Author Topic: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike  (Read 38676 times)

cygnet

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #25 on: 12 March, 2018, 05:22:10 pm »
Wouldn't you still have to work the front wheel through the chain though?
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #26 on: 12 March, 2018, 05:39:12 pm »
But perhaps more interesting is the creative solution to making beam racks Not Shit:  Simply install them over an existing rack to help keep things lined up.

More likely is that the beam rack bag is incompatible with a normal rack so moving the whole beam rack setup between bikes (I'm assuming it's normally used on another bike that cannot fit a rack) is easier than decanting and repacking the contents.
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Kim

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #27 on: 12 March, 2018, 05:43:25 pm »
But perhaps more interesting is the creative solution to making beam racks Not Shit:  Simply install them over an existing rack to help keep things lined up.

More likely is that the beam rack bag is incompatible with a normal rack so moving the whole beam rack setup between bikes (I'm assuming it's normally used on another bike that cannot fit a rack) is easier than decanting and repacking the contents.

My guess was that it was to avoid the owner having to bend too much, which would also explain the poor locking style.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #28 on: 12 March, 2018, 09:01:28 pm »
Today's Badly Locked Bike of Birmingham:


Doesn't look so badly locked to me. It would take some time to remove wheel and stem (do the bars fold up on that?) and then thread the frame out of the chain. Probably significant enough time that it would be far more likely for a thief to just cut the chain. And if you were gone for that long anyway (ie long enough to do it without cutting), the luggage would be stolen/emptied anyway.
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #29 on: 13 March, 2018, 07:04:54 pm »
Alas no pictures but saw one of those d lock and cable combinations but the d lock was round the bike and the cable was round the fence so no need or advantage from the d lock

quixoticgeek

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #30 on: 13 March, 2018, 07:25:32 pm »

The next part of poorly locked of Amsterdam:



I don't know which impresses me most, the fact that they seem to have entirely missed the frame, or the Cameron approach to bollards...

Nearby I also found this offering for the similar range: what the fsck bikes of Amsterdam...



J
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #31 on: 13 March, 2018, 09:48:01 pm »
That second photo's a real journey isn't it? I started by thinking they'd actually got the frame properly, but it's a poor way to secure the saddle...Then there's a bent light, revealing no handlebars. And in turn, no brakes either...or cabling. Cold that day?

First one's got a horseshoe lock on the front at least, which could more efficiently be fitted to the rear triangle like yon white thing in the background.
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Pingu

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #32 on: 13 March, 2018, 10:11:22 pm »

IMG_4819 by The Pingus, on Flickr

Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #33 on: 14 March, 2018, 08:20:48 am »
That second photo's a real journey isn't it? I started by thinking they'd actually got the frame properly, but it's a poor way to secure the saddle...Then there's a bent light, revealing no handlebars. And in turn, no brakes either...or cabling. Cold that day?

Erm, the frame is locked to the fence, and it's almost certainly been abandoned when the owner returned to find the handlebars (and possibly front brake) had been stolen, it looks like it retains a rear (coaster) brake though, so all is not lost. (Or it was abandoned by the owner and, over time, the handlebars/front-brakes have been stripped off it.)

Where bikes are ubiquitous there would have been little need to lock a cheap bike like this any more securely. No standard locking strategy will prevent your handlebars being stolen and it's probably cheaper to just get another hack bike than try and replace the stolen components.
"Yes please" said Squirrel "biscuits are our favourite things."

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #34 on: 14 March, 2018, 08:28:55 am »
The "portable" horseshoe lock on Quixoticgeek's first photo is interesting. I wonder if it just came loose over time or if it was deliberately removed, perhaps from another frame? Or perhaps bought separately and never fitted?
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Kim

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #35 on: 21 March, 2018, 11:58:48 am »
Not uploading the photos in case they're needed for evidence, but with several sturdy-looking cable locks in central Birmingham, when there's a guy with some suboptimally-sized bolt-cutters about.

I called the police to give a running commentary, and Bullring security decended from several directions in about the time it took for him to cut through the first lock.  Hopefully that's saved someone's bike (and in the unlikely event that he's the legitimate owner, reassured him that somebody gives a fuck).

