After having both my bikes stolen at Christmas, enduring the slow and painful process of dealing with the insurers, getting compensation and rebuilding what is my pride and joy.

I find myself thinking whats the point in having a decent bike.

Yes I enjoy riding and always have done, but with the amount of cycle theft and the clear lengths that the thieving scum will go to – having read posts of people being spotted, followed home, broken in to just to steal bikes! which incidentally is where I know keep mine I just keep thinking is it all really worth it.

The Police do not take us seriously as they are far too busy to deal with someone stealing a bike! even when in some cases they cost more than cars, jewellery and the like.

Just wondered if anyone else has had stuff pinched and is starting to see such an increase in theft and an even larger lack of care by the so called “police” that the hassle just isnt worth owning nice kit…..

not really.

It’s only a bike.

I have had two stolen over the last 8 years, luckily they were both low value bikes in STW terms, one was my first mtb the second was a commuter really. Knowing how easily they can get nicked and how limiting insurance can be I personally wouldn’t spend more than £1k on a bike (I don’t insure mine) and go second hand all the time.

Low level crime like bike theft has always been around and always will be. The Police have better things to be doing than chasing bike thieves (IMHO).

I’ve had stuff nicked from my house before (not a bike) – it’s a really horrible feeling at first but you do get over it. Unless you live in a really dodgy area I think you have just been unlucky – not to make you feel worse but I know plenty of people with decent bikes who’ve never had them nicked (yet!). My bikes are always kept inside the house though.

If it’s going to worry you though, you can still have lots of fun on a cheap bike – my old hardtail cost me £140 and it was ace fun to ride.

I suggest that perhaps you could benefit from some victim counselling.. some help to get things back in perspective a little bit..

The Police do not take us seriously as they are far too busy to deal with someone stealing a bike! even when in some cases they cost more than cars, jewellery and the like.

In fairness, they probably don’t put much effort into cars of jewlery either. Car’s probably just get flagged up on ANPR (finaly an argument for cyclists having numberplates?), jewlery’s probably not even bothered with, the scrote probably dropped it off at cash4gold on his way home who’ll have pulled the stones out and melted it down.

I dont know how much you earn or what you consider a decent bike. My bike probably cost somewhere around £1000. I think its great and I ride it every day. Its definitely decent. If it got stolen I could replace it without any issues. I could have spent £5000 on my bike, but if it got stolen I’d struggle to replace it. I cant see what the advantage (to me) of owning a £5000 bike is. What is “nice kit”? What makes it “nice”? Cant you make do with less nice kit that you can afford? The police probably dont us seriously as we tend to spend thousands of pounds on push bikes. Its really not a very serious business. I think there are serious issues the police do have to deal with, rich folk having expensive bikes stolen probably isnt one of them.

I went through what you’re feeling after we were burgled. “What’s the point? etc” especially when the toe-rag was known to the Police, he left finger prints and blood DNA, and they found some of my belongings at his home. He got a £60 fine, I had a £75 excess on the insurance and the bloody hassle.

BUT if you give in and let the bastards win, well hang up your boots now.

My point is that the police in this day and age seem so blase about bike theft when in reality it is becoming fairly organised, and the thieves know what they are doing and stealing.

There were around 6/7 bikes in my shed, only mine were stolen and they would of had to of moved them out of the way to get to mine.

I do agree that the police have far more important things to be doing but i think there is a change in balance from 15-20 yr old kids stealing a couple of bikes to grown adults spotting what they want, organising how to steal them and doing this day in day out?

@ davidtaylforth I don’t earn a lot of money I wouldnt say my bikes are OTT but relative to what I earn, any theft is a hassle and to say nice kit I mean a bike that is custom made not from halfords

A lot of bike theft is low-value crime. The average amount spent on a bike in the UK is £242:

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/how-much-is-the-average-price-of-a-bike-in-the-uk-280/012014

My impression is that with the advent of Cyclescheme, and the increase in cyclists that places like London have seen, there are suddenly a lot more nice bikes around, as well as more of a market for second hand bikes and parts. The police have taken a while to catch up with this but they are getting there. In Bristol it’s helped that the local rag is starting to report regularly on high value bike crime.

