Bike stolen from EC1 today

i totally agree with the above comment but the trouble with ten year old bikes it they have seen better days no matter how well they have been looked after plus keeping it covered in dirt only help to rust and corrode the bike.

so clearly the bike market is in need of a security system that can prevent bikes being lifted into vans when not ancored

Seems as if one of our members has already picked up on this tactic - almost like you may have seen it before Mechanic…sorry Sneaky couldn’t resist!!!

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I understand what you’re saying but it’s not always that simple. Before the GSXR I had a Hornet 600 for 6 years and 70k miles, by the time it went ‘bang’ I was bored stiff with it, having ridden it every day for 6 years. I needed something to re-ignite my love of biking and the GSXR seemed like just the thing. For the first 6 months I didn’t commute on it and only took it out on the occasional weekend, which resulted in me having no confidence in my abilty to ride it whatsoever, so I thought I’d give it a go with commuting.

After a week I was grinning again, it might not be the best commuter, but there’s nothing better than a daily commute to get you accustomed to a bike. After that my ‘toy’ had turned into a commuter, I couldn’t bare to use public transport when I had that sitting at home. I’d sooner ride a bike every day no matter what the weather was like and learn how to ride it properly, than only use it once the sun came out and be wobbling around with no confidence in my ability to ride it. I want a bike not just for commuting but for touring during summer, and I want a bike that thrills me.

Unfortunately you are right though, having a decent bike in London is just asking for trouble, and more people seem to realise this this. Went for lunch yesterday and passed at least 6 bike bays, only counted 3 sports bikes in all of them plus 2 Street Triples. That’s 3 big money targets for the thieves and 2 medium (bodywork-wise). The vast majority of other bikes were old commuters and scooters.

But what happens if we all ride 10 year old hacks into work? Will the thieves think ‘Sod this’ and retire from a life of crime? Doubtful, more likely that they’ll carry on thieving bikes but will have to steal 3 times as many to make the same money. With everyone riding 10 year old hacks, there’ll be more scrapes and accidents involving 10 year old hacks so the demand for 2nd hand parts will increase (isn’t that how it works at the moment with sports bikes?).

Sorry if I’m rambling, I’ve had a beer or two tonight to get over the fact that for the first time in months I’ve got the whole weekend to myself, and I’m going to spend it filling in insurance forms and copying documents instead of getting out and riding. I’m finding it hard to get my head around the police closing the case the day after the bike was stolen, even though there was CCTV cams nearby. Is it any wonder that so many bikes get stolen in London when the police have absolutely no interest in catching the thieves?

Hmmm, someone is not doing their job properly. Initial Investigation standards require the officer who was assigned your crime to consider if there was CCTV, they should have gone out and visited the location.

It’s entirely possible however that someone wrote the crime off… not really acceptable… you need to complain… Ask to see a copy of the decision log!

I’m guessing that the index of the van was not visible. Based on your description it sounds like the scene was some distance from the camera.

When a blue Peugeot hatchback reversed into my motorcycle spilling the fuel all over the road, the fire brigade were more helpful than the police in mopping up the fuel spill.

A number of witnesses saw the blue Peugeot driver, who incidentally, came out of a charity shop after donating some of her old junk, and then knocked my bike over and fled. It was all captured on CCTV; however road traffic infractions not involving death/injury don’t interest the police.

You have to attend a police station to get a CAD number (crime reference), and the police won’t investigate the CCTV; they leave that for private law (“your insurer and their’s can have a chinwag” is how they put it).

I learnt then, that my expectations for the Metropolitan police were too high. I thought somehow they were going to help.

That’s what you get from growing up in the tail end of the Starsky and Hutch era :slight_smile:

With respect your example is entirely different. It’s a case of accidental damage following negligence on the part of another driver it is a civil matter… the fact that she failed to stop is a criminal matter and the MPS should have pursued for that, but there’s a defence in that she may well claim that she did not know she had knocked your bike over. Her insurers would need to meet the cost of her negligence, did that not happen? The Police also don’t do fuel spills…

This is a case of THEFT, which is a criminal matter and all ‘crimes’ should be investigated in some way… in the event that there’s no evidence, witness etc then they will be written off… if there’s CCTV of a White Van arriving and leaving then someone needs to check the other camera’s on the Farringdon Rd to see it it’s possible to ID it. The

I hear what you’re saying Jonny.

All the witnesses say that the blue Peugeot hatchback driver fled at top speed and they could barely read the number plate disappearing in time. The police refused to even think about looking at the CCTV and said it was a private matter. The witnesses who saw it, all said to the police that it looked like she had purposefully fled; the motorcycle alarm was screeching and she shot off - hardly ‘accidental’ by all the accounts. I didn’t actually witness it - I wasn’t there, so i found out from the witnesses.

Then she should have been done for driving without due care and attention, and causing an accident, and then fleeing the scene. But no - the police said that no one was injured.

Maybe the police have different criteria? I’m bewildered. The more I read about others, the more it seems, the less the police do, or at least, they absolve themselves from such responsibilities of law-keeping, citing that civil law, or traffic law, is not criminal law. Yet, the police invariably seem to give more traffic speeding fines/penalties than catch criminals… it’s perplexing. I’m not sure I see any logic or order in what the police do. Maybe they should have an open day so that numpties like me can find out what to expect, and what is within the remit of a police officer, so that I don’t go around with false expectations, that the police are there to help :frowning:

Yeah - it’s theft. Or is it unmerited gain? The banks and politicians have enough of the latter with bailouts and private expenses for garden pools and duck ponds and 2nd homes.