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #36 on: 21 March, 2018, 12:13:06 pm »
Well done, Kim.
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #37 on: 21 March, 2018, 01:05:15 pm »
awesome.

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #38 on: 21 March, 2018, 01:59:34 pm »
Very cool. Nice one.
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #39 on: 21 March, 2018, 02:06:47 pm »
Commendable.

Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #40 on: 21 March, 2018, 02:47:58 pm »
Well done Kim.
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quixoticgeek

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #41 on: 21 March, 2018, 06:40:32 pm »
Not uploading the photos in case they're needed for evidence, but with several sturdy-looking cable locks in central Birmingham, when there's a guy with some suboptimally-sized bolt-cutters about.

I called the police to give a running commentary, and Bullring security decended from several directions in about the time it took for him to cut through the first lock.  Hopefully that's saved someone's bike (and in the unlikely event that he's the legitimate owner, reassured him that somebody gives a fuck).

Nicely done! Do post the photos once they are no longer needed as evidence (or are public domain)

J
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Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #42 on: 21 March, 2018, 10:08:17 pm »
Good spot, most impressive is that the local coppers actually gave a f#$k.

Kim

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #43 on: 21 March, 2018, 10:19:02 pm »
Good spot, most impressive is that the local coppers actually gave a f#$k.

The operator seemed disappointed when it transpired that I wasn't talking about a motorbike, but I guessed that being between two major railway stations and in the shadow of some of Birmingham's finest Retail Opportunities meant there was a decent chance of a response quick enough to catch them red-handed.  Presumably the police are used to coordinating with the BTP and private security in the area, and the Bullring rent-a-cops were happy deal with something a little more constructive than intimidating teenagers and shooing away homeless people.

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #44 on: 21 March, 2018, 10:23:23 pm »
I'm sure I'm going to criticise anyone else.  Having problems working out how to lock an Airnimal to anything, when you the bike is designed to be taken apart with an Allen Key in 10 minutes.
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Kim

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #45 on: 22 March, 2018, 12:25:00 am »
Nicely done! Do post the photos once they are no longer needed as evidence (or are public domain)

I've just got round to actually looking at them (I've been busy in London all day).  One of them is a work of art.  Shifty look straight into the lens with bolt cutters and lock visible.  You couldn't pose one better.

Bike is an Ammaco (I thought they made crash barriers for motorways) low-end hybrid.  Three cable locks, the sturdiest of which looks like an armoured type, but not of an obvious brand.  The armour put up a respectable fight against the bolt cutters, considering, but that's not much good when most people just walk past without doing anything.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #46 on: 22 March, 2018, 08:33:09 am »
I thought Ammaco was an oil company! (Amoco, Armco, can't these businesses think up distinctive names?) Ammaco sponsored Tony Doyle when he was World Pursuit Champion, but the bikes were built by Chas Roberts and the brand is now sold at Tesco.

Good work, Kim.
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ElyDave

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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #47 on: 22 March, 2018, 08:54:27 am »
Amoco - bought by BP, late 90's, who then blew up the Texas City refinery.  I've been to a couple of ex Amoco, and now Ex-BP platforms in the north sea, they were built in a low cost era

Armco - crash barrier for bouncing cars off
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #48 on: 22 March, 2018, 11:33:41 am »
I'm sure I'm going to criticise anyone else.  Having problems working out how to lock an Airnimal to anything, when you the bike is designed to be taken apart with an Allen Key in 10 minutes.
Can you get a mini-u lock around a frame beam member, then use that as a locking point?

Gets a bit ridiculous though, you'll need to carry 3 locks. I'm not sure I'd dare leave an Airnimal anywhere.
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Re: How Not To Lock Up Your Bike
« Reply #49 on: 22 March, 2018, 07:20:39 pm »
Amoco - bought by BP, late 90's, who then blew up the Texas City refinery.  I've been to a couple of ex Amoco, and now Ex-BP platforms in the north sea, they were built in a low cost era

Armco - crash barrier for bouncing cars off
Pretty much everything that has gone wrong for BP since then (except for the Russian debacle) has happened in the US in what was legacy Amoco. My then boss asked an assembled townhall what the connection between a whole series of reputation-damaging BP disasters was. "Americans" I replied. I think he was looking for "lack of control" as the answer.
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