Riding along through Salford (I know!) on my way into work this morning and as I went through a set of traffic lights my eyes were drawn to a cracking looking bike at the side of the road. Now I could only see parts of it because it was in the middle of a crowd of people, but the swingarm looked like the one in the top picture on this web page

http://www.motomucci.com/2014/03/daily-inspiration-nicolai-frames.html

and the forks were enormous DH triple clamp monsters (not Marzocchi’s just HUGE).

Now it could well be the person’s own bike and if so I apologise for the insinuation, but the LADY wheeling it at the time was a very short and quite rotund mother of apparently six children (that’s about how many she was walking to school anyway, and they were all quite small so I’m assuming it wasn’t any of theirs either) and the bars almost came upto her shoulders! So I think she might need to revise her sizing choice if she’s to get the best from the bike in the future.

Just a head’s up really and I could have got the ID wrong, I was in the middle of busy traffic at the time and it was icy, so I was also concentrating on other things, but the swingarm looked so disctinctive I can’t imagine it’s a supermarket special copy (besides, the forks looked the right way around).

Lucky girl though, hope she gets the best from it!

Whereabouts in Salford?

Not aware of any outstanding Nicolais in the area (I’d get to hear) but I can make a few enquiries….

Fwiw there is a local lad with one of these which is, amazingly, legit

Not sure its that exact colour, possibly blue and yellow

FWIW I’ve just checked with someone at work who has done a check. No Nics nicked anywhere in GMP in the last 3 years. Not that are still outstanding anyway…

Saw something similar near Hope Hospital recently just didn’t look right should have posted up in hindsight.

Couldn’t identify the frame from the distance I was at but was definitely a proper DH bike it was beige with white triple clamps

If you see it again (and it doesn’t put you at risk) get a sneaky pic of the bike and rider and drop me an email 😉

Another forum user on here emailed me a couple of months back about some kid on an Orange Gyro outside McDonalds at Pendleton. I already knew who that was as I’ve had the bike checked a few times. Damn shame when you see them riding round the streets without a speck of mud on them. Like keeping a wild tiger in a third floor flat 🙂

Slightly O/T but I remember travelling on a Finglands bus up Oxford Road about 30 years ago and reading graffiti on the seatback in front which said:

“Salford single mothers kick to kill”

Sounds like their choice of bike is hardcore and they’re still uncompromising.

Could just be a very old unloved bike that ended up being sold very cheap – the current owner probably unaware they go a bargain.

OK, nice one, thanks for the feedback (some well connected people out there by the looks of it) I could’ve been wrong with the ID, but the swingarm looked so disinctive – I forgot to mention it was white. Could be from out of the area I suppose, but as with tops 5 it just didn’t look right under the circumstances. I’ll keep a look out, maybe I’ll pass the lucky lady with her shopping banging about, hanging from the bars, although I’m sure she’ll hand me my a$$, what with me on a rigid ss 29er with studded tyres at the moment (sluggish to say the least (“,)

Bregante asked about the area, it was Liverpool Road, just passed Chimney pot park if you know it.

I do see a few really (REALLY) nice bikes outside betting shops and offies on my ride to and from work, again they just look out of place and it always saddens me, having had a number of bikes stolen over the years. Just makes you feel like picking them up and taking them to the nearest police station in the hope of them being re-united with their rightful owner, but then I know the feeling of going to where you think your bike is and it not being there!

Know it well

To be honest I wouldn’t assume at all that they’re all nicked. A decent bike is a bit of a status symbol round there (the more inappropriate the better).
There’s a couple of Lapierres, a Marin Attack Trail, a Scott Ransom and a Specialized Status all being bounced up and down the kerbs of Ordsall as we speak by kids who haven’t got a clue what their intended use is but all have been checked. How they’ve paid for them is a different issue.

i ride along rochdale road, through harpurhey, on my way into and from work. just before christmas i saw a young lad (possibly late teens judging by his lack of school uniform) riding on the pavement towards the manchester communication academy. he was riding towards me so i couldnt make out the bike properly but it looked very much like a specialized demo or a status…it was in a khaki green colour with white forks that looked like a set of lyrics.
i dont mean this in a derogatory way but he was dressed really scruffily and he didnt look the type of person you would say had the means to pay for a bike costing possibly in excess of £2k.
having said that it is possible that the bike is legit but something about him and the bike seemed very off.
i havent seen him since though…

I was complimented on my bike once by a scally in Chorlton Water Park. His words were ‘is that a Cannondale? Nice badboy’.

