Evening all,

Just back from the trails this evening, Ashton Court and Leigh Woods which were both great. However, there were 6 or seven guys there who stuck out like sore thumbs – tesco bikes, no riding gear, no helmets, shifty looking. Basically, they had no place on the trails by the looks of it. I wanted to try and remain open minded that they were just out trying the trails but their behaviour was just down right dodgy, hanging around, pointing at bikes as they went past. Especially as they were hanging around at the main entrance, to my eye they were ‘spotting’.

Anyway a call from a one of our guys having got home – he was pulled over by undercover police saying he was being followed.

So putting two and two together, there seem to be spotters and then cars on the Clifton side to pick up the spotted riders. Good to know the police are on the case but they can’t cover everyone.

So, please be aware if you’re up there and take a deliberately convoluted route home if you’re being followed, preferably passed a police station!

bloody hell….

6 or 7 guys just to spot bikes?

“No place on the trail” – but then it also sounds like they weren’t there to ride it.

there seem to be spotters and then cars

Holy crapola. Not good. Not good at all.

Flipping heck, a disappointingly top tip so thanks for the warning.

Wow. I (naively) had no idea bike crime was so sophisticated. Scummers.

Thanks for sharing this– Thinks out loud: Main entrance is the top Gatehouse – up from the bridge I guess.

Dodgy business indeed – maybe boys in blue had a sting in hand..

Love to hear more about the intercepted tail..

Twice around all the roundabouts on the way home then chaps.

can we get someone with a go-pro camera on their back??

The local police and a lot of riders are already well aware of this:

http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/Mountain-bikers-stalked-home-thieves/story-15722854-detail/story.html

But it’s worth a bump in case anyone’s not yet seen it.

Hmm, Ibis, german luxury car, works in software?

I assume Mr. Ross Terry is a STW regular then?

is brizzle really that bad, its on my potential list of cities id like to move to!

There was a Vito van full of police in the car park at the bottom of Ashton Court last night about 6:30pm. Hopefully they were there as part of some sort of bike-related theft prevention thing?

kimbers – No, it isn’t, but Bristol does have a very active bike scene and so where there’s abundance, there’s theft.

Acquisitive crime has changed in recent years. High end bikes are big business to thieves. The yield to effort/punishment makes it an attractive area to ‘work’ in. People being followed to their H/A’s is replicated up and down the country. Areas like Ashton Court and trail centres are obvious sources for rich pickings unfortunately. Raising peoples awareness to this issue is what’s required so that they can take precautionary measures and think more about the general security of their property.

Kimbers, it could be worse:

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/london-bicycle-theft-rises-by-33-in-five-years/013493

Bike theft (and violent crime) is actually dropping in Bristol but earlier this year there was a very worrying spate of targeted theft from people’s homes. The majority of theft in Bristol is still the usual low-hanging fruit – bikes locked up in public with cable locks and the like – but as deluded says, there are also some more organised people out there. Of course the same is true of anywhere in the country. FOD has had similar problems too:

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/Bike-thieves-lie-wait-steal-cycles/story-15761807-detail/story.html

I suspect I’ve had a couple of occasions where scallys have tried to follow me home on the bristol/bath bike path- usually a scally at the st George end with a mobile checking out the bikes and a mate of his on a Halfords special near Morrisons – luckily his mate can’t keep up with me and drops off after a mile or two….

Will keep an eye out at Ashton court now…

From memory similar thing was happening around Thetford forest a few years back, expensive bikes were singled out with the riders being followed home by bike/car. Police finally caught them not before many bikes were stolen

Given AC/LW riders are generally from within a 10 mile radius it’s probably a lot higher success rate for tailing cars than somewhere like FoD or Cwmcarn where they get a higher proportion of visitors from further afield.

This is rubbish 🙁 Its sad that this would happen.

From Clevedon LBS Bikestyle’s Facebook page:

Hi all, I’ve just been speaking to a guy at work (this is Lou by the way!). He told me that he & some other friends were riding in Ashton Court & Leigh Woods last night & noticed a few people hanging around at various points. After they’d finished they packed up & drove home their separate ways. One of the guys was followed by a plain clothes policeman who told him that he’d been also been followed by a man in a Ford Puma who they are aware of as a bike thief. So, keep your eyes peeled when you’re up there & on your way home & keep your bikes safe.

Really good to hear the fuzz are onto these scumbags though.

Police issue Bombers at the ready hopefully.

More than likely this is how mine went last weekend.

Were these lads black by any chance, and hanging around the picnic bench by the finish of the Quarry trail? I saw them at about 6.30 ish and did wonder…

Were these lads black by any chance, and hanging around the picnic bench by the finish of the Quarry trail? I saw them at about 6.30 ish and did wonder…

That’s a bit of an odd place to hang around if you were hoping to tail someone back to their home, as you’d have to keep up with them all the rest of the way round the trail.

Previous reports of “spotters” have been around the gatehouse or the suspension bridge, where I can imagine it being easy to latch onto someone as they pootle home from a ride.

You’re right – but then I’ve heard reports of mobiles being used also to ring ahead.

Either way, they seemed a bit dodgy (I’m not being racist, just that they were black, and if I’m to be honest, MTBing around Bristol does tend to be a mainly populated by white male Audi driving IT workers)

We could do with coming up with some help for people in terms of how to minimise being tagged – such as don’t leave via the gatehouse or encourage use of some of the more obscure exits – but then that goes against the ethos of the trails that have been built…

And I’ve been mocked by mates before for turning down a side road when I think someone’s been behind me a long time… granted we were just coming back from sainsburys but still 😉

But great the police are actually watching out for these tactics, heard of it happening at Llandegla years ago. Also at the camp site at Betws-y-coed used to get people driving in, doing a lap and then leaving. woke up next morning and someone’s bike gone from the roof.

