Belgians, what’s the lifespan of an unlocked bike on your street? This one has been there for 1 week nobody stole it.

41 comments

  2. 8 weeks on my street. After that, parts started disappearing: saddle, handlebars, wheels…In 10 weeks it was completely gone.

  3. My bike was locked and anchored with a chain in my garage and someone tried to steal it less than 3 months after I got it

  7. Well, I said just a few days ago, but according to that time at my hairdresser… I give it 20 minutes. And it was locked.

    So perhaps 20 minutes unlocked in my not-so-busy street.

  9. My wife’s bike was stolen less than a week after being bought. It was chained with a good chain, on a locked bike parking that is full of cameras. That’s Brussels center for you…

  10. I have not seen any on my street, so or it’s under 12 hours or there are none (probably the second). Also there are people living in Belgium that are not Belgians (I’m Dutch and live in Bilzen for example)

  12. I think it would be pretty short. They even stole locked bikes at the station…

    Although it depends also on how nice the bike is looking and whether there are other bikes around.

  13. Recently I forgot to lock my bike. It’s an old city bike, nothing fancy but in decent condition. Too big for the average person though (I’m tall). I noticed on the second day that it was gone. I could’ve sworn it was still there after 1 day. Just moved to this new address some weeks ago so I guess that’s a lesson learned.

  15. I remember being 10and just leaving my mountainbike unlocked when at the library for an hour.

    The joys of growing up in a boeregat in the early 90’s.

  17. Wezemaal train station: 5h max

    Chain your bike-wheels to your saddle and your bikeframe to a steel pole. They are ruthless. Anything that isn’t pinned to the ground will be gone.

    Apparently people have seen them use pickup-trucks and powertools. They take multiple bikes at the same time.

  19. 2 days in the garage supposely locked in ixelles . those fuckers stole my gf bike she used it 15min.. i dont believe its bad luck they must have accomplice and watchers in the buildings staff

  22. Less than a night, living on police property, behind the police station itself. It wasn’t even visible from the public street, one had to walk 109 meters on the terrain then turn right, walk another 30 meter to turn right again to get at my terras. It was locked at an iron frame from the terras and even the lock was gone 😛

    People don’t care if they steal

  23. One time I was waiting for my train in Brussel-Zuid, my train got cancelled so my bf and I decided to walk outside the train station. We witnessed 3 guys cutting bike locks. 2 got away, the third one was stopped by my partner who pushed him on the floor as he was trying to flee with the bike. The dude got up and ran and a passerby thought my bf was the one trying to steal the bike. Under way too much adrenaline, my bf forgot the police’s phone number and that’s when the passerby figured out he wasn’t trying to steal it lmao

  24. A regular bike doesn’t have that much appeal now for thiefs. An electric or sport bike, that thing will be gone as soon as you turn your back. A very close friend of mine had his 3k bike stole out of his locked garage.

  31. My bike sits outside next to the front door, right next to the street, from April – oktober every year unlocked, owned it for 8 years now

    When I was 14-18 ( long time ago) there was an orange bike at the bus stop, no one knew where it came from but everyone in town used it whenever they needed to, it always kept getting put back there, until one day after 4-5 years of being there it didn’t

  33. That depends. I had an excess bike in perfect nick, so I just left it unlocked at my front door. I live right outside the city limits of Ghent, but it still took more than a month untill it vanished. Repeat this experiment near Overpoort right after the start of the academic year, or in the city center around Gentse Feesten, and I presume you’ll get rid of it in a few hours. I do wonder if those for-rent bikes make a difference. When I was young, if you missed your last bus you were pretty much out of options… If an unlocked bike were to present itself, that would have been tempting for some. Now, you always have a (granted, expensive) alternative to get your drunk/tired ass home, or to the next party.

  39. The more remote the location, the less likely it is to be stolen. The wealth of the area and the community also plays a role I guess

  40. Used to be forever here in Aarsele…
    And with the new kids on the block, if it’s gone you can probably find it somewhere in the bushes in a 200m radius after a couple of days.

  41. In Brussel about 1 minute.
    In the farmer outside area of let’s say peer or something like welden it’s probably a month

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