New to this forum, but thought I ought to relate my experience from Sunday night in the hope of saving someone else’s bike - and catching these thieving scroats.
I live in West London, between Westfield and Notting Hill. At just after midnight on Sunday I was woken by a loud single cylinder supermoto/dirtbike. Funny, I thought, there isn’t usually one of those around here. I then heard another bike start up. Sounded a bit like my DRZ400, which I’d only just bought a month or so back and not yet ridden much. Then I heard a god almighty two stroke wail and angle grinding noise. Sounded like a petrol grinder going at full tilt. Thought about it for a while, and decided it needed a look.
Looked out the window and there was a shower of sparks coming from where my bike was chained to a fence… with three locks. One an Abus city 0.7m chain through the back wheel. One a 1.0m Almax Series III attached through the frame with an Abus D-lock (the D-lock was a bit of a weak point which I was still trying to improve on), and one an Oxford cable lock through the front wheel. All kept under a cover.
I shouted at the top of my lungs from my window, two floors up, “get the fk away from my bike you thievin c*s”. Response - the one on the bicycle sitting in the middle of the road just looked up at me. The one on the black supermoto bike didn’t move, and the guy with the grinder just continued to go full tilt at my locks. I was thinking ‘what can I grab to go down and go after them with’, and there wasn’t much in the house. Girlfriend passed me the phone with the police on the line, and I hastily relayed details of what was happening.
As I was on the phone I saw the guy move from the back lock to the front cable lock. I didn’t know if they’d cut the Almax chain/D-lock through the frame at this point, but assumed they had. My bike was already started and running, ready to ride away. I was freaking, thinking I’m going to be standing here watching my bike go. Then something went wrong with the saw while they were trying to cut the cable lock. They were both looking at the saw and the lock, and seemed unsure what to do.
Within about 2 minutes the police arrived, and the two guys left, still holding the petrol cut off saw, on the black supermoto. They were chased, and we saw a helicopter go after them as well. Unfortunately they got away after the police car lost sight of them crossing the Harrow Road, and the helicopter couldn’t pick them up.
Anyone who thinks an Almax chain is enough these days is wrong. These guys had no concern over making a shed load of racket with a petrol cut off saw. Surprisingly it took them nearly 3 minutes to cut the Abus city chain off the back wheel. Largely this was because it was so tight and difficult to get to, so they ended up having to cut most of the way through the lock body; twice in fact, the first attempt not working too well.
I don’t know what happened on the Oxford cable lock, either the disc broke, or got gummed up or something. But they only got a third of the way through it. They hadn’t started on the Almax, but would only have needed to cut through the Abus D-lock. However, it was between the bike and the fence, was a tight fit, and I’m not sure they would have been able to get the saw to it.
My bike is now parked elsewhere.
The bike they rode off on was a virtually all black supermoto style. It may have been a DRZ400SM or possibly a KTM. It had a shortened, but high (motocross style mounted at the top of the forks/under the triple clamps) front mudguard. This mudguard had three distinctive green wavy stripes, sort of like green flames, but not joined. It was also bloody loud. That’s about all I could see of it. If anyone sees a similar bike please take a note of the reg and PM it to me so that I can pass it on to the police. The three bright green stripes on the shortened front mudguard seemed quite distinctive, particularly on a virtually all black supermoto.
As far as locking your bike: lock it so the chain is as inaccessible as possible. If that means rolling around on the floor and twisting your hand up behind the frame, then do it. If it is hard for you to get to your lock it is hard for them to get a saw to it. If you’re locking it to a lampost, they will have easy access to your chain from the side. With the saw these guys were using, and their complete lack of concern, they would be through even the thickest chain in minutes. The more locks the better.
I should also note that we saw a white van driving around the area shortly after, but couldn’t catch the reg on that either. I suspect if the bike was alarmed or immobilised it would have gone in the van. Probably also where the saw came from, after all it does look a bit suspicious two blokes riding around on a supermoto carrying a whopping great petrol cut-off saw.
As far as what to do, if it happens to your bike next - if you’ve got a baseball bat, and your game enough, then take a few swings for me. However, I suspect they would be quite prepared to use the saw against a person, if the need arose. So bear that in mind. Also there were at least three of them, no doubt armed with a knife or two.
What I wish I’d done: thrown a glass bottle full of petrol at the bugger with the saw. Shower of sparks and a whole splash of petrol. Might have lost my bike, but would have been worth it! … until I ended up serving 2-3 for manslaughter or GBH. A better thought: find a way of throwing some oil at them (not necessarily boiling). If you can get it on the saw it will slow them down considerably, and if you can get it on the wheels of the get away bike they should be off at the first corner. If I still had my bike parked in the same place I would have about 10-20 small balloons filled with oil to hand ready for throwing.
Hope this story helps save someone else’s bike. And if anyone does see the black supermoto with the green stripes on the mudguard, let me know… and beware your bike.
