Basic Trope: The hero needs to get somewhere fast so he steals a ride.
- Straight: Bob is in a hurry to stop Alice from destroying the world with a doom-ray so he steals a kid's bike and promises to return it as he's riding away.
- Exaggerated: Bob is leading an army to stop Alice but since their tank is out of fuel they must steal bikes from hundreds of kids all over the city.
- Downplayed: Bob is a law enforcement officer, and commandeers a motorbike or a car to stop a serial killer.
- Justified: Alice is trying to destroy the world after all, that guy should feel proud that his bike just helped save it.
- Inverted:
- Bob gives away his bike so he has an excuse to be late.
- A sentient, evil bike kidnaps the hero.
- Subverted:
- Bob is running from Alice and sees a guy with a bike. He runs to the guy, grabs the bike and... throws it at Alice's face and starts running!
- Bob steals a bike from a brawny guy who starts chasing him. Bob yells "I'll bring it ba—AUGH" right as the guy catches him and steals his wallet.
- Bob grabs the bike from a kid but immediately rides it into the kid's beefy dad who isn't very happy about it.
- Bob takes someones bike, but it turns out that person was Bob's friend who left it there beforehand.
- Double Subverted:
- While Alice is dazed and confused he grabs the bike and rides away.
- The kid's dad knows what's at stake so he lets Bob by.
- As the bike owner is rifling through Bob's mound of expired coupons, Bob grabs the bike and rides away.
- Bob's friend did not know Bob was going to steal the bike.
- Parodied: Bob steals a pink tricycle from a little girl who starts bawling so he promises to buy her ice cream when he gets back.
- Zig Zagged: Bob attempts to steal the bike, but the owner is a brawny guy who doesn't want it stolen so Bob throws some money at him and jumps on the bike. Which has a bicycle lock on it. So he steals the skateboard from under a passer-by.
- Averted: Bob just walks.
- Enforced: The story is Merchandise-Driven and the bike is being advertised. Bob steals it because it's "faster than competing brand names."
- Lampshaded: "Look, I know it might sound unlikely, but it's vital to the safety of the free world that you give me your Ferrari!"
- Invoked: Alice slashes the tires on Bob's car then, wearing a fake mustache, stands around innocently with her bike waiting for Bob to steal it.
- Exploited: The bike owner is a henchman of Alice planted there; she knew Bob would steal the kid's bike to run away. Either there's some sort of trap on the bike, or the theft of the bike is used against Bob.
- Defied:
- Seeing Bob eyeing a kid's bike, Alice tackles the kid and takes the bike for himself.
- Bob decides to put Honor Before Reason, and decides that it's bad to steal regardless of circumstances.
- Discussed: "If anyone tries to steal my brand new mountain bike, I'm gonna kick him in the nuts."
- Conversed: "Why do they always stop to steal a bike in chase scenes? If they just kept running they might have caught up to them already."
- Deconstructed: Bob ends up going to court and paying a hefty sum for the stolen and subsequently damaged bike and emotional damage to the kid who had his new bike stolen on his birthday.
- Reconstructed: Bob returns the bike when he's finished with it and pays generously for the trouble. If there are any damages he pays for it with interest.
- Played For Laughs: This same kid keeps getting his bike stolen by Bob over and over throughout the series.
Head back to ... hey! Stop! He grabbed my link to Hero Stole My Bike!
