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that really sucks. i live just up the road in stoke newington, so i'll keep on the lookout...

addie [quote]mightyMouse Maybe someone with a bit of gravitas might want to send a message from LFGSS.
It might be some small comfort for his family to know how many people he never knew are sad he's no longer around?

I think that would be a lovely idea. I'm sure that, whilst they might rather not be bombarded by thousands of individuals, a pleasant and honest note on behalf of the hundreds of users here in London, I suspect almost all of whom have variously been aided, if not downright inspired by his encyclopedic knowledge, wisdom, and good humour, might bring a little solace to the family. That way, they might know the scale of his reach and that we are all thinking of him.

Only if one of the moderator types fancy it, of course…[/quote]
+1

no way! what a loss to the cycling community. RIP

i'm really, really sorry to hear that, man...

hello all,

first, i'd like to say i'm completely overwhelmed at the amount of support i have received in the past 48hrs. the number of people who offered their time and/or parts was incredible and already yesterday i was able to cobble together a new ride to get around for the next week or two and by the end of this week i should have a setup that i can use for a few months until i get the money for wheels together. even my friend from back home who built my bicycle up for me is rallying people to the cause, which is totally unexpected and way beyond the call of duty.
to all of you who've helped or offered support or just read this in solidarity, thank you. your support has gotten me through an unbelievably shitty weekend and today i feel as though i can just move on.

which brings me to point 2:
as difficult as it is for some to hear, i do not believe in an eye for an eye. even were i sure that the man in the window was responsible for the damage - and i am by no means sure it was he [when i got a new chain fitted at BLB yesterday, the guy who did it, Adam, told me that the damage to the frame and rear rim is consistent with someone having tried to force the locks off by using the frame itself as a lever against them; the locks themselves were also attacked, but thankfully held up against the onslaught] though i am sure that he is an absolute wanker - i would not pursue violent or direct revenge. however infinitesimal the chances, it is possible that he did frighten away the thieves ...
i could keep guessing all day. the point is, i believe in the rule of law. there are always going to be exceptions in society: those people who think they have more to gain by fucking everyone else over rather than working together with everyone. carrying my broken bicycle over my shoulder through hackney like a wounded friend, i of course doubted whether the moral high ground was the right course. but at the risk of repeating this too many times, everyone's support on here convinced me that it was. by grouping together to help each other when in need we achieve far more than we could if we were constantly at each other's throats trying to gain the upper hand. these ass/arseholes are the exception to the rule, even though they have made their presence felt to too many of us on the forum and outside.
i think roxy's point extremely valid. if we can somehow bring it to the attention of people who can actually make a difference, then we will have done something useful and enacted positive change. and i don't mean my isolated incident: anyone who has had a bicycle stolen or vandalised, anyone who feels threatened leaving a locked bicycle on the streets for any amount of time or riding in traffic amidst cabs and angry drivers.
if we could get the police to actually step up their efforts to take bike theft seriously, maybe to crack down on those who are selling stolen goods (at brick lane and wherever else they/we might know of), but also to make people more aware of the problem of bike theft and to encourage them not to support the thieves, more rights for cyclists, etc...
we need to think exactly how to word it, how to propose a campaign, but i would much rather see more police on brick lane (for example) and fewer bike thefts (or fences for the thieves to sell through) than a rock through this idiot's window.
all this said, i am not around on thursday, i'm going up to the midlands with my girlfriend for a family thing, will be back on monday. so i'm around tonight or tomorrow, or anytime next week. if people are still going to go out this thursday, believe me i am there in spirit.

i rattlecanned my chainset. i'm happy with it but it does chip off where there is contact with other moving parts (ie, the teeth of the chainring are silver from all the rubbing...

nice one, guys

d_c [quote]BringMeMyFix The vigilante crew needs to be careful though. Whoever cut through that Conti probably wouldn't hesitate to stick their blade in your guts :(

