Just how bad is it in Taipei?
Can I leave my 15K shiny bike locked outside a public library in the day? Can I leave it locked in daylight in busy downtown Taipei without fear. Obviously I am not going to be leaving it outside anywhere overnight.
D-Lock and a wire lock, or just the wire lock?
Don’t count on one of those twisted cables covered in clear silicone/rubber.
The thief can melt the covering with a lighter where it passes through the loop clamps and it slides right off.
I lost a 7K (more like 13K in today’s $NT) bike that way several years ago.
[quote=“the chief”]Don’t count on one of those twisted cables covered in clear silicone/rubber.
The thief can melt the covering with a lighter where it passes through the loop clamps and it slides right off.
I lost a 7K (more like 13K in today’s $NT) bike that way several years ago.[/quote]
They got thru a kryptonite lock (and a top-end cable lock) in less than 20 minutes while I shopped at a Carrefour in Zhong He. Taiwan is possibly the safest country in the world, but bikes get stolen all the time. They even take the seats if they can’t get thru the locks.
Well that’s standard practice anywhere in the world for bike thieves, not just here.
I wouldn’t trust locking my bicycle up anywhere in Taipei, seriously. Even inside apartment buildings they go missing. It’s not hard to get into a building here. Even with space at a premium, I keep my bike inside my apartment here all the time. When I go into 7-11s, it comes in with me. No one seems to mind, at least I’ve not been told so to this point.
I had a bike that had a market value of around 500 nt and someone stole it. I didn’t lock it though. I guess they were just casual thieves and wanted a little bit of money to go toward a nice man purse.
Same exact thing as the chief happened to me. Now I have a beat up 5000NT (new) KHS that I ride around. When I buy a new bike there is no chance that I’ll leave it alone unattended.
My S.O. cycles to work and gets a bike stolen about once a year, even though she always locks them with a fat chain (bolt cutters are available in any hardware store). She buys cheap shitty ones and “uglifies” them for that reason. I assume better ones are more likely to get stolen. The police consider it a non-issue - the first time it happened she reported it, and they basically shrugged and said “what do you expect us to do about it?”.
So short answer is: expect it to get stolen eventually.
It will be hard to steal my new bike when I am either sitting on it or it is in my apartment. I’ll keep my old bike as my sacrificial town bike.
Well that’s standard practice anywhere in the world for bike thieves, not just here.
I wouldn’t trust locking my bicycle up anywhere in Taipei, seriously. Even inside apartment buildings they go missing. It’s not hard to get into a building here. Even with space at a premium, I keep my bike inside my apartment here all the time. When I go into 7-11s, it comes in with me. No one seems to mind, at least I’ve not been told so to this point.[/quote]
Right, sorry, I didn’t mention mine was locked to the stairs inside our building when it was taken.
Where do all the stolen nikes go? Never noticed a burgeoning second hand bike market?
An underground shoe market?
My theory is that they go back to the dubious little second hand bike shops that sell “uglified” bikes to the many willing customers who are worried about getting their bikes stolen. They’re sort of kept in circulation, like money. Perhaps stolen bikes even function as currency in the underworld, as in “I’ll give you 12 bikes for that DVD player”. “You wot, mate? Give us 15 bikes and I’ll throw in this Hello Kitty phone case as well, and I’m cuttin’ me own throat there”.
Come to think of it, the whole thing may be a huge misunderstanding based on a mispronunciation of “bucks”.
An underground shoe market?[/quote]
Christ, I can’t type.
My flatmate had a bike stolen from our apartment stairs in Beijing. I caught the guy a few days later riding it down the street and took it off him. Realised afterwards that he was one of the estate agents that had come to take photos of our apartment that was going for sale. Went round later to see what they had to say for themselves, making sure to let it be heard to the gathering crowd that these agents thieve from your house.
After an hour in the police station the estate agents boss paid a bribe to the officers and they said we could all go. I asked about our split of the money and was told by the officer that if my flatmate wasn’t Japanese then we would’ve gotten some of the cash.
So… where can you get a serious chain and padlock in Taiwan(pei)? and how much would you expect to pay?
Ah yes, what happened to that thread about China ruling the world? Or not.
Great story, Nyko - I’m curious about the specific details of ‘taking [the bike] off him’. 
Frankly, I’m surprised you weren’t arrested and given a short sharp lesson about whose country you’re living in. Lucky you were in the civilised part of the country, I guess. Incidentally, I believe the correct term in this scenario would be “constable”, rather than officer. With a u.
There is no chain that can stop a thief in Taiwan. You could probably have a chain that weighed as much as the bike and it would still get cut if thieves wanted your bike. Either get a cheap town bike or keep it in your apt.
It’s bad.
15k bikes will get stolen
There are some very good reasons why folding bikes are popular in Taiwan.
yeah, but you have to live a little