Ever wondered what would happen to a bicycle if you left it locked up for a year in the Soho district of NYC? Well New York City-based design and marketing consultancy Red Peak Branding has produced a time-lapse video showing the fate of such a bicycle.
To begin with, not much happens. The first thing to go appears to be the spoke card, which took just short of 100 days to be taken.
That was followed a couple of weeks later by the rear-view mirror, but then nothing appears to have happened for the next three and a half months, with the bicycle looking pretty much unchanged by day 210 of the experiment.
By day 270, the bike had disappeared altogether, however, and that has given rise to accusations on YouTube comments that all may not be as it appears.
After 211 days, the Kryptonite D-lock attaching securing the frame and the front wheel to the cycle stand disappears, with some viewers commenting that it appears that it was removed on purpose to help encourage the thieves to take the bait.
One of those putting forward that theory added, “Still no one "steals" it for another 60 days even without a lock,” although the person making that comment presumably failed to notice the large Kryptonite chain lock around the bottom bracket area.
Another potential explanation is that the bike is secured outside what appears to be a popular café, rather than in an isolated area, and with two locks in place initially, would be avoided by thieves.
Even once the lock securing the front wheel goes, it takes a while for the saddle to disappear, followed by the front wheel, but after that the bike’s demise is swift, until with three months still remaining of the year, it has gone altogether – although whether it was taken by thieves, or by municipal authorities or someone else, remains unclear.