We could do with coming up with some help for people in terms of how to minimise being tagged – such as don’t leave via the gatehouse or encourage use of some of the more obscure exits – but then that goes against the ethos of the trails that have been built…

Doubt there’d be any issue if people wanted to cut out before the gatehouse (as you have to do anyway when the gate’s locked), or finish a ride by going down the Zig Zags at the Clarken Combe end of the estate (as I always used to do when I lived in Bem anyway).

I think the main message the police keep repeating is to stay aware, keep an eye out for anything sus, and report it (Use the non-emergency number 101 if you don’t want to call 999). They are treating this as a priority at the moment and would love to nick some more people, I’m sure.

Our current favourite diversion tactic is to head home via the Nova or the Cottage, and sit outside with our bikes until the thieves lose interest. Can take some time, but better safe than sorry. 😉

unklehomered – Member

And I’ve been mocked by mates before for turning down a side road when I think someone’s been behind me a long time… granted we were just coming back from sainsburys but still

late night run for munchies by any chance? 😉

I have a few routes home from AC/LW these days, all of which involve sections closed to vehicles. As long as I ride fast enough to shake off anyone following on a bicycle…

I might be being dim here, but what are the “spotters” adding to this scam? Arent thieves just going to park up near the Suspension Bridge and wait. There’s a constant stream of decent bikes being ridden over it from AC/LW most evenings, “fish” and “barrels” spring to mind.

When I was burgled earlier in the year I was asked if I’d ridden at AC/LW in the last month or so, not surprisingly (like most Bristol riders) I had, so I’m not sure if this is cause or just association?

I also ride up and down the Gloucester Road every week day, it wouldn’t be hard for someone to follow me then.

Still, it makes good sense to vary your route a bit and nip down a few cheeky passages on the way, more fun too.

Were these lads black by any chance, and hanging around the picnic bench by the finish of the Quarry trail? I saw them at about 6.30 ish and did wonder…

Ive seen those guys a few times over the last few weeks, I think they are more likely bored schoolkids than thieves.

I hope this wont put people off riding in these places, ive been using these trails for over 5 years and I live just the other side of the bridge, so far ive been lucky and nothing has happened.

Mr Agreeable, can you email me on Neil . Bolton @ gmail . com – I’m hoping you’re in touch with those coppers in the team – I might be able to help them with something with regards to what I do at work (very secret squirrel).

Neil, will do.

agentdagnamit, you have a point, but there are cases of people being very clearly checked out (in one case even bumped into, in a faux-accidental manner) by people behaving suspiciously.

As Brodie says, keep your wits about you, but don’t be put off. I’ve been using the trails for about 10 years now, and it really is a very unlucky few who are being targeted in this way. There are currently about 10,000 people a month using the trail, so it’s sadly natural for the thieves to take an interest.

im convinced that I was followed back from Swinley Forest, two days after riding a newly built bike and the first time I had used a bike rack instead of putting it in the back of the car both my bikes were stolen, Told the police in thames valley and nothing……

clearly the police arent as active down here as they are in Bristol

Doesn’t someone live in the gatehouse who would know what was going on outside his front door with regards to people regularly hanging out there to follow people home?

This kind of thing has been happening for years, only more easy for the scallies now as there are more expensive bikes out there at “trail centre” car parks rather than in random car parks for natural trails. When I was a young lad, my Hardrock and brothers Rockhopper were stolen from our garage. The police say it was targeted and I must have been followed home. This was very likely the case, as at the time we had thousands of pounds of kayaking equipement in the garage which they didnt touch, just took the two bikes.

I now go for a quick spin around the block on the way back from local bike trails/rides just to be sure theres no-one on my tail, and where you enter our cul-de-sac its very obvious if someone is behind you, and if they ever are, I will divert down another cul-de-sac until they are gone. Long way for a scally to follow me if I’ve been to Swinley, though I wouldnt be surprised if it happens there too, more rich pickings.

The ‘spotters’ were hanging around the wole main (Nova?) trail, pushing up the hill after the quarry section and going very slowly around the trail, waiting a different points to see who was on the trails – I heard one of them say ‘that one’ as me and my mate passed them. There were about 5 or 6 black guys and one Asian guy all under 20 I’d say. They stuck out like a sore thumb compared to the normal demographic.

There were loads of folk up there last night, so others will defo have seen them.

Mate was followed by a Silver Ford Puma (as per Lou’s Bike Style post) with a ‘known’ offender at the wheel! Copper told my mate to report it as there may be the potential to assign more police resources to bike crime. So well worth reporting anything you see or experience.

‘Stay frosty people’!

Don’t park at AC or Leigh woods and take a route that a car cannot go down.
The trails are not that big so a mile cool down ride on the road won’t hurt.

I must admit I have seen a few people recently that don’t look like regular bikers…. But then I tried to remember when I was a teenager and didnt have 2k to spend on a bike (still dont really).

I tend to drop out of LW onto the cycle path about 3 miles from the basin and then have about 5 miles of road home via pretty quick roads so very difficult to follow without sticking out like a sore thumb.

Could be worthwhile getting some cameras going so these peeps can be ‘on film’? unless of course they are just kids enjoying the trails like us.

http://www.vitalmtb.com/videos/member/Bike-Thief-Gets-Owned,14923/k-shiz,14