HELP! Girlfriends bike got stolen.got stolen :(

Awesome news! A small donation to the forum would be a good thank you gesture - link in the top-left menu box under 'LFGSS' option > 'Donate to costs'

Wow. She owns her first bike for less than 24 hours.
Second one arrives within 48.
People can be good.

Amazing story!

But, decathlon bike + decathlon lock, right outside the flagship store? Seriously have a word with them, I know the exact lock your talking about, used to work at another store up north and we used to sell a lot of those flex locks.

problem is they look 'hard' enough and about £20 is the sort of budget people will spend on a cheaper bike, but the lock is utter garbage.

The store I worked at we had someone with a £380 bike stolen on day 3 or 4 of ownership with that lock, the guy made enough fuss he got a new bike exactly same as the old one out of it.

At our store we 'had' to have that lock on display to be sold, but then we just put another display over the top of all the bad locks so that it was not really possible to buy them, and when asked we always recommended a d lock or another store to buy a real lock.

Only lock worth a look at decathlon.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/u-mini-bike-d-lock-yellow-id_8203082.html

confirms that there really are some good people on here imo

Its just amazing how well people have responded on here, I would definitely do as many others have recommended and have a word with decathlon. Good luck and hope you get some rides together.

I don't know if it has ever been done but it might be a good idea to do a survey of those who have had bikes stolen or parts of bike stolen to see what form of locks were used and how the bikes were locked. Although I never lock my bikes here in rural France I have just bought my daughter a very nice bike for use in London. I would hate for it to be stolen.

When I am touring I do use the abus u mini lock mentioned above which I consider to be very good value but HEAVY.

Gotta be a Kryptonite for my insurance and it only counts if I use both the D-lock and the wire. Previously I had an Oxford Sentinel which stood up to a pretty concerted attempt on my bike without being broken.

I think that would be an excellent data gathering exercise.

In fact, this data would be of value to the manufacturers and could raise much-needed cash for LFGSS.

LFGSS could also think about giving "stars" that come from their results. It would sort the wheat from the chaff.

I think I'll donate to this site as well for this amazing gesture :)

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that's very decent of you

Amy was given a bike today by a very very kind member of this forum.

Name and acclaim, please.

I have always found the LFGSS forum to be full of good folk, it seems a love of bikes is enough to bring thousands of random folk from London and further afield together.
I love the fact that the internet can help real people like this, keep up the good work people.

Donation to the site on the way. Donator wishes to be anon and i will respect his wishes. Weve been out on so many rides since and had little picnics in many london parks. Its not just about the bike, its about those days where you can get out in the sun. :) Weve bought a kryptonite fagetaboutit yellow nyc lock and a orange kryptonite evo mini with rope. Plus insurance. And got it stamped by police and took lots of photos of it. Fingers crossed and touch wood we dont ever have to go through that again.

@edscoble used to ask this question a lot(s) on the stolen bikes thread. Though(t) people got pissed off when asked which gave me the inclination that most of the thefts occur when people use cheap locks and poor locking technique.

Reps to the anonymous donator. There are indeed some wonderful people on this forum.

In case new people weren't aware, there is a 'Locks that work' thread: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/144109/

Used to be regularly updated. Perhaps no longer.