"They took my bike and left another one," Varian, 18, said. "It had a flat tire. It was like mine, but crappier."

That was the second time he had an approximately $350 bike taken from his home in West Valley City. He now rides a used bike given to him by a friend.

With gasoline at more than $4 a gallon, the number of bike riders in Salt Lake City is increasing - but so is the number of bicycle thefts, police said.

Thefts more than tripled during the first week in August this year compared to last year, said Salt Lake City police spokesman Jeff Bedard.

From Aug. 1-7 last year, 10 bikes were stolen. That number rose to 33 this year, Bedard said.

And the thieves are growing bolder, in one case climbing up two stories to steal a bike from a balcony, he said.

Bike sellers haven't been spared. At Fishers Cyclery, a customer asked to test ride a bike and left, taking the $3,000 machine with him, manager Mike Weeks said. The shop at 2175 S. 900 East requires a driver license to test bikes, but the thief's license turned out to be a fake.

"People are getting pretty ballsy," Weeks said. "Once a bike is stolen you'll never see it again. There's a big market for bicycles."

Thieves re-paint bicycles and sell them on Craigslist or eBay, he said, or break them down for parts.

While business for new bikes at his shop is down by about 10 percent this year, the repair shop's business is up 30 percent.

That could mean a recent downturn in the economy is motivating people to refurbish an old bike rather than buy a new one.

Coupled with higher gas prices, the recession could also be a factor in the theft increase, Bedard said.

"People are looking for alternate forms of transportation, and riding bikes is one thing people turn to," he said.

Bike theft is an attractive crime because they are easy to take and hard to track.

"We'll go to a pawn shop and see bikes in there, but we don't know whose they were," Bedard said.

To make a bike easier to track if it is stolen, Bedard recommended writing down the serial number, engraving the bike with identifying information and registering it with the police (see box).

At the Bicycle Center, 2200 S. 700 East, manager Chad Vansolkema said three people came in last week saying their bikes had been taken, a higher number than usual.

"It seems like people are always getting their bikes stolen; it's hard to tell if it's happening more often," he said. He tells people to "put it in the house. Most of the time it's taken from the garage or backyard. People case garages all the time looking for open garages."

lwhitehurst@sltrib.com

Protecting your bike

* Use a steel-bar type lock instead of a cable lock.

* Engrave it with your initials and driver license number.

* Write down and store the serial number.

* Register the bike with the police department.

Source: Salt Lake City Police spokesman Jeff Bedard