SFist Photo: Where Do All The Stolen Bicycles Go?
What's going on in SOMA? Is there a stolen bike chop shop in the area?
We've heard rumors for a while now about what happens to bikes and bike parts that get stolen in San Francisco. But we don't know for sure. You people are smart AND street smart, so tell us the details. Please leave a comment, and see what somebody did to our beautiful Trek 8000, after the jump.
Fifteen years. Fifteen freaking years of bike ownership down the aluminum tubes due the loss of the handlebars, shifters, brakes and stuff like that. We might try to rebuild, just as Aunty Entity did with Bartertown. But the question remains - who can even use our old-school 7-speed XT shifters that really only work with cantilever brakes? The kids today, they're into V-brakes, right?
Who indeed. Last night we saw three separate groups of people in SOMA from the ballpark to Van Ness doing what seemed to be working on bikes. Not that that is illegal or anything, but what's going on here? Is there some sort of vast clearinghouse/"open-air market" of stolen bike parts near SOMA/Civic Center? A kind of mini-factory chugging out reassembled product? That's what we've heard.
Read of the pain of San Francisco bike thievery here. Fight back with tips here. And who of these four, Mai, Tim, that smug bastard John, or Kalie, are using the best locking technique?