Its something I have always found weird that folk with expensive bikes use cheap rubbish locks. My bikes are either in my sight or locked with a very good lock. My best bike is never left out of my sight
Its not victim blaming - of course those at fault are the thieves but I just find it odd to see a bike worth thousands locked with a £5 lock that can be opened with pliers
Seems a bit deaf to the reality of people’s experiences.
I get your point that they could comment, but beyond that, people failing to secure their bikes in a public space, isn't really their problem to deal with
Do we actually know how all the stolen bikes were secured or are we just guessing?
Do we actually know how all the stolen bikes were secured
Not well enough, apparently
Blackflag
Free Member
Do we actually know how all the stolen bikes were secured or are we just guessing?
You can take a fair guess as no angle grinders were involved. So at the very most some bolt cutters were used on each lock to snip through whatever was there
Chaining through the roof bars just means they’ll get lifted off as well, if it’s going in the back of a van what’s a little extra that can be whipped off easily enough?
Sorry, I should have been clearer, not to the rack bars, but the actual roof rails that are permanently attached to the car, but even so I don’t leave it for long periods of time/ in busy areas like that.
Whilst we’re on about security, I don’t post photos of my bikes on social media either, which isn’t hard as I’m hardly on social media.
I think we all know that a determined thief will get past any lock
Obviously you dont want to make it easy for them
UKGE in quantocks had the MDE demo fleet stolen from the awning of the organisers campervan one night
Personally Id never leave my bike on the roof or out in the open overnight, but youd still expect the organisers to have some sort of security
20 bikes, 11 ebikes & some motorbikes in total!
unfortunately i dont have a van, so cant just throw it in the back,
i tend to use a big chain and D-Locks [gold solid secure] on my bike to the buzzrack towbar .
i hate leaving my bike even at service stations, again the dlocks are on, and i'll park as visible as possible.
a determined thief will usually get what they want.
think i'll take my abus alarmbox 100db for ardrock, hopefully wake a few folk up..
as others have said i'm pretty sure these thiefs are blending in as mtb'ers
on my own for another event so booked the local premier-inn keep the bike in my room
I was at a race recently and afterwards I picked up my bike and my friend's bike, leaned on a wall, to move somewhere else.
A guy challenged me about having two bikes which I thought was pretty sensible really.
The majority of the bikes stolen from ardmoors were the organisers.
There was security, there was also security at another event mentioned in this thread.
There is only so much organisers can do - especially when you have 1000 high value bikes in a field with 360 degree access.
The lesson here is not for the organisers to do something, its for people to up there own security, keep bikes secure and inside the van you are sleeping in. If that's not possible then have a proper think about how you manage that.
As PMBA's organiser the bikes from Gisburn that went were either inside a tent awning (no lock) or locked to the sheep fence on the outside of the camp field. The 2 that went from Graythwaite went with a bike rack - the rack was found in nearby woods. The racers were told by our roving "does anyone look dodgy or that they shouldn't be here" patrol Saturday evening that they should put the bikes in the car (golf) for the night but they were happy with the security they had. I've emailed racers with a headsup to give them a chance to up the security before the next round in 2 weeks.
Security was present at Ardmoors I believe, and CCTV
If you think a bike lock makes your bike safe, just YouTube "Various Sold Secure and Thatcham chains chopped." and find a video from 16 years ago showing how easy it is to steal a motorbike with a heavy motorbike chain - most broken in under 30 seconds with hand tools.
You don't need a van to store a bike, a decent tarp on the back seat will see you right, if you can tip the seat all the better.
@kramer gotcha! That makes more sense. My rails are flush so never crossed my mind.
abus alarmbox seems a good idea. however google brings up quite a few with varied prices. what's the difference / one to get?
what stops them being cropped off the bike like a lock?
when we are camping I often have to leave the bikes in the tent when we are out and about. car has kids in so you just have to hope a few locks will put thieves off. tbh I'd be more devastated my kids bikes went than my old mtb
Sounds like moving the box with the lock would set it off
“It's sensitive in three dimensions and gives a little grace of about 5 seconds of warning beeps if it's moved, or something bounces off it, for instance, before it goes into full-on wailing mode.”