+1
It is always better to think about these things than to actually do them, and he does sound like a nasty piece of work.[/quote]
these are my feelings.
i was furious last night, and felt totally powerless to do anything, but it's not worth risking anything. i appreciate the support, but these guys aren't worth it. i've nearly got a temporary setup rolling, soon it's my birthday and hopefully that will get me enough money for a new wheelset. at the police station, the lady copper told me that people get stabbed in brick lane and they can't do anything because no one will come forward to testify. i'd rather this was a warning to people about their bikes, and maybe something will even come of the legal route.

here's my rear rim. i just opened a flickr account, more damage can be seen at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23431536@N06/2237696742/

thanks to those who offered a spare bike [even if it was without their friend's permission :)]
phil (triathlete) loaned me a set of wheels and a saddle, so once i get a chain at least i'll be able to zip around and pick up the necessary bits from those who've offered.
see you tomorrow, hopefully, at the polo

cheers jonny - think you saw me waiting on the church street with my fucked rims this afternoon, i nodded at you

Todd Horrible stuff! There's so much shit going on round there.

The guy in the window might not have done it. I can imagine a lot of people lock their bike's there and he has to sit and listen to thieves trying to wedge/smash bikes off his railings. That's me reasoning. He still sounds a cock.

If thieves can't get your bike they smash it in:
1:Because they're pissed off they can't get it.
2: in the hope you abandon it ('til the morning) so they can get proper tools and have it in the middle of the night.

this is what i thought at first. i honestly don't know who did it. the total outpouring of support on here, though, has cheered me right up. i'm off to make my first round of stops to people who whispered me help/advice, so if you see me carrying or pushing my frame around, give a shout.

hello everyone,

thank you for the massive outpouring of support. having slept a bit, read your comments, and looked at the bike again, i'm feeling better. my friend from home built me deepVs for london "because they're bombproof" and essentially he's right. the front wheel needs truing, but looking at the dents i think they are only cosmetic. the rear rim has a dent where the clincher bit looks almost as though it's folded on itself, but it's isolated to a small area and i'm hoping someone who's handy with pliers can sort it out. amazingly, there is only one spoke broken, though it sure made a hell of a lot of noise for just being the one.
also, my girlfriend, who paid this month's rent for me, said it can wait until i get the bike sorted, so i now have some cash to replace saddle, chain, tyres and tubes.
@sparky, as long as the saddle does the job, i'll take it, we'll figure out where to meet up, just let me know how much you want for it
@nimhbus, i'll happily take the chain, again, just let me know how much
to everyone else, thank you again and be careful.

Hello all,

What follows is an extremely long, but not uninteresting account of a very shitty night out on Brick Lane. If you can't be bothered to read it, but have a desire to help, please skip to the bottom.

Tonight, much against my better judgement, I went to dinner with friends at a curry house on Brick Lane.
As my friends went into the restaurant, I asked the bloke out on the street who was trying to hustle people in to eat where I could leave my bike and he directed me down Woodseer St. There was a street sign with a bike locked to it and just opposite it on the building a basement window with an iron grating. As I was locking my bike up, someone was unlocking his bike from the street sign and this guy who had parked his car next to the pole was giving him shit for locking his bike so close to his car, so I left my bike chained to the basement window grating (the window was covered over with newspaper, so I didn't think anyone would mind) on Woodseer st with my kryptonite chain through the rear wheel and frame and a d-lock through the front wheel and the frame.
After half an hour, I popped up (we were eating downstairs at City Spice) to check on it, everything was fine.
About an hour later, I popped up again to check on it and something wasn't right. The bike was still there, but it was hanging away from the wall, definitely not how I'd left it. As I got closer, I could see that the saddle was missing. The strange thing was that when I got to the bike, the saddle rails were still attached and there was a little piece of foam/gel attached to one of the rails. I checked around on the street and saw my saddle lying next to some trash. I picked it up and ran inside, telling my friends that actually I was going home, someone had fucked with my bike and I didn't feel like going out. I left money for dinner and went out again.
As I was unlocking my bike, I noticed that the bars were bent, too. (At this point, I should explain that I have the purple and blue KHS with the curly seat tube, bullhorns, and black deepVs with conti 4000s - pictures to follow in the morning) They didn't seem damaged, just that the stem had been pushed (quite forcibly) to the side and was no longer aligned with the front wheel. That's when I noticed that the front tire was not just flat, it was completely deflated. I looked more closely and saw that the tire had been sliced clean through with a knife, and so had the rear tire.

