Safe Speed Forums

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6329125.stm


It seems the latest craze now is .. mugging cyclists as well as car jacking.

Very difficult to advise . If in a car .. keep the laptop etc out of sight - locked in the boot.

On a bike? .. bit more difficult to address as not many options open if you have a lap top which you use at home and for work. It would be insensitively glib to say "leave lap top secured at work" or whatever..

I can only advise really to keep to well frequented routes.. be vigilant to any situation .. and try to ensure you make some eye contact with the other road users in their cars.

I know that I read of one story in which the cyclist was pushed under a 4x4. He stopped and helped the cyclist - as an automatic human reaction.

But these stories rather highlight a very sordid turn for the worse in our society and we police really find this sort of mugging difficult to resolve. I can only ask for any witnesses to such events to come forward and report what they saw - and to the cyclists and CTC .. please approach us .. I am sure that together we can brainstorm a reasoned and logical safety led code to try to protect our cycling commuter "cousin" road users.

Not an easy one to resolve - especially in London where average road speed is 7 mph and cyclists manage a mere 13 mph .. compared with the double and more up here.

and NO.. . we want to keep our North special to us Northern folk - by 'ecky thump ,, and waye eye eye mun!" ! We don't want southern riff raff up here - betting on whippets, ferret races .. trying on our clogs, cloth caps and scoffing suich Northern delicacies as jellied eels, tripe and onions, black puds and "gettin in our wayyyyy!" By 'Eck

But .. as ex Met officer down "sarf" .. PLEASE liaise with the police London CTC and cyclists. We up "Norf" are prepared to listen and work with you on this.. though we don't thankfully as yet have such reports of such wanton violence. But we want to be prepared for any such eventuality.. so I'd ask any CTC lurks or C+ lurks to help set balls a-rolling on this one..

For record .. very few on this site "hate" cyclists. All seem to want a valid road safety policy for all. No one really wants abolition of speed limits.. but rather a return to - cough - professional discretion and an end to nit picking silliness.

We (Paul, Swiss family and most on this site) respect ALL road users. I f any of our lurks from cycling fora and s/cam pratnerships or Roadpeace or BRAKE can suggest the embryo of an idea which we can then develop to a "full term baby and progress it to mature adulthood" - I think we make a stand for the bettering of our society and its return to refined and cultured behaviour patterns.

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

This incident was on Crimewatch this week, and reported in the papers.

She is now out of a coma.

It would appear this gang mugged 2 others the same day (on foot) and it all ended with one of them crashing his bike around Britannia Junction (Camden Town).

As for your laptop, probably the best idea is to permanently mark it. This won't necessarily prevent it from being stolen but will make it less attractive to most thieves, as it is not so easy to sell it on. You might consider doing the same with your mobile phone.

How about a saddle that is permanently attached to your cycling shorts, and mates with a large metal spike on the cycle frame. If someone makes you get off, the saddle comes with you and they are left with a bike ready to impale them! The ultimate urban cycling security device.

Mind you, there are still some dangers. What if the thieves make you strip off to your shreddies in the middle of the town

Worse still, you'd likely get sued by them if they were to sit on the spike, having stolen your bike, and they'd probably win!

They didn't steal her bike though, just her bag and her mobile phone. (The phone may well have been in her bag).

Yeah, I know, I posted before reading the article, but I let it stand because I still reckon its a good idea

FWIW, I've seen some people on u.r.c. recommend a sturdy pump under your top tube to use as an impromptu truncheon against muggers and dogs. To protect your bike from most thieves, just use SPDs. While they're trying to figure out why their feet keep slipping off the pedals, you'll have time to grab your pump and exact retribution.

Perhaps the most evil idea is to ride a recumbent - preferably a SWB or a tadpole trike - and watch the fun as they try to ride the contraption. With a bit of luck, they'll even get leg-sucked!

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Will

ejecter saddle! or fit a quick-release lever to the handlebar clamp...

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Fear is a weapon of mass distraction

A few years back, after a long session of gardening, I nipped down for refreshment at the "Old House at Home", a 17th Century pub in Broadwater (Worthing) on my commuting bike.

The bike looked a bit of a heap - mudguards, saddlebag, 66" fixed-wheel etc.

When I came out, it had gone, and I thought "Oh no, that's the last I've seen of that - nothing to look at, but it was a Flying Scot (Rattray Bros) hand-built frame."

A couple of days latter the local nick rang to say it had been found, and I collected it from a garden about half-a-mile from the pub. The bars were twisted round, and there were scuffs on the handle-bar tape, indicating that the thief didn't have a clue how to ride "fixed", and the old girl had bitten him.

Tee-hee!

John

reminds me of a friend whp was fixing the brakes on his motorbike (nothing special) when someone nicked it.

all he had to do was walk down the hill & pick it up again