It is indeed true that buying a second-hand bicycle from a dealer or the black market does potentially help bicycle thieves find a market for their stolen goods. However, it is a choice that citizens have to make considering the harsh reality that it’s difficult to guarantee their new bicycles will be safe from bicycle thieves.– China Daily

In my first semester, I bought a new bicycle that I really liked for its apt size and style. A year later, due to my negligence, I forgot to lock it one day(or I left the keys on the lock, I can’t remember), and my bicycle was unsurprisingly stolen. I then bought a second-hand bicycle from a friend, even though it was too big and old but I didn’t want to get a new bicycle for it increases the chances of getting stolen and feeling hate. I invested quite some money into it as I had to do repairs and change the wheel, and even though it was uncomfortably big for me, it helped improve my skills in evasion at cross junctions of road traffic. While I was away on exchange, my friend lent my bicycle to her supposed friend, and it got stolen (and this friend has been avoiding compensation).

So after walking to and from school for half an hour each time when I first came back here, I was informed by a security guard (who somehow remembers me since way back in freshman year) that he can get me a bicycle, that I shouldn’t buy one. I followed him behind a building where there were around ten bicycles that were abandoned and needing some love and care, I suppose. So he chose one for me and brought it to the repair man, so I just paid 55RMB (S$11) for the repairs (including a new basket, a new seat, and changing of brakes). It was an easy service job, including the hacking of the lock. He even spray-painted the handlebars black to hide the rust infection that plagued this old bicycle.

And so I present to you my new old bicycle:

“Never buy a new bicycle,” was the advice I gave when the topic of bicycles was touched upon in conversation. You can hardly find a single local resident who has never had a bicycle stolen. — China Daily

Did I inadvertently steal this bicycle?

The repair man also demonstrated how certain locks (most of us lock our bicycles with two locks) are easy to pry open, although all locks are hackable. Which is why no lock can prevent your bicycle from being stolen, but it is a hindrance for thieves who find it too troublesome when the one next to yours only has one lock. There’s a story that has been going around claiming that a student locked his bicycle with 10 locks, thinking that will prevent loss. However, he came back to find all his locks broken and a note saying that it’s not that the thief can’t steal his bicycle, instead he just chose not to.

Read about Bicycle Buying.