New Bib Tights

[geocycle]

Great story Mick had me chuckling! Looking forward to the tag removal episode, metal tyre levers, masonry chisel?

[Mick F]

Thanks!

Angle grinder?

More than one way of skinning a cat maybe.

[Mick F]

I've slept on the issue, and chatted to SWMBO ........... but made up my own mind.

Put the tights in a plastic carrier bag with the tag sticking out. Tied the bag tightly with a lazzy band with only the tag protruding. Tights fully protected from my ministrations.

The security tag looks like this one.

31YeQII2vlL.jpg (14 KiB) Viewed 425 times

I intended to fit the plastic uppermost portion in the vice. So cleaned the vice and put it in horizontally and considered a file or maybe tickling it with the angle grinder. I was unaware of what it would look like internally so I just put it in the vice and stood a while in thought.

I tightened the vice ................... and a tad more ................ and it cracked - the tag, not the vice!
I tightened some more, and it cracked some more and bent and deformed too.

I took it out and attacked it with my big side-cutters and chopped off all the flat area, and opened the cutters right out and cut into the dome. The remains just lifted off and when I took out the tights, I just withdrew the pin.
All bits retrieved, and the tights are no worse for wear. Success!

Here's most of the bits.

[nirakaro]

That's really useful information Mick. Next time I'm going shoplifting, I'll be sure to take my workshop vice and the big bolt cutters with me.

[philvantwo]

So are the tights now back in the bag and up in the loft along with all the other stuff?

[Mick F]

They are in my cycling clothing drawer awaiting my next ride if and when it gets chilly.

Yes, all you need is a pair of big sidecutters similar to these.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/magnusson-si ... rs-6/9330v
Keep them in a pocket and shoplift at your leisure.

[nirakaro]

Ah right. I had something more like this in mind:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irwin-Record-9 ... th=1&psc=1

[Redvee]

Some secrity tags can be released with a strong magnet.

[youtube]-7nz_c_850w[/youtube]

Going back to cross gender clothing, I've got a pair of women's Specialised Mitts in my collection. I bought them knowingly cause they were on sale for a ridiculously cheap price, the pink flashes don't worry me which is a give away they are aimed at the ladies that ride and they are sized as XL mitts when my hands are medium or large glove size.

[Mick F]

Yes, a strong magnet.
I tried my old radar magnetron horseshoe magnet, but I've had it twenty-odd years. Although it is stuck to the side of the woodburner as a keeper, it's lost much of it's strength. (use it for lifting nails and screws out of the grate as we often burn scrap wood)

It seemed pointless buying a magnet. I may as well have paid the four quid on the train (return) and gone back to Evans. Using ingenuity was cheap, free, and interesting!

As for the Women's tights, I've found another difference.
The ankles were narrower. I don't think I'd have been able to wear socks inside. Lady feet and ankles are generally smaller of course.

As for colour, the Women's tights had a nice purply coloured pad but the Men's are Boring Black.
What is it about female specific stuff having colours and male stuff is boring?

[Mick F]

Update:
New Men's XL FWE bib tights arrived in the post this afternoon.
Thank you Evans Cycles!

Here is a good wheeze if you fancy trying it, in order to get a freebie pair of bib tights.
1. Buy a pair of Women's tights.
2. Try them on and find they fit.
3. Get the home and find you've "made a mistake".
4. Go back to the shop feeling embarrassed and ask if you can swap them for Men's as although they fit, the legs and ankles were a bit tight.
5. Try a pair on Men's on, pay for them, and leave with the security tag still on. The shop obviously has no security system.
6. Get home, and find the tag is still on, and get "a friend" to phone the shop and explain, and they say they'll send you a new pair by post in replacement .......... and to keep the ones you have (with the tag still attached).

Now the proud owner of two pairs of Men's XL FWE Coldharbour bib tights.

I don't recommend you do the above, but it worked. Thanks Evans, for doing the right thing.

[philvantwo]

So how come the alarm didn't sound when you walked out of the shop with them?
I prefer bibtights with stirrups and I've always worn a cheap pair of cycling shorts over the top.
I'm surprised you didn't go back to Plymouth on the train and spend the afternoon in the wetherspoons!!!

[Mick F]

They obviously don't have an alarm system.
Shops I've been into with alarm systems have big side-plate thingies either side of the door and you have to walk through. Evans in Plymouth don't have them of course. Methinks they should have.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.37153 ... 312!8i6656

As I said, I cycled into Plymouth on Friday to buy them. Made it home and found the issue regarding them being Women's tights.
On Monday, the weather was awful, so I took a return train to Plymouth instead of cycling, and called in there and swapped them.

Plymouth city centre is 20miles from here, so not easy or simple or quick to get in and out.

[John1054]

Nice story Mick. Do you think that Plymouth Evans would notice if you wheeled out a new bike past their non-security system?

[Mick F]

They invite you and your bike inside. They offer you to bring your bike in, and they have racks and posts to rest your bike onto, I did just that on Friday.

Therefore .......................

Leave your old (but clean) bike inside, and take out a new one.
Would they notice?

[philvantwo]

No good you trying it now Mick F.........
they know who you are......and where you live!