Two robberies a day in London as bike-jacking epidemic takes hold - telegraph

[Valbrona]

Yeah, but street robbery is very much an urban thing.

[rareposter]

Yeah, but street robbery is very much an urban thing.

There's been a fair few bikejackings (or attempted bikejackings) on a couple of the popular routes out of London.

Layhams Road (south of West Wickham heading past New Addington and into the North Downs) is one of the main routes out of South London for roadies but it's also quite a remote and narrow lane, easy to get trapped on and there's been a few incidents along there.

Richmond Park also had some high profile attacks.

[st599_uk]

Richmond Park had a gang on mopeds wielding machetes taking bikes - I think they were stealing high end to order though, even taking a world tour team bike.

[peterb]

Is seizing some else’s bike a new thing? To my mind such things have been going on for decades - as has theft in general - and in a place so large as London I’d anticipate a lot of theft. My bigger concern for London is road safety, and in particular the safety of cyclists.

I don't recall anyone worrying about bike theft in the 1950s and all (as far as I know) bikes were left at school unlocked. Nowadays it seems thieves will target bikes left at schools as well as many other places.

I don't recall worrying about it much in the late 50s and 60s. If anything I used a Lucas Gem lock in the school bike shed.



You could probably cut the chain with a nail clipper.

[Valbrona]

Pro Alex Richardson had his bike stolen in Richmond Park in 2021 after being threatened with 15-inch machete:-
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/c ... 75118.html

(Just seen st99_uk has posted on this).

[Postboxer]

Back in the 80s someone stole my brother's bike lock from school but left his bike.