I recently bought a Specialized Sirrus x5.0, got an insurance and started parking the bike in the communal area with two Gold Locks. I live in Euston, London. On the morning after Easter Weekend, I found my bike stripped for wheels and drive train. They even took the grips off the handlebars. I was gutted to see it like that. It was the most expensive bike I ever bought. The insurance people declined my claim because it wasn't parked behind a locked door. My fault that I didn't read the terms properly. The bike shop told me it's gonna cost me more than the original cost of the bike to put it back together.
So, I went on a journey to learn how to assemble bikes. I tried to get it back to original specs while keeping the total cost to a minimum. I now have a hybrid bike with a mountain bike rear mech but I am happy I could give it a life again. Now I keep it in my room and I learned a few lessons about cycling and London.
- Lock wheels and not just frame
- Doesn't matter if it's a CCTV monitored communal area or a garden
- Bike thieves of London are the worst humans
- Large bike shops are a scam, a neighborhood friendly bike shop and some tools are all you need
- How to fix a bike
by namo_vam
17 Comments
That super sucks.
Also : r/CantParkThereMate/
I’m glad you decided to fix it up and learn about bike repair. Kept the frame out of the dump and picked up a new skill. Great job!
I’m actually surprised the fork is still there
Bike thieves are the worst humans, no matter where. Sorry it happened, but I’m glad you were able to turn this into a positive. Well played
Don’t forget you can visit 56a Crampton Street on Friday afternoons for free “Do it together” bike maintenance lessons.
Almost gotta give credit to the assholes who took all the parts, instead of just taking an anglegrinder to the lock!
I’m glad they didn’t damage the bike (too much) in the process.
That really sucks, it’s always difficult with new bikes that just catch the eyes of thieves, while both insurance and police will just laugh at you when a bike gets stolen. But as long as you have the full frame and fork, it will always be worth it to rebuild it rather than buying a new one.
Many bike insurance companies are scams at this point.
They will do anything to get away without paying.
My advice is, have a shitty (but safe to ride of course) commuting bike and keep your bike inside your house at all times.
The bike shop isn’t a scam to tell you the truth – if they are returning to to OEM it would be more expensive + labor
That’s way too nice of a bike to leave locked up anywhere besides outside of a shop for a few minutes. All of the locks in the world won’t stop a determined thief with a grinder. If they can’t cut your lock they will cut the fence it’s attached to.
I’d highly suggest bringing it inside your house with you. You’re lucky they didn’t just take the whole thing.
locks & chains only keep the honest people out …a thief will find a way to get what they want ….
If you have renters insurance or home insurance check your policy. Not sure what’s standard in the uk but you might get lucky
Honestly as bad as this looks, it’s way better that took off the components then the entire frame. The frame is usually always the most valuable part of the bike. Everything else is upgradable and replaceable. Still sucks, this is my biggest fear to be honest. You can’t lock everything on a bike unfortunately.
Well atheist its buildable but wow they aren’t good people around yikes. Onguard rock solid 2 of then one for the frame and one for the front maybe a skunk lock carbon for the back to save some money they expensive. Then a GPS in the frame for if they cut the structure like crazy people lol. Hackers scammers thieves need to have a job or get there hands cut off im sick for it its gotten so bad I need to spend 1000$ plus for all this security!!!
WTF!!! This is horrible, but I would never lock a carbon bike up anywhere that I couldn’t see it the whole time. I’m very sorry this happened to you. I’ve learned a valuable lesson similar to this and it won’t happen again. I hope.
They left the easy pinch front light and saddle!
There are pitlock (And others) locking security bolts and skewers you might find useful, hopefully this never happens again.