It was a **** Santa Cruz idiot.

Fairly often in Summertime you see nice bikes round our way too- rare but when you do see them they stand out abit as they are usually spotless/mint (why?)

Same reason their trainers are similarly clean.

Like a Range Rover with 22″ alloys it’s all about image, innit blud?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P25e-rS4N8U[/video]

I had three bikes stolen from my garage in Prestwich, back in September 2013, the main one being a white YT Industries Tues DH bike. White frame with black decals, white Boxxers and formula wheels with white MTX rims. Never got it back and sometimes cycle through Salford on my way home from work in the vain hope of spotting it, but nothing, same with the others that were taken. Only got to use it once in Wales and for a week in the Alps before it was taken 🙁

Never will I leave a expensive item in my shed or garage. Makes me unpopular to some on here but even if you are fully insured its feeding crime and putting food on criminals tables. Sorry.

Me neither now, nothing of any value is kept in the garage, all my bikes are safely locked up, away from home.

Bregante,
I’m sure you are more than aware, but there are a good few norcos in Clifton/swinton. I Haven’t read about a mass rob of somewhere, but there are too many around.. Saw a brand new 29fs norco ridden by a bloke (late 50s)who could barely walk.. I know where that one is. There’s also a proper scally on a white trek really near by. Last time we past him I’m amazed he could ride.. He stunk of cannabis!!

It just bothers me that there’s nothing we can really do.. It’s definatly regarded as a victimless crime..

Is it an urban myth that scrotes use the ‘dark internet’ to arrange swaps of nicked bikes ‘out of area’?

I was always a bit sceptical, but this thread has me rethinking – it reads as though, if there’s no local thefts reported, then as far as the constabulary are concerned, that’s that? What if that bike was nicked in Leeds?

It’s gone, mate.

I was complimented on my bike once by a scally in Chorlton Water Park. His words were ‘is that a Cannondale? Nice badboy’.

I had something similar in Sefton Park where my GT Avalanche was confused with a Zaskar. I was at the wrong end of a very pointy thing at the time…

Never will I leave a expensive item in my shed or garage. Makes me unpopular to some on here but even if you are fully insured its feeding crime and putting food on criminals tables. Sorry.

i agree…they’ve been in my shed once to take a £3.5k dh bike and a spare frame…i’m not putting anything else in there for them to come back for
my bike now live in the house….much to the wife’s dismay but she kind of understands why (not that she’ll ever admit to that)

I know. Its harsh and I’d love to keep my bikes in my either of my two sheds but I couldn’t face the mental anguish/anger etc even though they’d be insured. Growing up I knew alot of the scum. I wouldn’t want to put one meal on their table from my hardwork. Harsh but its feeding crime. Literally.

Hora, you know you can get huge chains and locks and ground anchors for securing bikes in sheds/garages. Surely that’s safer than having them in your house?

Machinemart sells alot of kit that can cut through alot of chains etc. You can also saw through the frame very quickly. Again- posting this sort of thing doesn’t make me the most popular but if someone is willing to break in, climb through a window to try and get a bike and then try and get it out through the window (how?) or find a key- its alot more hassle than going after lowing hanging fruit (shed/one access/various points to escape). An old friend of mine did 18months for confronting a Burgular who tried stealing his music equipment. A shed doesn’t have unknown events/people living inside.

Bregante is more an expert- I’m merely guessing really compared.

I use one of these: http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/accessories/locks/product/review-pragmasis-protector-chain-squire-stronghold-padlock-14-48500/

With the chain through the rear wheel & triangle, then front triangle, then fork, then front wheel, you can’t cut the bike out without destroying it and it’ll take some serious and noisy work to get through the chain. Not exactly low hanging fruit…

What do you use/do when you go to work? (Serious question).

Very nice retired neighbours who share our driveway, wife and daughter are often home and my hours are fairly random too. Bike comes to work some days as well.

