Journalism and Cycling 2: the difficult second album

tomasrojo

MojoMaker wrote: »

Interested in what you use? Have been lucky enough to always be able to bring a bike inside with me or park it at fairly private locations in the suburbs and thus never had to really think about expensive bike security. Have a few decent locks for a motorcycle, made somewhat easy by underseat storage of course - a 5kg chain is no issue when it's being transported as part of the bike etc.

What's the best pound-for-pound solution for bike security in relatively unsecured locations?

I have three rather different bikes, but two are niche, so for the touring bike that is my most general-purpose bike I have:
Fahgettaboudit mini u-lock
Kryptolok 955 mini chain
Axa Defender frame lock

Usually lock the top tube to the Sheffield stand so the locks are both far away from the ground. Rear wheel immobilised by the Axa if they do manage to defeat the two locks. It doesn't take long to do secure the bike this way.

I'd probably be ok with just the mini u-lock and leave out the mini chain, but I can combine the two if I have to lock to a lamp post or something like that, and the Fahgettaboudit is hard to defeat with bolt cutters, and chain locks are supposed to be harder to angle grind, because they move around more.

Front wheel has a Pitlock security skewer, and I have hexlox/pitlock pit-stoppers securing various bits, but that's not to do with the bike being stolen, per se. The Axa Defender is useful for securing kid's bikes with a plug-in chain too, but again that's got relatively little to do with stopping my bike itself being stolen.

tomasrojo

That's over 4kg of locks combined though, I think. I don't notice it because I'm usually carrying a fair bit anyway and the weight isn't all in one place, but there are probably better solutions if weight is a concern.

This site has a lot of options:
https://thebestbikelock.com/

tomasrojo

Looking back over the last few posts, I might have come across a bit overbearing, so sorry about that.

Tombo2001

tomasrojo wrote: »

Looking back over the last few posts, I might have come across a bit overbearing, so sorry about that.

Not at all, I was far worse.

Is the AXA wheel lock actually attached to the bike.

I remember years ago I spent a summer in holland - the only bike locks they used were those ones, so you would see bikes everywhere just leaning against walls, not attached to anything.

Tombo2001

magicbastarder wrote: »

i think this is outside the remit/expertise/capability of DCC, to be fair.

A couple of things -

Why is it outside their remit? If not, whose remit is it.

Right now, there are 8000 bikes for sale on Adverts. Of these, 3000 are priced above €250.

Its very easy to find bike sellers in all parts of Dublin who are (i) selling multiple bikes over long periods of time and (ii) not buying any bikes.

How do they do this? Whose job is it to ask questions about it? If the Gardai dont do anything about it, what then?

Adverts and DoneDeal were pressured into taking dog sales off their website recently, for a good reason.


(ii)whatever about the bike locks - this bull of only 1 in 4 cyclists knowing their serial number. This makes a miniscule difference, so small as to be irrelevant, wrt potentially retrieving a stolen bike.

Devils advocate - if the serial number is so important - why is it that if you buy a new bike, the serial number isnt noted at time of purchase.

tomasrojo

Tombo2001 wrote: »

Is the AXA wheel lock actually attached to the bike.

I remember years ago I spent a summer in holland - the only bike locks they used were those ones, so you would see bikes everywhere just leaning against walls, not attached to anything.

Yeah, that's the one. I bought a bakfiets and I got to like the frame lock so I got one for the tourer. Apart from immobilising therear wheel, if you mount it inside the rear triangle it also makes it quite hard to remove the wheel even if you detach the frame lock from the frame (depends on how hard you've make it to lift the rear of the bike off the ground, and how far apart the dropouts are).

It's not much of a lock on its own but it's a convenient way to secure the rear wheel and immobilise the bike, and it's convenient if you're stopping for just a minute and going somewhere where you can still see the bike.

The plug-in chains you can get for frame locks are handy too, and let you secure the bike to something immoveable, but, again, it's all silver-rated security, so I wouldn't personally rely solely on it.

Tombo2001

Incidentally - I've insured two bikes. Anyone else doing this?

magicbastarder

Tombo2001 wrote: »

A couple of things -

Why is it outside their remit? If not, whose remit is it.

what i think you're asking about is an investigation into criminal activity. not about the *levels* of the crime, but about the way the crime is operated or arranged. i think most people who are involved in DCC are not the investigative types.

tomasrojo

I think the only handy thing about noting the serial number is that if a stolen bike is picked up they can match it to someone who's filed the paperwork straight away. Rather than trawling though descriptions or pictures of bikes, which, if I had to guess, they're not going to go to much trouble to do. But I assume they can do a simple search for a specific sequence of numbers very easily.

