Word of warning!!!!!!

mr_eddy

Ok I have just come back from the town centre having very nearly lost my bike (Cube LTD Pro) to some scum bag, chav looser!!!

I had 2 unbranded chains and padlocks which I thought were pretty sturdy, apparently not! this scum bag was already past the first one and working on the second when I came out the shop, he subsequently ran away leaving the bike in tact!

I subsequently went to the nearest bike shop and bought the three best locks they had (2 Krptonite chains and a ABUS gold star D-Lock)

I PLEAD WITH ALL BIKERS OUT THERE SPEND MONEY ON DECENT LOCKS (More than one, as quantity is more important that type). ALSO MAKE SURE YOU REPORT EVERYTHING NO MATTER HOW SMALL.

IF WE STICK TOGETHER WE CAN PREVAIL OVER THESE WORTHLESS SCUM BAGS!

ONLY LEAVE YOUR BIKE UNATTENDED WHEN IS ABSOLUTELY NECCESSARY.

MAYBE GET A CHEAP BIKE FOR TOWN CYCLING AND SAVE YOUR GOOD BIKE FOR BEST.


Thankfully I have insurance (through Evans cycles, highly reccomend only £6 per month).

Hopefully I wont have any more probs. The last is on me though as he tripped over whilst running away and landed on his face! Ha serves him right, and best of all I still have my undamaged bike

Cheers

KnightofCydonia

he's lucky it wasn't me, when he fell over I'd have chained him by the neck to a lamppost, stolen his clothes and left him with a kick in the nuts :x

reppohkcor

I wish i could catch one red handed one day. Ohhh please God..

Mrs Toast

Depressing thing is, I think even the Kryptonite locks don't hold back a really determined thief. We had 4 or 5 bikes nicked from from work, and they were all secured, one by the top-level Kyptonite D-lock.

The police caught the filthy chavster and his girlfriend accomplice. Apparently he's a known bike thief - he'd hit the local Sainsburys the week before, and the inside of his flat was described as being 'like Halfords bike department'.

Amusingly, this was actually quite an apt description - amongst the bikes he'd stolen from our workplace was a Shockwave, but he left behind a £600-ish Kona Jake.

jsussex

I would never leave my bike locked and unattended, its just asking for trouble.

This video on you tube shows £200 motorcylce chains being broken in seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3hFr8p2ck

If you leave your stead locked up in the town, then its your own fault if you lose it, sorry.

I even lock mine to a floor anchor in my own home to foil the oppurtunist chav. sad but true

mr_eddy

Yep only gonna take it on the trails with me, Instead gonna use my dad's old raleigh activator. Its worth about £10 and also weighs more than a house!

If they nick that then they really are desperate!!!

My bike now takes pride of place in the upstairs bedroom of my house within which my dog (german shepard, called alan) sleeps.

Good luck anyone trying to get passed him!!!

antfly

jsussex wrote:

If you leave your stead locked up in the town, then its your own fault if you lose it, sorry.

I even lock mine to a floor anchor in my own home to foil the oppurtunist chaz. sad but true

That`s a bit harsh and defeatist.We should be able to leave our bikes for a few minutes without it getting nicked.I`m sure there are places where you can leave your bike unlocked without it getting nicked.

jsussex

antfly wrote:

jsussex wrote:

If you leave your stead locked up in the town, then its your own fault if you lose it, sorry.

I even lock mine to a floor anchor in my own home to foil the oppurtunist chaz. sad but true

That`s a bit harsh and defeatist.We should be able to leave our bikes for a few minutes without it getting nicked.I`m sure there are places where you can leave your bike unlocked without it getting nicked.

Dont be a plonker. I Even read in MBR (I think) of a father and son whose bikes were stolen out of the tent that they were sleeping in somewhere in Wales. Chavs everywhere, cant see why its defeatist? who are we defeating by keeping hold of our bikes? BTW if you're gonna leave your bike locked up in town then you cant want to keep it.

antfly

I never leave any of my bikes anywhere but some people have no choice.
Anyway what`s a chaz?

Raymondavalon

antfly wrote:

Anyway what`s a chaz?

