Damaged bikes lying around

Anyone know how/why so many bikes around munich have damaged/bent wheels?

I bought Sparty's bike when he left last year. It was parked up outside his apartment one night and when he found it in the morning, it looked like a herd of elephants had had a go at it.

Drunk vandals. It was Oktoberfest time.

Not seen any bikes go under a car. That would be my other explanation.

I don't know the answer, but I do know that it's not very hard to 'taco' your wheel like that when doing some off-road biking.

grr my bike was parked against a lampost and some fooker must have been parking his motor, and mounting the kerb I might add, cuz the whole front of my bike was run over...bent wheel, handlebars, mudguard etc the lot. but think a lot of bikes also get vandalized. my mate's bike had the tyres slashed last week for no apparent reason.
ooh and another mate had the brakes off her bike stolen...just the brakes! odd or what...they were just normal brakes.

I noticed most of the bike holders/stands around munich just hold your front wheel meaning the stand on the bike is never used. I thought this may have been the reason for most the bent wheels but some bikes i have seen have there wheel bent like a right angle. Maybe the repair shops go on rampages for more business.

Comparative to Dublin (where I was living before here) they are few and far between. In Dubs, there are remenants of bikes left lying everywhere chained to various fixed items, front wheels, rear wheels, frames, the lot littered everywhere. If there is a complete bike chained up it's normally so badly mangled that parts removal is impossible. I reckon for a big city bike damage and theft is fairly minimal here in Munich

I've noticed, too. Even started counting them. I'd say at your average bahn stop, 20 percent are such bikes. Strange.

Not strange really.

People buy crappy little commuter bikes to get them to and from the station. They leave them parked there for longer periods of time. Drunks, vandals and the general clumsy come along and either try to steal the bike (neglecting to notice the front wheel is locked to something) or fall over or kick over the bikes. Hence, you get lots of bikes with an "8" as it's called in German.

I have also so often seen these mangled bike wheels and wondered what caused that... but you see it so often that you stop thinking about it too! :}

Seems to be a joke in Germany from what I have seen... I lived in Konstanz in southern Germany for 1 year and saw the same there too... Other types of crime (car thefts, house break-ins) seem to be pretty low, but bikes are so often damaged or stolen. I was at a Bierfest in Konstanz and witnessed 2 guys behaving suspiciously near some bikes. I was with 2 Germans and since I was new here, I asked what we should do... they just laughed! :} Seems to happen very often at Bier Festival times...

One time I had a ONS with an 18yo German lad, it was late and was no Sbahn / Trambahn / Ubahn and he decied to steal a bicycle to get home... :} I guess more fool them if they know the situation here and use no locks! :}

When I rode my bike to work, I never left it locked up outside - always took it into the office for extra security :}