AndrewJRenko

Macy0161 wrote: »

I've been arguing for a cage too, but I still think it should have sheffield stands within it. Cage with wheel stands will still mean personally I'll be compromising on the bike I'll use rather than my preferred.

I think the toaster racks aren't great for your wheels. I was going through spokes on a fairly regular basis when using a toaster rack.

AndrewJRenko

Tombo2001 wrote: »

A couple of things -

Why is it outside their remit? If not, whose remit is it.

Right now, there are 8000 bikes for sale on Adverts. Of these, 3000 are priced above €250.

Its very easy to find bike sellers in all parts of Dublin who are (i) selling multiple bikes over long periods of time and (ii) not buying any bikes.

How do they do this? Whose job is it to ask questions about it? If the Gardai dont do anything about it, what then?

Adverts and DoneDeal were pressured into taking dog sales off their website recently, for a good reason.


(ii)whatever about the bike locks - this bull of only 1 in 4 cyclists knowing their serial number. This makes a miniscule difference, so small as to be irrelevant, wrt potentially retrieving a stolen bike.

Devils advocate - if the serial number is so important - why is it that if you buy a new bike, the serial number isnt noted at time of purchase.

You're onto something here re Adverts and DoneDeal. Two positive moves would have a huge impact on restricting sales of stolen property:

1) Require all sellers of more than x bikes per year to register with photo id, that can be made available to the Gardai as required. X = 3 or 5 maybe?
2) Require that all bike ads include the bike serial number in text form and in photo form. The text form would allow owners of stolen bikes to set up alerts very easily. The photo form could be matched to the text form, and checked when purchasing.

07Lapierre

I had a bike stolen last year. The theft was recorded on CCTV. So I went to the local Garda Station and reported it. I then rang a few days letter to confirm the Gardai had reviewed the CCTV footage. They had and unfortunately they did not recognize the individual. At that point I thought that was that. I had given them a detailed description of my bike and I also had a recent photo, which I sent to them.

A bout 6 weeks later, a youg lad walked into the Garda station ( the very station that I had reported my bike stolen) and not wanting to have “his” bike stolen, brought the bike INTO the Garda station!

As luck would have it, the Garda on the desk was on the ball and recognized my bike (and also realized that the bike was clearly too big for him). When he questioned the lad, it was clear he not aware that he had a full carbon race bike!

The Garda took possession of the bike and the young lad was done for possession of stolen goods!

When the Gardai called me, I was able to give them the serial number, tell them the Brand of wheels, tyres and saddle on the bike.

In short, knowing the serial number helps and you should always record it and hold onto it.

I'd say he got some drop when that happened

07Lapierre

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd say he got some drop when that happened

I don’t know.. he probably robbed another one on the way home!

magicbastarder

07Lapierre wrote: »

In short, knowing the serial number helps and you should always record it and hold onto it.

amd as one of the gardai who gave a presentation to a dublin cycling campaign meeting advised - take a photo of you standing beside your bike; just on the offchance the scrote claims it's theirs, this can help cut the legs out from under such a claim.

zell12

London councillor shares her cycling experience on social media and the cops respond
Would that happen here?

zell12

Cyclists urged to report all collisions to gardaí

“The biased nature of cyclist collision reporting has clear implications for policy makers and road safety researchers, who generally rely on police data to determine road safety priorities,” they said.
“The information in respect of all collisions involving cyclists would be useful in establishing trends or identifying hazards.
“An Garda Síochána encourage all road users to report collisions. Mechanisms are in place for the recording of all collisions irrespective of road type user or injury/damage.”

Steoller

zell12 wrote: »

Cyclists urged to report all collisions to gardaí

Do...Do they want people to start reporting when they fall off their bike?

breezy1985

So they just want us to boost the data so that motorists can feel better about themselves

magicbastarder

i wonder if they ran that one past the rank and file? given experiences reported here of near misses, i wonder if the correct course of action would now be to report to garda HQ if the local station are disinterested.

