What is your location?
Southend on sea Essex. I have lived here all my life and seen it decline. It used to be a wonderful town (now City). Now full of homeless, druggies, crime and murdersā¦
I have a great bike lock, Dlock and cable, all kevlar reinforced and weighs almost the same as my bike. I think it is gold gradedā¦aka a London bike thief will take under 7 minutes to crack it, but thatās better than under 10 seconds
Our unsofisticated NZ thieves tend to just have bolt cutters. I quite enjoyed encountering one trying to nab my mateās bike locked with the lock. First he broke his bolt cutters. He then pulled out an angle grinder and shattered the blade on the D lock. The blade sliced him up pretty bad too. Karma. The lock still 100% intact with a few minor munch marks.
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But Iām stull careful in NZ. I lock my bike to my tent and a solid object when bikepacking. And I just ask if I can take my bike into a shop. If they say no, I ask if I can lock it up where the person on the till can see it. Never been denied yet.
āBetter to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.ā In the situations where I felt I needed to bring the bike in, including restocking food/drink at a bodega or grocery store, I just did, and never got kicked out. Had I asked, they likely would have said no.
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Tucson, Arizona, United States. Just for the record we have a coffee stop that happens after a World Famous Speed ride (The Shootout anyone?) where several high and low end (including a set of e-bikes) were stolen. One of the actors was caught leaving and received a stern warning not to come back (with a little physical encouragement as well). Since then the number of thefts dropped dramatically.
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