Tag Archives | theft

The secrets to the un-stealable bike

By on 09/01/2013 in Safe cycling in London

Bike owners have an average of 23 months before their bikes are nicked 26,000 bikes stolen in London last year 4% chance of ever recovering your stolen bike These headlines make me want to haul up inside my new BMW X6M “Chelsea Tractor” and hide in my secured compound with 24 hour armed guard security. [...]

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If your bike gets stolen, don’t expect the police to help

By on 02/01/2013 in Safe cycling in London

A Hungarian thief busting film crew travelled to London to get one question answered: How effective is the UK police force at combating bicycle theft? In London if your bike is stolen, you have a 4% chance of ever recovering it. As previous miraculous stories from readers show, you have an uphill struggle to get [...]

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First thing you need to do if your bike is stolen

By on 18/09/2012 in Safe cycling in London

If you’ve not yet had your bike stolen then please see: How to get your bike stolen. Getting your bike stolen is never a nice experience. However, the next steps you take will greatly improve your chances of recovering your bike. Ideally, take these steps as soon as possible. Report the bike to the police [...]

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Out of these four bikes, this one would be stolen first

By on 10/04/2012 in Safe cycling in London

Last week we posed the question: Which of these four bikes will get stolen first? The post proved very popular and was visited by 2,819 cyclists of which 46 left their answer. Here’s a tally of the responses: Bike D: 31 Bike B: 8 Bike A: 7 Bike C: 0 Most people guessed correctly that [...]

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Which of these four bikes will get stolen first?

By on 04/04/2012 in Safe cycling in London

Bike A – Spotted Outside Tate Modern Bike B – Spotted Outside Marylebone Station Bike C – Spotted in Kilburn Bike D – Spotted in Kilburn Rank in order which of these bikes you think will be stolen first and why! See also: London Cyclist bike lock guide

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Bicycle storage conundrums

By on 12/07/2011 in Safe cycling in London

“Excuse me, you can’t leave your bike there” a woman climbing into her Toyota Prius stated.  A strange request I thought to myself, as bike racks tend to be a public space and there was three of them standing empty. “Oh sorry, I’ll only be 3 minutes”. I looked down on at the sorry remains [...]

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How to get your bike stolen

By on 21/03/2011 in Safe cycling in London

It’s fairly easy to get your bike stolen and in this article I’ll talk you through some of the best ways of doing so. I know not everyone wants to have their bike stolen, in the same way, so please feel free to choose one of the methods below that most suits you. Method 1: [...]

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Have you ever had a bike stolen?

By on 04/03/2011 in Safe cycling in London

For this weeks Comment Friday it’s time to revisit a deep and repressed memory! Bike Theft! Have you had it happen to you and if so what happened? I remember well my bike being stolen outside college. I returned from my class, walked to the bike shed and it just wasn’t there. At first I [...]

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How to prevent your bike from getting piranha’d

By on 09/09/2010 in Safe cycling in London

A couple of my cycling friends have recently been victims of bike piranhas. They’ve come back and noticed their bike is missing a saddle or a front wheel. In the worse cases friends have reported coming back to their bike to find nothing but the frame and the bike lock. Unfortunately, even using the correct [...]

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Make your bike 57.5% less attractive to thieves. Get it tagged

By on 21/07/2010 in Safe cycling in London

When the bike thief is sneaking around with a huge pair of bolt cutters under his arm he doesn’t want a bike that is security tagged. A little sticker on a visible part of the frame can identify the security marking and lately I’ve been seeing an ever greater number of people donning these stickers. [...]

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Spending the day with the cycle task force of the Met Police

By on 05/07/2010 in News, Safe cycling in London

We’ve spotted two males cycling on the pavement. P.C. Johnston makes a quick turn and is off his bike questioning the one. Within seconds he has the bike turned over and is doing a frame check. Often a thief will scratch off the frame number. Luckily, this time it’s still there. The two males look [...]

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Why bike thieves should be very afraid

By on 07/06/2010 in News

Until now bike thieves have had it fairly good. Not only do they have a big pool of potential targets, many of them badly secured, but they also have a big audience to sell to. Thanks to websites such as eBay and Gumtree they can reach out and make big profits from expensive bikes. While [...]

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