How many bikes have you had stolen…?

[Calimili]

I always lock the outer bike to the rack and wrap a long cable around all bikes and the rack. But I guess a grinder would go through the aluminium bike rack like a hot knife through butter and the crooks would have a nice package of four bikes.

but it will be 40to 60Kg package very odd to carry. Theory being, the thief should then look for other easier targets..

 

[Tourdeyorkshire]

9

 

[Magic Bus]

3 for me. First one from outside my office whilst at work. I’d normally park it in the company garage, but they only used to open it at certain times. If I was starting work later, I’d just lock it up outside. One day it got stolen. I was only using a cheap lock. Failing to learn my lesson, I was doing day release at college and left my bike locked up outside the college, again using a cheap lock. Bike No2 stolen.
The third was when I lent my cheap MTB to my son, who left it locked up in the city centre overnight. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t there the next day.

Now I use big, hefty locks if I’m leaving my bike anywhere it is likely to be stolen, which I don’t often.

 

[Ch1pbutty]

No bikes, but quite a few seat posts, saddles & lights.

 

[Doorbundle]

Report & Trace here: https://stolen-bikes.co.uk/ .......Not forgetting to
tell the Police, it's their job too.

 

[kp64zl]

Premier Inn allow bikes in their rooms. I've used them quite a lot when I take my bike and have had zero hassle - the staff didn't even bat an eyelid when we wheeled our muddy bikes into the room.

Bike friendly

We’re proud to say that every one of our hotels are bike friendly. Keep your bike in your room. Read our bike policy.

www.premierinn.com

Does anyone know of hotel chains abroad that have similar policy?

 

[pluc99]

3 gone gone, 1 gone and recovered and 1 attempt.

1. A 10 speed racing bike chained to the side of my Uni residence in Toronto. This was the worst as it was my first experience with someone wilfully doing something to me. I spent months afterwards futilely looking at every bike that passed me in case it was mine.
2. A MTB at Reading UK train station. I had left it with a friend for a couple of weeks who borrowed it after his own bike got stolen at his work place in view of a CCTV camera that apparently didn't work.
3. The replacement MTB a year later, again in Reading, heavily chained outside same friend's flat. Everything that wasn't directly attached to the chain got stolen, including the seat, pedals, derailler...
4. On a bicycle trip in a small town in Italy while I was in a bar for a bite to eat. My MTB was chained against another bike. Both were picked up by a couple of young guys who ran down the street with it. The bar owner spread the word and someone spotted them trying to break the lock. They were chased away, so we recovered the bikes.
5. There was an attempt to steal the same MTB in Pompeii, but the thief was chased away before he cut through the lock all the way.

 

[Corradobrit]

9

Rough neighbourhood

 

[Corradobrit]

No bikes, but quite a few seat posts, saddles & lights.

I got in the habit of removing my 400 euro carbon fibre seat and seat post every time I leave the bike locked and unattended. With the quick release clamps its easy.

 

[Amarillo]

Premier Inn allow bikes in their rooms. I've used them quite a lot when I take my bike and have had zero hassle - the staff didn't even bat an eyelid when we wheeled our muddy bikes into the room.

View attachment 104544

Bike friendly

We’re proud to say that every one of our hotels are bike friendly. Keep your bike in your room. Read our bike policy.

www.premierinn.com

Does anyone know of hotel chains abroad that have similar policy?

I’ve led a self supporting four day ride Paris to London three times. Never had a problem with touring bikes in rooms or a garage.

Three week tour following the Rhone from the glacier to Lyon, over the hills to Roanne, then following the Loire to Nantes staying in hotels all but one night wild camping. Not an issue.

Cycling the full range of the Pyrenees: Atlantic to Mediterranean, soaked with rain and all skanky we got turned away from one hotel. Then the owners mother said to her son, “But they’re cyclists” and a room was found and store room for our bikes which we pushed through a busy restaurant.

 

[soulstyledevon]

This was the worst as it was my first experience with someone wilfully doing something to me. I spent months afterwards futilely looking at every bike that passed me in case it was mine.

Yep,

Literally checking every bike that passes and I even returned to the scene of the crime once thinking someone might have put it back…

 

[WelshGas]

Had 3 stolen from the garage years ago. Nothing special just run of the mill used by the family. My son was upset as his highly customised BMX trick bike was left behind. Police never found them, that was when we had local bobbies, but said they left the BMX as it was too specialised and stood out too much.

