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Was attacked on the canals in Birmingham today for my bike, it’s my work bike, bit shaken but no injuries, police great tbh did really well but obv no luck.
I’m concerned about my garmin, can anyone else access its data to find my start points? I’ve contacted garmin but obv it’s a weekend. Anyone know?
Also it’s an Orange speedwork grey 2019 model it’s as purchased no upgrades as it was my work commuter.
That's shit.
Can you track the Garmin to see where it is?
That's shoot, as I'm about to be commuting on the canal into Manchester. Old 90's MTB though. Saved Garmin rides are accessible though - works as a standard USB.
Really sorry to hear that, that's dreadful. 'No injuries' is a result in the circumstances. Are you insured?
Glad you're OK- seem to recall reports of other similar incidents on canals around Birmingham, presumably the Police will put 2 & 2 together if there's a connection.
Good chance they slung it in the cut as it would identify your bike.
Good luck
Garmin only works gps of ride is ended and it’s uploaded via phone Bluetooth so guessing if they try that it will
Automatically go to my strava? And at least give me an idea of where it might be.
Police very quick on the scene but obv too late.
Garmin only works gps of ride is ended and it’s uploaded via phone Bluetooth so guessing if they try that it will
Automatically go to my strava?
In order to do that they'd have to have your phone as well.
What happens is Garmin sends the file to your phone to upload that to Strava. Without your phone that won't happen so you won't see where they were when they stopped and saved the ride.
They can save the ride on the garmin and see the route on it or they can simply link it up to their phone or laptop and download the routes.
That’s a bit of a concern. Guessing no way of knowing if that’s happened via the garmin connect app.
No because they'd have to know your Garmin connect details to load the file up too.
It's just saved as a data file on the garmins drive so they just access that and everything else on it.
F********ck! Can I ask whereabouts?
So sorry to hear that.
It’s scary! A friends son, aged 14, and a few of his mates all have nice bikes as they compete at junior level in Enduro events. They’re all really good riders
2 nights ago they were stopped at the jump spot they’ve built in the woods by the local park by a group of 30-odd year old blokes who threatened them with knives and took their bikes off them.
One of the bikes had a tracker and was traced back to scrote central about 6 miles away. Looks like the scumbags are travelling to target kids in local spots and take their bikes off them at knife-point
This is in east lancs/north Manchester
LMT
Free Member
Was attacked on the canals in Birmingham today for my bike, it’s my work bike, bit shaken but no injuries, police great tbh did really well but obv no luck.I’m concerned about my garmin, can anyone else access its data to find my start points? I’ve contacted garmin but obv it’s a weekend. Anyone know?
Also it’s an Orange speedwork grey 2019 model it’s as purchased no upgrades as it was my work commuter.
As a born and bred brummie,(live in rural yorkshire now) thats shocking, guessing its small heath tyseley way ? ... know there had been people jumped for their bikes before, loved riding the miles of canals and really miss them sometimes , but dont miss the shit Birmingham comes with either, let me know the exact area and ill message and warn a few others as well , good luck getting the bike back
Yep it was small Heath on the canal just by the ackers trust, one jumped out in front of me and before I realised it his mate was behind me taking swings at me with a massive spanner. Apparently on Twitter you can’t describe them as 2 Asian males, who as I found out had backup just on the bridge so 4 in total.
Hi yep it was by the ackers trust over canal bridge, jumped out just as the side of it.
This is in east lancs/north Manchester
My godson in south Manchester has had two bikes taken off him by youths in the park. He's a big lad but luckily has had the sense to realise a bike can be replaced and he can't be.
LMT
Free Member
Yep it was small Heath on the canal just by the ackers trust, one jumped out in front of me and before I realised it his mate was behind me taking swings at me with a massive spanner. Apparently on Twitter you can’t describe them as 2 Asian males, who as I found out had backup just on the bridge so 4 in total.
shit news mate , exactly same as last year , maybe the year before as well , hope your ok etc , one of the reasons I moved out of Birmingham, got fed up of that shit!
