Your Bike Was Just Stolen!!!!!!

These are some of the worst Facebook posts to read.  "Last night my bike was stolen!!!!!!!"  Bikes can be replaced but the memories can't.  The feeling of getting to know your new bike and how it handles is something that will never be replaced by new bike.  Most stolen bikes seem to be joy ridden and then left in a ditch or in a neighbors hedges.  So there is hope.  So let's talk about what to do if your bike gets stolen.

• Get your info together.  You should have the make, model, color, type, size of your bike as well as the serial number.  If your bike is licensed you should also have that information.  If you don't have this information, call the bike store that you purchased your bike from.  They usually have all this information at their finger tips.  City Hall can help get your license info.
• File a report with the police immediately.  If you're on a college campus report it to campus security.  You'll need the above data to do this.  Make a copies of the report.
• Create an account at Bikeindex.org and list your bike as stolen.  Add pictures and information.  They don't recover every bike but local authorities do have access to the information.  They claim to have recovered over 9 million dollars worth of bikes.  That's a lot!  If your bike goes to a different city this may be the link that gets it back to you.  At Spoke-n-Sport we register every new bike sold with Bike Index.  
• In Sioux Falls we have a Facebook group called Sioux Falls Stolen Bikes.  Post the most current picture here along with as much detail as possible.  Often these posts get re-posted on other Facebook groups and pages.  Re-post this on your own social media and make sure it's public so others can share it with their networks.
• Visit each bike store and drop off a picture of the bike with your contact info.  
• Check with the local online market places such as Facebook, eBay, and numerous selling apps.  Not necessarily easy to navigate but you can use tools like Search Tempest to search Craigslist pages for multiple cities.  With eBay you can "watch" specific items.  Don't get too specific on what you're looking for.  Cast a wide net by just searching for the make and model.
• Check with your home owners / renters insurance and see if your bike is covered.  If not, ask what you have to do to cover it for future bikes or other bikes that you currently own.
• The biggest challenge when dealing with a stolen bike is working with pawn shops.  There are some City of Sioux Falls initiatives that are reducing the number of bikes being pawned that have been reported as stolen. This isn't catching them all.  But it's catching some.  Take some time and visit the pawn shops.  Print off all the info that they will need to identify your bike.  
• Offer a reward.  A six pack of beer, $50, a high five.  Offer something.

Last but not least, plan for the future.  Get your bike covered under your insurance and make sure you're locking up your bike.  Locks are not a guarantee that your bike won't be stolen but they are likely to deter most thefts.  Any lock can be cut or broken.  The highest quality of lock is only going to slow down the best bike thief.  If you need some good advice on locks and how to use them, head over to Momentum Magazine and read their guide on the right and wrong way to lock a bike LINK.

10 Ways the Bicycle Moved Us Forward

Name a bad thing about cycling.....seriously.....name one bad thing that comes from cycling. There is some low hanging fruit. They can be expensive (they don't have to be). They can keep us from doing chores but really....those chores will get done at some point (maybe this winter). They can be used for fitness, stress relief, reduce carbon foot print, reduce congestion, increase creativity, stimulate the mind and you can bike almost anywhere with out doing significant damage to your body over time outside of crashing (sorry runners). Cycling is good for you

What about historically? What has cycling done for us? Here's a list of 10 cool things that cycling helped.

1. It Revolutionized How People Hook Up, a Century Before Tinder.

When bicycle prices dropped in the 1890s, people of modest means could afford their own transport for the first time. The effect on romance was profound: Long-distance courtships were possible. People could date outside their parishes, which, according to British geneticist Steve Jones, widened the gene pool, making the bicycle “the most important event in recent human evolution.”

2. It Showed the World That African Americans Belonged.

Fifty years before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, Marshall “Major” Taylor was a star of professional track racing, which at the turn of the 20th century was the most popular sport in America. Taylor won his races with bulletlike bursts while fending off attacks from white riders. He outrode them with quiet defiance, setting seven world records.

3. It Gave Us the Nation’s First Paved Highways.

Country roads of the 1890s were the stuff of nightmares, or, as The New York Times put it, “a morass in Spring, a Sahara in Summer ... frozen stiff in later Autumn, and a slough whenever there is a thaw in Winter.” Urban roads—many of which were covered in wood—were smoother, but cyclists wanted asphalt. They got their wish via the League of American Wheelmen, which used its 100,000-plus members to agitate for the nation’s first state-funded paved roads in 1898.

4. It Demonstrated That Space is Safe for Astronauts.

In 1973, the Skylab space station crew became the first people to pedal in space (on stationary bikes). In previous trips, voyagers experienced changes in heart rate and blood pressure, and scientists wanted to know how zero gravity affected the cardiovascular system, especially during heavy exertion. After collecting data over 171 days, the scientists concluded it was safe for astronauts to work in space for extended periods of time.

5. It Emancipated Women From the Home (and Their Wardrobe).

The cycling craze hit America in the 1880s, prompting women to break with Victorian-era mores by leaving their homes, alone, to pedal down streets—unchaperoned! Not only did women love the freedom, they loved the dress, ditching heavy skirts for bloomers to work the pedals.

6. It Helped Hundreds of Jews Escape the Holocaust.

When Gino Bartali returned to Italy after his 1938 Tour de France win, he was expected to dedicate the honor to Mussolini and support the fascist regime. Instead, he harnessed his talents for the Resistance. Bartali helped Jews escape the country, carrying counterfeit identity papers in the frame and handlebars of his bicycle on

“training rides.” If stopped by police for search, he’d ask them not to touch his “specially calibrated” bicycle. Bartali eventually went into hiding, but by then, he had cycled thousands of miles to help hundreds escape.

7. It Brought Life-Saving Cinema to People in Remote Places.

In 2013, a charity wanted to screen educational films in Malawi to spread info on HIV prevention, modern farming, and other issues. But most villages lacked electricity or gas for a generator. Enter Colin Tonks of Electric Pedals, who built a pedal-driven cinema that fits in two backpacks and weighs less than 40 pounds— perfect for toting to remote spots.

8. It Created the Perfect Urban Ambulance.

In 1993, London ambulance driver Tom Lynch was stuck in traffic on his way to a call when he started thinking about how much faster he could get there on a bike. Soon he was doing just that. In 2000, he started a bike ambulance unit that now handles thousands of calls a year. The bicycle EMTs cart a siren and a medical kit, and can handle most emergencies, freeing ambulances for other calls.

9. It Provides Cheap, Clean Power for Local Economies.

Carlos Marroquín was working as a bus driver in Guatemala in 1997 when he noticed people tinkering with old bicycles by the side of the road. He learned they were building bicimáquinas—pedal-powered machines for pumping water and doing other jobs that take hours by hand. The group hired him, and he later founded Bici- Tec, where his bicimáquinas have turned daylong water-pumping pursuits into tasks that take just minutes.

10. It Helps Alleviate Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease.

In 2003, biomedical engineer Jay Alberts was on a high-effort weeklong tandem ride with a friend who has Parkinson’s when the friend’s symptoms nearly disappeared. Alberts then studied a group of Parkinson’s patients who rode at an intense 80-90 rpm clip on a tandem bike, and had a 35 percent improvement in symptoms. Intense exercise can’t cure the disease, but it can temper it.

Julie Winterbottom is a freelance writer and editor and the author of two self-help books: Pranklopedia: The Funniest, Grossest, Not-Mean Pranks on the Planet and Frightlopedia: An Encyclopedia of Everything Scary...from Arachnids to Zombies.