Armstrong’s Bike Stolen – Prevent Bike Theft

Along with bad weather, potholes and saftey issues bike crime has to be one of the greatest deterents for the growth of cycling here in the UK. There is nothing more disheartening than leaving work ready to cycle home only to find that a dirty purse snatcher has chopped your lock and nicked your wheels. 


None of us like carrying expensive locks that weigh us down, and on a cold London morning, having to fiddle about with numb thumbs while wrapping a chain round a lamppost that has a part time career as a dogs toilet is no fun. But what choice do we have? Cycle theft is a low risk high reward crime, most people wont bother a thief as they cut a lock, the police will not go out looking for stolen bikes, and you can sell a stolen bike quickly for cash on any London street. 

Stolen-bike

But its not just the the lowly commuter that suffers from a plauge of cycle crime that is sweeping Europe. Even the great seven-time Tour champion Lance Armstrong has come back after a day at work to find one of his high end rides 'lifted' from his team van. Did he have it double locked? Was his post code written in invisble ink on the frame? Is the bike now for sale on Gumtree?

As far as I'm aware Mr Armstrong's bike along with two others have no appeared for resale online but the great one did announced the bike theft on his Twitter account Sunday morning and posted a photograph. 

"There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered," the Texan wrote before going out and finishing fifth in Sunday's testing first stage won by Spain's 

Whether Lance's bike will turn up on Gumtree or Ebay remains to be seen, but perhaps the high profile theft of a high profile bike will make the powers that be more aware of the problems with bike theft here in the UK. Meanwhile we should all work together to try and curb this evil. 
  • Don't buy stolen bikes. 
  • Make sure your bike is locked up. 
  • If you see someone steeling a bike dont do nothing. Tell a policeperson/man/woman. 
  • Always lock to a fixed, immovable object like a parking meter or permanent bike rack 
  • Lock in a visible and well-lit area. 
  • Don’t lock in the same location all the time. A thief may notice the pattern and target your bike. 
  • Always check your lock before leaving your bike to be sure you have secured it properly. 
  • Pimp your ride. A distictive bike will stand out like a sore thumb resold online. 
If you have been unlucky enough to have a bike stolen or see a suspicious looking set of wheel online check out Stolen Bike London.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 18:37 and is filed under Cycling in London. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed or trackback from your own site. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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