Stolen Bikes - Broadway market

You're wrong, it is about locks. Very few thieves go around with angle-grinders. You need to use decent d-locks.

True. I actually have a fuck-off ABUS chain, which according to their tests can stand 7mins of attack. I'd still worry if I locked up somewhere quiet and secluded, but generally if you lock somewhere fairly visible nobody is gonna roll up with an angle-grinder. On the quiet and secluded note though - my mate got his Vespa nicked with a similar but slightly better lock on it. So they will use grinders if they think the prize is worth it and it is dark enough. Fuckers.

most bike thieves use pocket sized bolties according to a donald maccintyre docco i saw a while ago. IMO D locks are the way to got or big fuck off chains

Napalm Brick Lane.

Great band.

True. I actually have a fuck-off ABUS chain, which according to their tests can stand 7mins of attack. I'd still worry if I locked up somewhere quiet and secluded, but generally if you lock somewhere fairly visible nobody is gonna roll up with an angle-grinder. On the quiet and secluded note though - my mate got his Vespa nicked with a similar but slightly better lock on it. So they will use grinders if they think the prize is worth it and it is dark enough. Fuckers.

It is a Vespa after all, a motorised bike that cost a couple grands, they're worth decent money 2nd hand, they don't exactly go through that trouble for a bike that they usually sell for £150-250 (the average price of a stolen bicycles, even if one cost £800).

a vespa doesn't cost a couple grand definetly not if its stolen. a mate/collegue of mine had his ped robbed from Bway market, but the police found it, also on a different occasion, he noticed a little kid trying to run down the road with it. when caught the kid who must have been about 12 asked if it was for sale

i stumbled across a den in sydenham hill woods with my kids today. it was quite an impressive structure. perfect for drinking too much pop, having burping competitions and force feeding slugs to bike thieves etc...

Funny that you say that, my mate was telling me yesterday how he built that thing in those woods. The parky let them keep it there as well.

guys you must have your bikes tagged, and whilst this is not a total deterent, would ensure the bike is returned, because the data chip keeps your records.. either that or get your bike tattooed
reading

'ride it like you stole fool - cos i will find you'

peace

i don't think that the police are too bothered either to TBH. I complained to a policeman once about the bike and parts theft in hackney and they said why didn't I buy a cheaper bike :(

Thats typical of the police attitude. Get mugged for your phone or iPod and its the same old "if you don't wanna get mugged don't work hard and earn money so you can have nice things".

I blame Thatcher.

I blame Robert Peel.

You have to use *at least two *locks when locking anywhere in London.
One of those locks must be a fucking solid d-lock. My second lock is a big Abus wrap around thing. No way a thieving piece of shit will get through both of those with a small hand tool.

Its a faff carrying 2 fuck-off locks where ever you go, but if you want to keep your bike, there is no other way. Other than that, don't ever leave your bike out of sight. Not even for a second.

London is full of thieving scum bags. That is a sad fact.

I agree with The Crane. You don't want to be running after some fuck head into one of the estates for someone elses bike.

| blame the |mm|grants

You have to use *at least two *locks when locking anywhere in London.

I'd rather rely on one really good lock, meself (I have an Almax chain/CISA lock and have just got a Krypto M18 for the times when I really can't be arsed to carry the Almax). The time to break two cheap locks is a lot shorter than that to break one really hardnut one, and the Steel-o-Flexen no longer seem to qualify as hardnut (mine was very neatly snipped a while back).

London is full of thieving scum bags. That is a sad fact.

Not Liverpool then?

liverpool is full of little ginger, stanley knife holding, funny talking cunts ;)

How about putting a bike together out of general parts that looks good enough to be attractive, then painting the frame with that "anti-climb" paint that never dries?

I've had to climb over walls and gates coated with that stuff (don't ask) and it is a b*stard to get out of clothes and off your hands.

It would make it obvious who was trying to thieve the bike.

Great band.

yeah they are, they also had a a track called "SCUM", quite relevant to this thread (and one of the best grind tracks ever).

