Her bike's been stolen...

secretsam

...arrived at train station as usual yesterday, got stopped by train station chappie saying trains cancelled. Fellow biker pulls up, on new-ish bike, hears news, we chat about options - then we hear trains are now OK. Ace - so lock up bikes and off onto train.

Arrive home in evening, and there's the same young lady, stood looking hollow and upset near the bike racks. Before I can say anything, she simply says "It's gone". Nicked, cable lock neatly snipped.

I offered sympathy, etc (her fella - I assume - was there to help) - but was deeply worried about the safety of my bike (secured with D lock (old) and somewhat more robust cable) - and decided there and then that planned respray and general tart up ain't gonna happen, lest I attract the scumbags to my wheels (I was parked next to her but left alone).

When I'm president of the world, bike thieves will receive a messy sentence involving a d-lock :evil: .

MonkeyMonster

SecretSam wrote:

When I'm president of the world, bike thieves will receive a messy sentence involving a d-lock :evil: .

+1

kurako

The d-lock was what saved your bike more than the paint job. Cable locks just aren't a big enough deterrent. Anyone who balks at 40 quid or so for a decent lock really needs their head examined!

NGale

At the moment I'm lucky, if I take my bike to work I take it in on a night shift and it can sit in the corridor next to the control room and be safe. If I start riding in during the day then it will have to be locked just outside, where three bikes have been stolen this month alone (it's the only part of the complex that isn't covered b CCTV and yet the chap who runs the BUG, who ISN'T a cyclist says there isn't a problem)

Somehow I think I will be investing in a d-lock.

wgwarburton

Kurako wrote:

The d-lock was what saved your bike more than the paint job. Cable locks just aren't a big enough deterrent. ...

..parking next to the unfortunate victim's "newish" bike probably helped, too- the wise bike owner leaves their steed locked beside a nice shiny new one... preferably with flat bars and 24-speed Shimano gears.

One of my previous winter hacks (latterly a victim of rust, sadly) was a fixie with a 25" frame and mismatched parts. So far down the desireability chain in the eyes of your typical Scottish Ned (average height around five foot four) that I often didn't bother locking it....

Cheers,
W.

artaxerxes

The d-lock was what saved your bike more than the paint job. Cable locks just aren't a big enough deterrent. Anyone who balks at 40 quid or so for a decent lock really needs their head examined!

+1
I use a Kryptonite mini d-lock to secure the rear tyre, and a coil lock for the front. I supposed bike thieves could snip the coil lock and take the front tyre, but been lucky so far.
Also I avoid leaving it in public in...
Angel, Islington
Hackney
Squares adjacent to Oxford Street

secretsam

artaxerxes wrote:

The d-lock was what saved your bike more than the paint job. Cable locks just aren't a big enough deterrent. Anyone who balks at 40 quid or so for a decent lock really needs their head examined!

+1
I use a Kryptonite mini d-lock to secure the rear tyre, and a coil lock for the front. I supposed bike thieves could snip the coil lock and take the front tyre, but been lucky so far.
Also I avoid leaving it in public in...
Angel, Islington
Hackney
Squares adjacent to Oxford Street

You'd better add Stoke Mandeville station to that list, based on yesterday's experience.

_jon_

Kurako wrote:

The d-lock was what saved your bike more than the paint job. Cable locks just aren't a big enough deterrent. Anyone who balks at 40 quid or so for a decent lock really needs their head examined!

Not if your bikes only worth £35

I bought a cheap (reasonable condition) second hand bike of ebay. It is a lot less tempting to thieves, wouldn't cost much to replace if it did get stolen, and I can leave my more expensive weekend bike at home safely locked up.

It's a shame in a way that we have to use cheap bikes due to fear of crime.

the_hundredth_idiot

Disagree - even if your bike is only worth £35 (I've got a "pub" bike for just that reason) it is worth doing all you can to stop it being nicked because if it is nicked it is a hassle to get home and a hassle to buy a new bike. Not forgetting the cost of buying a new cable lock to replaced the one which has been chopped in half.

ride_whenever

^^ very wise...

I usually leave my pompino locked with a granit x-plus extreme, weighs as much as the bike, but i can leave the 6-7 hundred pound bike outside without worrying.

Today i was on my 456 because i needed to do some work on it in the workshop, so that's in the office, and everyone else can go swing if they want me to take it outside.

DevUK

I'm quite lucky. I work on a quiet university campus with sheltered bike racks right outside the building (no CCTV though). I D-lock the back wheel/frame to the bike rail and another D-lock on the front wheel to the rail.

It's fairly out of the way though. People seem to leave all sorts of lights/saddle bags/computers attached to their bikes, although I don't.

ride_whenever

I had a bike nicked two years ago from inside an armoured cage, cctv was looking elsewhere. It hasn't been seen since, I know most of the bike shop guys round here quite well, in the past stolen bikes have pretty reliably been recovered though sweet street justice. Two years and no one has seen hide nor hair of it :?

But i've got the 456 now, looks over longingly...

The Rookie

When I was at Uni 20 years ago a mate had an old snotter bike so it wouldn't get knicked, came back one day and they'd knicked his padlock and chain and left the bike behind!

Simon

Roastie

Back to the OP - I feel for her. It is such a horrible feeling having something stolen - esp something as essential as your mode of transport.

Bike thieves should be given rudimentary swimming lessons, and then dumped overboard 50 miles offshore and told to swim back. Feckers.

NGale

A few months back someone attempted to steal my fathers motorbike. It wasn't worth much but it was his mode of transport to work.

We heard some unusal movement in the alleyway beside the house, with the next thing we know my dad (62 years old!) chasing the thief up the road, said thief, jumped over a small wall slightly miscalculated, fell and ended up knocking himself out. He awake five minutes later to myself, two paramedics and two police officers all looking down at him and my father shouting at him that if he dares get up he will 'put him down there again'

It was the second time the bike had been tampered with as well. The guy got 18 months inside for that and other charges

Justice was in some small way done and it was nice to see. I would just like to get hold of the little scrote who took my MTB now. I couldn't even claim off the insurance for it because Cycleguard stated that because it was stolen from elsewhere (i.e not from home) it wasn't covered :evil: