My bike has been stolen… sigh.

Hi STW,

Just a super quick request to please keep your eyes peeled for my bike that was stolen yesterday from outside our offices in Clapham Old Town.  Not holding out much hope, but thought I’d ask.  Just staggered how useless a bike lock is in reality!

I don’t have a pic at the moment, but its pretty distinctive… details as follows:

Frame – All City Macho Man, yellow, non-disc version

Seatpost and stem – Thomson

Saddle – Fizik Arione CX

Mech and shifters – 105

Brakes – TRP mini Vs

Wheels – Hope hubs, Stans rims, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres

Bars – Salsa Cow Bells, with Cinelli Mike Giant black and white tape

Chainset – FSA Gossamer with Raceface thick-thin ring (1×10 set up)

Please let me know if you see it pop up anywhere as I’d love it back!

Cheers!

Fingers crossed – getting you bike nicked sucks ( more so when it’s your daily transport)

Out of interest – what was it locked with and to?

Thanks belugabob.

Daffy – It was off-street, locked to a bike rack with a big Oxford cable lock.  Totally useless; got the guy on CCTV and it took him about 5 seconds to break it off.

Cable locks are useless aren’t they in general?

Need a big d lock or chain to give them something to think about. Even still if they have a battery powered angle grinder you’re knackered.

Amazing what some big bolt croppers can do too – only defence is to get the d lock so it can’t be pushed near the ground to get bolt cropper leverage.

Bit of an update on this one… got a call today from the police to say they have caught the guy, and he’s pleaded guilty to stealing my bike, and a raft of other stuff.

Doubt I’m getting my bike back, but its about as good an outcome as I could have hoped for.

I found the Met really helpful at the time, and they seemed to take it surprisingly seriously (sending a case officer out to see me etc.) which I wasn’t expecting based on many people’s experiences with the police and bike theft.

Fingers crossed you get the bike back.  Happened to me some time ago, the little scroutes ripped my bike off the roof rack plus the lock while I was having a shower at a trail centre.  Never saw the bike since. Insurance paid out so all good.

pleaded guilty to stealing and other things and the penalty?

 I found the Met really helpful at the time, and they seemed to take it surprisingly seriously (sending a case officer out to see me etc.) which I wasn’t expecting based on many people’s experiences with the police and bike theft.

I suppose with CCTV and there being a good chance that he’s a known offender the police’s job is fairly easy.

Realistically they cant spend the money going all CSI on a bike stand for every bike theft with no witnesses and playing the long game at some point they’ll get caught in the act nicking another or on CCTV.

To be honest, I didn’t really expect them to divert any resource to it, which I would have understood.

Sentencing is yet to happen, and have been asked to provide some kind of victim statement ahead of then.

Either way, my insurance didn’t pay out, so I’m glad something has come of it.

How come the insurance didn’t pay out?

Is there something for us all to learn ?

OP I feel your pain, my bike was recently stolen from the back of my van ( external bike rack with integral 10mm steel cable lock) on a busy road in Edinburgh.  First time this has happened to me and felt gutted at the time but now realise that its only a bike and that as has been said earlier, if they want it bad enough and have the necessary tools, its gone!

My lesson learned is to ensure adequate insurance to at least cover cost of bike.  My cover had a £1000 limit with £350 excess so a hard financial lesson to learn.

No real hope of having it returned or any prosecution either. Police Scotland have logged the incident but as yet I have had no further update or contact from the local constabulary.  Insignificant event in their opinion I suppose.

I had this recently. I hope the OP is properly insured. Barclays bike insurance got me out of the hole. I was in france. the camper was in a the hotel carpark with the bike locked to it. it was a locked carpark but in the morning the bike was gone. I provided a quote for replacement to the insurance and they accepted it. I did the quote based on trade pricing against the spec of the bike stolen.

So good insurance works. bike replaced and building it up.

Sorry, been on hols so not been online.

Sorry to hear all of the stories of stolen bikes, not fun, but as my wife sensitively put it… at least it frees up a bit of garage space.

To pick up an earlier question, the lack of insurance is my own fault really. The bike was insured under our household policy. It was taken from the courtyard outside my work which is off street and I assumed insured, but I basically found out the hard way that anything other than indoors is classified as ‘on street’ and not insured. Couldn’t really grumble though as only had myself to blame for not reading the policy details.

Unlucky.

We use to live in Clapham in the 90’s . Great place.

Hope the railway arms is still a good boozer. :-)

You need specific bike insurance AND certified locks these days no?

Cable locks should be sold with a”worthless” warning.

Yeah cable locks suck.. most oxford stuff sucks too. I used to be a fan of abus but theres a little known company called Pragmasis that have some great products if youre in the market for a new chain.

If you’re buying a lock, definitely read the specs.

I bought a kryptonite new york chain last year via the ctw scheme, but didn’t read the specs properly, the lock that arrived is long enough to lock every bike that turns up on an easter Monday club run, and heavy enough that it never gets taken anywhere.

Great lock, but far too long/heavy for my needs.

I can’t stand thieving ****.

I have a kryptonite new york fahgettaboudit lock It worked so well that they cut through the frame instead of the chain.