Bicycle, bike, lost inocence - Photo ©Jared Bloch

I have been an avid cyclist for 20 years, ever since I discovered that I could beat cross town buses to work in rush hour traffic. In that time, I have had exactly 2 bikes stolen, and I remember each incident perfectly, and the feeling of having been punched in the stomach and slightly sick at finding my transportation, livelihood and meditative machine missing from its resting place.

That was the feeling I encountered last week with my wife and daughter after finishing dinner with friends at their apartment in the Delices neighborhood.  We had ended a great evening of food and board games when we went to collect our bikes in the foyer of their door code building.

We had forgotten our locks at home, but upon seeing the locked front door decided that the bikes would be fine for a couple of hours. This time, it was my daughter’s turn to be shocked and outraged; we were all upset, but this was the first real theft she has experienced and she was both hurt, and spitting mad.

A bicycle with personality - Photo ©Laila Rodriguez

Bikes are personal; they take on personalities the longer you own them. A good one becomes a trusted accessory, like a solid watch or a weathered motorcycle jacket, and having one stolen is a personal violation. I can still recall with a bitterness finding a severed cable where my bike should have been anchored, outside the Arts and Sciences faculty at the University I attended. I had employed a flimsy cable lock in place of a sturdy bike lock for which I berated myself during several months of walking and depending on public transportation.

Relatively speaking, Geneva is low on the security spectrum for cities, part of what makes this such a great place to live. And probably why my family was the more shocked to find our bikes pinched from inside a locked building during dinner with friends. “An ounce of caution is worth a pound of cure”; the refrain goes a long way towards avoiding the above scenario and subsequent feelings of betrayal and regret. An unlocked or poorly locked bike is an invitation to weak character, even in Geneva.

While a good lock is not inexpensive, buying and using one is cheaper and less painful than replacing the bicycle that dutifully carries you to work, to the beach, cafe, etc.  You can find a variety of locks including u-bolt types at Carrefour and Jumbo, or alternately at your local bike store in Vaud or Geneva.

If you are in the unfortunate situation of replacing your bike, or simply looking to enjoy the city on two wheels, try two great shops for used bikes and service: Trebuchet in Carouge, and Geneve Roule behind Gare Cornavin.  The former has an impressive selection of the best priced used bicycles in Geneva, while the latter has a limited selection of used bikes, and is run by an association assisting asylum seekers and unemployed persons to gain work skills.

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