Tag: security

May 4th – I was, to put it bluntly, shagged out. I slept well, and there was nothing wrong with my legs or body, but my eyes were sore and I felt weary.  Not the usual post-ride dehydration, though, so the new gels I was using must be working. The day after a century ride I normally feel hungover. Today, just jaded.

I nipped up to the new Farmers Market at Chasewater, and was pleasantly surprised; after the disaster of the Innovation Centre-organised Christmas Fayre with 4 stalls, this commercially organised event was busy, even at my late hour. It wasn’t huge, but there was some interesting stuff to buy, and I spent fifteen quid on various bits and pieces.

Only one snag – no real produce stalls: if this was a Farmers Market, the farmers didn’t know: I hope this can be rectified for future events – we have Big Tasties locally for meat, bakers and cheese-mongers, so lets hope they take a stall; if they do, tis market will be banging in no time at all.

I was taken with the basket hack on a bike I spotted locked nearby; serious thought has gone into that. Bit more needs to go into the locking technique, though…

April 22nd – Using a bike rack, you’re doing it wrong (and making it difficult for anyone else to do so, too).

Photo taken through the train window whilst stopped at Butlers Lane this morning, hence poor quality, sorry.

Come on you dozy wazzock, it ain’t rocket science, is it?

March 12th – I landed at New Street at an unusual time, between trains. The station was heaving, and I wasn’t enjoying it, so hopped on the first service leaving in my general direction, to Four Oaks. Leaving there to cycle home on a hazy, sunny afternoon, I noticed the cycle parking there was pretty well used, with some nice bikes that were well locked.

That GT 29er is a lovely bike.

British Transport Police clearly take security seriously here, as there’s warnings about decoy tracker bikes and locking yours up with at least two locks.

One assumes this has been a theft hotspot – I can’t recall ever seeing such dedicated warnings anywhere else locally.

That aside, it’s a decent shelter, with good racks. Well played, Centro. Let’s have some more, please.

September 10th – This just in from the ‘You’re having a bloody laugh’ department. A I noted last week, security at the bike parking facilities in the ‘new’ New Street Station is notoriously bad. Daily, the tally of thefts and vandalism increases. Notwork Fail, in their wisdom, stonewall any criticism or constructive comment.

Today, I noted they’ve been pro-active. They have pasted up a life-size photo of a copper on the hoarding behind the racks. 

This has to be a joke. Fellow cyclists, Network Rail are taking the piss.

(Sorry about the poor quality close-up, taking photos at New Street is frowned upon)

July 18th – Commuting, security and bike racks. In preparation for tunnelgeddon hitting Brum at the weekend – when the city’s Queensway tunnels are closed for six weeks for refurbishment and traffic chaos is expected to ensue – Birmingham City council have been encouraging car or public transport commuters to take to their bikes instead. This is a good idea, and to support it, bike racks have been springing up around the city centre like mushrooms. It’ll be interesting to see what happens.

But then there’s what you do when you get to a rack. I was intrigued by the bike I spotted on the way to work this morning, which had no less than three locks wrapped around the seatpost. Only 2 looked like they were used regularly, and the third is made of cheese. That’s serious extra weight to be carrying.

An odd thing, indeed.

May 20th – A small result. The bike racks at Birmingham New Street Station – relocated to a dark corner on the the opening of the new concourse – were formerly only bolted to the ground and could easily be disassembled by thieves to steal users steeds. I noticed this morning that the ordinary nuts securing the Sheffield frames had been replaced with shear nuts, which are nigh-on impossible to remove. For added security, they’ve been bonded on with thread lock adhesive. This makes them much more secure.

I hope Network Rail have learned something from the bad publicity here. It ain’t rocket science really, is it?