|  Author | Topic: Ever had your bike nicked? (Read 3,853 times) |
la cyclista
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raysto
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|  | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #1 on Sept 18, 2006, 9:25am » | |
Had my bike nicked this weekend from outside my block of flats. nuts-nutse-sugar! 
One thing that really pisses me off about this is that the managing agents of the block that I live in had an opportunity to provide secure space for bikes but the freeholder chose to make money by converting disused space at street level for extra car-parking (there is already an underground car park). This kind of attitude is another hurdle in any attempts to encourage people to ditch their car in favour of a bike.
I was so fond of that bike - a second hand Puch I picked up for £45 in the spring - I'd personalised it, painted subtle designs on it, left it dusty and slightly rusty so that (I thought) no-one would be bothered to steal it. I bought a chunky bike lock and paid almost half the cost of the bike for it! Before it was stolen there were a series of random acts of violence against it: one day the front lamp was smashed, the next day the dynamo wires had been snapped or a mud guard kicked in. But it somehow survived and remained rideable. Now it feels like the end of a friendship and I'm wondering if there's a point in geting another one.
This morning I took the bus to work (which actually takes longer and costs £1.50 each way), eying up all the bikes outside in the pathetic hope that i'll see someone riding mine.
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chris
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|  | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #2 on Sept 18, 2006, 9:25pm » | |
oh thats so sad.maybe if you get another in time you may feel the same about it,though you will never forget it might help you get over your loss.
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raysto
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #3 on Sept 18, 2006, 11:21pm » | |
thanks chris. Less angry now, I'll be on the lookout for another second hand Puch and thinking of alternative security measures 
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Tamsin Williams
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #4 on Sept 19, 2006, 10:02am » | |
I cannot find the words to express my hatred of bike thieves. . . I had a bike for 5 years, a bike chosen with a great deal of care, thought and cost. For many years I rode a bike given to me by my dad that was too small and actually damaged my knees. As my daily transport I decided I deserved to give my body a well fitting bike to enjoy cycling around Brighton. So I found a bike that fitted, and of course was the right shade of red wine in colour.
It was nicked a few weeks ago whilst I was relaxing in a yoga session, 15 mins before the end I looked out the window to see no bike. I lay there, attempting to relax for a full ten mins with thoughts racing through my mind... it's gone, it's gone. It had gone I only found a damaged lock and helmet. I was spitting with fury and walked the streets 'looking' for it in vain knowing I had to get the bus home. I've cycled around Cornwall, in Ireland and Scotland with that bike, I'd gone on cycling holidays through mud, spun down many chalky hills. A bike isn't just an object it becomes your daily wheels that transport you past traffic jams in seconds and make you smile with sheer delight at the driver's bored faces.
Some f**ker's got it now, probably sold for pittance without a second thought, I too still scrutinize other bicycles for my burgandy specialized with a blue bell covered in yellow fish (a present from my sister. My heart leaps at the sight of a dark red bike. I imagine the pure violence I'd inflict upon the cyclist! Bike theft is enormously common, especially in Brighton, if it was cars I think the police would take more action.
On Bond St there are CCTV cameras, my bike was nicked in the space of an hour, but the police refuse to spend an hour watching the footage. This is not why I pay council tax.
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Orb E
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #5 on Sept 20, 2006, 11:12am » | |
Since living in Brighton my bike has been kidly borrowed and not returned many times.
The Most Impressive - The great houdini, D-lock still done up - - with the additional chain that went through the wheels, seat and frame) but no bike. It was my fault, it looked silver, was cared for and obviously too attractive! (Hove)
The Most Painful - Not the whole bike, just the seat! I had 'parked' it an hour drive up hill away from home.. If I ever find them Ill send them the surgery bills (Sussex Uni)
The Most Galling - Well could be any of them but stolen from a garden surrounded by a 6ft fence (Surely Steve McQueen stole this one!) (Coombe Road)
Now on the look out for a new bike - which I understand now come with a full tiem security guard, CCTV cameras and a 1000 decibel ear splitting siren.. but guess what, it will still get stolen..
