Last weekend at Margam, this weekend and Bristol Bike Fest – Looks like thieves are targeting events now. Obviously with OSMM coming up those who are taking bikes should be concerned!
Take bike locks, don't let them out of your sight!

(sorry i don't want to come across as 'stoking panic' in a Daily Mail way, but better safe than sorry!)

Details of the BBF theft?

15 bikes were stolen over night, few posts about it on twitter

Shit the bed, I don't do twitter any links houns?

No linkys if don't do twitter, few people reporting it

BBF theft detail please?

Just got back from Bristol , people this morning were saying a white van came last night and left at 5am this morning. sketchy details as heard a few different things. Looks like they knew what they were after as mainly real high end carbon bikes taken.

one side of our tent door was open this morning … we had 3x spark rcs and 1x sc superlight, they were locked so i assume they didnt fancy it without waking us ! Makes me livid …… if i had caught someone in my tent trying to get my bike ,i would have beaten the living crap out of them .

nick s

Is the parking just open then? Strange that event organisers don't check who is coming and going during the event.

Surely having some sort of ID ticket that is matched to the bikes going in and out would help. It would slow things down a bit but would increase security

MM and SITS you can just turn up, walk around and leave..I'd hate to see events more 'controlled' but it's scum like this that ruin chilled events

This is one of the things that make me uneasy about buying on eBay.

If there is an organized gang going around events, then one would expect future event organizers to take some duty of care and setup a registration system for bikes.
It would be a bit of a fanny on, but then at least you would know that if your bike was going to be nicked, they would have to mug you for the ticket to get it out as well. Although putting stuff in a van might not overcome this, not sure if they would be allowed to search a vehicle when it left, surely though, honest people would happily show their bikes off.

I'm honestly amazed that it's taken so long for bike thieves to catch on.

There can't be many events in the UK where people leave £1000s worth of goods just lying around in tents, propped up outside toilets etc.

A trap needs to be set at OSMM and other events.

Bring your bombers!

i heard that the gates at bbf were locked , but bolt cropped

If there is an organized gang going around events, then one would expect future event organizers to take some duty of care and setup a registration system for bikes.

or he could stick up a sign saying do not leave your bikes unattended and un locked …. id certainly be happier than it taking 7 weeks to get out of the event ….

good bike lives in the van with a couple of gert locks on – generally with me sleeping next to it in the van.

as above – you wouldnt leave it out unlocked any other time – sad state of affairs but cummon take responsiblity for your own kit guys !

Maybe the miltary teams at MM could provide an armed guard,
and Hereford is just down the road.. 😀

True, everybody has a duty of care to take care of their own belongings, but still I would expect better security at events.

Or is this really such a new thing?

not new – ae forest downhill races have had theft problems for as long as i can remember – local yokals – like a scene out of deliverance turning up at the race.

my mate had his patriot stripped down to the bare frame as he slept with it locked to the front of his caravan ! – you quickly learn to adapt.

This is what i posted up on the yale bike alarm thread

project – Member
I would also recomend one of these,
http://shop.yale.co.uk/acatalog/Personal_Attack_Alarms.html

When you leave the bike in your tent or chained to the car, tie a piece of clear fishing line somewhere on the bike,and run the fishing line to the alarm,keep the line reasonably tight and not snagged onto anything else, securely fix the alarm to something where it cant be seen, eg tent pole,or car or bike rack,so when somebody pulls the bike the fishing line goes tight and pulls the pin out of the alarm,and it makes one hell of a noise, alerting people nearby.

Dont forget to hide the line in the grass,so its not seen,

All for £2.99

Apparently one guy at BBF managed to get two bikes back by chasing some scumbags down… Unfortunately his own bikes were already gone …Lean shit man..
Its really worrying to know that they must have been casing the place out all day and known full well everyone would be knackered from the days racing and exactly where the bikes they wanted were.. C*n*s !!!

sounds like just the same MO as margam thefts then: take one van and cherry pick the poshest bikes. Some of the bikes at margam were very well secured by bike event standards, but the suspicion was that the thieves knew which ones they wanted hours before they stole them, and came suitably equipped to get into pretty much anything.

Lock gates in the evening and inspect all vehicles, or have mandatory bike sticker on top tube with corresponding ticket which can be kept by owner to produce on exit? All of this will cost even organisers money though.

The guys in the tent next to ours at BBF had a stumpy nicked but somehow got it back, hed just left it out the back of his tent and I guess the theives got spooked and ditched it. I always lock my bike in the car at races, its just not worth the risk.

There should be a group sentry at large events to deter thieving-pikey-scoundrels!

I would volunteer for a 2 hr stint!

