bike thieves cutting through street bike stands in ED

[emmmab]

Just a quick warning to local bike owners - if you can, make sure you keep your bike inside at night.

Bike thieves have cut through the bike stand on the corner of Landells / Sylvester Road.

They then tried to cover it up with tape, presumably so that they could steal bikes more easily in future. If you do leave your bike locked to one of these stands, make sure it hasn't been cut into then taped up!

Our bikes (both stolen) had pins to prevent anyone taking the wheels and were locked with Kryptonite locks. They cut through one lock, but it seems they couldn't cut the other (thicker) one, so they cut through the bike stand instead.

We have reported it to the police - we just wanted to post on here to try and stop it from happening to anyone else!

[dirac]

That is rubbish, so sorry to hear about your bikes being stolen.

I think I'll be avoiding leaving mine about at the moment, seems there have been a few of these in this area.

Thankyou for the heads up.

[vic.ham]

omg, sorry to hear this ,we have had bikes stolen in the past and apart from the inconvenience(hubby uses his to get to work)that horrible feeling that something you have worked and paid for, has been stolen by some scumbag! Let's hope they get theirs.

Thanks for sharing, I think some people think the bike racks are secure.

[Bony Fido]

If you lock your bike to the garden fence or similar bear in mind that these are often much easier to cut through than the council bike stands - its no good using an expensive locking system whem the item you lock it to is the weakest link.

[emmmab]

Thanks guys! Glad to get the message out - hope no one else has to find out the hard way that those bike racks aren't secure.

it seems like they're operating in the area, there was this report from Camberwell recently too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-35669181

You're definitely right about locking your bike to the garden fence being a bad idea. If you do have to leave them outside, it's probably best to leave them somewhere near a shop that has CCTV, which can act as a deterrent. Ours were on a residential street so they were easy targets.

[sandyman]

emmmab Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Thanks guys! Glad to get the message out - hope no

> one else has to find out the hard way that those

> bike racks aren't secure.

>

> it seems like they're operating in the area, there

> was this report from Camberwell recently too:

> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-356691

> 81

>

> You're definitely right about locking your bike to

> the garden fence being a bad idea. If you do have

> to leave them outside, it's probably best to leave

> them somewhere near a shop that has CCTV, which

> can act as a deterrent. Ours were on a residential

> street so they were easy targets.

Not sure how effective a deterrent CCTV is - my bike was locked up inside Herne Hill station next to ticket machine right in front of CCTV when the bog standard front wheel was removed. All caught on camera.

[emmmab]

Sorry to hear that - guess nowhere is safe!

[Laddy Muck]

Thanks for alerting us, emmmab.

So what the feck do cyclists do now? :(