Where to park

I have a new bike, and I'm going to start cycling to work soon. I'm extremely paranoid about theft, and I've been pondering the question of where I should leave my bike.

My office is by Buckingham Palace and Victoria. I will be using 2 mini D-locks. My options include:

• There's a row of those inverted-U stands just across the street, but I'd have to walk to a window to actually see it.
  
• There are railings in front of buildings that I can see directly from my seat, just by turning my head. But there was a post in another thread warning that some of them are flimsy, and you can simply kick them in.
  
  

My questions:
1) Does anyone have any opinions on which option is better? The "official" inverted-U stands that are out of sight, or the potentially weak house railings that I can keep an eye on most (but not all) of the day?

2) What's the law on locking a bike against railings in front of a building, if there's no "don't chain your bicycle against these railings" signs?

3) Does anyone know how safe this neighborhood is in terms of bike theft?

Thanks y'all.

Id be VERY surprised If any bike theif has got the balls to nick a bike round buckingham palace.

I can't answer any of these questions, but i would say, if your bike is valuable, don't post on here exactly where and how you plan to lock it up.

1) Better the inverted U (Sheffield) stands. Even better than that, ask if there is somewhere inside where you can park - cleaners cupboard, unused office, associated car park.

2) Railings constitute private property and, IIRC, as such the owner/occupier has a legal right to remove any items on or attached to it. Signs are not a legal requirement but are often used to avoid dealing with complaints, criminal damage claims etc.

3) Victoria Street has a lot of people who park up all day and to the best of my knowledge the theft rate isn't too bad against commuters. Check your insurance provisions though. Mostly I wouldn't though.

Id be VERY surprised If any bike theif has got the balls to nick a bike round buckingham palace.

No different to anywhere else. Nobody really pays attention.

take it in and put it under your desk. or ask your boss nicely if you can bring your own special chair.

I can't answer any of these questions, but i would say, if your bike is valuable, don't post on here exactly where and how you plan to lock it up.

Good point Otters. I've modified the OP, just to be safe.

I was looking at your avatar, trying to figure out if it was a seal or an otter. Its neck seems too long to be an otter, but then I realized that it has ears, so it can't be a seal.

I actually think, though, that there are loads of bikes more valuable than mine on the forum. Not just in terms of the monetary value of the bike hardware, but also in terms of the time and effort and care that went into building/customizing/maintaining the bike.

i always lock my bike up at the bottom of st julians farm road in SE24 when i am at work. the lamppost there.

i'd say that was more of a beaver maybe even a slouth than an otter

have you noticed that it blinks too? I love it!

1) Better the inverted U (Sheffield) stands. Even better than that, ask if there is somewhere inside where you can park - cleaners cupboard, unused office, associated car park.

I wish. I'm number 19 on the waiting list for a cycle parking space in the secure underground parking garage, and that list is moving slower than a whore being forced to go to confession.

What infuriates me is that a lot of people who have spaces don't actually use them, and the building managers have no rules in place to take those spaces away and give them to somebody else. I'm also annoyed that the building doesn't put in more bike parking... sacrificing 2 car spaces to make room for 16 bikes seems like a pretty good trade-off.

i always lock my bike up at the bottom of st julians farm road in SE24 when i am at work. the lamppost there.

that's my favourite lamp post too. OTP in fact.

CG, i think we all get the fear at some point or other. Its just worse with new bikes.

I wouldn't ask where was good to lock up, I'd ask what item or object was good to lock up to.
Never know who's watching these threads and if they know a nice bike is in the vicinity then they might come down with some tools.

Just a thought, but then I'm probably just a bit paranoid.

I've got a fahgetaboutit and i literally do forget about it once it's locked up. Not much else you can do.

p.s why don't you just bumrush one of the unused spaces??

i always lock my bike up at the bottom of st julians farm road in SE24 when i am at work. the lamppost there.

but that's in SE27.west norwood/streatham

I wanna know why noone's rinsing the piss out of this like my famous "Fenchurch St Lockdown Fears" thread a while back.

cg5154 I can only presume it's cos you're the new boy in town.

I wish. I'm number 19 on the waiting list for a cycle parking space in the secure underground parking garage, and that list is moving slower than a whore being forced to go to confession.

What infuriates me is that a lot of people who have spaces don't actually use them, and the building managers have no rules in place to take those spaces away and give them to somebody else. I'm also annoyed that the building doesn't put in more bike parking... sacrificing 2 car spaces to make room for 16 bikes seems like a pretty good trade-off.

Find out who has a space and does not use it. Complain and suggest to management a new rule that if you don't use the space for the equivalent* of three** out of four weeks every every month you loose that right to the space.

• In days. Not someone uses the space one day a week for three weeks. Clearly you may change this to 12 day instead of 15 or something else three week is just a idea.
  ** Clearly no applicable if you are on holiday ill / injured.
  

pajamas! where have you been? haven't you read any of cg's threads? They're excellent. If you had you would know that SHE is not the new boy in town.

CG, you should come to South drinks one day. I work in Victoria so we could ride there together. Just PM me. It'd be nice to meet you.

I wanna know why noone's rinsing the piss out of this like my famous "Fenchurch St Lockdown Fears" thread a while back.

cg5154 I can only presume it's cos you're the new boy girl in town.

Reported. :)

And it's because i hadn't seen the thread until now. As i offered to Pajamas, I will stand next to your bike while you're at work for a modest salary. For an extra 40p an hour I will say to anyone passing that they 'Better not try to steal this here bike'.

I wanna know why noone's rinsing the piss out of this like my famous "Fenchurch St Lockdown Fears" thread a while back.

cg5154 I can only presume it's cos you're the new boy in town.

I just read your Fenchurch St thread. You were actually the first to call your own thread dumb, so you can't blame other people for agreeing...

But I'm sure people are being extra nice just cuz I'm the new boy. Check out my uber-manly pink Care Bear avatar.

I work in Westminster - other end of Victoria St, so maybe too far - but might be able to help you out. Shoot me a message if you're interested.

Complain and suggest to management a new rule......

Unless there's a really good reason, management will do sod all that they won't see a return on.

Better option is to get permission to send out a group e-mail to see if anyone is willing to give up their space or only uses it a couple if days a week and doesn't mind it being used the other times.

Also see about contacting LCCs corporate support bod to come and see the building managment. Might help get another parking space converted.

Out of interest, what type of racking to you have at work?

Can't steal somebody's unused space, because the security guards down there know the faces of everybody who has one :-( Goes to show you how few there are.

I've already complained to the Facilities people to suggest that they come up with a rule to revoke unused spaces. They were extremely nice and sympathized with me, and then proceeded to very helpfully inform me that there was nothing they can do.

@ VeeVee... yeah that'd be cool! As I said before... we can terrorize ASL-violating motorists together!

but that's in SE27.west norwood/streatham

shhh! rpm, was trying to fool the bad stealy men.

actually, i lived on that road only a year ago. how quickly i have forgotten my time living sarf of the river - it's not the place, it's the people ;)

Unless there's a really good reason, management will do sod all that they won't see a return on.

Better option is to get permission to send out a group e-mail to see if anyone is willing to give up their space or only uses it a couple if days a week and doesn't mind it being used the other times.

Also see about contacting LCCs corporate support bod to come and see the building managment. Might help get another parking space converted.

Out of interest, what type of racking to you have at work?

Oooh I like that tip about LCC's corporate support bod. Thanks!

The racks here are the ones that look like these. Not great, bu the garage's actually pretty secure. A few months ago I was down there test-riding my colleague's Langster, a security guard saw me go by and came to investigate what was happening because he didn't recognize me.

nice rack, cg5154