That works in your situation but what if the retired neighbours are picking up their pension/at the hospital appointment/in the park/simply dont hear as it sounds like someones doing building work nearby? Or plain simply you are away on holiday that doesn’t involve bikes?

In most peoples situations people go to work all day long from circa 8am to 7pm. Any sort of noise will simply sound like DIY/building work and how many times do we listen out for alarms and act on them when you hear them in the neighbourhood?

Indeed but it’s all about lowering the probability of theft and I don’t believe having bikes in the house is safer than in a garage with a serious lock, chain and anchor – unless you fancy fitting an anchor in your house!

I’ve just had my wake-up call – an attempted break-in last week on my road, last night someone did my neighbour’s garage and got away with a couple of bikes.

I have a kitchen full of bikes now until I can sort out improved security.

A couple of years ago I saw two really scruffy blokes on brand new Whites one a 146 and the other a T120. I stopped and had a chat with them and actually confronted them about where they had got the bike from. They assured me with great assurance that they had paid for them with cash. There’s only one Whyte dealer in our area so the next time I visited the shop I asked the chap behind the counter and guess what ? Two scruffy blokes walk in wanting to demo top notch bikes. He laughs at them and says give £5k deposit and you can. Two blokes put £5k on counter ride round the car park and say we’ll av em. So it may defy belief but yes they can be legit.

‘ve just had my wake-up call – an attempted break-in last week on my road, last night someone did my neighbour’s garage and got away with a couple of bikes.

I have a kitchen full of bikes now until I can sort out improved security.

Why not leave the wheels/detrius ground-anchored in your garage and the frame/forks in a spare room? Its a hassle but how mmany times a week do you pull your posh bike out for a ride?

Your frame./forks are way easier to handle/size-down and store. Added wheels is what bulks a bike up.

Yes but what if they see the wheels and think ‘lets go into the house’?

You’ve got fancy tv’s, stereos, ipads etc inside houses too.

I was in a Manchester serious bike shop and the assistant explained to me how the local youthful ‘street traders’ would drop by with £2k to pick up a ‘trick bike’. it had something to do with navigating cul-de-sacs (that had replaced the estates) at speed. Must be some fit people up there.

Hora, you have a very unusual brain.

I don’t want to bring my bikes into the house because most of the time they are filthy! And I have a perfect decent garage to keep them in – with a bloody big lock.

I’d rather someone broke into my garage and nicked all my bikes than come into my house for anything!

They’re only bikes after all, They’re insured so i’ll just get new ones and the fun starts again!!

Admittedly my bikes aren’t worth anywhere near as much as some on here but if you spend 2,3,4k on a bike and don’t have it insured, you’re an idiot. IMO.

‘Unusual brain’

Only on stw will you get folk who can’t understand an opposing point of view so resort to insulting.

Everyone has different levels of risk. Some people don’t want to feed crime. In addition if your premiums jumped markedly every time you claimed on a bike loss you’d soon change your mindset.

Those days (and big policy restrictions) won’t be too far off.

Gelded idiot.

As I said before, I don’t see how bikes which are not fixed to a ground anchor in a house are more secure than bikes fixed to a ground anchor in a garage. Especially a very visible garage, it’s not the other end of the garden and accessed from an alley, you have to go in between our house and next door’s to get to it (or climb many fences across a series of big gardens). My view is that is much lower risk than bikes unlocked or just locked to themselves in a house.

Think we’ve been here before. Hora has his stance, and he’s lucky that his accommodation allows him to keep bikes in the house. For many, we don’t have a choice. I do not have the room to store bikes inside. They are banished to the shed, albeit security shed, where the dirt, grit, occasioanl dog shit, and chain lube doesn’t get into the house. They remain in place thanks to a ground anchor bloody big chain and padlock and a 5ft tall calor gas cylinder, that all the bikes are also chained too. If they go, they go. They’re insured. I challenge anyone to remove them without alerting the neighbours (terrace house, shared rear access) or destroying the bikes completely.

Yes. When I lived in a flat in central London my two bikes lived behind the bed in bikebags..

If you’ve ever known thieves. You’d never want to give them a penny. Insured or not.

Loathesome little shitehawkes

Sometimes a look a bit scruffy and sometimes i stink of cannabis. I didn’t steal my bikes.

Hora you know all thieves or are you just generalising for affect?