Anyone cycle from the station > work, then work > station and just leave it there over night?
How much would you spend on such a bike, is it a bad idea / against the rules?
Check your local skips?
Raleigh shopper with a basket.
Caught the train into Marylebone once, on a Sat. Couldn't believe how many bikes were left locked up there. Hundreds of them. Mrs takisawa is thinking of doing it when she starts Uni.
My mate had a station bike. Occasionally it would escape of it's own accord, or parts would go missing from it, and he would then get another. I wouldn't spend more on a station bike than I would care to lose. I'd get a beat up secondhand bike and keep the parts on it to minimum.
My last boss did this. He had crappy bikes, literally dug out of a skip. And he still had problems with them being nicked, bits being pinched off them and vandalised by the sort of characters that lurk around train stations late at night.
my gf is planning on doing this, having just obtained a suitable machine for nowt last night.
Not a station bike but whilst at Uni I had a ladies fold up shopper with 3 sturmy archer gears. I welded everything on, and I mean everything! Just a small spot weld on each item but it was enough to deter any would be thief. It was left all over London, sometimes for days at a time (while I tried to remember where I'd left it!) without issue. If you do that though make sure you fit tough tyres - fortunately I didn't have any punctures in the three years I was riding it as I'd have had to grind the wheel nuts off to fix it.
get on freecycle and and get a ratty old piece of junk, keep it maintained but make sure it looks horrible. Chain it up a few rows back away from opportunist vandals. What you go to lose?
Or get a brompton.
I do this. I have a really (really really) nasty, rust covered, 20 year old Raleigh rescued from a neighbour's skip. Plastic brake levers, the lot. It's a dreadful thing.
It's been a revelation. Being able to just lock a bike up *anywhere* and leave it for however long without constantly worrying is the best cycling aid I've found in years.
The most expensive items on it are the £20 commuter lights I remove anyway. It's amazing.
I ride from Kings Cross to work everyday and have left my bike there for the past 5 years.
First bike was a £500 Ridgeback Flight and current is a Marin 29er.
I've never had any problems and think the risks are overstated.
Wheel, stem and seatpost locking bolts, decent U lock and make sure lights are removed and you'll be fine.