Wet weather gear

Has anyone any tip's on wet weather cycling gear? Looks like the shorts will need to go away for a while now so I'll be looking for gear that's warm and watrproof.

Also tips on how to protect the bike from rust etc would be great.

Bank hols

Well a combination of pants weather and other obligations kept the bike in the garage.

However I have a weeks holiday coming up so should get some good bike time - plus an opportunity to talk to Dave about how we continue promoting the theft issue.

As we've both seen a poor communication link between the British Transport Police and One I might look into this area.

Another fellow victim

If you've read Dave's comment in the previous blog then you'll see there's a growing number of us who've suffered bike theft - we've talked outside of this forum and Dave was happy for me to share his thoughts with a few bits removed:

'I have had a fortunate (possibly) outcome of that I had ‘new for old’ insurance and just taken delivery of a xxx. The question is do I risk taking it to the station? If I do I will probably , lock it with two locks and something I haven’t tried before is to fit an alarm to it.Do you know of anyone who has used one? I have seen two on the net. One that arms automatically and I thought was great for kids who wouldn’t bother normally to switch it on when they just lay it down in the park at (http://www.ducharmealarmsystems.com/Index.html) and another that sells on ebay that arms with a key. Do you know if these are any good?'

So at what point did we need to start considering audio alarms for cycles within a locked environment?

Do you know the best bit? Dave is a print and design expert so we are going to consider a leaflet that would raise awareness of the issue. My initial thoughts are that the people who would benefit from the awareness are us the cyclists and the people who have to listen are ONE and the British Transport Police.

Any comments on possible content?

Dull weather

Well the bikes pretty safe at the moment - the weather here is pants and I am sure it is where you are as well.

So the bike is staying in the garage until either the weekend or the weather decides to remember 'its the middle of bloody summer!'

I have taken to locking the bike in the garage as well now.

If you are still out there cycling then good on you.

news this week

Looks like its an action packed cycling edition of the Chronicle this week:

Story 1 - 15 year old arrested for stealing a mountain bike around the back of the Meadows Shooping Centre. I'm all for chopping off his hands but thats probably a little extreme. The police are looking for the owner of the stolen mountain bike so get in touch if that could be you.

Story 2 - Hit and run of a cyclist on Saturday midnight in Benfleet. Police are looking for a van driver and there are witnesses. What starts off as an accident gets a whole lot more serious when you run.

Story 3 - two other bike thefts. One which was chained to railings in Backnang Square, Chelmsford and one from a shed in Great Baddow.

Made me think that I should also stick a lock on mine when its in the garage.

Bye.

And a more recent example

http://www.cyclecheltenham.org.uk/news_items/bikethieves.html

It's been proved to be successful - let's see it done in Chelmsford.

I'm going to track down the PR people at the British Transport Police and see if I get any joy.

Old article but great solution

I found this old artcile while searching for more on bike security - the police using tracking devices within 'fake' bikes to catch bike thieves. Clearly we have a pretty serious issue with bike theft in Chelmsford - not just at the station - what better way to catch the thieves?

Once again it just takes a little bit of a proactive stance from the Police, British Transport Police and ONE's agreement.

Come on - make an effort.

http://mondodesigno.com/stolenbike/bikebugs.html

Chelmsford cycle group

Here's a link to a cycle group in Chelmsford - I'll be sending off my £2 shortly.

http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/content/binaries/documents/cycling/
National_Bike_Week_2006/CCAG_family_bike_ride_flyer.pdf?channelOid=null

And then there were two

Thanks to Stephen http://chelmsford-stephenrobinson.blogspot.com/ for mentioning that he had his bike stolen from the station just as I did when the gates were meant to be locked. It looks as if the Chronicle article did raise awareness - I think if we can get a few more people we could start to lobby ONE to make some changes.

Not news but

Starting to research the issue of bike thefts in Chelmsford I came acrfoss articles from November 2005 www.essex.police.uk/news/n_cont.php?articleId=1860 so its clearly quite a common crime.

So do you use a good bike or buy a cheapr bike and not worry if its stolen? Juding by the bikes at the station its 20% good bikes and 80% 'not so good' - not a critisicm just an observation.

I'm sure that the situation at Chelmsford will jsut return to normal - gates etc will be left open when staff are busy, bikes will continue to be stolen. I wonder why ONE don't offer to postcode people's bikes using a few UV markers - now thats a great PR opportunity waiting to be grabbed.

If they were to partner up with Essex Police then both organisations could be seen to be doing something proactive - can't see it happening as it requires some imagination and some get up and go.

Until next time.

In print

Thank you to the Chronicle for being true to their word and publishing my story today 3/8 - 'Commuters Anger over bike thefts' - a good piece. www.thisisessex.co.uk

The irony is that ONE responded to the journalist but not to me - there's a quote saying they regret the theft etc etc but they never bothered to respond to my email - seems a bizarre attitude to me. I work in digital advertising and I spend a lot of time talking to clients on this issue of not ignoring customer complaints - the web now means everyone has a voice and even one person can start a wave of negative (or positive if its deserved) conversations. PR people really should have embraced this by now if they are any good.

So due to staffing issues and other reasons the bike doors may or may not be locked - there's no guarantee which, in my mind, makes the offer worthless. Do it or don't do it.

The Chronicle were good enough to print this blog address so maybe a few more people will pick up on the blog - the more people who are aware of the theft the more people who will be able to protect their property.