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Dermot
The rise of violent bicycle muggings
The number of cyclists who lose their rides in brazen robberies has increased alarmingly – be on the lookout
• Peter Kimpton: Thieve stole my bike while I was going 20mph
• Bike thief tells how to stop your cycle from being stolen
Bike blog: bike mugging : A courier padlocks his bike
Bike theft is not limited to bike stands. Photograph: Jason Alden/Rex Features
Bike theft has always been a problem, and probably always will be, but there are worrying signs that it is becoming more serious.
Chris Abitbol, 25, had cycled in London without incident for five years, until a friend was yanked from his bike by a group of men and badly beaten. They took his phone, wallet and bike and left him lying injured in the street.
Just two days later, at 7pm on a summer's night in south London, the same thing nearly happened to Chris.
While cycling past a teenager on a mountain bike, he heard him whistle and noticed him gesturing to a group of four or five men further along the road.
When he got level with them, it became clear he'd been singled out as a victim.
"This kid just swung at me, to the face, and I managed to avoid it. I was ready for it and I swerved. I could feel his fist fly past my neck. Another kid swung at me and missed completely."
Chris managed to escape injury, keep his bike and report the incident to the police just a few minutes later, although the men were never caught.
Had he not known about his friend's attack, though, he could have rolled naively straight into an ambush.
A search of the London Fixed-gear and Single-speed forum (LFGSS), home to more than 24,000 cyclists from all over the UK and beyond, shows that attacks like this are more common than we would like to think.
Several people over the past year have been robbed, one beaten with his own bike lock by a thief who then rode away on his bike.
And the problem is not confined to large cities.
Lee Robson from Cheltenham had a £2,000 mountain bike stolen last month, and is still recovering from the injuries he sustained trying to stop the thief.
He was unlocking his front door with his bike leaning against his hip when a man snatched it from him and ran.
"It was a bit brazen. I ended up chasing him down the road. I don't think he'd thought I'd really come at him that fast," he said.
In the chase he fell and was injured, badly cutting his legs, hand and knees.
"I'm not sure what would have happened if I'd managed to get hold of him. This guy had probably seen me with it at the pub. He must have been right behind me all the way. That's very calculating."
Police are treating is as a robbery, but Lee suspects it could have become more serious if he had managed to tackle the thief.
Whether or not this level of violence is a growing trend is hard to say. Despite having figures on bicycle thefts and robberies, the government don't keep information on crimes that straddle the two.
But, anecdotally, it is growing, perhaps fuelled only by the higher number of cyclists on the roads and the increasing cost of the bicycles they ride.
Cycle insurer ETA has seen four times as many cases of "bicycle mugging" in the first three months of this year alone than it did in the whole of 2009, even adjusted for an increase in policies.
The last thing we want at the Bike blog is to scaremonger or make cyclists paranoid, but, like Chris, if you are aware of it, hopefully you can avoid it.
Sticking to a well-trodden path at night is probably wise, as is stopping, turning back and taking another route if you suspect something is up.
Despite these stories, I have always felt safer on a bike than when walking, supposing that I could get away from any trouble quickly, and I still believe that's true.
Although there are plenty of these horror stories, there are a lot more cyclists – bicycle mugging is still very rare.
