We are moving to Cardiff soon and I will be heading back to London quite often for work, sometimes overnighting and I`m wondering what bike parking is like at the station, more to the point is there a big problem with bike theft, vandalism etc?
I plan on buying something cheap and expendable possibly carting a basic trailer so nothing flash but would I would rather it was there when I get back, just wondering if the station has fairly secure bike parking or is it to be avoided?

Fine during daylight hours provided the racks aren’t full. Wouldn’t leave it there at night. It’s just steel hoops you lock to, nothing special.

As above plus one, where in Cardiff are you moving to in relation to the station? Most points are accesable by a rather efficient public transport system…

…I know as an englander it took me a while to understand this

Just up the river, not far from Tal y Bont, so plan on moseying down to the station by bike.

I’d prob walk it tbh, its not a bad stroll by the river.
Actually long day, wanting to get back quick, the bike should be safe enough as long as its just a hack.

last time i parked my bike up at the station overnight in aberdeen (it was an old shopper bike with 20″ wheels i had bought to knock around town on) the station guards chopped the lock and threw it in the skip, i was livid when i went back the next day!!!

My thoughts exactly scratch and very often an early train, so bike seems like a plan.

Its not safe there at all.
I parked my 456 at Pure Gym which is opposite the train station during the day between 2 – 3pm.
I had a D lock and a loop around the front wheel.
When I came back from the Gym the Steel cable (Kryptonite) had been cut through.
The bike was still there but I was very impressed to learn that someone would cut a thick steel cable in broad daylight in a busy area.

Looks like I`ll be looking on Gumtree for a pub bike.

My son is at uni in Cardiff and has had no problems in two years apart from some scrote taking the bike computer he forgot to remove. It is a very hack bike though. It does however have some nice parts on it but not obviously so; ‘de-badged’ as it were. He uses a big armoured cablelock and a D lock.

Yep. Wouldn’t chance it with anything half decent.

Probably just me but I always get a feeling the area by the station is a bit of Cardiff that’s a bit run down & neglected, and possibly the sort of area where someone wouldn’t bat an eyelid if someone was trying to steal a bike.

For Hugor, who was impressed by theives operating in busy areas in broad daylight, we turned up at the bike stands at Queen st./Churchill way at 2:30pm on a Saturday, armed with a pair of 3ft long bolt croppers, liberated a customers bike that had faulty lock, and nobody said a word. People just don’t want to get involved, why risk it to protect somebody elses property?

I don’t blame others for not getting involved, why would you risk a altercation with a thief for a strangers bike. Such places are littered with CCTV cams and have a reasonable police presence too which obviously aren’t much of a deterrent either.

Saddens me we have to lock bikes up the way we do, I just wish people had more respect for others property.

That part of town looks delapidated because they’ve been debating about what to do with the bus station for 4 bloody years!! Was meant to be replaced in 2010!! And the taxi’s parked everywhere don’t help, they just make getting to the station by car impossible.

A proper bike stand near the station would be nice, though, wouldn’t it? I often take the train out of Central to London, and if I stay overnight just end up walking to the station from my house (I live near Llandaff Fields) and taking a taxi back the following evening.

Bike everywhere else, though.