could simply lift that nice old bike over the pillar and ride away. I bet if the thief repairs the seat they'll get $250 on kijiji.

That will be a sad walk home. But look on the bright side, at least your heavy duty lock saved the frame and front wheel. Single speed wheels aren't that expensive. Heck, you can probably buy your own wheel back from that shady used bike store around the corner tomorrow.

With standard 26" mountain bike wheels, it won't be hard for a thief to find a replacement front wheel for your bike. Someone else has probably left one unlocked on that same bike rack.

These are the most annoying bike racks, but you have to do better, or else this bike will be spray painted black within a week.