A vigil for our losses (stolen bikes)

[ABlipInContinuity]

I'm probably just paying more attention to stories of bike theft now, but it's a horrible feeling returning to the spot you know you left your bike in to find it gone and I'm wondering how many forummers have experienced the misfortune of a stolen steed.

List your stolen bikes here:


1. Taken on Jan 12th 2008, a Raleigh Manta Ray sans decals but adorned with fat slick tyres, mudguards and a rack. A humble and purposeful machine with more sentimental value than any real value.


2. Taken on May 30th 2008, a Revolution Triad 2.0, we didn't have long to really get acquainted, but the loss will long be remembered.

[clarion]

I've had three stolen (one returned), but the last was many years ago.  I'm hoping not to tempt fate...

[Wascally Weasel]

I've had three stolen (one returned), but the last was many years ago.  I'm hoping not to tempt fate...

I think even looking at this thread might be bad luck 

[border-rider]

One 25 years ago nicked from a landing outside a student flat in Leeds.

One 17 years ago, from our shed in Leeds, an old gas-pipe framed hub-geared commuter.   The several decent machines also in the shed were untouched.

Erm.  That's it.

I'm not really sure of the value of this sort of thread to be honest.

[hellymedic]

1982 Raleigh Sprite, taken from Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield.
1985 Claud Butler Majestique, taken from residences, Russells Hall Hospital, Dudley.
1989 Specialized Rockhopper, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow.

[ABlipInContinuity]

I'm not really sure of the value of this sort of thread to be honest.

It's a horrible thing to have put thought and effort into something in order to get it "just right" only to have it taken away. In many respects, it's a fact of life that many losses can't be helped.

I wasn't really looking to make an issue out of bike theft and cause paranoia, just to recognise that it does occur and sometimes bikes are taken that have "character" or sentimental value. Maybe it's morbid but that's what I'm kind of interested to find out about.

Of the two bikes I've had stolen, the one I missed most was the one that was given to me, as it was the most practical bike I owned and therefore the hardest to live without.

[clarion]

I think one of the things this sort of thread highlights is actually how rare bike theft is.

[Gus]

Model :                                             Year nicked:

Merida MTB                                        2006

Trek MTB                                            2002
 
Allan 1 gear                                       1994

Centurion 1 gear                               1999

another Centurion 1 gear                  2004

One On Inbred                                  2007

Motobecane 10 gear                          1998

Peugeot MTB                                     1998

The is something rotten in the state of Denmark 

[Yorkshireman]

I think one of the things this sort of thread highlights is actually how rare bike theft is.

Indeed clarion, in 60+ years of owning bikes I've not had one 'nicked' yet. I'm not sure why ... possibly I'm careful where (and how) I leave them, been very lucky or never owned a bike that someone else has wanted. I don't think that bike theft ( or locking bikes up)  was as common many years ago as it is now).

[hellymedic]

I think one of the things this sort of thread highlights is actually how rare bike theft is.

Yeah, right!

[Wowbagger]

From Tiscali:-

Bicycle theft has doubled in the UK since the mid 1990s, with reports showing that over half a million bikes are currently stolen every year. With an increasingly unscrupulous society it is becoming more important to protect your belongings including your bicycle.

[clarion]

I think one of the things this sort of thread highlights is actually how rare bike theft is.

Yeah, right!

Well, for something that gets left outside so often with limited security, I'd say yes.

Maybe I've been lucky (well, I've not been living in a city so ridden with thieving scumbags as London for long), but I've lost three bikes.  Each time it made a huge hole in my world - my only form of transport (and, each time, I only had one bike at the time). But I don't think that's a lot.

I've only owned cars for about eight years, and I've had one of them stolen.

[ABlipInContinuity]

Add to the list:

Trek Soho S.
Red paint on top tube from sliding down a post box.
Selle San Marco Ponza saddle.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

This is a sad story

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/latestnews/Lands-End-bike-stolen-hours.4366957.jp

There's a real problem with bikes in tenements - there are only 2 people with bikes in my stair so there's room for both of us to lock them downstairs, but in stairs with bigger flats and lots of students, it's a real issue.

[TheLurker]

<snip>
There's a real problem with bikes in tenements...<snip>

I got around that problem by keeping my bike in my room,  but I suspect that only works for singleton students.