A guy named Charles, a car or guitar

Been quite a few bikes ripped off at our local sports centre too
Seen the posters up offering rewards for the locked Carreras that were nicked two weeks back. Perhaps if they put a CCTV camera up this would stop?

jsussex

antfly wrote:

I what`s a chaz?

Do you mean Chav? if you dont know what a chav looks like, then its you.

antfly

HaHa,you forgot to edit your first post you silly chaz. :roll:

jsussex

antfly wrote:

HaHa,you forgot to edit your first post you silly chaz. :roll:

You are really starting to look silly now

antfly

No,you`re the stupid one because you can`t edit the posts where you are quoted so everyone can see you thought chavs were called chaz.You lose.

tlw1

I am not good at locking up my bikes, which is one of the reasons for getting the singlespeed built as a general hack/pub bike.

I keep thinking about getting a fixed wheel so that the chav/chaz hopefully crash a couple of yards down the road!

thekickingmule

jsussex wrote:

If you leave your stead locked up in the town, then its your own fault if you lose it, sorry.

I even lock mine to a floor anchor in my own home to foil the oppurtunist chav. sad but true

That's a ridiculous thing to say! If that's your attitude, you are also saying that 'anyone that leaves their car in a car park is asking for it to be nicked'. I'm sure that most people won't agree with that, why should it apply to bikes too?
Also, I know someone who had their bike stolen from their house, so they then bought a floor anchor. They came back and stole his new bike. He then bought a mount for the wall, where the bars of this cage device drop into the cavity of the wall, 'Guaranteed unstealable' I believe was what he was told.
Imagine his face when he came home to discover the bike gone and a feckin huge hole in his wall where they had gone through it with a sledgehammer!
Thieves deserve to have their hands chopped off, we don't deserve to lose our bikes!
Plus, it's 'steed' not 'stead' Go back to school.

nozzac

I had a drug addict steal my bike from inside a shop in Bristol. I heard the freewheel ticking on the way out and me and member of staff caught him before he go to the end of the road. It was about £600's worth only 2 days old. He'd have probably sold it for a hit.

Chains are useless as are the flexible locks. They can all be cut by bolt croppers in seconds. Only good quality U locks are any use and even they are no match for a bottle jack so you need to leave no room for them to get the nose of the jack in. So either get a mini U lock or fill the space of a larger one with the frame and wheel etc when you lock it. Then you're pretty safe unless leaving it in a quiet spot overnight.

Tank-slapper

There are some interesting vids on Youtube about hacking u-locks. All that is needed to open the tubular key type is a Bic pen. The ones that use a small 'front door' type key seem best, but even they can be opened in seconds with a couple of hairgrips.

One of the chains in the link posted above lasted more than a minute - the Squire MC4. If this chain is wrapped tightly around the upper part of the bike, making it more difficult to get the croppers in and too high to get leverage on the floor, it may last a while longer than that.

But the best solution is to get a cheap, less tempting bike for commuting and going shopping, etc.

MrChuck

Tank-slapper wrote:

But the best solution is to get a cheap, less tempting bike for commuting and going shopping, etc.

+1 Something thieves won't be as interested in and you won't mind losing so much. Keep your MTB for the trails.

_Ferret_

I used to ride my bike to uni (that's a few years ago now). The only place I would leave it was infront of the student union building which was always populated. I used a large U lock and placed it next to a sign saying "don't lock bikes to this railing". The security guard was too lazy to do anything about it but it was probably a good deterrant that he walked up to it every few minutes and tut tutted...

now I wouldn't leave my bike anywhere except at home, and then it's insured.

get yourself a crap granny bike for going down the shops with. It might not look so cool but then you probably shouldn't wear all your DH kit with it...

passout

As above - lock your bike somewhere busy. CCTV coverage isn't enough (but helps a little) - you need lots of passersbys and nowhere to hide. This, in combination with 2 good locks including a U -lock, will put 'most' thieves off. I leave my commuter (Tricross) in the city and haven't had any problems (touch wood).

Mancunianfightingcat

my dad had a specialized Sirrus nicked in Preston about 4 months ago. That was chained up and he only left it for 5 mins, but it still went.
It was about 6 years old and he'd changed loads of parts on it just to suit his needs. It was probably only worth £100 but, he got paid out for the new price, which was about £400.