For balance the police retrieved a previous bike of mine and returned it to me. The culprit was also sent to jail for 6 months.

I had my bikes nicked recently.

We had some other shit going on at the same time that automatically put it in persepctive, but at the same time I sort of see where the OP is coming from.

There’s no way I’m keeping anything like that value of bikes here again now that some **** scumbag knows where I live. Fortunately I was already planning to move, but until then the nice bikes are staying in a more secure location nearby.

For balance the police retrieved my bike and returned it to me. The culprit was also sent to jail for 6 months.

Oi this is Singletrack. Don’t come on here with your good news stories, spoiling our fun and putting us out of our misery.

I’ve had 3 bikes nicked in 10 months – all high value. My mate just had well over £30k worth of bikes and kit nicked too.

For a while I did think the same – what’s the point, and was on the verge of jacking it in.

The thing is, I enjoy riding my bike. I’m not going to let someone ruin that for me, as long as I’m insured then I’m assuming my bike will be nicked at some point – but I will get another one back.

All I’ve done is sold all my bikes and own only one now, one that I can do races, trail riding, local riding and training on. If it gets nicked then I have only one to replace.

CCTV is the only answer I have, a good video and photograph of the assailants is the only way forward. You can secure your garage, shed or property as much as you like, but if they want what you’ve got they’ll get it – just make sure you get a video or photo of them in the act.

I’ll be setting up an ANPR camera in front of the house, and a couple of CCTV cameras around the house – it’s not expensive to do, and it’s not only helping you – it’s helping everyone else they’ll target.

Nearly two years ago my hack bike was damaged when someone attempted to steal it from my local railway station. The perpetrator was identified, caught and convicted (he admitted the act). I was awarded £60 compo by the court as the rear wheel was damaged beyond repair in the incident.

Have I seen the £60 yet ?

Answers on a postcard……

I gave up on motor bikes after having my fifth one nicked. I’d just had enough of that horrible sinking feeling of walking out of the house in my leathers to see an empty parking space, broken garage door, or in one case a completely dismantled concrete fence! It didn’t seem to matter what security the bikes had on them. It made no difference.

It was when my second one went in the space of three months. The copper casually observed “They’ll have kept your address on file, then come back when your insurance has paid up and you’ve replaced it. We had another 6 go around here last night’

Despite loving it, I just gave it up as a bad job, and cut my losses. Depressing

My point is that the police in this day and age seem so blase about bike theft when in reality it is becoming fairly organised, and the thieves know what they are doing and stealing.

A perception or a reality though?

‘Lots’ of thefts get reported on STW (how many users? plus people just signing up topost pics of their stolen bike), but I don’t actualy know anyone personaly who’s had a bike nicked. Certainly not the 10% levels that dedicated bike insurance premiums charge. Is bike crime bigger than other crime? I’m sure on dog forums there’s an almost identical thread about pedigree dogs, and AV forums about hi-fi and flatscreens, and car forums about classics.

oliverholder – Member
My point is that the police in this day and age seem so blase about bike theft when in reality it is becoming fairly organised, and the thieves know what they are doing and stealing.

To be fair it’s mostly pragmatism- chances of recovering a bike are always going to be slim. Especially considering how few owners record the frame numbers. Bikes are easy to strip, easy to hide and hard to ID.

It is rubbish being a victim of crime but no matter how down you feel, it’s not that common- fear of crime doesn’t have much connection to threat of crime. So try not to let it get to you. The fact that you described your bike as your pride and joy should say it all- if that’s true then it’s worth having another you can say the same of.

It’s because there is a general opinion held by the masses that there is something morally wrong and/or lower-class to you if you ride a bike.

My advice would be don’t let the b*stards get you down and hassle the police if they can’t be bothered. Write a letter of complaint to the chief constable, its their job and we pay our taxes for them to do it.

The things that got me down the most about being burgled twice was that even though they caught the person both times and they were convicted, we still have an ongoing cost of higher insurance premiums. All in all I reckon it has cost us an extra £1000 in not being able to switch insurance companies to get the best rate as they don’t want to touch anyone unless you have 5yrs claim free.

