Do Nice Bike Get Knicked?

There are quite a few nice places to live within easy striking range of Goldsmiths- no need to live in that desolate hell of theft and mediocre facial hair that is East London

It really is a shit hole.

But being serious a good D lock for the front wheel and a Good D lock for the back wheel and frame. The weight you have to carry around will beaf you up for giving a bike thief a beating.

Little note to add. A few friends of mine live in the Shore(ditch) and Bethnal Green areas (I would rather slash my wrist than do that) and their flats are tiny and the rent is sky high. Find a cheaper larger bike-safe area.

It really is a shit hole.

But trendy.

Don't get an expensive bike new, they sell decent second hand bikes down brick lane market every Sunday and if your living in the east it will be pretty handy for you.

Don't get an expensive bike new, they sell decent second hand bikes down brick lane market every Sunday and if your living in the east it will be pretty handy for you.

I'm going for option b)- a brilliant parody

I find that two D-locks, one Mini Evo and one Fahg are usually enough to ensure that my bike is there when I come back:

I'm going for option b)- a brilliant parody

c) nick one you like.

Despite the hearsay East is not a shit hole. Well no more so than Brixton, Peckham, some parts of Camden and any other area which is home to a large low income population.

However if you have a bike save yourself some money and cycle to college. The east London line is a bitch in the mornings.

do not go to brixton or peckham, ever.

do not go to brixton or peckham, ever.

Just stay in your room. But most of london is a shit hole with thieving scum bags.

at least cars can't try and hit my in my room.

Ok so, so far I've been It's culminated in never leaving my flat and hiring burly men to protect me. Thanks guys.

...
A mate of mine bought a bike, had 2 £100 locks on it, parked in the central bike racks at Chancery Lane, and it was gone in hours. This was within 24 hours of buying it, in broad daylight in the middle of the day...

This is intriguing. Please could you tell us exactly which makes and models these £100 each locks were? The very, very, very best locks are priced from around £40-£70**. **Though these prices are from internet shops, and I do recognise that they are much more expensive if bought in a street based bike shop.

You see, I've heard a similar story before in this forum, and when the details emerged, the truth was a bit different from the initial reports.
Were the locks armoured cable locks perchance?

1] Buy a nice bike

2] Lock it up somewhere east

3] Go to Brick lane to get a beater

4] Purchase a bike remarkably similar to 1

my last thought on this subject. My advice was to buy a beater, rather than splash your cash on a bike that you are nervous about losing. I should have added that I have never done this. If I am riding a bike everyday I want it to be as good as it can be, and spent appropriate amounts of money to make it such. Yes I get the fear when I lock my bike up, but I continue to lock it up, I do not have a sunday best bike, that never gets locked up, because I believe every bike should be my sunday best bike. I hear the horror stories and I see the plaintive posts in the stolen bikes thread and I still go to the cinema and lock my bike up outside expecting it to still be there when I return hours later. My bikes live inside, they don't get left out overnight and touching wood I have never had a bike stolen in london. When I return I will build a new bike, just as expensive as the last and I will ride it and lock it wherever I feel like because otherwise what is the point. Yes I will be busted up if it ever gets stolen, but I will also (hopefully) do exactly the same thing with the bike that would replace it.

ps it should be noted that apart from when they are first built, my bikes never win beauty pageants, they get dirtier and more ragged and more care worn as time goes on. But that is how I like my bikes, they are vehicles to be used, transportation, not show pieces to be constantly cleaned and buffed and shown off rather than ridden.

Ride everyday, lock your bike up wherever, and buy locks which will keep it safe, but be aware that if someone really wants your bike they will take it, despite the locks you use. If you want to get a bob jackson or a mercian then damn what we say and get it, and don't let the fearmongers and doomsayers tell you any different...

^^^
this.

If you go to goldsmiths move south of the river, round new cross gate, nunhead, peckham or so ... that's my tip. It'll be cheaper and nicer to live in than most places in Hackney or Tower Hamlets, also closer to your uni.

And all this talk about Peckham, it isn't much more nasty than Hackney is, and that's where all the hipsters hang out, so there you go.

Get a used OTP like a langster or a filmore when you're here, a decent Kryptonite lock when you leave it outside, don't leave it outside overnight and I doubt you'll have much problems with getting it stolen.

^ yup - live south. if you want to go out in Shoreditch or wherever, it's not far to cycle from Bermondsey/Surrey Quays (it's legal to cycle in the Rotherhithe tunnel... but best not in heavy traffic - safer/quicker to go via LB), and you'll still be close to the East London line if you can't be bothered to cycle to college or east. Proper south-east will get you cheaper/bigger rooms and hills.

Rotherhithe's probably safer in heavy traffic - it's generally going at bike speed. And there's a pavement to cycle on.

Shit bikes get stolen too.

Rotherhithe's probably safer in heavy traffic - it's generally going at bike speed. And there's a pavement to cycle on.

the fumes! the fumes!
plus it's all warm and wierd.

cycling on the pavement there is disconcerting - those (electricity?emergency?) boxes sticking out of the wall i always feel like i'm gonna hit my head on one, even though they obviously aren't that close.

This is intriguing. Please could you tell us exactly which makes and models these £100 each locks were? The very, very, very best locks are priced from around £40-£70**. **Though these prices are from internet shops, and I do recognise that they are much more expensive if bought in a street based bike shop.

You see, I've heard a similar story before in this forum, and when the details emerged, the truth was a bit different from the initial reports.
Were the locks armoured cable locks perchance?

i am pretty sure they were kryptonite locks (which ones i don't remember). He basically went into Evans (probably mistake number one) and when he bought the bike asked for the best locks they had, and thne bought 2 of them. I pointed out that they covered him for theft if they had been compramised but as they stole the locks as well he couldn't claim. The worst thing was he had bought the bike on credit, and was still paying it back 2 years later, so he got a nice little reminder every month as the payments went out. This was about 4 years ago as well, so i can't remember much in the way of details, apart from the underlying message that a nice bike will get stolen no matter what you do, if they want it bad enough!

Or just lock it properly. Having seen how others lock their bikes at goldsmiths you'll be fine.

I would also add, that a hell of a lot of this issue comes down to luck! The average opportunist thief isn't going to get around a couple of good D-Locks, and for the most part these are the kind of piss-ants will be responsible for most of the thefts, but if you are unlucky enough to get it spotted by some better prepared thieves, there really is nothing you can do to stop it. I actually think that if you park up where there are a lot of bikes you are probably MORE likely to get it stolen, especially if it is a nice one, because these are the areas they know will have plenty to choose from.

I know so many people who have had bikes stolen, that i just never take the risk (with a nice bike). Like others have pointed out, get a beater for those risky lock-up situations, or go down the Barclays-Boris-Bike route. I use them now and again, and personally think the whole thing is a great idea. It's kind of nice to embrace the excuse to go for a slow burn now and again, as you certainly don't feel any pressure to be going hell for leather on those things!

Anyway, i don't know many people on bikes in London who have just one!?!