Brakes being tampered with when parked up

patchy
patchy Posts: 779
edited January 2008 in Commuting chat
One issue my g/f is having at the moment is that street rats are undoing her brakes when her bike is parked outside of work (a london university placed in the east of the city...).

They've not done any major damage yet, but she's dreading the day when she returns to find no brakes or cables whatsoever...(or possibly no bike!) She's parked up in alternative places but it seems to be a bit of a craze at the moment, as wherever she is they end up being tampered with.

Her workplace are being particularly uncooperative (they won't provide any indoor, lockable storage for example - or even let her put her bike in general storage areas). Any ideas on how to protect her brakes from serious damage? Anyone else experiencing this wonderful syndrome?

She rides a Specialized Globe (not sure which version) with V brakes, btw.
point your handlebars towards the heavens and sweat like you're in hell

Comments

  • Random Vince
    Random Vince Posts: 11,374
    i used to tighten the cables to the point that you could not un clip them

    my other bike i couldn't do that, so i un clipped them myself, used to get left alone that way.

    my guess is that its someone just being silly, not interested in stealing the bike, just getting cheap laughs at someone elses expence - the hastle of having to re-clip or worse, riding off and finding no brakes.

    not much help or reasurance i know
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  • el_presidente
    el_presidente Posts: 1,963
    get a bike with hydraulic disks
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  • Parkey
    Parkey Posts: 303
    el_presidente wrote:
    get a bike with hydraulic disks

    Heh, I was going to say that. Not many pikeys carry a T7 torx screwdriver around with them. Doesn't stop them cutting the line though, and that'd be even more of a pain to repair.
    "A recent study has found that, at the current rate of usage, the word 'sustainable' will be worn out by the year 2015"
  • patchy
    patchy Posts: 779
    Random Vince wrote:
    i used to tighten the cables to the point that you could not un clip them

    my other bike i couldn't do that, so i un clipped them myself, used to get left alone that way.

    my guess is that its someone just being silly, not interested in stealing the bike, just getting cheap laughs at someone elses expence - the hastle of having to re-clip or worse, riding off and finding no brakes.

    not much help or reasurance i know

    Yeah, that's pretty much the conclusions we'd reached - just thought I'd pick y'all's brains before telling her to unclip her brakes every day (knowing her though she'd probably forget she'd done it and sail off regardless...)

    And it's not like i need to convince her to buy a new bike with disc brakes... she's been eyeing up a new hardtail for months. Still, means she can't complain when I spend money on bikes!
    point your handlebars towards the heavens and sweat like you're in hell

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