A-fucking-gain

[juliet]

My bike got nicked again last night. That's, what, the third time in 9 months? Something like that. From the front lobby of St P, this time. GrrRRRRR.

Islington police are crap & don't answer their phone; but the Halifax have accepted the claim happily anyway (will phone the police again this evening). Since I am still in disagreement with the Halifax over the *last* claim[0], this time I am borrowing Pete's bike until the Halifax's bike-sorting-out company get a replacement to me. Still have the excess, though. Bah.

In happier news: now have Pixies tickets for the 4th June, hurrah. And Amazon delivered my exciting knitting books today. Which is nice.

[0] A matter of their not telling me that getting a cash settlement would mean that I wound up £45 out of pocket, due to the cash settlement being for the cost of replacing the thing through their supplier, & the cost of the new bike to me being through a regular bike shop & therefore more.

Comments

Re:

[juliet]

Behind the big front door, but not behind the second glass door (because kitty_goth & bootpunk's neighbours apparently object to bikes inside the inner lobby. We're assuming that someone left the front door open & the kids who hang around by the door got in. Kitty reckoned they might have climbed the wall, but I think that's less likely. Once I get another bike, I shall be carting it up the stairs & leaving it in the damn flat in future (as I currently do at home, except with fewer stairs).

Locks: 30quid D-lock, by Abus Plus. I could fork out another 30 quid for a stronger one, but ultimately you can't get anything that a nice solid pair of bolt-cutters won't go through (& it should take a nice solid pair of bolt-cutters to go through the one I have). On this occasion it was only locked to itself (owing as how it was *inside a locked front door*), so I assume they carried it off elsewhere to apply the lock-breaking equipment. Didn't see any bits of lock or similar lying around (nor did we when it got nicked from the back garden).

I think bikes are probably more susceptible to theft than motorbikes: it's possible to carry them off to work on the lock elsewhere, you don't have the ignition thing to worry about, & they're much less identifiable once you've got them away.

Re:

[wintrmute.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yeah, bikes really do need to be locked to something, kind of like scooters. (As you said, because you can just carry them off or chuck them in the back of a van, and then use heavy power tools to remove the lock at your leisure later)

Bit late now, but would it be possible to get a hefty chain, and attach that to something, so you can attach the bike to something unmoveable?
(I'm assuming there's no posts for a D-lock, or you would have used it anyway)

I need to alter my insurance for my bike, because I moved house. But I'm scared it's going to cost a lot, because before I had my bike parked off road in the back yard, but now its on the street. :/

Re:

[juliet]

Normally I would never leave it just locked to itself (if I was leaving it on the street or whatever); I'd always find some nice railings/lamppost/whatever. But I foolishly thought that a locked door would do the trick :-/

I thought about the chain option a couple of months ago (since the bike visits St P on a weekly basis :-) ), but there's nothing really to attach it to. And also, you can't actually get any terribly heavy chain at DIY stores etc (to be able to buy it, you have to be able to cut a bit off, so...). Or not that I saw when I looked, anyway. Carrying it up the stairs it is...

Do they ask about where you keep it? Pedal cycle insurance works rather differently, I think - mine's insured wherever I leave it (it's even insured, as far as I can see, if it's not locked. Blimey).

Re:

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

It might be something for bootpunk to bring up at a residents' association meeting? If the other residents are so dead against bikes being put in the inner lobby, perhaps they'd be prepared to chip in for a bike-rack or lockable store? They're not that expensive.