What's Britain's most stolen bike? The answer will surprise you

Solutions can be found or invented:
http://gizmodo.com/five-robotic-bike-parking-systems-that-solve-an-urban...

Political will to implement (or invest in) solutions may be more elusive.

Cambridge already has a bike hub that has the characteristics you descibe.

It is under John Lewis, which built it as a condition of being allowed to open in central Cambridge.

But such things are only going to work for people who want to be near the hub. One of the great things about bikes it that you can use them to get from place to place, rather than leaving them locked up all day.

Local autorities need to provide adequate numbers of bike stands of the right type, and we need to lock our bikes properly.

All of which has nothing to do with the statistic-abusing article.

1) £5 is merely a suggestion. But lets put it in perspective shall we. Do you put a fiver in your wallet or in your pocket with your loose change?

How much is a pint of beer?
How much do you spend on a coffee and a sandwich for your lunch?
How much does it cost to park a car for a full day in say Central London, Manchester or Birmingham?
How much is peace of mind worth?

And don't forget it has to be worth someone's while to provide this service and I'm suggesting we use empty shops on the high street. Do you really think that any council in this country is going to give out any rate rebates or incentives. They're the ones who killed the high street in the first place.

2) Secure cycle parking at a workplace doesn't have to cost the earth. We are not talking triple depth electric fences, razor-wire, attack dogs and machine gun towers here. Think about how many of your colleagues cycle in to work. What is it 1 in 5, 1 in 10, 1 in 20? For a company to have 5 cyclists then it is going to be either connected to cycling/sport/fitness or it is not a small company.
My company has a ratio of about 1 in 50 and if you take dedicated cyclists 1 in 200 at best.

A cycle stand in clear sight, cycle lockers, a fenced off area of a car park, even an unused room with a lock on the door. You could even use an old shipping container. All these could be described as secure.

I would hope that if an employer was prepared to provide something then the cyclists on their payroll would met them half way. For example if an employer lets the cyclists have an unused room then the cyclists could kit it out with wall brackets and shelving even if they only put it up and then maintained the room.

If it is made compulsory then any provision can be claimed as a business expense.

Stop thinking small! Dare to think big!

Correct me if I am wrong but these statistics prove that Specialized owners are a lot less carring where they leave their bike ? ?

It also surely means that Giant bike owners continue to love their bike and care for it making sure it is less likely to be stolen.

Obviously it has nothing to do with the relative cost of different makes and the popularity in sales in the first place.

Are there any statistics on the colour of the Specialized bike bening stolen ? I am willing to bet that the majority of Specilzed bikes being stolen are red

£5 a day is £1200 a year based on 48 weeks. I don't think anyone would be prepared to pay that to park a bike.

Ok! Just to throw a rock in the mill pond how about these suggestions.

1) Chipping and marking don't work as it relies too much on people, including the police, being bothered to check or scan to see if a bike has been stolen.

2) Don't leave your bike anywhere that you do not control the environment. Even the best locks only offer limited protection.

3) Any employer who has five or more employees who cycle to work must provide a secure cycle parking facility. The number of cycling spaces provided to be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that provision matches demand.

4) On the basis that the best (i.e. most pleasant) public toilets to use are those that have an attendant, how about extending this idea to cycling. Here is how it would work. The facility would be open from 0700 - 2000. For a small fixed fee (say £1 or £2 for half a day, £5 for a full day) an attendant would take your steed and in return would give you a token. When you return you would surrender the token and get your steed back. Similar schemes do exist elsewhere in the world, some of them are free!*

Discuss.

*Just had an additional thought. How about using some of those closed up shops on the high street. You know the ones put out of business by parking restrictions, out of town development and the big supermarkets. If the store is large enough and maybe has a back yard they could offer additional services such as a simple clean & lube. Now I really am sprinting for the bunker and putting on my tin hat!

It also tells you a bit about the buying demographic.

For example, if the bike most commonly stolen is the bike most commonly sold, that's no surprise. But if the numbers indicate that it is more commonly stolen than sales saturation would indicate, it also indicates that people who buy those bikes care less about their bike.

Does this mean that those cheap bikes are used as commuters and runabouts and placed more often in vulnerable locations or perhaps that owners are less serious about protecting them from loss?

I do find it amusing that the two top retailers in UK only sell a weak assortment of Kryptonite locks. I had to buy mine from the US because CRC and Wiggle don't carry the high end models.

A NY Noose and a Fahgettaboudit with disc-type tumblers are highly effective deterrents. Not sold by Wiggle and CRC.

There are simply too many variables to judge the relative risk of theft based on theft data.

One might argue that sales data doesn't translate in to a risk profile because how a bicycle is used, and how, when and for how long it's locked up count more.

For example, without knowing anything else, we might assume that bicycle models preferred by commuters are more likely to be stolen than serious road or high end mtn bikes, because commuters are the ones who lock bikes up all day, while serious bike owners don't.

The only way to gauge thief preferences, is to census the available inventory (bikes locked in public) and compare to the census of stolen bikes.

So what we have here is data without meaning, and folks should be wary of making decisions based on it.

... and maybe high end bikes are not sold as bikes anyway, but stripped down and the components sold separately?

???

didds

Unless you keep your £6k TT bike with Zipp wheels in your shed in S. London.

It stands a good chance that these figures also show that expensive carbon road bikes aren't left parked on the street (I know mine isn't), but mid range commuter bikes are.

It's good to know thieves are quite likely to remove those Allez from all those idiots crawling out of Clapham each morning with zero spacial awareness and a pair of Hockey socks.

Sadly they're just sold onto the next chinless wonder around the corner.

get your bikes marked ....

So much harder to sell them on...

soooooo according to this, i should buy the most expensive, lightest and fastest bike possible!! any excuse

Get a dutch bike, thieves don't even touch them as they are deemed uncool!!