Modern Living: Wheeling Their Way

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Although three-speed bikes are still the favorite, lightweight ten-speed models are coming up fast. Bicycling accessories have progressed far beyond the traditional horns, lights, speedometers and pants clips; there are battery-powered electric socks to keep winter cyclists warm, a light-weight reflecting vest that can be folded into a tiny packet, and a can of irritating spray—long beloved by mailmen—to ward off persistent dogs.

Signpost or Tree. Thieves, harder to ward off, are thriving on the bicycle boom. To thwart them, careful cyclists favor three chain locks—one locking each wheel to the frame, the third locking the frame to a stout signpost or tree. But the thieves, using bolt cutters, have no trouble snipping through all but the thickest links. In Manhattan, where bicycle larceny has reached epidemic proportions, many owners who pedal to work no longer consider it safe to leave bikes chained to lampposts outside their office buildings. Like cowboys in the Old West, who could not dare or bear to leave their horses unattended, the cyclists wheel their trusty mounts into elevators and park them in the office, where they are never out of sight of a watchful and loving eye.