Parking at the O2?

Hi all

Does anyone have bike parking recommendations/experience for an evening concert at the O2 please?

Thanks

Take a chain and a cover!

take a f ing big chain

Haha was about to reply the same.

LOL. Any recommendations outside of the normal London “precautions”? There comes a time when Chain, plus lock, plus F ing chain and fing lock and cover = take the tube or a car.

if it was me id tube it or car leaving a bike @ the 02 is like inviting the devil into your daughters bedroom

While I understand the sentiment, I’m wondering if we are getting to the stage in London where the whole point of biking is starting to get lost. The thing where you get ride A to B, park very near where you need to be and not spend all the time worrying about whether your bike will still be there when you need it.

Never been for a gig, but I’ve always just locked it up in the car park when I’ve gone to the O2. I think the bike park’s near a security box, too.

Chain it to the bike parking at the parking office across the road :blush:

Biking has lost his point?
Whenever was the point of biking to ride in central London??
Leave the bike home and get the tube, not worth the risk

My point of biking to/in central London is that I’m a biker and I prefer it to using public transport. A fantastic advantage of biking is that it can give you an opportunity to get to where you are going without getting to and from a station on both ends. Another fantastic potential advantage in this case would be getting on a bike at midnight to get home rather than wrestle with a 1000 people trying to get on the same tube.

I have a bike that I use for commuting and I have another which I consider too precious for commuting, so use that on weekends and for touring.

and thanks gents for the parking recommendations. I will be taking the usual chain/lock…

blame society. its a fact. you want to keep something safe, keep it away from certain locations. sorry its not what you want to hear, hope you still got a bike to go home with.

I get Roland’s point… If you go to any “normal” city you ride down to your destination park your bike right there on the pavement and you’re set, as long as you’re not getting in the way of pedestrians no one cares.

SIlveR6 - not it’s not what I want to hear and I have joined MAG recently for that reason. Will we end up with a London biker forum for those people who just ride outside of London while they drive cars and take public transport in London? Too defeatist in my view. I’d rather we all helped each other with parking and safety recommendations to keep biking in London alive.

MadGuitarist - as you describe - it works well in Europe. All those big traffic islands being built everywhere are now excuses for pedestrians to run across the road and take shelter in them while they plan to run across the other side. What’s wrong with allowing bikes to park in them? When they do build them, how much extra can it cost to put a big bar across the thing so we can chain our bikes to them?

i don’t think anybody on LB is a defeatist just some live in the real world
i commute into London but knowing what to do & the best places to park allow me to commute home again
if i loose my bike i wont be able to commute easy until i get anther bike
& for some people who commuter on there bikes with a tight budget it could prove rather costly to loose there bike that they can ill afford

I think we all live in the real world, and many of us manage to have bikes that aren’t so much of a thief magnet that we never lock them up.

We may live in the real world, though we’re most certainly not all educated sufficiently regarding the issue of bike theft.

We need to do more to help educate people. It’s something I want to build into the site somehow soon.

Roland, sorry your innocent call for help to park your bike has become a debate on whereas its safe or not to have a bike in London.

…but, nevertheless its a strong view many of us have as they experienced first or second hand what it means to find that empty spot where you thought you left your bike. increasingly common also the fact that the police cant give a cow about helping or making a considerable effort to stop this crime and/or recover your property.

i’m pleased to hear you are a member of the MAG and seriously i hope they would become a more vocal group one day, but in my mere 13years of being a biker so far it accomplished near to nothing in favor of biking in London. i’m sure you’re trying what you can but i’m actually subscribed to the email feed from MAG and havent heard a pip in a year.

This is all very interesting and no worries about my initial problem remaining unsolved. I’m going to give it a go anyway, since otherwise I will personally feel defeated.

I’ve been riding for 30 years and currently doing over 15k miles a year on the bikes plus another 10k in the car. So I’ve had my fair (unfair?) share of spills, accidents and incidents. I only just joined MAG after all this time. I don’t have a great idea of what they do and how much they achieve, but after 30 years this is the first time I’ve felt that my enjoyment of bikes and biking is threatened, so I feel the need to do something about it without really knowing what to do. And I share a common opinion about the police resources too.

Right now I’d like to see something to lock my onto in every bike bay; more bike bays; big ugly lorries banned during the morning rush hour, or at least routed around major road works such as the current one around Elephant & Castle; clear information about bike parking at venues and also if not asking too much, a bikini clad woman to wash my bike every Friday night.