Give up biking and let the scummers win, not a chance.

It’s only a bike.

Yes it can be replaced but I’d have to work for at least 6 weeks to make enough to replace mine.
Replacing the bike is easy but you’ll never get back the hours you have to work to pay for it. That’s the way I look at it anyway.
Maybe your attitude is more blase because you have a trust fund or something like that. 😉

Re the scrotes having your details on file and waiting for insurance to replace stuff, then raiding you again.

The offices I rented were broken into some years ago now. Four businesses were raided, losing cash and portable office equipment. The landlords beefed up security, we replaced kit and went on with our work. A few weeks later they came back again, this time through my office. They removed a metal grille that had been built into the brickwork, got round our security locks and repeated their previous raping of the building.

Everything was repaired, we bought new stuff, the landlords beefed up security and we went on with our work.

I was on a night out in town and had left my car in the car park. Later on, I went to pick up the car (I was stone cold sober fortunately) and the Old Bill were in the car park. Two of them jumped out of some bushes and grabbed me! I proved I worked there (business cards etc) and they invited me to sit back and watch the show.

A few minutes later a screaming little chav came flying out of a window (ground floor) pursued by a couple of police dogs, right into the arms of the coppers. He was nicked. Later they searched his flat and found masses of stolen goods, along with dictaphones with individual tapes detailing which properties had been broken into, what had been taken, the fences he sold them to (with numbers and addresses) how much he had got for each item, gross ‘profit’ for each job etc etc.

He went away, but only for about 6 months but he never came back to our office.

Do you people actually enjoy riding bikes?

Or do you just enjoy buying and owning expensive bits of plastic and metal?

If your bike gets stolen, why would you “jack it in”?

Just buy a replacement you can afford.

yunki –
Member
I suggest that perhaps you could benefit from some victim counselling.. some help to get things back in perspective a little bit..

I agree…MTFU, you’re insured, you have a bike again, shit happens.

TBH I gave up on bling bikes years bin for this among other reasons.

If the police don’t have the resources to deal with thieves is there any way you can take them to civil court to get them a good financial punishment that’ll ruin the rest of their lives?

If you like bikes get another one. I have 2 “good” bikes and a crap commuter-supermarket bike. Would like a good about town bike and have the bits but I know it will get nicked so its staying in pieces.
The police are well under resourced. A friend of mine is a beat copper and their manning levels are 50% down on last year and virtually all are being drafted to London for the Olympics so expecting a local crime wave.

if they can’t be bothered. Write a letter of complaint to the chief constable, its their job and we pay our taxes for them to do it.

…which will get filtered all the way down to the patrol sergeant in charge of said “lazy” officer to deal with it. Who will have to fit in dealing with the complaint with managing missing persons, domestics, vulnerable people with MH issues, hospital bed watches, cell watches on suicidal prisoners, and what’s left of his team who are running themselves ragged just trying to get to immediates, let alone find time to investigate the crimes they have allocated. In a city of ~150,000 we probably run on an average of 11 response officers.

Sadly we are governed by home office-set targets. As every organisation would, we direct our resources at those targets. So, your £4K bike gets nicked from your shed; value is irrelevant and its a non-dwelling burglary which isnt a KPI, so it sits with a busy response officer (or a less busy neighbourhood officer if youre lucky). Your £60 sat nav gets taken from your car? Aha, theft from motor vehicle, home office target, this will get discussed at the daily area management meeting and will be allocated to a dedicated team of substantive and trainee detectives, who are under pressure to get results on figures we are judged on. Your best bet is to have your bike taken from your house (or garage with adjoining door). This becomes a dwelling burglary, the target offence, they make the autocrime guys look relaxed and carefree. They’ll be nicking everybody on a wing and a prayer good quality intelligence and seem to be immune from the overtime embargo, working all the hours in the day.

