The Nice People Thread, No.16: A Universe of Niceness.

Pyxis

Am having loads of problems with the internet connection here. Might have to cry off trying to use it. 🙁

It's a nuisance as there are peops I need to keep in touch with.

GDB2222

LydiaJ wrote: »

Hmm...

Can't take it to a normal key cutting person because they're not the normal shape of keys. They look like this:



However, my attempts to find an online pic of keys of that shape to post in reply to you, Pyxis, led me to an article explaining that this shape of key was discovered to be easily pickable ... years and years ago. You can pick them with a plastic pen! Perhaps I'd better buy a new lock tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see what Kryptonite have to say about it when they reply. In 2004 they were offering free replacements to people with the pickable locks, but they'd already closed that deal by 2009, so I think I'm on my own. Trip to bike shop tomorrow, then. Or maybe Tuesday or Wednesday, when my work day won't be so busy because of not having a tutor group and being able to miss out all the "tutor group beginning of term faffing about". In the meantime, I'm not worried. When I'm at home, my bike is in the locked garage, and at work it's in a locked bike shed with CCTV covering it. Its main anti-theft feature, though, is its age. Anybody braving the CCTV to break into that bike shed looking to steal a bike won't choose mine.

I don't think you can do more than deter thieves. All these locks will fall apart if attacked by a big bloke with bolt croppers or an any-size bloke with a petrol or battery angle grinder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywN558dJaU

He cuts through them in a few seconds using brute force. No mention of picking the locks.

silvercar

My side gate looks like it is secured by a heavy bicycle chain and padlock.

Closer inspection would reveal that the chain is wrapped around the latch but not actually attaching anything to the post.

Pyxis

Blimey! An internet connection!

Something very startling, upsetting and rather shattering has happened in my AmDram group, and I am miles away with a carpy internet connection. Of all the times.

GDB2222 wrote: »

I don't think you can do more than deter thieves. All these locks will fall apart if attacked by a big bloke with bolt croppers or an any-size bloke with a petrol or battery angle grinder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pywN558dJaU

He cuts through them in a few seconds using brute force. No mention of picking the locks.

All you can do is make it a bit more difficult. Maybe by having two chains. Given the choice between cutting one chain and making off with the bike, and cutting two, I know which I'd do, were I a bicycle thief!

silvercar wrote: »

My side gate looks like it is secured by a heavy bicycle chain and padlock.

Closer inspection would reveal that the chain is wrapped around the latch but not actually attaching anything to the post.

I do something similar with my suitcase. The main section has those locking fob things that you slide a padlock through, but the flat front compartment doesn't, so I put a padlock on it anyway, so any potential thieves will think it is locked.


It's all about deterring the casual chancer thief, rather than the determined, totally tooled-up bike m a f I a.

chris_m

chris_m wrote: »

I'm now waiting for a callback from the chap I spoke to at the store (the last call helpfully gave me the caller ID) who said he'd look into it and get the correct packs of timber out to me today.
I'm also still awaiting an update from Customer Services about the five buckets they sent from the central warehouse which were wrong and have been collected but the correct ones haven't arrived.

Un-smegging-believable:mad::mad::mad::mad:

The package of the replacement buckets arrived today, except - there's only one in the box so I've now had to chase them about the other four, plus the timber which was promised (again) but didn't arrive (again) on Saturday.

zagubov

All this talk of Delboys and padlocks to deter thieves reminds me of a fellow student whose car was theftproof as it was a Reliant Robin. In fact I think he only had a motorbike license which he said was all he needed to legally drive it.

Pyxis

zagubov wrote: »

All this talk of Delboys and padlocks to deter thieves reminds me of a fellow student whose car was theftproof as it was a Reliant Robin. In fact I think he only had a motorbike license which he said was all he needed to legally drive it.

I think that's right. Three-wheelers were classed as motorbikes for the purposes of licences, IIRC.

Don't know if it's the same still.

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

All this talk of Delboys and padlocks to deter thieves reminds me of a fellow student whose car was theftproof as it was a Reliant Robin. In fact I think he only had a motorbike license which he said was all he needed to legally drive it.

My dad many years ago drove an ancient Lada. He was a builder, and said he could drive it into London with all his expensive tools in the boot. Nobody would break into the car as anyone who could afford £000s on tools would drive a,better car.

We even used to joke that he could leave it unlocked and rather than stealing his stereo, the thieves would feel sorry for him and install a better one.

The damn thing was so reliable and easy to fix that when it eventually died he bought another one.

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

I think that's right. Three-wheelers were classed as motorbikes for the purposes of licences, IIRC.

Don't know if it's the same still.

It's not - the entitlement to drive a three-wheeler on a bike licence ended in 2001, except for people who passed the relevant test(s) before then.

It's actually worse, though. Thanks to EU harmonisation, from 2013 the requirement is that one MUST have a motorcycle licence AND be over 21 to drive a trike or three-wheeler, a car licence will not do - again, except for people who passed the relevant test(s) before then.
This means that, for example, someone who wishes to collect and drive pre-war Morgans and did not hold a licence before 2013 will need a car licence for the 4-4 AND a bike licence for an F-series or Vee-Twin.

michaels

GDB2222 wrote: »

This is currently on sale at Amazon for £6. I bought three at 6p each, in a fit of MSE enthusiasm. Any suggestions for what to do with them? They are covers for a Samsung S8 phone, which I don't own, and even if I did I would not put one of these on it. If I give them to the charity shop, will they just bin them?

I just unintentionally stalked you on HUKD....unless someone else has the same user name...must be someone else as they have a rather racy avatar