Thought I'd share (rant) about what happened today after I locked my bike in George Street outside the Standing Order. Maybe food for thought too.
Returned to my bike at about 1800 after about an hour to discover I could not unlock the lock. The Halfords D-lock appeared to have been interfered with. It was not possible to insert the key as the centre rotating part of the lock was approx 30 degrees from the correct position. There were other fresh marks on the lock.
My plan was to "rescue" my bike asap in case the thief returned and to remove the lock later.
I returned about 1900 "tooled up" and proved how easy it is to steal my own bike.
I had locked my bike to a 2.5m pole with a parking regulations sign on it next to the Motorcycle parking. I was able to stand on the metal fence and remove the sign from the pole, lift my locked bike 2.5m in the air to remove it from the pole and reinstate the sign in about 10 minutes. I then carried my locked bike for about 30 minutes to get it home. No one appeared to notice me at all.
First time I've needed to break a D-lock. Tried and failed using the Bic method, then using a basic hack saw I cut through the lock in less than 10 minutes.
In future, even though it is my "pub" bike I'll be more careful where and how I lock it.
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