Anyway, it's appeared on Ebay since for £200 but never sold! It's definitely his bike, but because he hasn't got details of the frame number, the plod aren't interested in checking it out.

He's now bought a £50 wreck and poured emulsion paint on it so it looks like a right heap, hopefully no one will nick that!

topsey_turvey

Mate of mine used to get his bikes nicked from the railway station when he took the train to work. Railway company was less than helpful even though the rack was right next to the ticket office, and a camera was right above it. After his third claim his insurance company said they wouldn't pay out again. So he got a good but battered looking frame and put some good but battered stuff on it. It rode great, just looked cr@p. Hasn't been nicked for two years!

jsussex

it's 'steed' not 'stead' Go back to school.

Crikey - do you go through all posts and point out spelling mistakes and tell posters off?

What a sad little man you are! (I was going to say, sad litel pedant, but I cudent spel it cudi)

love you, bye!

nozzac

Tank-slapper wrote:

There are some interesting vids on Youtube about hacking u-locks. All that is needed to open the tubular key type is a Bic pen. The ones that use a small 'front door' type key seem best, but even they can be opened in seconds with a couple of hairgrips.

One of the chains in the link posted above lasted more than a minute - the Squire MC4. If this chain is wrapped tightly around the upper part of the bike, making it more difficult to get the croppers in and too high to get leverage on the floor, it may last a while longer than that.

But the best solution is to get a cheap, less tempting bike for commuting and going shopping, etc.

That ulock hack isn't anywhere near as easy as shown. I've tried it for hours on a couple of locks I have. It affected some locks of some makes but is by no means universal. The better Ulocks use more advanced locks now.

A u lock with locked tight to a substantial post is very difficult to remove. Of course the other problem is people nicking all the other bits like your saddle etc!

canada16

I ride a 1500 full suss to work, and to be honest I got full insurance and pics.

I am not going to ride a piece of garbage just because some little wank%r needs some topping up dol money.

I would never leave my bike in the town centre, lucky enough I work in town so I can always park my bike in the cctv car park.

But even then I am under no assumptions that its safe.

What we should do is lock our bikes up in town with a couple mates, when the thief comes, and its gauranteed with a.. say 2000.00 bike you leave, wait for them to attempt to steal it, grab them, knock them out, and call the police.

Just do it on your day off, you will be surprised with the results

canada16

I ride a 1500 full suss to work, and to be honest I got full insurance and pics.

I am not going to ride a piece of garbage just because some little wank%r needs some topping up dol money.

I would never leave my bike in the town centre, lucky enough I work in town so I can always park my bike in the cctv car park.

But even then I am under no assumptions that its safe.

What we should do is lock our bikes up in town with a couple mates, when the thief comes, and its gauranteed with a.. say 2000.00 bike you leave, wait for them to attempt to steal it, grab them, knock them out, and call the police.

Just do it on your day off, you will be surprised with the results

ride_whenever

yeah, you're arrested and charged with assault... they give the scroat your bike as compensation.

weeksy59

jsussex wrote:

I would never leave my bike locked and unattended, its just asking for trouble.

This video on you tube shows £200 motorcylce chains being broken in seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3hFr8p2ck

If you leave your stead locked up in the town, then its your own fault if you lose it, sorry.

I even lock mine to a floor anchor in my own home to foil the oppurtunist chav. sad but true

That's a bloke i know from various Motorbike forums.

pyebibby4

antfly wrote:

I`m sure there are places where you can leave your bike unlocked without it getting nicked.

there are!! i left my house and went for a 6hour ride yesterday... didnt leave the house locked... infact the door was wide open when i got home... god love the middle of fucking know where in dorset!! i dont lock my bike up at night either.. it should be in the tack room but/.... its to beautiful to sit there! (mounted a set of supports to the wall at the end of my bed! ) price place...!!!!

pyebibby4

passout wrote:

As above - lock your bike somewhere busy. CCTV coverage isn't enough (but helps a little) - you need lots of passersbys and nowhere to hide. This, in combination with 2 good locks including a U -lock, will put 'most' thieves off. I leave my commuter (Tricross) in the city and haven't had any problems (touch wood).

true! the problem with u-locks as sturdy as they can be... all a 'decent' theif needs is a can of plumber freeze... the just crack under impact... thats a bloody clique i think aswell!