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We biked up to the in-the-throes-of-remodeling Masonic/Geary Trader Joe's the other day, laughing at the poor people who waited in line in their cars. We cruised up to the little bike rack plaza, expecting to lock up at the normal, wavy, lock-eight-bikes-to-it rack like they have at the public library. But...they changed the rack to the ineffectual spoke variety that they had at our junior high school! See, the problem is that it's pretty much impossible to lock more than just a wheel to this kind of rack, unless you've got one of those long cable locks that local bike thieves laugh at evilly, twirl their mustaches, and cut through with a pair of nail clippers.
The photo above shows the practical limit for this rack. Two bikes. Why the change? Is the store in the pocket of the myriad enemies of the Bike Plan, who constantly scheme to make cycling in our fair city even more difficult? Or is TJs making an implicit assumption that the parking monitor will stop anyone who whips off a front wheel and makes off with a bike?
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You obviously don't know how to use such a rack. You have 2 choices, you can put the front wheel over the rack, and easily lock the wheel to the frame, which actually makes it impossible to remove the bike (the wheel can't be pulled through the rack. Or put the rear wheel in the rack and lock the rear triangle. Also if you are at the ends on the inside of the rack you can lock to the side.
Is this really article worthy?
Don't shop at Trader Joes,
And if you must, just lift your front wheel over that rack and you should have no problem locking your frame to it.
Yaaaaaaaaaawn.
amateurs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/turbofan/2497670228/
If you have a front fender then you usually can't use the front-wheel-over-the-stupid-rack method.
Christ, there are 7 spots on that rack, (2 outside, 5 inside) 4 of them can take a fenders bike front wheel in and lock the frame to the rack without any sort of thought. The other 3 can be locked if you put your rear wheel in the rack. This isn't rocket science, nor is it some attack on cyclists. If everyone puts their rear wheel into the rack that effectively doubles the rack space as you can put (and lock) bikes on both side. Which is a big advantage over the MUNI logo style racks. Use your heads for more than just scratching people.
That's because the good bike rack is really up on the roof of the TJ Masonic.
Yeah, I usually throw my top tire over the rack, too. But still, it's annoying and makes me wonder who designed those fucking things. That's obviously not how they were intended to be used.
Putting the front wheel over the rack will also scratch the frame. I know that will seem petty to you "I spit out my silver spoon in my teens" hipsters, but there's no reason for a rack at a place like TJs to require such gymnastics anyway. This is truly retarded in the non-perjorative sense of the word. Retrograde.
A question though: Did this post's author try to call Trader Joe's and find out their side of the story?
Is this really article worthy?
More so than some of the other postings today (i.e. the boing boing one)
@manys, that's nothing a paper bag, plastic bag or old scrap of tshirt can't solve. And that's free advice from someone that didn't grow up with a silver spoon in his orifice.
@manys,
I suppose I could have called them up, but where's the fun in that? This way, I get people telling me that I'm an amateur, an idiot, etc. However, you seem to be one of the few people that got the point of the post - that this kind of bike rack is worse than the one that was there before. 'Tis an odd change.
The fun is in writing a complete post. You can still have your whiny drama party even if everything turns out informative. It's called "milking a story."
milking a story, aka trolling
Meh. Once the Stonestown Trader Joe's opens, I'll probably never visit the Geary/Masonic store again anyway.
What's a front fender for?
To keep mud/water from splashing you while you ride. It was a little more useful in Illinois than it is here though.
Nobody here really gives a sh-t about bicycles. Well, maybe a 10-20 regular readers, but that's about it.
Let's face it: SFist didn't post anything about Critical Mass this past Friday and nobody seemed to notice/care. Or perhaps nobody gives a sh-t about Critical Mass.
Either way, the fact that it was ignored was utterly refreshing.
=v= Man, I didn't realize they still made those "toaster racks." This looks flimsier than most: a socket wrench set and you've got yourself a bunch of bikes!