Police take cycle crime as seriously as they can. There have been loads of success stories of ebay stings on here, and Richard Smith in Hants uncovering an organised gang with £90K worth of bikes

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17186935
http://bikedibley.com/60-stolen-frames-uncovered-by-hampshire-polic
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/farnorough-bike-thefts

I am sorry youve had a bike nicked, my bike is worth more than anything else I own and I would be fuming, but sadly the police are under-resourced and overworked (getting worse with Winsor reforms and us picking up everything every other cut-back agency drops) and cycle crime is not a home office priority, and it has a low victim impact (compared to hate crimes, violence etc) so is not top of officer’s piles.

can take them to civil court to get them a good financial punishment that’ll ruin the rest of their lives?

No. Courts deliberately avoid financial burden, which is why damages awarded are insultingly low and paid (if at all) at an absurdly low rate, say a pound a month. Many drivers facing disqualification keep their licence by claiming they would lose their job/income if they lost their licence. Until you get into the realms of organised crime and proceeds of crime Johnny Bikethief will have no lawful income other than benefits, and nothing to show for his ill gotten gains than some track marks up his forearms.

That explains the interest the police operator took in whether I had an adjoining door or not.

Should have lied and said I had, because the PCSO who came round never checked.

Get a big dog. Put it’s bed near your bikes.

Also, what about a steering tube mounted GPS tracker? http://www.integratedtrackers.com/GPSTrack/

How about a burglar alarm that messages you? http://www.microactive.net/

How about a remotely viewable CCTV camera?

How about deadbolts on all your doors and alarmed windows?

How about strategically placed locks on some of your internal doors if you are storing your bikes inside the house as opposed to garage.

And finally how about 19mm chain attached to a ground anchor?

If you can afford to spend thousands on bikes you can probably slowly add all these things to your house.

Also, intruders don’t often wear ear protection.

http://www.sonicsecurity.co.nz/

Brilliant.

I was once mugged in the street for my car keys. I’d only had the car a couple of weeks. The police reckoned I had been targeted by a professional gang and I was lucky not to have been seriously injured.

It sucked, but it’s just stuff and can be replaced.

That explains the interest the police operator took in whether I had an adjoining door or not.

Should have lied and said I had, because the PCSO who came round never checked.

sad but true.

No adjoining door = PCSO
adjoining door = detective

🙄

Do you people actually enjoy riding bikes?

Or do you just enjoy buying and owning expensive bits of plastic and metal?

I can’t believe you asked that on STW.

Possession is 9/10ths of STW.

Knowing a couple of Coppers and a Customs guys it surprises me that the Police do not take more interest.

From what both camps have said, they don’t really have time for petty thiefs ie the druggy who nicks your bike and sells it for £20 for his next fix. However they do say they target organised crime as it is the route of all evil and at some point ends up with drugs/murder/people trafficing etc being involved.

It does appear that bike theiving is getting more organised and not just random.

having been on the blunt end of police response to real burglery, i wouldnt even bother using my free minutes to report a non-dwelling offence.

painfully slow response, particularly the SOCO, zero follow up, zero arrests. both times, within two months of each other.

So basically, keep your bikes in the house or car 🙂

I deliberately make or choose my possessions to be less desirable, current bike has all the fork, frame & wheel stickers removed & component selection is the opposite of bling (stealthy shimano hone) but it still does the job perfectly well & is a joy to ride, which i dare say is partially because I’m not all gooey eyed & overprotective about it. Not saying it won’t ever get nicked but certainly avoids the attention of any professionals.

Although I’m urinating in to a hurricane I’ll do it anyhow.

The Met have a dedicated team of officers to takle organised pedal cycle theft and have done for quite a while.

The reality is that although your bike theft may feel like the most important thing in the world. It isn’t. A huge amount o work is done that isn’t visible to the public and the police HAVE to prioritise resource where they will have greatest impact and on crime that the government and public feel is most important. Like dwelling burglary, rape, domestic violence, murder, terrorism and robbery for example. If the police had unlimited resources they would throw everything at tackling all sorts of crime. But they don’t. The police tend (for some inexplicable reason) to get blamed when the CPS decide not to charge, the courts hand out a community sentence, or mental health/probation fail to properly manage an offender. They also get almost no credit for the good work that does go on, because the Daily Mail prefer to print horseshit. But don’t worry, the chronic underinvestment in public services by the current government will make it all better. Spelling mistakes courtesy of Apple Inc.