What about numbered arm bands, one for your arm and one to correspond to the bike, fixed to the bike handlebars, visitors/supporters have a different coloured band to riders.
the Bands could be sponsored by a company wih their name on it.

That sounds very similar to the theft at Margam. Got to be the same gang. Same times and everything.

Unbelievable that no lessons were learnt prior to BBF.

GB

Very disappointing all round. It's hard to keep a chilled event without strict secutity but it may be needed soon. Sympathies to all those who've had bikes nicked.

Lock gates in the evening and inspect all vehicles, or have mandatory bike sticker on top tube with corresponding ticket which can be kept by owner to produce on exit? All of this will cost even organisers money though.

If that is what has to be done, then so be it.

I'm sure that there is enough money floating around in the entry fees at some of these events to cover it. If not can't cost more than say £1 per ticket to produce a matching sticker to the wrist band and a minimum wage security team for 48 hours.

gee – Member

Unbelievable that no lessons were learnt prior to BBF.

You mean different company in a different country on the next weekend? Quite believable.

I'm amazed that people will leave £3k bikes lying around anywhere. Take responsibility for your own actions.

and a minimum wage security team for 48 hours.

Most probably a waste if time. Security guards will, IME, just watch the crims and do nothing. Or sleep all night. Or watch TV. They don't care.

Gurkas are were it's at for Security

With Mayhem only two weeks away i hope the organiser's inform everyone to take extra care and lock them up !

I don't believe that someone chased a scumbag down to get it back! you would be fffing and blinding to get attention to help you, everyone at an event like that would realise something odd was going on and perk up!! Plus if you caught him ….. who knows what would happen!

Shame though that there are gangs like this doing it, all I can see as many before is that you wouldn't leave your £3000 bike outside your tent if you were camping in your garden.

And locking the gate thing didn't work! It was promoted on the BBF website where the key could be found .. something about a cone in the corner and it was hidden under there! Makes it a bit pointless locking the gate!

Still I had a top weekend.

The ideas about matching numbers for bike and rider have been tried at MM in the past, it works OK for the first few hours (and security are supposed to stop anyone without a matching number and bike) but after that people are wandering around with teammates bikes or have swapped clothes/helmet/bike or are so covered in mud that the numbers aren't visible etc.

It's nothing new, I remember loads of bikes going missing at races years ago when a bunch of pikeys would turn up in a van, slash the straps on a few racks and dump the whole contents into their van. 🙁

Take ownership of the problem and lock it in the back of your car. I dont leave mine unattended its under my ass or in the boot. So to speak 😛 I see the same on the way back from events at service stations etc Owners inside at Costa bike on car in open?

Security and gate checks etc? No thanks, ruin the atmosphere, take ages to enter leave and entry fees goes up so some people can leave their bikes in the open? Nah thanks.

With all the reports over the last few years it seems like bike theft is one of the main industries in Bristol 🙁

Pawsy_Bear – Member

Take ownership of the problem and lock it in the back of your car. I dont leave mine unattended its under my ass or in the boot.

Probably not good enough for this sort of organised theft I fear, and waaaay more targeted than just emptying a boot/roof rack into a van and driving off.

Dunno about the BBF, but the reports of margam say that this was a well plannned targeted theft, where only the poshest bikes were stolen, often unlocking and moving bikes worth 'only' £2k to get to the ones that had been identified earlier in the day as targets. Some of the bikes were stolen from locked cars and vans, or from tents in which the owners were sleeping. Basically if someone from the 'team' at margam saw your bike and identified it as bling enough to go in the van, there was a very high chance of them having it.

Can't see the matching numbers for bike and rider working at an event like MM – a van is leaving and they say they have no bikes, you can't see in the back and they refuse to have the inside of the van checked. Are you going to insist they open the van or is every van / car going to be checked on the way out?

For some events you might be able to lock bikes up over night in a container and put guards on it and then permit holder gets bike in the morning. Or maybe we'll all have to fit GPS trackers into the frames but I think the weight might be as issue to racers.

We had security guards at HTN 1, they had instructions to inspect vehicles going out with bikes against a list of riders and which bikes they had.

We quickly found that in reality it's completely impractical and after several hours the security lads can't be arsed with the hassle anyway.

Lock em in your cars.

They must be outing these bikes somewhere and if they're all boutique brands or really high end kit there won't be a lot of it about so somebody on here will probably get offered some or know someone who does.

Anybody got any idea what went so we can keep an eye out for it?

Less likely to happen at a 24h event like Mayhem, I'd have thought. Especially if your group is big enough for several teams, as there's more chance of folk being up and about preparing to ride or pit-bitching for others.
Still, my cricket bat….er, Insurance Policy will be coming down to Eastnor with me and I'm in decent form with it this year….