Commuters, strap on your helmets, because there's a new way to beat the traffic. In the D.C. area, the two-wheeled world is exploding.

Elissa Parker straps on her helmet after sliding on her suede shoes and she's off on her short but sweet morning commute. "I don't have to worry about parking," she said.

Bikers stacked up three deep in the rain as 62-year-old Parker went from her home in Mount Pleasant to her downtown office. Parker said the weather in the district shouldn't be an obstacle to biking to work. "There's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes," she joked.

It looks like Parker isn't the only one who loves her bike. The Washington-area Bicyclist Association said while it has no hard numbers on a bike boom in the area, the anecdotal evidence can't be ignored. Cycling shops said once gas prices starting soaring this year, so did people's interest in bikes.

Bike shop managers said that new bike sales are up big this year. Revolution Cycles reported a spike in customers either doing complete overhauls or basic tune ups.

Metro is also seeing a surge in bike commuters, from waiting lists for bike lockers at multiple stations in the suburbs, to bike racks that are so packed, commuters have resorted to locking their bikes to trees.

 It is fantastic that such a significant growth in bike-riders is occurring.  There are several benefits, including health and environmental.  If you are unsatisfied with locking your bike to a tree, however, I suggest getting a sturdy bike lock that allows the bicycle movement to proliferate.  

For more years than I’ve been at Kryptonite, we’ve done a press release to the media with the “Top 10 Worst Cities for Bicycle Theft”. We took a hiatus for a year or so, but we kept getting calls about a new list so we started it up again last year. 

Because press releases are so old school, we are putting the information here for everyone to see. The list is from our proprietary data and it’s based on things we learned in 2006, after hundreds of shop visits, attending events, talking with community police and talking with customers on the phone, through email and at events.
So….drum roll please…

Top 10 Cities for Bike Theft
1. New York City
2. Chicago
3. Boston
4. Philadelphia
5. San Jose
6. Los Angeles - tie
    San Francisco - tie
8. Seattle
9. San Diego - tie
    Washington, DC - tie
    Portland, Oregon – tie

Just because you don't see your city on the list doesn't mean your bike is not in potential danger.  Protect your bike now with a premium bike lock.

So what does one do with thousands of bicycles? Igor Kenk’s record-setting collection have sparked myriad theories, ranging from the obvious: that he was planning to resell them all eventually in his used bicycle shop, to the eccentric: that he was saving them to melt them down during the next spike in scrap metal prices or was hording them for the eventual energy apocalypse.

Igor’s operation alone might explain most of Toronto’s reputation for being the capital of bike theft in North America. His shop was so filled with bicycles that police had to take out second floor windows and lower the bikes out them. Clearly this collection has been growing for a very long time. His shop even had a reputation as the place to go to buy back your stolen bike - but no one knew for sure that he was the one stealing them.

Over ten thousand frustrated bicycle theft victims have perused Igor’s reclaimed collection of stolen goods but only a few hundred bicycles have been returned.  If you want to prevent yourself from being his next victim, get your own bike lock now! 

For reviews and other information on bicycles and locks check out SheldonBrown.com and BikeRadar.com.

 According to many Sheldon Brown was known as one of the formost experts on bicycles, and anything that included bicycles.  His website has answers to many questions on bicycling including how to properly lock your bike, please follow this link for more information http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html.  For reviews and information on bicycling gear and accessories head to BikeRadar.com , they have many reviews of Abus, Kryptonite, and OnGuard products, this is a link to a review on the Abus Granit X Plus  http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/accessories/locks/product/granit-x-plus-54-10512 BikeRadar.com is a great source to take a look at your product before you decide to buy.

While current conditiions are too wet for riding - this time of year can be fantastic for solitude on the Palos trail system.

Please check The Chicago Area Mountain Bikers cambr.org or follow this link for trail maps and information about Palos: http://cambr.org/SMF/index.php?topic=359.msg1313#msg1313 

Posted by www.bike-locks.com

Since the beginning of this current school year, students at Texas Tech University have reported 19 differet bicycle thefts from bike racks on campus.  Additionally, the Tech Student Senate passed a resolution on October 16th, voting to add more bike racks to the school's campus.

Police have stressed that they do not believe adding more bike racks will lead to an increase in bike thefts (as long as the new bike racks are placed in centrally located, high-traffic areas of the campus).  However, they did mention that the most important thing in preventing bike theft on campus is to use high-quality bike locks to secure bicycles to bike racks.

The Deputy Chief of the Tech Police Department said that all bikes seemed to be targeted for theft, regardless of value.  Additionally, he said that bikes that were secured with low-end bike locks were targeted just as much as bicycles that did not employ a bike lock.

If you would like more information on quality bike locks, or are interested in purchasing a bike lock, contact A & Js' Bike Locks at 708-460-2999 today.