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news
Jon Snow with bolt croppers (via Pic_Nick on Twitter).PNGVideo: Channel 4's Jon Snow - president of Cycling UK - filmed taking bolt-cutters to bike lock
In one of the more surprising videos we've seen this year, Channel 4 newscaster - and president of the charity, Cycling UK - Jon Snow has been filmed in central London taking a pair of bolt-croppers to a chain securing a parked bike.
Footage of the bizarre incident, which happened outside the ITN News building on Gray's Inn Road, was uploaded to Instagram and Twitter by Nick Constantinou.
Just seen Jon Snow off the telly attacking a bike with bolt cutters pic.twitter.com/wDK3k2Hx3P
— N C (@Pic_Nick) October 25, 2017
Apparently, a youngster had inadvertently put a chain lock through the frame of Snow's bike while locking their own, as a Channel 4's head of communications, Hayley Barlow, explained to The Sun.
Jon had left the studio because he had an interview to get to but when he got to the bike rack, he discovered a child had chained both bikes together in error," she said.
"He managed to get access to some bolt-cutters and cut the chain. Jon then went to a local bike shop and bought a new chain.
"He used that on the child's bike to chain it to the railings and put a note on it saying the key had been left in a safe place with instructions on where to find it.
"Jon even managed to make it to his interview on time."
A word of warning.
If you do come back to your bike and find that someone else has locked their bike close to it in such a way that your one has been locked too, be aware that it is a tactic often used by bike thieves.
Working on the assumption that the bike's owner will leave it overnight in the hope that the other bike will be gone by the morning, that gives them ample time to go about stealing your bike when the streets are quieter.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- OldRidgeback 3 sec ago
You beat me to it - I've just read the article and was going to post the link to it.
- chrisonabike 15 min 29 sec ago
*thinking of overinflated shark-fin fairing and a pin and following cartoon-style consequences* Could be good for a short speed burst?
- Bungle_52 53 min 30 sec ago
I was wondering why the prosecutor used the word ordinary rather than competent. The two seem completely different to me.
- Paul J 55 min 32 sec ago
Bizarre isn't it?...
- Jaijai 1 hour 52 min ago
I'm surprised ,the ones I've seen 8n and built have all needed paint overspray pretty much all areas ,including headtube ,brake mount areas wheel...
- quiff 2 hours 57 min ago
Interesting. I would have expected someone else (wearing gloves) to handle the swab and administer the test to minimise that sort of contamination....
- the little onion 4 hours 25 min ago
The bus should have been bigger and brighter coloured. How are drivers expected to spot a bright yellow double decker bus on our roads?...
- HoarseMann 5 hours 17 min ago
BBC news article on this implies anyone cycling on the road, rather than using the cycle area, is riding incorrectly! ...
Add new comment
11 comments
Concerned that no passer-by in this obviously busy street showed any interest at all in what Jon was doing. The guy playing with his phone almost walked into him.
On my way to work i was standing outside Ilford station at 5.30am yesterday when a guy walked past with his hood up,I had earphones in so i didnt hear anything but i smelt burning looked to my right and saw sparks coming from behind one of those solar powered litter bins and in about a second hooded guy pops up and is riding off down the hill.
He'd cut through one of those curly cable locks in no time the bike was probably a crappy MB type thing that you often see locked to the railings outside the station.
This happened to me once in Manchester town centre, a passing pcso helpfully got some bolt cutters and took the other bso to the station afterwards.
If they hadn't been passing I've no idea what I would have done.
That's where he now keeps his gun in case another gangster tries to mow him down...
Padded seat cover?
He's gone down in my estimation.
Also a bit disappointed not to get some game of thrones news.
I read the title and wondered why the king of the north would bother with a bike when now he can just use dragons
"You know nothing Jon Snow"
SPOILER ALERT!!!
Clearly GOT the TV series is now well beyond the books.
I came back to Addlestone station many years ago to find that my bike and all of the others had gained extra locks on them. All identical, cheap lengths of chain with a padlock. Lots of us commuted to London on the same train and were stuffed for a while. I lived just a couple of miles away, so caught a taxi home, got my petrol angle grinder. I carefully removed all the extra locks and then turned the chains into individual links and wrecked the padlocks.
According to the police, this had happened at quite a few stations over the previous weeks and lots of bikes were stolen with the perpetrators coming back late at night to remove *their* locks and cut off the owners'.
A few months later everyone lost wheel bolts and QR skewers in a similar ploy.
Good work on the chains.
I've come back to my bike at a station platform after a night out to find the QR skewers stripped from all the bikes and the bits variously thrown on the tracks/in the bushes.
Pretty sure it was just kids messing around - thieves would have taken them with them.
I was pissed enough to actually try cycling home and got a mile down the road before common sense got the upper hand. That bike now has anti-theft skewers. In fact, I'd actually like a thief to steal that bike now and try and ride it away - the chain jumps like mad and the brakes are crap