Ways not to lock your bike

look closely at what its locked to...

Ha^

Just back from Cologne. All the bikes were badly locked if at all. If only...

What on earth do you do if you see stuff like that weigh? Its obvious it WILL get pinched. Surely the best thing to do would be to 'borrow' it and leave a note.

I always assume bikes like that are half inched in the first place. At best a low priced Gumtree purchase. If you've researched and bought a bike like that at a fair price you have to have a basic knowledge of locks surely?

Or stolen bike bought by idiots that will get stolen again eventually (due to the bike locking skills of the new owner )?

I felt like i should do something, but i didn't know what

Some one just said to me... "I would have picked it up and turned it upside down. Just so the owner DEFINITELY realized how stupid he was. haha."

wish i thought of that!

spotted on poland street a basket chained to a lampost

bike gone

http://247bigtime.com/2012/03/08/hip-lock/

What an idiot, really nice bike as well

Incredible. Seriously incredible.

^^ Hahaha

"This resident of Jersey is using their own safe locking system".

Just scared off some lad who was trying to nick bikes outside Canonbury station. I think he was trying to nick a front wheel; saw him loitering as I went past, stopped, saw him duck down and I yelled "Hey". He looked up, saw me and rode off. I hung around for 10 minutes in case he came back. Which he will, no doubt, later. So if you leave a bike around there, lock both wheels.

Just scared off some lad who was trying to nick bikes outside Canonbury station. I think he was trying to nick a front wheel; saw him loitering as I went past, stopped, saw him duck down and I yelled "Hey". He looked up, saw me and rode off. I hung around for 10 minutes in case he came back. Which he will, no doubt, later. So if you leave a bike around there, lock both wheels.

I work just opposite the station and always see the same kid riding bikes way too big for him. And by bikes I mean 2 or 3 different bikes a week.

I guess he's still to find the perfect fit. Poor lad.

Just heard at work some one had there front wheel stolen of an old steel racer, they cut through the chain and fork! carried bolt cutters but not a spanner?

Just herd at work

Are you a shepherd?

/pedantmode

There's a lampost in Poland Street with a bike front basket padlocked to it. Must have been a bit of a Homer Simpson Doh! moment when they came back to find the bike gone.

Was in york last week and I had to resist the urge to rent a van and fill it with the hundreds of unlocked bikes around the place.

Seriously never seen so many, I guess daan saaf and in daneland they don't bother locking much as it just gets nicked, and then buy again the next week. But in the north, I think its more a case of .... bikes just don't get openly nicked so often.

Where I live I happily leave hack bike outside a shop while I mosey on inside, wouldn't leave a mega bucks bike or any form of MTB (kids don't want racers, not even carbon ones), but cheaper stuff + racers are fine, and if they do go missing, you'll normally know where to look.

Someone had their DH rig nicked from the woods whilst they were building trails, they'd left bike upto 1km away from where they were working (its normal practise round here), and of course on this occasion went missing. Que a massive internet search around the whole area, ebay, gumtree, forums the lot. But nope, 3days later the nearest bike shop guy rang up the guy and it was delivered back. Some wandering dope fiend had picked it up and sold it to the bike shop fella for £20. Bike shop fella compelled to do so otherwise dope fiend without his daily hit was a bit edgy + £20 for a guaranteed high value bike return is a no brainer. Score.

Only losses we have is when manchester/liverpool lot come up and follow people home from trails/ take on local info on where the high value stuff lives as there are pretty regular targeted attacks now on sheds/houses in the summer months.

Locked up my beater/conversion outside ARU in Cambridge and noticed that only one of the bikes on the rack I was locking to was locked out of about eight.
There were literally no locks in sight, not even cut cables sat on the floor, looked like there were some pretty expensive components on one particular old Raleigh frame so I waited around to see if an owner turned up but of course no one did.
Almost locked it up myself so it didn't get taken but that's never taken too kindly!

^ I used to live in York and there was an amount of freelocking going on, especially around the uni. Maybe it's got worse since I left about a year ago.

My girlfriend now lives in Oxford and the majority of bikes there are freelocked or just not locked at all - some stunningly nice ones too; I saw a 1950s French town bike just leaning against a wall, all day, untouched. Presumably these are the same cyclists who ride without lights and don't indicate or shoulder-check, but inexplicably wear a helmet (I once sat on Magdalen Bridge and counted the cyclists without a pair of working lights - more than half of them).

Mind you, any bike left unlocked/freelocked/cable-locked in Oxford overnight will get stolen.

^ It's the same in Cambridge too, no?

It used to seem alright, although now I pay more attention to where I lock up, I notice more and more unlocked bikes dotted around.

I went past about an hour later and all of the bikes in question were gone, no idea whether they were taken by the owners though.

Cambridge = Oxford on so many levels.

I guess at night, tealeafs just drive around with an empty van and fill it?