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Some of amsterdam's lost bicycles

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macspud:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gAiBu56myo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhsWkbg4cjI

Danneaux:
<nods>Mac', I have seen this for myself and it is an awesome sight. So MANY bicycles! Some have been stolen, some pitched in by the inebriated or their "friends" and some...just sort of finding the canals.

It really is something to see.

Amazingly, some are salvageable. Friends have managed to get their city/utility bikes this way. When these get stolen or pitched again, they shrug and the cycle <ahem!> begins anew.

Of course, they keep their good/trekking/racing bicycles under lock and key and use them only for their intended purposes.

Best,

Dan.

John Saxby:
A longtime friend who lives in Amsterdam says that the going estimate is that 40% of the bikes in Amsterdam have been stolen at one time or another.

He and his partner have six-eight bikes between them (that number includes a couple of sit-up-and-beg bikes for visitors, which live outside chained to the downpipe.) As fervent Bromptonistas, they keep their special bikes closely tucked underneath their arms, so to speak.

Those bike-retrieval machines and routines are something else, though -- I can understand why the crowds gather. Reminds me of a friend who moved to Ottawa from Vancouver, and in the middle of the night, after the first real snowfall, he spent an hour-plus watching the giant snow-removal machines, a complete novelty for him -- all blue lights flashing and beeping, and a symphony of whirring, clanking and scraping. He said he thought he was in a set from HG Wells' "War of the Worlds".

macspud:

--- Quote from: Danneaux on August 28, 2018, 03:48:46 am ---Amazingly, some are salvageable. Friends have managed to get their city/utility bikes this way. When these get stolen or pitched again, they shrug and the cycle <ahem!> begins anew.

--- End quote ---

Good to know that at least some of them are salvaged.

macspud:

--- Quote from: John Saxby on August 28, 2018, 03:05:56 pm ---A longtime friend who lives in Amsterdam says that the going estimate is that 40% of the bikes in Amsterdam have been stolen at one time or another.

He and his partner have six-eight bikes between them (that number includes a couple of sit-up-and-beg bikes for visitors, which live outside chained to the downpipe.) As fervent Bromptonistas, they keep their special bikes closely tucked underneath their arms, so to speak.

Those bike-retrieval machines and routines are something else, though -- I can understand why the crowds gather. Reminds me of a friend who moved to Ottawa from Vancouver, and in the middle of the night, after the first real snowfall, he spent an hour-plus watching the giant snow-removal machines, a complete novelty for him -- all blue lights flashing and beeping, and a symphony of whirring, clanking and scraping. He said he thought he was in a set from HG Wells' "War of the Worlds".

--- End quote ---

Yes it's interesting watching the specialist contraptions out there.
Crazy to think 40% of the bikes in Amsterdam have been stolen at one time or another.

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