 

[Corradobrit]

Stealing bikes has consequences......

Excellent movie with one of my fav actors, Mads Mikkelsen

Riders of Justice

RIDERS OF JUSTICE follows recently-deployed Markus (Mads Mikkelsen), who is forced to return home to care for his teenage daughter after his wife is killed in a tragic train accident. But when a survivor of the wrecked train surfaces claiming foul play, Markus begins to suspect his wife was...

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[Drpps]

2

Specialized Rockhopper stolen from a military base outside the Mess. you needed a bike pass to enter or leave the base passed the armed guards but not if it was inside a car! I cycled in London for 10 years without losing a bike but this was on the south coast and the first time I hadn't locked a bike up. I thought mistakenly it would be safe there with the level of security!

Specialized Stumpjumper. In the underground car park of my flat, fob access and covered by CCTV, with an on-site security guard. Chained around a 3 foot concrete pillar and also attached to a rear mount car rack and another bike with multiple D locks. A van tailgated someone in, couldn't break the D-locks so had to take the whole lot. Part of me would have liked to have seen them try to manhandle it in to the vehicle as it can't have been easy. They swiped a few others that night too so pre-planned. CCTV useless.

 

[Amarillo]

Worth watching...

 

[Jonathan Duke]

View attachment 104582
Worth watching...

Yes, a classic

 

[westfalia]

I once nicked a bike, or rather used it for a ride,
a shabby looking thing which disappeared the next day,
I left it as I found it. Left it next to eel brook common, I hope it did
the same job for the next user.

I think I'm one of the pioneers of the great Boris bike

 

[Bellcrew]

I once nicked a bike, or rather used it for a ride,
a shabby looking thing which disappeared the next day,
I left it as I found it. Left it next to eel brook common, I hope it did
the same job for the next user.

I think I'm one of the pioneers of the great Boris bike

Talking about theft, my middle son, who was studying in Southampton, washed dishes in a local hotel at weekends to afford a decent bike that was sadly stolen from the station bike rack within days despite having a D lock of imposing weight attached. The station was ringed with CCTV cameras but the transport police would not look for the culprit on the tape, (too difficult) or laughably allow us to see the footage because of privacy concerns.
Ironically Oxford amongst other towns is pushing the 15 minute city narrative that relies on the use of bicycles to make the "big brother" system work. Unfortunately the almost inevitable theft of the family's bikes will render the whole enterprise useless, never mind.

 

[Nick Stubbs]

I haven't but my son has lost 4, two whilst at leeds uni, one was chained to a fence, they took the fence as well, this was around the time Cameron had his stollen in London and it made the Jeramy Vine show so I phoned him due all the fuss just because he was PM. The other was chained in a steel shed that was the replacement. The other was an electric only a week old chained and locked with three locks outside his office in London, some light fingered so and so cut all three in a busy street in broad daylight, that was insured but he had to prove it was locked so he had to photograph every day to prove it was locked, the other was a motorcycle which was lifted from the scout hut where he was for an evening.

 

[willwander]

My nephew is a mechanic for a downhill mountain bike team.
Last year they had 6 bikes stolen from the secure paddock the night before a world championship race in Chamonix. £90k's worth.
They managed to borrow bikes from another team and still raced the next day.
They were never recovered.

 

[Amarillo]

My collection of bike locks.

 

[clarinetbcn]

My city bike (a classic Gazelle Dutch racing bike with Campagnolo accessories) was stolen by a Barcelona city policeman last November. It was purposely dirty and rusty to not attract attention, and I had used it without problems for nearly 20 years to commute to my job at the Liceu Opera on the Rambla, notorious for robberies, but obviously the person involved knew what it was. Three witnesses at the restaurant by my house watched (and listened!) as he took a circular grinder to the 2 D locks locking both wheels and frame to a light post next to a city installed bike rack which was filled to overflowing with abandoned bikes, all of which got a neat little sticker warning of future removal unless moved. Mine, which I used almost daily, did not get the legally required sticker notification. The city police said they would look into it, then said according to their records no police were on my street that day, in spite of the witnesses and stickers. I went to Catalan Regional Police to make a robbery complaint, and they told me it was not the first time that city police had been involved in this racket. They suggested making a complaint to the City of Barcelona citizens' protection office. The City has since contacted me by telephone, so we'll see. As mentioned above, I was surprised by how angry and vulnerable it made me feel to have my bike stolen from outside my house by a policeman.