When people stare at your bike and ask you question...

[cwah]

Since I have an ebike, I have many people asking me questions about it.

For me, the bike is nice but not that special.


Sometimes, when I'm parking the bike, some people stand next to my bike and stare at it. They really look closely, it's like they want to try the bike.

Unfortunately, my main fear is to be stolen. It's so common in london. And the worse is when they call their friend to look at my bike.

Some of them have only 1 question, and this is the first and unique question:
"How much does it cost?"

When they ask me that question, I tend to lie and say something like:
"ooh.. it's a cheap bike from china. It cost roughly £400. Main cost is the shipping fee!"

Ok, I lied. This bike cost almost the double. But I'm so afraid of being stolen. Especially when they stay next to my bike once it's locked. Because I have to leave and join my friends...

What would you do in this land of thieves and temptations?

 

[flecc]

I'm also in a London Borough, one which is notorious for cycle thefts, but I've always told the truth about my e-bikes. People with thieving intentions don't tend to introduce themselves, they prefer to stay anonymous.

I've been single locking my e-bikes for six years now and never remove a battery, but I've never lost anything or suffered any vandalism. Key things are not to park in the same place at the same times daily, since that gives thieves a chance to prepare a theft. To be fairly sure, vary your routines and parking places and preferably double lock if the bike is left for a longish time. A good D lock plus a tough chain or cable lock should do the job.

 

[cwah]

I think it depends on the area you park your bike. I always park it close to the center (Leicester square, covent garden...), and the closer you are to the center, the more dangerous it is.

I have 1 D-lock, 1 cable and 1 chain lock for my bike and I always carry them together. That still doesn't prevent thiefs to steal my bike parts... within 1 hour sometime.

I purchased a comfy seat and got it stolen the next day!!
And also got quick repair box (you can see on the picture) stolen.

All easy to remove parts have been stolen. In my "non bike" life, my laptop, mobile, 2 cameras have been stolen since I live in London. So in about 1,5 year. That never happened to me in France for more than 20 years.

So now, for me London is the land of thiefs and I can't trust anyone.

 

[flecc]

Mine is an outer borough, Croydon, but it has held the London cycle theft record some years, so far from safe.

You've certainly been unlucky, but all day parking if you are doing that is obviously more risky. That's something I don't have to do.

 

[Deleted member 4366]

You could try an alarm with a tilt switch which goes off as soon as someone touches your bike. You can get a ready-made self-contained one like this- better than nothing but could do with being a bit louder. Plus, the 9v PP3 batteries only last about 3 weeks.
Bicycle Bike Security Alarm Warning Annunciator Lock | eBay
A cheap motorbike alarm would work if you could hide/box-in the wires. You could run it off your bike battery with a dc/dc converter.
motorcycle bicycle Vibration Detector Sensor Alarm 1007 | eBay
This one might do the job
NEW LM2596 Low Ripple DC-DC Converter Step Down Buck Module Power Supply | eBay

 

[steveindenmark]

I did tell a group of youths that my Tonaro had a built in GPS in the frame which was powered by the crank in case it was stolen. They were very impressed and certainly believed me.

Steve

 

[Deleted member 4366]

Merry Xmas Cwah.
I think I know why people like to study your bike because I found myself doing the same - in particular at the rear rack that doesn't look right.
You have suspension on your bike so the rack should be fiitted only to the rear sub-frame, but I think I can see something attached to the battery area. If I'm right, this would either lock out your suspension or behave as a mechanism and shake to bits.
It's not very clear in the photo so maybe I've got it wrong. In my reckoning you need a couple of struts from the front of the rack to just above where the rear lightor reflector is mounted, i.e. just below the top pivot.

 

[cwah]

Merry christmas D3ven and all members from Pedelecs

I like the alarm idea but my bike is already overcrowded. People in my workplace say it's a terminator bike and ask me if it can fly. I'm trying to reduce the number of gadget rather than adding more lol. Unless it's a very clever addition, I'll try not to add anything more.

And yeah, the rear rack doesn't look right at all. It seems it's going to fall apart. I completely removed the rack for now. I may put it again later but I'm trying to clean up my bike