Cyclists be careful

[Rockets]

All, this happened recently on College Road. Be careful, people are targeting bikes:

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/police-officer-attacked-mopeds-bikejacking-incident-b1239794.html?s=09

[Ruskin]

Truly horrific. Being passive or fighting back is what many of us think about by violent theft. 

[labman]

Exactly the same thing happened to me a few years back; they were after my Brompton. Luckily there were only 3 of them so I managed to get away and got a woman to call the police, then they backed off, but not after having hit me in the back of the head first. Police said next time just give them what they want, but I sure as hell wasn't just going to hand over my bike to them!

[Dulwichway]

Sadly, the price we now all pay for becoming a soft apologetic society.

[bonaome]

Yes, because of course there were no violent robberies in the olden days. Pretty much no crime happened at all I believe through the entire Victorian era.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

16 minutes ago, bonaome said:

 Pretty much no crime happened at all I believe through the entire Victorian era.

That's actually why the Sherlock Holmes stories were so popular. There was so little crime people found it exciting to imagine robberies and murders happening in London.

[Dulwichway]

56 minutes ago, bonaome said:

Yes, because of course there were no violent robberies in the olden days. Pretty much no crime happened at all I believe through the entire Victorian era.

Yes, absolutely! in comparison to now, you are 100% correct!

[malumbu]

A pretty awful incident.  Thankfully from my time in London fairly rare.  There was a time, particularly in North London in the 00s when moped gangs would come up behind cyclists and grab their bags.  There were also scare stories about riders being pushed off at the top of the hill and the bike grabbed, or cyclists being pushed into a canal such as the Grand Union.  I think these were very exaggerated.

In recent times, cyclists, in particularly women, have been mugged, on cycle routes when other riders are not around, such as Deptford/Millwall  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm27x5klxxlo

But I expect that crimes involving threats/violence by criminals against cyclists are less likely than in other areas of life.  Mobile phone theft being one of the obvious examples.  I was told many years ago following a burglary that criminals would rather not have any contact with their victims, and bike theft would sound to be less risky to them by stealing locked up bikes (far too common) rather than attacking the rider.  The spate of thefts from builders vans in broad daylight knocks this a little on the head, as the criminals are often confronted.

@Rockets as a regular cyclist in the past did you experience threats etc?  My worse experiences were being knocked off by dangerous drivers, once being left for dead in a hit and run, and road rage where drivers chased me or threatened me after they had passed to close, turned across me etc.  You learn from this and do your best to avoid such conflict.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, malumbu said:

A pretty awful incident. 

 

So it wasn't recent then....................................

[beansprout]

I no longer feel safe walking in ED on two feet with health issues….sad really but that is the reality - safer riding a bike around- doubt it - might be faster but  at the end of the day,  be it walking or cycling, if one shouted as in need, say 11 ish - how many people would open their door and help?  

We are talking 2025…..
 

[Sue]

37 minutes ago, beansprout said:

I no longer feel safe walking in ED on two feet with health issues….sad really but that is the reality - safer riding a bike around- doubt it - might be faster but  at the end of the day,  be it walking or cycling, if one shouted as in need, say 11 ish - how many people would open their door and help?  

We are talking 2025…..
 

I'm sure many people would look to see if someone needed help, and if so would do something about it, and at least phone the police if necessary if they didn't feel confident helping directly.

At least I hope so.

I'm sorry you don't feel safe, but surely ED isn't any less safe than most places. It's hardly a hotbed of crime, it's just that people don't post on here if nothing has happened!

On 26/07/2025 at 22:10, bonaome said:

Yes, because of course there were no violent robberies in the olden days. Pretty much no crime happened at all I believe through the entire Victorian era.

And before that, there were no highwaymen,  or any murders at all ....

On 26/07/2025 at 21:32, Dulwichway said:

Sadly, the price we now all pay for becoming a soft apologetic society.

In what way exactly have we become "a soft apologetic society", whatever that means?