Forever of Foot
Rob
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Bigbird
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #6 on Sept 22, 2006, 12:30pm » | |
Mine got kidnapped this week in brighton train station! it wasnt even on the railings, it was out the front on one of those proper 'lock a cycle to me' posts. transport police dont care, its gone, and to a very tall thief as i had the saddle up for my 6'5" frame!
What can you do if you see it about town though? is it legal to rugby tackle someone off a bike under the claim of citizens arrest?
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raysto
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #7 on Sept 23, 2006, 1:21pm » | |
good question bigbird. I was thinking of this ON THE BUS to work yesterday and came to the conclusion that stolen bikes are mostly sold on to unsuspecting buyers so my approach was going to be: "is this bike yours? did you buy it? who from?" etc ... 
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raysto
Guest
|  | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #8 on Oct 28, 2006, 3:05pm » | |
Update - a couple of weeks ago I got my bike back - minus a back wheel.
I was walking along the seafront and passed the bike seller that I'd bought my stolen bike from. I told him I'd had it knicked and was looking out for another one similar. His mate, Jean, then amazingly said "I know where your bike is... I'll show you". He told me that there are so few puch bikes around brighton that he was certain the one he'd seen abandoned near the beach was mine. We walked along to where he'd stashed it - down a side road right next to my flat and in a basement. sure enough It was my bike looking all sad and with it's back wheel ripped off
Of course I asked Jean what he was doing collecting abandoned bikes. He told me he takes them to his mate's bike shop - the same one I'd bought mine from - and they salvage frames, wheels and other parts to make up whole bikes which his mate then sells.
All this made me wonder how many times second-hand bikes may go through this cycle (!) of bought-stolen-repaired-sold. If I'd waited long enough I could've bought my bike back again! At the moment my bike is in the way in my flat, awaiting wheel replacement, if I ever get around to it....
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clairew
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|  | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #9 on May 30, 2007, 9:33pm » | |
Yeah...totally
I've been cycling in London to 3 years now. On my 6th Bike!
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peter
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #10 on Aug 25, 2007, 11:03pm » | |
I had my bike stolen and saw it chained to a fence.. so I waited 2 hours and then battered the guy who came and unlocked it and stole it back from.
I then sold it 3 weeks later... I also to pick up discarded bike frames and spare parts.
There are so many abandoned cycles/cycle parts you can build awhole new one, I found a frame in my friends back garden and cleaned it, gutted it and gave it a lick of new paint and it looks brand new!
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Henry Thompson
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| | Re: Ever had your bike nicked?
« Reply #11 on Nov 7, 2007, 8:24pm » | |
Ouch. The recycling centre... Since 1985 all my bikes have been free - from skips or dumps. But even so.. I ride them for a few years, get fond of them and then - I nailed my bike to a railing in Covent Garden in mid afternoon, and someone nicked the derailler gear! This is a good junk bike! Taxi home with the rest of it, fuming. The defence: ride a good but pretty crappy bike and make sure it looks rough as a badgers arse - camouflage it. I put plastic bag over my ten-year-old saddle and try never to buy anything new.
It does mean that I have to keep a set of bits in my shed, but what the heck.
My best 'free' bike? A 1982 Peugeot Vitus 972 alloy - with Campag crank and changers, Cinelli bars, etc. Its unmarked, perfect. A bike worth £250 - 350 that some dumb builders put in a skip in Headington.
But I can't ride it - even to the gym - I'm sure it'll get nicked. I land up using my (out of skip outside an oxford college) alloy frame hybrid - which pretty good, and looks tatty. After two years I like my new / old blue bike.
Bike thieves. A bloke showed me a cordless angle grinder that he said would run through any D-lock in about fifteen seconds "and if you wear a yellow site jacket and a hard hat nobody gives you second look". They're pathetic - for what?
Chinnup and keep going!
H
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