Well I should stop thinking. The boundaries are blurring for me. Justice isn’t an easy concept to see in practice anymore ;(

I phoned Holborn Police on Wednesday to ask if they’d looked at any CCTV and was told no.

I was told by them that they weren’t allowed to view more than 15 minutes of recording from private CCYV and 2 hours from Council. The reason given was value for money and the blame was levelled at the government. I assume that this is their reason for not looking into the CCTV (despite assuring me that they would).

I was told that I’d have to find a way of viewing the CCTV and, if anything useful was found, get a recording of it to them with an explanation of exactly where on the recording the crime occured, and they would re-open the case.

Unfortunately the CCTV overwrites itself every week and the CCTV technician at the private company was having problems recording. He said he’s have to do it later in the day but still hasn’t got back to me.

Oi! What you trying to say? :crying: That Bike is at the cutting edge of automotive engineering!:angry:

:smiley:

Well I guess at least they were up front about it. I hope you manage to get a copy of the footage, but having identified it I guess you also now know the time at which the crime took place… on that basis I’d say it’s their job to get it and any other content related to your loss.

True, but assuming:

(1) there will always be fools who ride their 2010 GSXR / Blade / Ducati into work and
(2) your bike won’t be noticeable next to that
(3) people will always steal bikes

…it wont get stolen. That’s the concept. Make it so that when somebody looks at a bike bay, and decides to steal one bike, that one is never yours. Ergo you’ll never have your bike stolen. People will always steal nice bikes.

As far as spares etc. go… take for example the complete unavailability of Honda NTVs in London (because they were all ridden into the ground by couriers). That’s only London though. Yesterday in Germany I saw some examples with < 5000 miles on them in showroom condition. It’s just a matter of where you get your bits from.

To commute in London that’s just what I’d get – another NTV. It’s good on petrol, it lasts forever, and nobody would ever steal it. If you wanted excitement, buy an old 929 Blade from a stunter who put a dent in the tank and dropped it a “few” times, nobody will touch that either… and you could practise scraping your 12 o clock bar between traffic lights :wink:

The police in Britain is a disgrace. I’ll give them that they are mostly polite and courteous but when it comes to solving crimes they are useless c*nts and everybody knows it. That’s why thieves act with total impunity… they know police are useless, too. And don’t get me started on them shooting Brazilians on the tube. (Not that I’m against shooting Brazilians in general, but that was an outrage.)

very very sad day when we cant ride a bike we like because it will get stolen.

maybe councils could do something really new and amazing like Camden and provide anchor bars to lock your bike to…no that would be too forward thinking.

I have lost all faith in the police in the UK, and so did most people hence why they say crime rate is going lower, no not really, just fewer people bother to report something they know won’t get chased up… so why wait hours in line to report it? The police in UK sees 2 3 4 10 people fighting and they go and say "sorry sir, you are not allowed to do that2 in the US they pull the gun out and say on the floor, then find out who did what. An yes the USA has lower crime rate than UK…
And YES this has been explained before, that they don’t have the power to do anything about it and they are just as frustrated as the rest of us, the MPS is GOD and they also know the law and if a case has low chance of winning in a court they will not follow it up as it costs too much money.

I was in the car when someone hit me then drove off, the police did not investigate it as no one was injured, the person got away with it too… with number plate and all. The police said sorry not interested, no one was injured (IT DOES NOT MATTER if they fled the scene, there is no dangerous driving)
We went to court and for some reason our insurance lawyer was an idiot, shared all our information with the opposition but nothing back with us, so we got hit with stupid questions we had no idea about, questions that made no sense, questions about the area, I said I saw them hit the car and they asked me how could I see that if I was inside, and obviously I wasn’t good enough since the 2 people witnesses were related… they didn’t even visit the place of the accident, just used our photos.

So what should I have done? Scream my ass off say I have whiplash call an ambulance etc etc… and get the police interested. I remember someone on here said no matter how small the accident is ALWAYS, ALWAYS call an ambulance and the police. And also, if you are EVER involved in a car accident RUN!!! There is nothing they can do about it… and if you are unwilling to accept liability it is quite hard to prove otherwise. Of course you will have to pay for your damages, if you didn’t get damaged… even better.

And that’s what the English Justice System has though me… sad sad sad…

About the bikes we ride, yeah I see more and more older banged up bikes these days than new ones. The riders are still fast as hell since you don’t need a bike that can do 200mph to filter and make good progress in London. I found out that most of the time I am right up someone’s arse if they are on a new powerful machine, I tend to catch them up in traffic or at lights, yes they can pull off at light speed but what is the point. Most of these new machines don’t filter well since their turning angle is as wide as a car, no way they can do a zig zag between cars, their owners are also afraid that being 5cm too close to a car could damage their pride and joy, or how they bike is the king of teh road an no one should dare get past them so they usually end up holding all the other **** bikes behind them, causing… more zig zagging. I always end up playing the guessing game with them trying to look ahead see where they will get stuck and avoid.