That's when the window above where I'd left the bike opened.

"Hey, mate," a man says, "you should have asked permission before locking your bike under my window"

"What?"

"You should have asked permission. You can't just go locking your bike under someone's window."

"Excuse me?"

"Your lucky your bike is still here."

"Did you do this?"

"You should have asked permission"

"But did you do this?"

"I'm just saying, you should have asked"

While this was going on, a few guys who worked in the kitchen either of the restaurant at which I had eaten or one of the neighbouring restaurants walked by, looking both at my bike and the guy who was speaking from the window. Then the guy from earlier, who had given shit to the other cyclist for locking his bike next to his car, came by and echoed similar sentiments to the guy in the window.
I returned to the guy in the window.

"Did you do this?"

No straight answer.

"Did you see it happen?"

Same story. "You should have asked permission" etc etc.

"You knew I was in the restaurant, why didn't you just ask me to move it?" In my shock I was trying to reason with a madman who had quite probably vandalised my bike himself. "It's £40 for the saddle alone" [I hadn't yet seen or understood the extent of the damage]

"Well, you're lucky the bike is still here. This is Brick Lane, my friend"

"And if I call the cops?"

"Then I will press charges against you for disturbing the peace" [No joke, he seriously said this to me.]

Finally, I gave up talking to him. Some dodgy looking characters were milling about and I didn't know what the situation was. I'm new to London and I was pretty shaken up. In fact, I'm still in shock, shaking with anger as I type this.

I unlocked my bike completely and noticed that the rims had not gone untouched. They had tried to kick the wheels in and several spokes were bent or broken. In two places my deepVs were bent, both front and rear. I noticed when I got home that the chain is bent and there is a dent in the (aero) downtube, as well as a few other dents that didn't use to be there. I went to the bloke outside the restaurant who had told me I could lock the bike there. All of his previous friendliness was gone. "No, I said you could park there [on the pole] not there [against the grating]." The vibe was getting really unfriendly and I still didn't know what to do. I walked north up Brick Lane, hoping to find some cops to see if there was anything I could do. I'm still not sure whether that guy in the window and the guys from the kitchen vandalised my bike themselves, or whether they just looked on as it happened. I don't know whether someone tried to wrench the bike off the grating and then, frustrated by the two locks, just had a go at beating the shit out of it, whether it was motivated by jealousy or anger or hooliganism. I just know that I feel as though I myself had been attacked.

I walked all the way up Brick Lane without seeing any police, then walked past Brick Lane Bikes, which was completely closed and deserted and decided to see if anyone was in at Fixed Gear London, if I could even remember which warehouse it was in (I'd only been once for the MASH preview). Before I got there, though, I got fed up with my frustration and just called 999. I spoke to someone who told me that I shouldn't have called 999, but who was very helpful nonetheless. He took all the details down, then directed me to go to Bethnal Green Police Station to make a formal statement. So I turned around and walked down Bethnal Green Road with my bike on my shoulder. I stayed 40 minutes, giving all the details all over again to an extremely friendly and helpful woman, but I know that nothing will come of it.
Maybe they will send someone to speak to the guy in the window, she said, but I could tell that even she was sceptical as she said it. They might review the CCTV footage, if there is any [I can't remember if there was a camera there]. Her best advice was "just don't go to Brick Lane". With that, I picked up my bike on my shoulder and walked the 3+ miles home, shaking with anger and frustration.

