Where’s my bike?!?!
26.09.2018For many students, a bike is the best and only means of transport. And surely it’s upsetting when someone takes your bike. Bikes go missing from the streets and courtyards, sometimes even from locked bike storage. The so-called professional bike thieves’ basic equipment includes wire and bolt cutters, which are effective in cutting most cable, folding, chain and U-locks, fast and without making a sound.
Because we like biking, during the rest of the year and the upcoming spring, we will survey current TOAS bike areas and bike storages, as well as different bike storage possibilities. We will go through all locations and examine how we could improve bike storage so that the bikes would stay safe and in order. We will give the tenants more information on this later.
So how can a tenant try to prevent someone from stealing their own two-wheeler? The most effective way is to lock the frame of the bike and the back wheel into a bike rack with a U-lock, and the front wheel into the frame and the bike rack with a cable lock. It’s also useful to check with your insurance company whether your home insurance covers bike theft, because no lock is a 100 per cent secure. If the bike hasn’t been locked, the insurance will of course not cover bike theft. Please lock your bike at least in some way.
Here are some tips for our biking tenants
- Always leave your bike in locked bike storage and lock it!
- Use both a U-lock and a cable lock.
- If you leave your bike on the street or in a courtyard, leave it where it can be seen and lock it as high in the frame as possible. Many passers-by don’t notice thieves lurking in dark bushes and corners, which makes the thieves more successful.
- Make sure that your home insurance is comprehensive enough.
If you’re interested in the subject, check out these links
A U-lock is a bike thief’s nightmare—with these tips your bike won’t be stolen easily.
A VIDEO by Oulun polkupyöräilijät ry: Lock your bike correctly.