I got my Brompton 4 months ago and have been afraid to lock it up outside, so anywhere where I can't take it with me I've walked to. A few days ago I thought I ought to get some good locks and then I'd probably be ok. So your post fills me with fear!
Might I ask how long it was locked up for? What locks were you using? How did they steal it (cutting the locks, or the thing it was locked to?)...
I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get bike insurance, have you got yours with your house insurance, or from a specialist bike company? How much did it cost? Can you recommend anyone?
Well, it _is_ a pretty scummy area there. It was locked for at most one hour. An Abus cable lock, fairly solid. I infer they cut the lock; the m/c stand I had locked to was not damaged. I got mine with my Nationwide house insurance and since they are paying up even though I have not been resident at the insured house for six months, I would recommend them very definitely. They also don't need to know a bunch of odd details like the original purchase price of the insured bike (the CTC do).
I note that Nationwide charge extra for bike insurance, where the Lloyds include it for two bikes up to 500 quid each as standard. We've switched to Lloyds cos they're cheaper for more cover, but have no experience of claiming from them.
Further; I usually carry 2 cable locks because the SON front wheel on my tourer is unusually pinchable. I might switch to a cable and a D - each kind of lock demands a different kind of tool, so a thief would have to be unusually well equipped...
What kind of D lock was it exactly? I just got the best Abus one H Drakes had, it is rated for 15 minutes (and cost 65 pounds). I also got a 30 pound cable lock.
I'm intending to replace the cable lock with a Kryptonite Faghettaboutit (http://www.kryptonitelock.com/inetisscripts/abtinetis.exe/PublicArticleDetails@public?artid=3037&atf=products_item&pgrp=20) which AFAIK is the best one of it's kind you can get.
It was not any kind of D-lock - I was just saying I might start using one of each type. It was a cable lock - the Abus Millennio 894 appears to be the same lock.
I almost never leave the Brompton outside anywhere - I think that's the answer.
I think two locks is a good idea. That Kryptonite lock was recommended a lot on the sites I looked at. It is very heavy though, so you have to either just use it for the one place you cycle to (e.g. I go swimming a lot) or be prepared to carry it around with you.
At one of the car parks in Cambridge is a 'secure bike park' area (with CCTV etc). It has these big upside down U shaped things that go into concrete. You lock your bike to the U. Yesterday I saw what I can only assume meant someone left an expensive bike locked up properly to one of these Us. The Us are bolted (with very long) bolts into the concrete rather than being sunken in somehow. Someone must have brought some very tall jack. They'd jacked the U out of the ground rather than break the locks!
I think if you have a really good D lock and a chain lock and you're leaving it somewhere public during the day you're fine, but other than that it comes in with me :-)
Indeed, but my taxes paid for that car park space to be converted into a secluded place to put determined effort into stealing a bike, as well as for the CCTV to not prevent it.
Honestly I think the council or the people who own the car park (who may be the same or almost the same) did a fairly good job. The whole place looks pretty secure, and at the end of the day maybe they would have used some other means to just cut the U in half or something had they gone even further.
It is a bit of an obvious flaw that the Us are bolted into the ground rather than being sunk into the concrete itself. Would it have made much of a difference if they had been? Maybe, I'm not an engineer so I don't know (I expect so). OTOH maybe the concrete already existed at that point and the council thought that spending more on smashing it up / closing that entrance to the swimming pool was not a good trade off of your tax money given that the level of security is already 'high' (relatively speaking).
Do I sound like a council apologist? I feel kinda sorry for them, at the end of the day if you leave your bike in a place where thieves can come and do stuff to it for 10 minutes it's going to get stolen no matter what you do. I feel it provides a high level of security during the day but it's not a good place to leave it overnight.
In fact I don't think it's safe to leave your bike anywhere overnight in cambridge. I've seen lots of bikes locked up adequately but with the wheels terribly bent. I can only assume some people think it's fun to break tires. Probably from the group of people that come out of bars and clubs late at night.
There's more than one "secure" bike park then, I was thinking of the one in Park Street car park. The concrete did exist already, the space was converted out of the vehicle parking, so cutting a hole in it to embed a piece of metal could be difficult (and damage the reinforcing in the concrete). I remain unimpressed that the "secure" bike park still allows people to come in with heavy equipment and work with it awhile and get away with it. That ain't secure.
Aha. This is not the specially made secure bike park. This is a car park next to the swimming baths at Gonville place. It's a 'secure cycle park' area.
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I got my Brompton 4 months ago and have been afraid to lock it up outside, so anywhere where I can't take it with me I've walked to. A few days ago I thought I ought to get some good locks and then I'd probably be ok. So your post fills me with fear!
Might I ask how long it was locked up for? What locks were you using? How did they steal it (cutting the locks, or the thing it was locked to?)...
I'm thinking it would be a good idea to get bike insurance, have you got yours with your house insurance, or from a specialist bike company? How much did it cost? Can you recommend anyone?
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I'm intending to replace the cable lock with a Kryptonite Faghettaboutit (http://www.kryptonitelock.com/inetisscripts/abtinetis.exe/PublicArticleDetails@public?artid=3037&atf=products_item&pgrp=20) which AFAIK is the best one of it's kind you can get.
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I almost never leave the Brompton outside anywhere - I think that's the answer.
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I think two locks is a good idea. That Kryptonite lock was recommended a lot on the sites I looked at. It is very heavy though, so you have to either just use it for the one place you cycle to (e.g. I go swimming a lot) or be prepared to carry it around with you.
At one of the car parks in Cambridge is a 'secure bike park' area (with CCTV etc). It has these big upside down U shaped things that go into concrete. You lock your bike to the U. Yesterday I saw what I can only assume meant someone left an expensive bike locked up properly to one of these Us. The Us are bolted (with very long) bolts into the concrete rather than being sunken in somehow. Someone must have brought some very tall jack. They'd jacked the U out of the ground rather than break the locks!
I think if you have a really good D lock and a chain lock and you're leaving it somewhere public during the day you're fine, but other than that it comes in with me :-)
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*spit*
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It is a bit of an obvious flaw that the Us are bolted into the ground rather than being sunk into the concrete itself. Would it have made much of a difference if they had been? Maybe, I'm not an engineer so I don't know (I expect so). OTOH maybe the concrete already existed at that point and the council thought that spending more on smashing it up / closing that entrance to the swimming pool was not a good trade off of your tax money given that the level of security is already 'high' (relatively speaking).
Do I sound like a council apologist? I feel kinda sorry for them, at the end of the day if you leave your bike in a place where thieves can come and do stuff to it for 10 minutes it's going to get stolen no matter what you do. I feel it provides a high level of security during the day but it's not a good place to leave it overnight.
In fact I don't think it's safe to leave your bike anywhere overnight in cambridge. I've seen lots of bikes locked up adequately but with the wheels terribly bent. I can only assume some people think it's fun to break tires. Probably from the group of people that come out of bars and clubs late at night.
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I remain unimpressed that the "secure" bike park still allows people to come in with heavy equipment and work with it awhile and get away with it. That ain't secure.
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