Leaving your bike when at work

furiousd

Hi all,
I have been riding to the office for the past couple of weeks. No many times twice last week, once week before and once this week. My office is all open plan with glass divides, i spoke to my in-line manager about putting the bike in a small area opposite my office, no one goes near it and it does not affect anyone. This was OK and nothing more has been said.

Today the owner of the company has just told me that i need to keep the bike outside as it is not condusive to have it in the office. I am not really comfortable leaving my brand new bike outside all day when riding it to the office. I dont even have a lock as it is never left anywhere.

Just curious what all you guys do. Also does a company have to provide an area for cycles to be left securely?

Thanks
D

iPete

Secure off street bike parking with gate, guard and some rails to lock against. I doubt a company is obliged, they may have to do something if they offer Ride 2 Work.

How bad is the street parkin? I'd get yourself some insurance and maybe a Kryptonite New York and another larger D-lock depending on how nice the bike is.

Gussio

We are lucky enough to have a secure underground parking facility, half of which is given over to racks that have space for around 100 bikes (which are satisfyingly full each day). I hope that you are not forced to leave your bike outside - good luck convincing your boss to let you keep using the room.

essex-commuter

My work has bike racks. To gain access to the rack you have to pass a manned security gate, and then it's one mile to the bike parking facility. Pretty safe, unless someone who actually works here decides to nick it.

furiousd

It is a nice bike to me, a new Bianchi Via Nirone Sora. Really pleased with it.
We have an open car park that anyone can get into, the is video surveillance. I know have to go and spend more money on security for the bike.

Just a pain really when there has not been a problem for the last few weeks and it affect no one.
D

asprilla

Secure underground parking for 200+ bikes. It's even caged off from the rest of the car park and you need to have access specifically activated on your work pass.

Doesn't mean we are free from incidents like a sign going up the other day with someone asking for the return of all the components that had been stripped from their bike over the winter. Obviously someone thought it was ok to use an 'abandoned' bike for spares.

essex-commuter

I guess it depends on the size of office and type of business etc., but I would never expect an employer to be comfortable with me bringing a bike inside. I've only every worked for very large organisations so perhaps my thoughts are slightly skewed.

bigmat

You think that's bad, at one former job they wouldn't even let me leave a suit in the cloakroom as it was "for client's coats only". Just buy a lock, and consider getting a cheaper bike.

furiousd

MatHammond wrote:

You think that's bad, at one former job they wouldn't even let me leave a suit in the cloakroom as it was "for client's coats only". Just buy a lock, and consider getting a cheaper bike.

That is mad! I will have to look into locks. Buying a cheaper bike is not an option, only just bought this with the view to partly riding to work on it.

Will see what happens, will try and appeal to my in-line managers better nature.
D

spasypaddy

before i started my new job my boss already knew me and knew how important my bike/cycling is to me so during our very first interview he said without me asking that i'd be ok to bring my bike into the office and store it in my own office if i wanted.

WesternWay

I work in an office of nine people by Bank tube station.

Bizarrely three of us cycle at the moment. Two people bring their bikes inside and I leave mine outside. In general I don't reckon that bringing bikes into a carpetted area is a good idea, I rarely do it at home so I rarely do it at work. I cycled through the winter and there are plenty of times when muddy rain drips off the thing.

I can see why people want to bring their bikes in though.

George

CiB

I'm pretty lucky tbh - my bike lives in my office [sole occupant = me] and senior management shows a tacit acceptance of it being there, as long as it's not filthy, and as long as I make other arrangements [car] when visitors / clients are in the building.

I wouldn't leave it outside. Buying a cheaper bike defeats the point of owning a nice bike in the first place, if it can't be used for what it exists for.

Stevo_666

We are lucky enough to have secure bike parking inside the building (access by electronic card) & racks to lock the bikes to inside. Necessary IMO....

Aidy

A week or two after having a bike stolen from outside the office (after I was promised there'd be secure bike parking before the office move), I was asked if I'd mind locking my bike outside again.

Imagine how amused I wasn't.

lost_in_thought

Aidy wrote:

A week or two after having a bike stolen from outside the office (after I was promised there'd be secure bike parking before the office move), I was asked if I'd mind locking my bike outside again.

Imagine how amused I wasn't.

:x I hope you said no.

I've had mixed levels of bike parking, the first place said I could use the archive rooms, so bike was indoors, the second place had a loading bay, but permission was removed, so then a lamppost directly outside the lobby where the security guards kept an eye on it, as well as the 24hr police guard for the Israeli Embassy. It was pretty safe...

Current part-time job, I bring it in to the office. Next job it sounds like I may be attaching it to a lamppost again.

Aidy

lost_in_thought wrote:

:x I hope you said no.

Indeed, followed by a swift meeting with my manager to discuss exactly how much they were taking the piss.

spasypaddy

last week i had to take my bosses watch in for repair as i was going into town (office is in finchley) so i cycle down, get to the very very very expensive watch store on new bond street. They apologised that i wasnt able to bring my bike in, i explained that my bike was very expensive and i had a race in 3 weeks time that i needed it for and under no circumstances was i going to lock it up (i didnt have a lock with me anyway). They detailed 2 of their security guards to guard it whilst i was inside for 15mins.

