Wow - over 3 months since my last post! Well overdue for another...meaning TBM has been going for over a year.
Now, I'm not blase about bike security; but I do match the precautions taken with the length of time the bike is going to be left unattended, using the wheellock for short periods outside shops, cafes etc(which is what it's meant for) and adding a security cord for longer periods. I plan to get a D-lock in the near future too. I wouldn't leave any of my bikes anywhere overnight unless it was a purpose built area with CCTV. So, recently, I had parked the Gazelle outside a supermarket and locked it using the wheel lock attached to the bike. The location is pretty central with plenty of security and CCTV. So, I was quite comfortable leaving it where it was freestanding with just the wheel lock on whilst I did some grocery shopping.
Anyways, I do my groceries and walk back to where I parked it outside the library opposite the supermarket, and...it's gone!!! Feelings of shock and to be honest, embarrassment came over me. Now, looking for reassurance, I told myself, whomever took it would have had to carry 23kg of bike around with them because of the lock so, not exactly worth the effort. Plus, I've yet to see a bike of that type in my area, unlike say, London, and they're rare there too, not exactly the most opportune target for a bike thief. So, I go walkabout around the shopping centre and car park, expecting to see it somewhere after the thief decided it wasn't worth the effort...nothing!
Now, noting the CCTV overlooking the place I'd parked it, I go into the supermarket and ask the security guard who watches the screen/console whatever it's called if he'd seen anyone take a large black bike, and yes he had, it was someone in a bright yellow jacket; he picked it up and took it round the corner - which I took to be the back of the library/service area at the back of the shops. I go back there and cannot see anything! Intriguing...but where's my bike???
Asking about, it turns out the man in the yellow jacket (like a hi-viz vest) is another security guard/caretaker and he has some sort of shed/lockup next to the library where he's put the Gazelle. He put it there because I'd left a little black bag (nothing valuable - it cost £1, but he wasn't to know) in the basket and he feared it would be a target for thieves. Which was nice of him, but it did give me a nasty shock...
So what's Geraldine all about then?
Well, some people give their bikes a name - especially bikes like this and the security guard, full of praise for the Gazelle and reckoning it cost £2000 (it cost less than half that actually) bet that I'd christened it Geraldine; I hadn't, but I have now.
So, Geraldine it is; what's yours called?
