Cycling UK Forum

Thread got me thinking. Have a few quality anker powerbanks. Wouldn"t want to risk one if those overnight in a toilet block. May buy a very cheap one to use with a cheap plug. Doesn't matter if it's inefficient/pretty low capacity - to be used in extremis.

ossie wrote:[I'm not sure I've ever seen anyone have a dig at Victim support in the way one poster has done on here....thats a first.

In reality they probably required a Crime prevention officer but I guess they got ditched in the last set of cuts.

Possibly a little harsh towards Victim Support ... but having had our 3rd visit from them we felt, possibly wrongly, that there was no actual support and it appeared to be largely a tick box event.
They drop off some alarms and go ... thats our experience ......

It's happened again! This time I had an inner tube stolen from my saddlebag. It was somewhat bizarre, I heard someone poking around my bike late. Called out and went to investigate and they'd disappeared. Didn't notice til the following morning that the tube was missing.

robing wrote:It's happened again! This time I had an inner tube stolen from my saddlebag. It was somewhat bizarre, I heard someone poking around my bike late. Called out and went to investigate and they'd disappeared. Didn't notice til the following morning that the tube was missing.

What site were you on Rob?

IaninSheffield wrote:[What site were you on Rob?

Felleries municipal camping in the Avesnois Parc in France.

phil parker wrote:a group of us had our tents ransacked, but nothing was stolen!

Was it an all-male group? I once came back to signs that someone had been in my tent, pulled my clothes about and not taken anything. It turned out that a pervert had raided several tents taking only women's underwear.

Sweep wrote:May buy a very cheap one to use with a cheap plug. Doesn't matter if it's inefficient/pretty low capacity - to be used in extremis.

I do that. My plug and battery only set me back around £5 off ebay.

I've only had my tent raided once.
I went to the loo at around 4:30 am without closing my tent fully and when I got back the bumbag with my money and passport had gone.
Luckily I was in Prague so getting to the embassy for help was fairly easy.
Once there I called family to get money sent out and the bank to stop my cards.
Two days later I was back on the road with an emergency passport and a pocket full of cash.
So it was more a big hassle rather than a tour ending event.

YMMV .......

Last year tour I took one of these https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B073VKMJDH/ (movement detector alarm. I mainly thought of using it on the bike but ended-up never using it so it got left at home this year's tour.

But playing around and testing it it did seem to work quite well. When I purchased it I thought it was pretty cheap so not a lot of money wasted if useless (and I could always return it) but it was OK.

Ian

I think Sweep and my self bought one of these movement detectors. I bought it as a curiousity but maybe needed now.

mercalia wrote:I think Sweep and my self bought one of these movement detectors. I bought it as a curiousity but maybe needed now.

Yes i did get one.
Not used it yet either.
I would rate it very good and it is definitely extremely loud.
Only issues with it are one of its batteries being very non standard.
And some of its programming can be a bit odd.
Revision needed before I use it I think.

I had a powerbank, charging cable and plug stolen from the Camping Municipal in Bedoin, Provence. It had been left in an out of the way place in the sanitary block overnight but had disappeared by the time I came to collect it in the morning.

None of the bits taken were expensive to replace, but it was a big hassle. Rural France is not exactly packed full of electronics shops and we struggled to find a high capacity replacement for the powerbank (this was a few years back). In the end Monsieur Amazon came to the rescue & we got a replacement delivered to a newsagent in Lyon in advance of our arrival there.

Since then I've never left anything charging overnight, and have bought a fast charger & fast charging battery which I either leave in the campsite reception or under my watchful eye in the sanitary block.

Other than that, never had anything taken - I always have my valuables with me so any potential robber would just have to make do with my 3-day unwashed cycling shorts

robing wrote:

IaninSheffield wrote:[What site were you on Rob?

Felleries municipal camping in the Avesnois Parc in France.

Know it well surprised you had issues there. But you can issues anywhere I suppose.

jgurney wrote:Was it an all-male group? I once came back to signs that someone had been in my tent, pulled my clothes about and not taken anything. It turned out that a pervert had raided several tents taking only women's underwear.

Yes, it was an all-male group, about 10 of us on a rock climbing trip in the Calanque d' En-Vau region, back in the mid-90s. We took a chef with us, who's only job was to make evening meal, but chill-out through the day and provide a bit of security at the campsite. However, he got bored after a few days and requested to come climbing with us, which of course we accepted, not expecting a security incident.

We were disappointed that it had happened during the day time with no reports from anybody in what was a 3/4-full campsite. We surmised it was somebody (persons) looking for passports, which we all took with us along with other valuables. Every single bag and item of clothing in every tent had been turned inside-out in what appeared quite desperate measures, including pouches and zipped pockets, but small change, food, walkmans (CDs & cassettes!!) were left alone.

You took a chef on a camping trip?
This is another world.
Which deserves a thread of its own.

Sweep wrote:You took a chef on a camping trip?

He was one of our colleagues - and it was a work-related trip, (although we weren't chefs) not quite as ostentatious as it seems! He also needed a break from work (mentally and physically); we wouldn't have otherwise taken a chef, but it was a way of giving him two weeks in the south of France with a thinly veiled justification!