Seth Brundle

More detail on that research...
Research Tries to Pin Down What Causes Cyclists’ Collisions

Wildly Boaring

Seth Brundle wrote: »

More detail on that research...
Research Tries to Pin Down What Causes Cyclists’ Collisions

So the whole thing is just based off some lad's thesis for his PHD?

CramCycle

According to their findings, single-cyclist collisions were the least likely type of collision to be reported to the Gardaí. Cyclist collisions with vehicles are 20 times more likely to be reported.

Can you imagine turning up to a station after a minor single person accident.
What happened? I was in an accident.
Who else was involved? No one.
And what do you want us to do about it? Well nothing now that I say it out loud, if it was my fault, only I can fix that, if it was infrastructures fault, I should notify the council.

I would expect to be either told to fup off or get done for wasting Garda time.

Stark

Don't even think you'd report most motor vehicle collisions to the Gardaí, most would just involve insurance company.

cletus

Stark wrote: »

Don't even think you'd report most motor vehicle collisions to the Gardaí, most would just involve insurance company.

Gardai don't want to know. I've reported motor accidents twice, and both times the only response was "did you get his insurance details?"

As far as that Gardai are concerned, it's a civil, not a criminal, matter

Tombo2001

I reported a close pass last year and never heard back.

Got the impression when I went into the station that they had no clue what I was talking about, when I said dangerous overtake.

I was out cycling with my young daughter last week in Glasnevin. One of these 50k limit roads in a built up city centre area that local councillors voted against moving to 30k, just outside the Botanic Gardens. Car behind me starts beeping continously for us to move in, and then when overtaking, stops the car so he can shout at me about how I cant go in the middle of the road (which I wasnt, I was in the middle of the lane).

The really mad thing about was that he had a daughter of his own in the back seat watching all this, and yet saw no issue with beeping and shouting at a child.

And then took off to the traffic lights 40 yards away, where we passed him out.

Got the reg, could I be bothered reporting him......

The thing is obviously - 99% of drivers are not like this, but you do tend to remember the ones that are.....

Weepsie

Cars are forever cutting the corner at botanic gardens so even if are in the bike lane they're coming far too close. Always take the lane.

I'd report that and play up the shouting at you and daughter.

CramCycle

Tombo2001 wrote: »

I reported a close pass last year and never heard back.

Got the impression when I went into the station that they had no clue what I was talking about, when I said dangerous overtake.

I was out cycling with my young daughter last week in Glasnevin. One of these 50k limit roads in a built up city centre area that local councillors voted against moving to 30k, just outside the Botanic Gardens. Car behind me starts beeping continously for us to move in, and then when overtaking, stops the car so he can shout at me about how I cant go in the middle of the road (which I wasnt, I was in the middle of the lane).

The really mad thing about was that he had a daughter of his own in the back seat watching all this, and yet saw no issue with beeping and shouting at a child.

And then took off to the traffic lights 40 yards away, where we passed him out.

Got the reg, could I be bothered reporting him......

The thing is obviously - 99% of drivers are not like this, but you do tend to remember the ones that are.....

Covered under non fatal offences against the person act 1997. Section 2, Section 7, Section 10, section 13. Dependent on which Garda as to which Section they go under. Most of them are €1500 or 12 months imprisonment or both.

You shouldn't have to tell the Garda what the issue is but maybe it might make it easier.

p15574

OK, (very!) different extremes, but I think maybe the guard's inherent lack of interest in pursuing anything against motorists is something like the difference in the U.S. police's treatment of the Capitol invaders vs BLM protestors. The invaders were 'one of us' to a lot of the Capitol cops, whereas their opinion of black protestors is akin to a lot of guards opinions of cyclists, albeit on different scales.

Tombo2001

p15574 wrote: »

OK, (very!) different extremes, but I think maybe the guard's inherent lack of interest in pursuing anything against motorists is something like the difference in the U.S. police's treatment of the Capitol invaders vs BLM protestors. The invaders were 'one of us' to a lot of the Capitol cops, whereas their opinion of black protestors is akin to a lot of guards opinions of cyclists, albeit on different scales.

To that end, I would really like to see more Gardai out on bikes, when doing their daily rounds.

(i) in the 'current climate', I'm bemused as to why the gardai still drive about in 2s and 3s with no masks on.
(ii) you see way more from a bike than from a car
(iii) bikes are arguably more versatile, they can do more things.