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Yemble
@karolk
Thanks for asking. It all started on a sunday morning in january outside rich mix on bethnal green road. The saddle came from classifieds on here, and I usually had bike chain links securing it to the frame but I'd removed them temporarily. Not sure they would've helped. I left the bike for an hour and the saddle was gone when I came back. The rich mix staff were very nice & offered to help go through cctv, but then realised brick lane market had started 50m away. I went straight there and boom, my saddle was on the first table.
"Morning lads! Whose saddle is this?". They were defensive & said some guy had just sold it to them for a tenner, which I believe. I told them it was mine and I was taking it, which they accepted reluctantly. Then I went too far by having a go at them for being part of this shitty system and got my phone out to take a photo. Stupid mistake, they got aggressive and I was lucky to get out of there with my saddle, phone and face intact.
Fast forward exactly a year - super busy sunday afternoon on columbia road where I locked my bike for 45 mins. This time I had a crap cable lock on the saddle. Easily snipped, saddle gone. Again I go straight to brick lane market but it's the end of the day & most stalls are packed up. Managed to go through one bin of brooks saddles as it was being loaded into a van, but no luck finding mine.
The whole thing is pretty sad, especially seeing how many kids get caught up in the market. I think there are also a bunch of vulnerable people whose main source of income is nicking saddles on sundays off bougie dickheads in shoreditch. I made peace with my situation and bought a new one on sale from spa cycles. I've gone with ball bearing + wax in the bolts. Hopefully no thieves watching.
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