<edit>
Still didn't stop my bike being nicked from outside Jenner's tho.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Still didn't stop my bike being nicked from outside Jenner's tho.

I bet it was the silver statue man.

[Polar Bear]

Both of my stolen bikes were from outside my employers offices, in the bike racks, locked, and under the eagle eye of the security camera.   It saw nothign both times.

My second replacement got heavily locked to a different barrier.  I got loads and loads of grief from my employer but the bike never got nicked. 

My employer at the time was Barclaycard.   The Head of House Services sneered at bicycles.  His often stated view was that somebody who works for a bank should not lower themselves to cycle to work.   

[handcyclist]

Just one, but it hurt.

A lovely green Fisher Hoo-Koo-E-Koo, my first 'serious' bike.

The scumbag broke into my shed in Harlesden, and somehow managed to get the bike, still shackled to a set of steel shelves, over a 6' wall.

The next night, he came back (presumably for my Dawes), only to be defeated by the much improved shed door security. So he broke into the flat downstairs instead, only to be chased away by a fearless Italian lady armed with an umbrella.

The police took that quite seriously, and set up camp in my kitchen the next three nights in case he came back. It was a bit weird to come home after work and find a balaclava'd copper in my blacked out flat.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

I got four taken from my garage in one night - Cannondale tandem, Cannondale road bike, Shogun MTB and no-name fixed wheel.  Over the next year, I recovered the first three.

[Mr Larrington]

My second replacement got heavily locked to a different barrier.  I got loads and loads of grief from my employer but the bike never got nicked. 

My employer at the time was Barclaycard.   The Head of House Services sneered at bicycles.  His often stated view was that somebody who works for a bank should not lower themselves to cycle to work.   

TWFKAML got no end of grief for locking her bike to the railings outside her employers (interior designers).  They eventually insisted she carry down a steep flight of steps, that it could be concealed from the public gaze, which is not easy when it's a thirty-eight pound recumbent with a large and unwieldy front fairing.  She solved this problem by changing jobs; her new employer (architects) positively encouraged her to leave the bike outside the office as they reckoned it looked hi-tech and funky.

My losses:

A gas-pipe hack, chained with a piece of cheese to the drainpipe round the back of some student flats in Hammersmith.  Bizarrely, the pikeys only stole the crap bikes - my Claud Butler was no more secure but was roundly ignored.

The Big Red Roockhooper from outside the Ship And Blue Ball (RIP) pub in Hoxton.

[ed_o_brain]

Add to the list:

Trek Soho S.
Red paint on top tube from sliding down a post box.
Selle San Marco Ponza saddle.

Don't believe it. I'm to be re-united with this bike in the next couple of weeks, thanks to GMP Gorton.
 

[Polar Bear]

Remarkable. 

Thankfully the fuckturds left empty-handed from our recent burglary attempt.   I realised later that one bike, my Challenge Hurricane (in pieces) could have walked but they obviously didn't understand what it was.

We have photographed and recorded up-to-date details of all the bikes now hopefully making life easier for the boys in blue, and for effective distribution in places such as here should fuckturd or one of his fellow fuckturds ever visit again.   

[Canardly]

Friend of mine had classic steel Conalgo nicked from outside of local Waitrose supermarket this week. He had just upgraded it for his lad with some nice bits - very sad.

[ed_o_brain]

Add to the list:

Trek Soho S.
Red paint on top tube from sliding down a post box.
Selle San Marco Ponza saddle.

Don't believe it. I'm to be re-united with this bike in the next couple of weeks, thanks to GMP Gorton.
 

Just collected this bike from PC Plod.
Garrrr! Right now it feels like it was barely worth the effort. It's a bit trashed.

The front rim is so worn there's no sign of the wear indicator left. The rear wheel has been flipped back onto it's freewheel ... said free wheel makes horrid grindy noises as the pawls re-engage. Chain and chainring are well worn. The saddle (fitted only a week before it was knicked) is in tatters. Tyres are cut to ribbons.

The fixed sprocket is fine. And no detectable signs of play from the headset or the hubs.
I've not got the cash to fix it and I'm really tight on space, so I dare say it will be making it's way to the for-sale section soon.

Oh and those shiny datatag stickers that aren't supposed to come off without wrecking the paint? It looks like the tealeaves know how to remove them!

Happy days