Poor parking job by ebiker

[Taylor57]

With that rack, I would use one of the outside thicker bars and not even use the center "slots". It is amazing though, how some people have no regard for anyone else in the world other than themselves...

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

That bike looks strange and I'm thinking it's a home made set up.
I doubt that battery is Specialized, nothing recent so maybe a really old one?? And I just don't see Specialized marking their battery with a double decal.
And where is the motor? Attached to the crank?

It's a good prank, a dig at the Specialized Fanboys, everywhere. I'm waiting for someone to take a Walmart Huffy, electrify it and slap on some Reise and Muller decals on it to get that segment all up on arms over the blashpemy!

 

[Iridebikez]

I don't know...in fairness, there are no other bikes around, and it appears to be later than normal commuter traffic hours. There's room for 3 more bikes - one on the other side, 1 at either end, and even a 4th if someone wanted to entomb this faux-Specialized in the middle (and teach them a lesson about bike rack demand). It's more likely they know the area better than we can discern from the photo. Once the sun sets, the rules definitely change. Theft and vandalism risks usually escalate dramatically. Parking along a drunk pedestrian lane opens up more complex social vandalism possibilities. College towns often have groups of erratic young impaired malcontents transiting by, which adds a few more risk points. It just takes one frat jerk to whack the rim to pop the spokes, and untrue your wheel so it no longer rotates. Then you're carrying your ride all the way home. Maybe this rider is a genius?

The "they're just trying to protect the bike" argument fails here because of the locking method used. They've got a chain lock (decent), but have only locked up the frame of that bike. If those wheels are QR, you don't even need any tools to steal them. Then you're carrying your ride home AND need to buy all new wheels, tires, tubes, and a cassette if you want to ride it again. And that doesn't even get into the extra length of the chain just hanging there, creating all sorts of unnecessary theft and vandalism opportunities.

Hopefully, as @FlatSix911 suggests, this person is just new to bike rack use and someone will politely explain to them how to properly lock their bike to a bike rack to both deter theft and avoid angering fellow cyclists.

 

[Explorer-1]

Good to carry a junk lock for times like this and put it to use on the offending bike. "You only left room for my lock"

 

[FlatSix911]

Good to carry a junk lock for times like this and put it to use on the offending bike. "You only left room for my lock"

 

[Asher]

Why would anyone do this?

Maybe they did people a service. Locking a front wheel is a bad idea, so they stopped people from doing that on one side.