Meh, the negativity about east london gets dull. I live just by broadway mkt, never had a problem myself, though I can see why thieves would target it.

The people running the mkt are very keen to keep tealeaves away - when they see known pickpockets, they walk up and down ringing a bell saying 'watch your stuff' until the thief gets cold feet and leaves. I imagine if someone had shouted 'thief' at someone nicking a bicycle, quite a few people would have come up and made a fuss. At the very least, you don't want half of London knowing what you look like if you're a thief.

I have to say that it was pretty wet of whoever was in the vicinity not to do anything about it, if they noticed, though. I've challenged a couple of people about fiddling with people's components (ooer missus) and generally they scarper. Though tbh I've only done it when there's a few people around in the street, I wouldn't pick a one-on-one with a guy with a power saw.

think crane is right, if it's nicked it's gonna be cheaper than that... there's all sorts of things like logbooks, registration, road tax, serial numbers and stuff. if you've stolen a scooter you can't really just wander down to brick lane and sell it - to sell it second hand might be tricky without any paperwork. i'm no expert, but surely if a scooter is reported stolen to the police it would be a bad idea for the thief to just stick up an ad?

i guess they are probably gonna offload it onto someone who has the means to either sell it "legitimately" or strip it down for parts. either way i doubt it's going to sell at the legit retail value...

Meh, the negativity about east london gets dull. .

the negativity of getting your bike stolen in east London gets dull..

It is a Vespa after all, a motorised bike that cost a couple grands, they're worth decent money 2nd hand, they don't exactly go through that trouble for a bike that they usually sell for £150-250 (the average price of a stolen bicycles, even if one cost £800).

think crane is right, if it's nicked it's gonna be cheaper than that... there's all sorts of things like logbooks, registration, road tax, serial numbers and stuff. if you've stolen a scooter you can't really just wander down to brick lane and sell it - to sell it second hand might be tricky without any paperwork. i'm no expert, but surely if a scooter is reported stolen to the police it would be a bad idea for the thief to just stick up an ad?

i guess they are probably gonna offload it onto someone who has the means to either sell it "legitimately" or strip it down for parts. either way i doubt it's going to sell at the legit retail value...

Motorbikes (and scooters particularly) are pretty easy to work on and get crashed a lot, so the market for second-hand parts is pretty buoyant. Really commonly-needed stuff like sportsbike fairings, levers and light units generally stabilises in price a bit below what a new pattern-part replacement would cost, which can be surprisingly much. It'd be worth stealing a lot of scooters/motorbikes just for the readily-removed and non-serialised plastic bits :-(

the negativity of getting your bike stolen in east London gets dull..

I think there's selection bias here, though. The theft rate is probably higher than other parts of London, yeah, but because so many people on these boards hang out in east London, it seems that much greater - to the extent that people think you're automatically going to get your bike stolen around here. I'm not so sure. Although in fairness I'd only ever ride a beater to the pub, perhaps if I was locking one of my decent bikes outside the Prince George or some such I would have had a problem by now.

I think there's selection bias here, though. The theft rate is probably higher than other parts of London, yeah, but because so many people on these boards hang out in east London, it seems that much greater - to the extent that people think you're automatically going to get your bike stolen around here. I'm not so sure. Although in fairness I'd only ever ride a beater to the pub, perhaps if I was locking one of my decent bikes outside the Prince George or some such I would have had a problem by now.

I'm not picking on east London don't worry..i love it! There is bike theft in all parts of London. But it is particularly high or seems high. I can't prove that though just from hearing who's got there ride pinched. If there are more bikes locked up your going to get more thefts in that area. But I really enjoy east London but I just wish my bike felt safer there! Most of the thefts do sound like bad locking/lock skills too..apart from the real unlucky ones.

I've had to climb over walls and gates coated with that stuff (don't ask) and it is a b*stard to get out of clothes and off your hands.

Did you break into Greenwich Park at 3am as well?