Cycling UK Forum

Manc33 wrote:

Milfred Cubicle wrote:From what I have read, bike thieves fall into two categories. Those who nick bikes and have no idea what they are...and those who are quite savvy about their trade and recognise quality. They steal because they know quality components can be stripped off the bike, whatever the name.

The sad thing is they only need a few allen keys and a pair of cable cutters and £300+ STI levers can be gone in 20 seconds, with it not mattering one iota if the bike itself is locked up or not, you can't lock the handlebars up. Snip cables > undo stem bolts > thieved. I'm not a thief but I do sometimes think about what the fastest way is to steal the most valuable part(s) off a bike.

"I have seen this reported on here before, and some one suggested gluing ball bearings into the bolts on the stem to prevent this." - some guy on Reddit

That's quite clever but how are you going to undo the bolts yourself.

EDIT: If you did superglue ball bearings in, you can dissolve the glue back off with acetone.

Maybe there's a market for special bolts where you get a unique shaped "allen" key with them.

mattsccm wrote:Do it yourself. Don't slide down the slippery slope of getting someone else to mend your bike. It is silly and just fits in with the modern compulsion to pay someone to do the work rather than try your self. It won't teach you how to do it when you need to. It is not as if its complicated. If you are clever enough to use a computer then you can do this tiny job. If you can afford to pay some one then you can afford the few quid to get a tool to do it.Do as Brucey says.

TrevA wrote:Beware of using Strava to plan routes. I’m a member of a club whose ride leaders plan routes using Strava and I’m constantly having to point out to them that their planned road ride route goes along a muddy bridlepath. I would double check any such route against an OS map before using. Even Cycle.travel isn’t perfect - I recently planned a route to a local cafe using this and it routed me down a farm track.

pwa wrote:

robgul wrote:How many miles per day?

I live on Route 5 @ Stratford with a link to Route 41 - they are both pretty tortuous with some really dud surfaces and annoying bits ..... you'd do better planning your own route using the OS maps or one of the online systems.

Rob

Doesn't the Heart of England 300km Audax ride cover some of this territory? That route is pretty good at picking out nice roads.

http://www.aukweb.net/events/detail/20-146/

pete75 wrote:Seems ok to me. https://www.bikefixgrimsby.co.uk/