WTF? Bizarre commuting experience...

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WTF? Bizarre commuting experience...

17 posts & 16 voices | Started 2 years ago by ddmonkey | Latest reply from glenp

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ddmonkey - Member

So odd. I ride my station bike to the station, lock it up and go to work. Come back in the evening in the dark, unlock bike and start riding home. As I pick up speed I notice a loud clanking from the front wheel, then even louder and then the mudguard support comes loose and the clanking is really loud so I stop. Someone had put a padlock around one the spokes of the front wheel and locked it. This had spun round and swung out as I rode, wrecking the front mudguard.

Why? I had to walk home, and now I have to try to get the padlock off without damaging the front wheel (suggestions welcome).

Posted 2 years ago #
Simon - Member

Big pair of bolt croppers.

Posted 2 years ago #
taka - Member

sure its your bike?

Posted 2 years ago #
andrewh - Member

Angle grinder if you have a steady hand.
Undo spoke nipple, slip it off and retighten if you don't

Posted 2 years ago #
scottyjohn - Member

Apparently people put a lock on your bike so you have to leave it overnight and they come back later and nick it

Posted 2 years ago #
ddmonkey - Member

DOH! So obvious yes undo the spoke, why didn't I think of that? Oh yes that's right I'm a bit dim...

Posted 2 years ago #
PlumzRichard - Member

try unscrewing the spoke out of the nipple, sliding the lock off and then screwing the spoke back into the nipple??

Posted 2 years ago #
crazy-legs - Member

Couple of possibilities:
you locked the bike up so as to obstruct someone else's bike and they put a padlock on the wheel to teach you a lesson
someone did it as a prank
a thieving little scroat did it in an attempt to force you to leave the bike at the station so that they could come back when it's dark & quiet and have an hour or so to break open your lock and nick the bike

As for getting it off, if it's just on one spoke, take the wheel out, remove tyre/tube/rimstrip, undo spoke, slide lock off and tighten the spoke back up. Pain in the arse but easy and less likely to damage anything.

Posted 2 years ago #
bialled_dikes - Member

and its not been said yet but it's obviouly a marked bike now, expect to have further problems as someone has their eye on it.

Posted 2 years ago #
brakes - Member

you have been tagged by the Biker Nostra
sleep with one eye open my friend

Posted 2 years ago #
druidh - Member

Sh!t.

I was wondering where I'd left that padlock....

Posted 2 years ago #
spooky_b329 - Member

Not quite the same, but I came running out of school one day to grab my bike (A levels so free afternoon) and some little scrote had managed to loop his lock around my hydraulic brake hose. Had to walk two miles home, collect tools and walk back, remove caliper, just as I'd finished he turned up! Should've looped by Kryptonite chain round his bike to teach him to be more careful but didn't think of it at the time!

Posted 2 years ago #
speaker2animals - Member

Is their CCTV overlooking the bike rack? I'd talk to station staff if it's manned and see if the culprit has been video'd. If he/she has report to police. But don't expect any action.

TBH sounds more like a prank. If it had been done to keep your bike at station ready for overnight thievery they'd have locked it to the stand. Unless they are incompetant. Let's face it yor small time crooks aren't exactly Lex Luthor are they?

Posted 2 years ago #
sockpuppet - Member

i jumped on my pub bike a while a go after leaving it locked outside the supermarket while i'd been shopping.

how carefully do you check your bike in such situations? because some scrote had disconnected both my brakes for me...

luckily i noticed before it put me under a bus, but i was pretty freaked by teh whole thing TBH

Posted 2 years ago #
takisawa2 - Member

If he/she wanted to immobilise it for thieving later wouldn't they have used a cable lock / chain ? Sounds like a prank, albeit a stupid & dangerous one.

Remember an incident outside a motorbike spares shop once. Big mean looking greaser type bloke comes out, starts up his naked custom Fireblade, sits there revving the thing, then attempts to gun it away. Him & the bike then suddenly disappear from view behind a Fiesta.
Turns out he'd left a disc lock on. Had to help lift the thing off him, all very embarrassing for him but he turned out to be a nice chap & he at least saw the funny side of it.

Posted 2 years ago #
charlie the bikemonger - Member

Before fixed wheel was commonplace you could leave a fixie unlocked and if anyone tried to steal it you would find them lying in the street with flamingo legs. Giving the opportunity to put the boot in and recover your bike.

Having said that a lock is a better idea.

Posted 2 years ago #
glenp - Member

The stock method used to be to put superglue in the lock that is already on the bike and then return at night hoping that the owner had given in trying to unlock it. According to my friend that had some very unsavory cycle courier mates.

Posted 2 years ago #