Pedestrians Seems Wise

So the other day I had an interesting experience whilst unlocking my bike from the bike racks outside Engineering 2. I lifted the front wheel over the top bar, and realised that it wasn't supposed to be doing that. It took me a minute to realise what "that" was.

"That" turned out to be moving in ways which bore no resemblance to the movement of the frame. The which it really wasn't intended to do. What really gets me is that I don't even have a quick release wheel. And I KNOW that that bolt was nice & tight - I just tightened it myself a few weeks before that. So basically someone was walking around with a toolkit and decided to take the front wheel off my bike.

I'm not quite sure whether this was an attempt at theft (which would be really odd as my tires are almost bald, and are about to start cracking on the sides). The other option is someone trying to be an annoying idiot. Well... they succeeded at being an annoying idiot. Although this is less annoying than the people who rotate bike racks 90 degrees (i.e. to a vertical position), leaving bikes hanging off of them.

Me, I'm very glad that I lock my bike through the wheel. Always. Having a cable lock is good for that. However I do wish I could find the person who did that, just to figure out if he was trying to steal, or trying to vandalize. And the suggestion I received of tying him (her?) up somewhere on campus, with a sign describing what was done to my bike is tempting... however I'm trying to avoid murder.

All's well that ends well. We fixed my bike up by putting the wheel back on (which I want to learn how to do by myself, if it's at all possible), finger-tightening the bolt and then wheeling her over to a tool kit to finish securing the wheel. So I have my lazy person's transportation working. I never even really lost it. And besides - I was feeling probably more confident than I ought to have about how old my bike looked making it safe. It's still very clearly a very nice bike. (Once I do some repairs...)