bicycles are the new toilet paper

This week in adventures in hoarding:

-- Portland police broke up an established stolen bike chop shop inside a large homeless encampment. Two of the men arrested had been in and out of jail for bicycle theft for years.

-- I took in two more bikes for tuneups from people who had decided to economize by using their bikes for local trips. This has been a recurring theme in most of the bikes Ive tuned up in the last two months.

-- Looking for more bikes to tune up and sell on the cheap has gotten a lot harder. Ten-year-old Huffys and Magnas are selling on craigslist for updards of $60 to 80 -- nearly what they cost new.

I predict that, if and when we move beyond this pandemic, I'll have a much harder time finding donations for refugees. (And that's if they'll be allowed to keep coming here, which is an even bigger if than the pandemic.)

Bicycles are the new toilet paper. I kid you not.
So if you have a bike you hold dear, park it inside and keep it locked.