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A very irritating cycle theft

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Apart from one bike have generally been pretty safe from cycle related crime. However, followers of our Facebook Page might be aware of this but I had a bit of a saga with my lights last week. It went a little like this.

Wednesday morning came down to find the front light bracket on my bike broken but with the light still there! Clearly a very stupid thief (although possibly not as stupid as me for leaving my lights on the bike overnight.) As was busy didn’t get round to buying another bracket (£5) until Friday night when cycled to Deptford for the launch of Union Cycle Works which was a great evening.

On the way home stopped off at British Film Institute to meet a friend for a drink. As I clearly hadn’t learnt my lesson I left my lights on the bike. By the time I got back at about 12am my front light had been nicked (and I also witnessed two women in veils and a man doing totally random dancing to a car stereo but that’s kind of beside the point.) Cue a fairly long and dark journey, which almost ended up in an accident when someone opened a car door as I was going past. Presumably because they couldn’t see me?

So to recap I now had a working front light bracket with no light plus back light was fully intact. But not for long. Tuesday morning came down to find that my back light had been pinched. So clearly the original thief had been studying “How to nick stuff for dummies” and worked out how to take lights off brackets. Which is really not difficult.

So I’ve learnt quite a few things. Firstly I’m an idiot. Secondly I will always take my lights off my bike in future (lights can get quite expensive - am down £45 so far!). Thirdly cycling without lights at night is really not a good idea.

However, I still don’t understand why people would steal a cycle light? What are they going to do with it? Answers and ideas below please!