I suppose I'm lucky that the bike didn't get stolen outright and many of the parts are salvageable, but I really feel violated. I'm out of a job at the moment, looking for work, and I was considering trying to get a job as a courier for a few months just to get some cash coming in. But now my bike is fucked and I'm no mechanic. I imagine that the rims can be bent back into shape and I know that several people on here build wheels. I'm hoping I just need a few new spokes and some serious truing, but I don't really have the money right now to take the bike into a shop.

Here's where I need help: do you think a shop (BLB perhaps?) would give me a free reckoning of all the damage done and possibly an estimate of how much it would be to fix? (One of my concerns is not being able to spot an area that has been damaged and only discovering it when the bike disintegrates under me while riding it - not likely, I know, but I really am not very good with repairs) Or do you think if I bring it along to polo someone might be willing to have a look at it and let me know what needs doing? (And who might be willing to do it for beer?) Finally, does anyone have a cheap saddle that I could buy off them?

If you've read this far, thanks for taking the time. Please be careful with your bikes, especially at Brick Lane. And don't eat at City Spice, I'm sure that a few of those guys knew what was going down. Certainly the bloke outside could have told me not to leave my bike where I'd left it or could have come down to tell me to move it. But people don't really give a shit about a bike, I guess.

FUCK YEAH! i got downstairs and much to my disappointment, no post. then, as i turned my back, i heard the sound of the postie trying to stuff a shitty pink hat in a big envelope through our tiny mail slot. it is so ugly and excellent.

i'm going to check my post RIGHT NOW. if that hat is there, it will make my day.

i'm happy to go this week and next (unless it's far more expensive than i realise), but i'm also happy to wait until next week. i'll just do lots of pull ups in anticipation. (since cycling took over as my main activity, my upper body strength has gone to shit)

@hippy - that was me with you and tommy right at the end.
@tommy - the bus ID was EVL47, just in case it's worth making a complaint. aside from the minor blip of a mad bus driver trying to run us off the road, twice, then stopping and getting out to fight as we just rode away, it was a brilliant night.
and @willksi - i got splashed with some beer, but it was the guy behind me who got the full pint.

richmond park was amazing, thanks to all who made it out, it was great to finally meet some people.
my name's philip, i had the purple and blue (taped up) KHS with the curvy seat tube. hope to see everyone again soon on another ride.

you got me

1. mashton
   
2. Tommy (beginner)
   
3. Momentum
   
4. Scrapper (beginner)
   
5. lucky
   
6. Sol (maybe)
   
7. andyf
   
8. Hutch
   
9. Pepperoni
   
10. velocipede
    
11. flip (beginner)
    
    

i went once in sheffield in december on a real rock. i was wearing converse and couldn't get higher than 6ft off the ground. i'd really like to learn, but think i'd better start on a climbing wall...

cheers, anthony, will have a look at it when it stops raining, as there's no space to work in my flat. how are you finding that ratio?

hi, just wondering, has anyone picked it up yet or is the wheel still hanging about?
cheers

a parakeet flew out my fireplace (the estate agents assured us it was blocked up and merely ornamental) on new year's day. pretty fcking weird. but auspicious. london is full of them.

lovely fix outside TATE modern this evening, liberty badge, curly seat tube, crazy top tube, yellow rims and red tires. i really liked your setup - only one suggestion: put a second lock on that! maybe the TATE is safe, but i don't trust anywhere in london unless it's for less than ten minutes.

thanks very much. i think i'll just try to find a cheap track cog and see what i can do with that, but i'm intrigued by ChrisNW's suggestion. cheers.

the surly fixxer thread's got me thinking about the frame that has been sitting out on my balcony ever since i ran out of funds. it's an 80s peugeot roadbike that i found in a cousin's garage. i want to fix it up for polo or just messing around and don't want to spend any money on it.
is there a way to turn the existing cassette and hub into a suicide hub, or do i need to buy a track cog and rotafix that on? [incidentally, i used to ride with those guys when i lived in milan, and i think it's brilliant that they've coined the term. i didn't know about it until 5 minutes ago]