From outside uni. Reported to police who will phone me tomorrow, apparently.

What happens next? It’s never happened to me before.

Also, what bike to replace a Pinnacle Arkose 4 commuter/cx-type thing?

Posted 3 years ago

Also, what bike to replace a Pinnacle Arkose 4 commuter/cx-type thing?

to be left outside uni?

Posted 3 years ago

Unfortunately Kimbers has a point there.

Sorry to hear you had it stolen though bud. 🙁

Posted 3 years ago

I was thinking more along the lines of a cheapo single speed, but that might work

Posted 3 years ago

Something steel, nitromorsed and made to look like shit even if it isnt.

Posted 3 years ago

That’s really shit OP.

Posted 3 years ago

Rat bike for leaving at uni. Get an old hybrid, racks and guards. Make it as unattractive as possible.

Sorry to hear it’s gone though that’s an arse.

Posted 3 years ago

Ive been told the police will phone me today: what are people’s experiences of this sort of thing? Will they just ask me a couple of questions and then chalk it up as another statistic? I’m hardly expecting Ms Marple to get involved.

Posted 3 years ago

My suspicion is you will get a crime number and nothing else. If it gets recovered you might get a phone call.

Posted 3 years ago

Ime the police will file it away if you have the frame number it may help .

I wasn’t being very sympathetic with my first post, I got an old hybrid, with cable discs 1×9 and actually not a bad bike for commuting on but the paint job is very scratched up and its quite dirty which helps keep the scumbags away, I also leave a hefty lock at work and one at the station.

Posted 3 years ago

Be lucky if they do actually call you, but it will just be to file in their records. Though they might want to avoid it as it’s a crime they’ll never solve and that isn’t good for statistics.

If you want to claim anything on insurance you’ll need a crime number from them though.

However you’ll probably get some lovely victim support stuff in the post asking if you want counselling or stuff 😉 (got that when someone broke into my shed. Obviously I was very distressed someone had nicked a garden tool, and strangely left the crappy hack bike that was in it!).

Posted 3 years ago

Rat bike for leaving at uni. Get an old hybrid, racks and guards. Make it as unattractive as possible.

IMHO it doesn’t makes a blind bit of difference (assuming it’s insured) whether it’s a “rat” bike or not, the loss is the same it’s your bike it’s set up for you, you repair the punctures index the gears, get it just so, and ride it 1000’s of miles there will be no less of an attachment. And thieves will steal anything especially if it’s on its own

Op sorry you had your bike nicked btw, lost a bike from bristol student union back in the day 🙁

Posted 3 years ago

My suspicion is you will get a crime number and nothing else. If it gets recovered you might get a phone call.

You’ll be lucky, mate had his campus bike nicked, so reported to the police. Bike was easily identifiable and he’d even written his name, postcode and phone number under the downtube(more on that in a minute). He kept on the police for a good few months but told each time that no bikes had been recovered.

Someone rung him a few months later saying they had found his bike at a police auction, turns out it was the same town it was stolen and had been recovered only a couple of days after being stolen! They tried to wriggle out of it by saying “no identifiable marks” 😯

Posted 3 years ago

They gave me a reference number last night: a number beginning with CHS and ending with yesterdays date. Would that be the crime number, or just a report reference?

Posted 3 years ago

I’ve just had a text from the Met Police basically saying:”Here’s your crime number. This investigation will not be taken any further unless you contact us with new information.”

M&S were good when I spoke to them just now, so fingers crossed.

Posted 3 years ago

M&S were good when I spoke to them just now, so fingers crossed.

Jolly good – M&S have always been top notch for me (no quibbling) when I’ve had bikes go walkabout.

The only downside is (as with most bike claims via most insurers) that they’ll pass you on to Wheelies Direct to sort the replacement.
Last time I had to claim, I decided to take the cash equivalent and source the new bike myself (a) to avoid dealing with Wheelies and (b) because WD couldn’t supply the bike I was after. M&S then reduced the settlement by a certain percentage as (apparently) that’s the discount they would have received from WD. Felt a little sore about that.

Posted 3 years ago

The only downside is (as with most bike claims via most insurers) that they’ll pass you on to Wheelies Direct to sort the replacement.
Last time I had to claim, I decided to take the cash equivalent and source the new bike myself (a) to avoid dealing with Wheelies and (b) because WD couldn’t supply the bike I was after. M&S then reduced the settlement by a certain percentage as (apparently) that’s the discount they would have received from WD. Felt a little sore about that.

Oh really? We’ll see. I know he was looking at Evans whilst on the phone to him. Of course, you can only get Pinnacle from Evans.

Posted 3 years ago

Insurance money was paid out today. Now that’s service.

Now to choose a new bike and lock. The trouble is that my old one doubled as a commute/local cx bike (Pinnacle Arkose), but I’m not sure if I want to leave such a bike unguarded in London, any more. However, I don’t have room for any more than one replacement bike.

Posted 3 years ago

M&S? Is that insurance? Sounds like a good deal..

Posted 3 years ago

I cycled to uni in Glasgow up till maybe 3 years ago on an early 90’s S-Works Stumpy replete with Hopes first front disk brake and Pace RC35s. The arse up head down position was so intimidating to folk they couldn’t nick it. Nice Syncros Cattleprod stem too.

You needed to be of a certain age to cycle that.

Posted 3 years ago

M&S? Is that insurance? Sounds like a good deal..

Yep.

Posted 3 years ago

My experience (7 years) of living in London including time at Imperial is that it’s going to get nicked so plan accordingly even if that means leaving it outside at home as well.

I think I had 4 hack bikes nicked in that time. Total cost to me was less than equivalent travel cards so I was okay but still hassle. One of them was a real wreck and I was amazed it went. Police said they’ll often turn up with a van + bolt cutters and just clear the rack before sorting it all out later.

Posted 3 years ago

even if that means leaving it outside at home as well.

Do you mean leaving it outside to give it that “rustic” look?

I might look for something secondhand.

Posted 3 years ago

Get a lock with a big enough diameter, is it 19mm that gets gold STD?

Iirc someone does a gold rated one for £17

Posted 3 years ago

A good, gold standard lock is also amongst my shopping list.

Posted 3 years ago