Didn’t know they existed until now. From the information in this thread you might even be better forgetting the chain and just having the alarm
Abus do a lock with an alarm on it.
Even a cheap rape alarm round the bottom of the wheel tied to the rack etc would be a good start as theyre only small and wouldn't be easily seen.
Malverns got done last time i was there.
Its not just mtb events my mate got his phone stolen from his tent. He had it next to him and they just unzipped the outer and inner and snaffled it. That was a bsb in the marshall only camping area.
Basically you have an event and scroats know where to go!
The lesson here is not for the organisers to do something, its for people to up there own security, keep bikes secure and inside the van you are sleeping in. If that’s not possible then have a proper think about how you manage that.
This. Your bike, your £££, your problem to solve.
Knog Scout. ( if you have an iPhone) Mount it under your bottle cage. Armed from phone. Soon as bike moves alarm sounds on bike and on phone and can be tracked thru find my phone. Sensitivity can be adjusted. 3 months recharge time. Got one to try, now got 4 one of which is hidden on my motorhome. £50, not infallible but would definitely work at night at an event like that.
As well as the usual locks I use when storing my bikes, I also use a motorbike brake disc lock with built in alarm. Will sound if motion is detected. So will make a noise and stop the wheel from turning.
Pretty cheap on eBay, but it is another thing for thieves to remove/silence when taking bikes.
As per Danposs' comment, I have a cheap'ish padlock that I bought from Aldi/Lidl a few years ago. It's probably not a great "lock", but it has a motion alarm built in and I imagine that any sneaky scrotes snaffling bikes in the dead of night would not hang around if there was an alarm going off that woke up others. I usually lock it to a chainstay, to the out of sight side of the bike, hopefully it won't be seen and attacked before the bike is moved. I don't think it it could be picked or cut without the alarm triggering as it is quite sensitive.
unfortunately the bikes werent the only theft at Ard Moors..... £4.50 a pint on saturday, £5.75 after the race on sunday! (whilst its a reasonable price for a pint, it still stung a little!)
the abus box is bloody loud, hopefully if they are stealing en masse they wont want the chance of an alarm waking folk up, at boltby and graithwaite i locked the bikes on towbar rack then chained / d-locked and then put a heavy duty bike cover over the top,
at the next events i'll strap the abus on and arm it, so it makes a racket if the bikes are moved. unlikely to be seen unless the cover is removed first, you just have to put the thieves off making the effort, they will always take the easy option.
Ard Rock have released a statement, sounds like it was 10 competitors that had bikes stolen and all have been recovered.
No comment from them on the price of beer though....
It is terribly sad that we live in a country that personal and property security has to be at the forefront of your thoughts now. You wonder if the government has to share blame with individuals taking inadequate protection measures. Lack of policing making it easy for criminals to operate or simply the deterrent of punishment is inadequate. I've watched videos where in the Middle Eastern countries they leave unattended an expensive item, Rolex etc and see what happens. Yet to see one touched. Better class of people with higher moral values or scared of the possible consequences?
bike theft has been rampant all my life. I had 3 stolen as a kid in the 70s.
There is something in that fact that punishment for theft is so low (and nearly non existent with bikes) that people can get away with it. However in parts of Middle East mentioned above, and other countries where you can leave you phone on a bench for a week and it will still be there, punishment is beyond reasonable. So there is a middle ground…!
Ive got a student coming to study with me at Leeds, for 6 months, from Singapore. First job will be reminding him not to leave anything out of sight - it’s going to be a shock!
Ive got one of the Oxford scooter disc lock alarms after a suggestion on here a while back - it is bloody loud if the bike gets knocked.
