Ways not to lock your bike

6pm edgeware road.. tempting.

In Manchester a mate of mine stopped at the lights, and a 12 year old stepped over his top tube, and started pushing him off the back yelling 'fuck off!'.

My mate stepped off the back. Then thought 'hang on. Thats my bike'.

Yeah, I was in a rush to get home, I'm not 12 but do look quite young if clean shaven.

This thread makes me love Auckland. That lock on the look would be deemed overkill here.

So i saw this guy getting his long ass chain lock out, one of those 1.5m oxford chains i think, the dude spends ages carefully wrapping it around, i walk past and hes wrapped it around a quick release seat post... :/

I did this today. Spot the error, Luckily I was in a posh part of town patrolled by rent-a-cops.

^ Where is this? I reckon I can get there today and nab the one on the left before the owners come back.

You know those tiny little wall mounted racks which can only lock your front wheel, not even any part of the frame? Well, I was in Soho the other day and they were my only option - not even an unused lamp post in sight...

You might call it antisocial or you might say I was preventing others from having their bikes nicked.

I'd call it absolutely fair enough. Those racks are utter garbage.

So close to being acceptable!

I'm not sure Creates are ever acceptable.

bad locking isn't surprising from an owner of a create

^ Where is this? I reckon I can get there today and nab the one on the left before the owners come back.

Here, in Los Angeles.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3688/9571486725_d99a0bd019_o.jpg

We were inside looking at great tits, courtesy of the dearly deceased Helmut Newton. Upon leaving, we were ticked off for locking our bikes there (far right in the above pic). Apparently they should have been booked into the underground parking garage, out of sight of all the Canary Wharf types sat out in the sun sipping Chardonnay. Rent-a-cops were actually very nice, and clearly couldn't tell an unlocked frameset from a secured one...

when i was about 12 a kid i went to school with genuinely got bike jacked for his BMX

When I was growing up it was inevitable, you could only ride your bike on your street during the part of the day with onlooking neighbours.. otherwise you WOULD get your bike taken off you with force, you could even run into problems in front on your street if not super careful.

People were poorer then and bikes had much more perceived value, no one wants to steal a bike now when you can get a brand new BSO with disc brakes and FS for £70 (thieves never knew the difference) and everyone walks around with a smartphone worth several hundred.

Where was that?

Was in Birmingham in the 90's

most people used to shy away from getting their kids bikes because it would make them a target for some jacking. These were just basic bikes, even when we were riding 16" wheeled BMX's those too would get stolen if not extremely cautious about where you rode and who with. A unfavourably memorable event in my family was when a Raleigh MTB we had won in a competition was taken off my brother (when in a group of friends) just next to our primary school which was on the same street we lived on.

Getting your bike robbed when poor is such a phenomonally gutting event. For the young kids it is usually something their family saved up for, and when I was 15- I had a BMX robbed which was paid for with saved busfares of about 60p per day, and then customised with overpriced parts from LBS. It felt so fucking awful.

Things like robberies of bike shops (or even halfords) was also common then.

I think your talk like it never happens anymore is wrong. Spend some time watching gangs of kids in deprived areas where they think they aren't being watched (this sounds more creepy than I mean it to!). My recent experiences are taking my 9 year old to a skate park in st helier and time spent watching the kids from the estate near where we play polo.

You watch long enough you will see a big kid extorting something from a smaller kid... More often little toys, but bigger things still get taken. And the emotional loss of a bike to a poor kid is still the same.

Edit: I make it sound like it only happens in poor places, but I just think it's more noticeable in poorer places, basically kids are shits if they aren't looked after and taught right from wrong. Rich kids just the same.

locking your bike in japan http://www.alivenotdead.com/etchy/This-is-called-locking-your-bicycle-in-Japan--profile-1023157.html

Edit: I make it sound like it only happens in poor places, but I just think it's more noticeable in poorer places, basically kids are shits if they aren't looked after and taught right from wrong. Rich kids just the same.

I grew up in a fairly middle class bit of North London, and for a few years there was a kid who'd just demand stuff off smaller kids, including my skateboard. His parents would just deny he did it, and that he bought it himself, or that it was his older (adopted) brother who took it oh but its gone now.

They moved away before we hit our teens. Can't imagine what that kid has grown up to be like.

A right cunt, I imagine.

I'm not that bad.

I went for a job interview near the Shard and saw this beauty.

You can spot the tail end of my Pashley Pronto in the picture too.

Front wheel with QR is safe... Not the rest of the bike...

These two...

What not to lock your bike to, international croatian edition (feat. Chung)

^ Fuck! All three of them got nicked?