And they gave me an incredibly expensive tie for free for the trouble.

Headhuunter

I put mine in the basement at work in the fire exit corridor. I lift it over a railing so it doesn't block the exit passageway itself, none of the bike is actually in the fire exit itself, it's all over the other side of the railing. However after I'd been doing this for a year or so without problem we had a new, temporary building security guy who decided that he had spoken to the building manager and I could no longer put my bike down there.... For some reason it was suddenly a hazard. I would accept this, but the fire exit is already full of building junk - old flourescent light tubes, a set of step ladders, various bits of piping and plastic tubing whatnots. I couldn't understand why a bike (not actually in the fire exit pathway) was considered a hazard, yet the various bits of detritus were perfectly acceptable! Anyway, the jobsworth security guy was gone a couple of weeks later so now I put it down there again and no one has said a thing....

lost_in_thought

spasypaddy wrote:

last week i had to take my bosses watch in for repair as i was going into town (office is in finchley) so i cycle down, get to the very very very expensive watch store on new bond street. They apologised that i wasnt able to bring my bike in, i explained that my bike was very expensive and i had a race in 3 weeks time that i needed it for and under no circumstances was i going to lock it up (i didnt have a lock with me anyway). They detailed 2 of their security guards to guard it whilst i was inside for 15mins.

And they gave me an incredibly expensive tie for free for the trouble.

Omega let me bring my bike in, the security guard even holds it for me! I didn't want to lean it on their shiny, shiny displays. My new job's just round the corner from there, I wonder if they'll let me keep it in the store? :P

Chopard are GREAT for gifts. Ask him if he's got a chopard watch. In my PA-ing days I got loads of free gifts from them... not that they were technically for me!

spasypaddy

no it was a patek phillipe. the manager was a cyclist, most of the staff cycle so they understood as they do the cycle to work scheme

Salsamander

Where I work we have dedicated cycle storage inside the building.

WHy not ask your boss to get some dedicated cycle storage outside? If you are going to lock it up outside have a lookat the LCC video for their "beat the thief" campaign

ride_whenever

If you have a car space, buy a really cheap nasty car, black out the windows, rip out most of the interior and use it as your own little bike parking, ideally something with a decent size rear opening...

cjcp

Aidy wrote:

I was asked if I'd mind locking my bike outside again.

"Yes. Next question."

I'm very lucky. I bring mine into the building. The guys I work for are very good about it.

Aidy

cjcp wrote:

Aidy wrote:

I was asked if I'd mind locking my bike outside again.

"Yes. Next question."

I'm very lucky. I bring mine into the building. The guys I work for are very good about it.

I'll be fair, they did find me somewhere inside to keep it shortly after.

The thoughtlessness did kinda piss me off, though.

biondino

For the original poster, I would ask, extremely politely, if the owner would reconsider. Explain why, how expensive the bike is, assure him you will take care if it's wet or dirty, and say that no-one who works with you has any problem with it. If he still says no, it's his prerogative, but it might work.

rolf_f

spasypaddy wrote:

no it was a patek phillipe. the manager was a cyclist, most of the staff cycle so they understood as they do the cycle to work scheme

Ugh! Patek Phillipe - the perfect watch for the city banker! Much prefer Omega but then even they aren't a patch on what they were in the 60s.

Inconvenient but could see if it is OK to store inside in a bike bag?

furiousd

I think this is what i am going to do. My line manager is very friendly with the owner so i will appeal to their better nature, what is annoying is there is a small office just off my office and it gets used about 3 times per month.

But like you say it is his prerogative.

davis

ride_whenever wrote:

If you have a car space, buy a really cheap nasty car, black out the windows, rip out most of the interior and use it as your own little bike parking, ideally something with a decent size rear opening...

I like this. Buying a hack car, purely for your bike.

spasypaddy

Rolf F wrote:

spasypaddy wrote:

no it was a patek phillipe. the manager was a cyclist, most of the staff cycle so they understood as they do the cycle to work scheme

Ugh! Patek Phillipe - the perfect watch for the city banker! Much prefer Omega but then even they aren't a patch on what they were in the 60s.

Inconvenient but could see if it is OK to store inside in a bike bag?

shame hes not a banker then and that it was also a present from a client.

The Rookie

The three regular bikers in my office all use the stairwells (not in the direct exit line!), to use one end (security access door) I use the other but as the stair has a mezzanine landing mine is under that and behind the first lot of stairs, so99% of people don't even know its there!

Simon

TommyEss

Had a fright today - we're moving to a new state of the art (!) building, bike to work scheme, BREEAM rated, the works...

And since we're moving in stages, a friend of mine from the first wave has reported back!

My powers of observation are not that reliable, so don't quote me on exact numbers!

5 showers
50 lockers
Drying room with 50 hooks

Open area in the under building car park for bicycle parking with 40 n-shaped posts for securing your bike to.

So an improvement - in terms of showers and changing rooms - except you can walk into the underground car park from the street, so anyone with a multitool could lift a lot of kit. We'd already said we'd want a bike cage around the sheffield stands, and they'd agreed to it previously.

Then we heard it got chopped from the budget...

Cue email to office manager, cc'd to lots of people, with the mildy-reassuring

The cycle cage will be installed soon.

So fingers crossed we'll be ok...! Will keep you posted.