Makes you wonder how many other crimes, including violent crimes, the average career criminal commits that he doesn't get arrested for. So even if stealing a bike is a criminal's 3rd strike that sends him back to prison for the next 25 years, rest assured that he got away with many other crimes that he had committed. So he is really getting punished, not legally but in reality, for a number of additional crimes, and not just for stealing the bike.
Many researches feel that the one of the main reasons that violent crime is on the decline in the US is because career criminals are spending more time in prison and less time on the streets.
I remember a case about 15 years ago where a guy got out on parole for rape, committed another rape, was on bail for that, and while on bail raped and murdered an LSU student. That case and Richard Allen Davies are the two that I remember when people start arguing against three strike rules.
I think that it's unfortunate that we ever got to the point where people felt we needed these. But lenient sentences for career criminals are what drove them. In one example I saw that happened in the 70s, a career criminal with two prior felony convictions received a 20 year sentence, but ended up serving only two years before his release. He went on to commit more crimes before killing someone.