I saw this on Twitter earlier. It’s something I’ve always had in the back of my mind when riding along the river path in Maidstone.
Hope you get your bike back, and that the experience doesn’t put you off riding your remaining bikes.
It won’t, but will question where I ride and when a bit more. The canals during lockdown have been a lifeline, that’s gone now.
It’s scary! A friends son, aged 14, and a few of his mates all have nice bikes as they compete at junior level in Enduro events. They’re all really good riders
2 nights ago they were stopped at the jump spot they’ve built in the woods by the local park by a group of 30-odd year old blokes who threatened them with knives and took their bikes off them.
One of the bikes had a tracker and was traced back to scrote central about 6 miles away. Looks like the scumbags are travelling to target kids in local spots and take their bikes off them at knife-point
Worries me too with my lad and his mates.
My son who was 20 at the time was riding along the river in York to meet me when three lads jumped him and knocked him off his bike (nice MTB) i was about 10 yards away...
Lets just say they were a tad suprised by my flanking attack...
Happens a lot around posh York
Slight tangent, but I've noticed when I upload to Strava it puts the serial number of my garmin on it, 'upload from device such and such'
Is there any way to search for that serial number? If they do sell it on to someone who uses it might be possible to find them and ask where they bought it
Proper sucks for the OP but just for a bit of balance. I've been using Sheffield canal a lot more recently, on one occasion I spotted 3 guys coming towards me, they didn't look particularly friendly and had that classic stumbling walk of heroin addicts, as I got closer one started shouting to his mate and I thought "here we go" but as I got up to them the first two stepped nicely aside and suggested I just if the third guy doesn't move I should "just ****ing knock him in, he's a waste of space". Probably the most polite people I met all day.
Glad it wasn’t any worse OP. We’re spoilt by having the canals around here, sadly incidents like this spoil it for us, I’ve seen a viral video of someone on a bike getting pushed in to the canal at Wordsley crystal near me, fake or not it makes me apprehensive when passing a few lads.
I want to ride the canals over that way but wary of doing so on my own (started by the reports of people being mugged by Cadbury’s and the Uni a few years back) I just hope that my odd looking Fargo with Jones loop bars isn’t appealing to them or I can use it as battering ram to ride through them
I’ve been using the canals for years, through lockdown getting bigger rides in, much bigger, there’s a few ranging around 60 miles. We have a great network, but there’s obv a areas to be aware of.
I’ve met some great people during lockdown and it’s been a lifesaver but it appears it’s just not safe in certain areas.
After talking to the police this morning, this isn’t an isolated incident and it wasn’t public knowledge that recently there’s been a few at the same point.
So sorry to read this OP. Being mugged is an awful experience. Just glad that you’re not hurt. ****ing scumbags
Well done OP for not risking it, glad you are unharmed.
Hopefully the police will do an undercover operation with a plain clothes Bobby or two riding up and down there on some nice bikes from their stores
Thats awful to hear. Im not too far away and know a few folk over that way so will put a few messages out for you. Chances are its on a fake facebook profile for a quick score or shpock etc. Glad to hear your ok though bud! Like someone else has said, a bike can be replaced.
That is very unpleasant, glad you are physically OK.
I’m concerned about my garmin, can anyone else access its data to find my start points? I’ve contacted garmin but obv it’s a weekend. Anyone know?
If the thieves know about Garmins then they could connect it to a computer via its USB port and download the GPX the files that are stored in the internal memory and then analyse the files with any of the numerous services or programs that can do this.
But if they know enough to do that, I think that they are more likely to do a factory reset ASAP and remove any link to you in the data.
That sucks ,sorry to hear OP. Hope you get some follow up. As other’s have said hope you are OK physically but also (when the time is right) maybe take time to address the effect this can have one’s mood/future plans for cycling. May be time to ride a beater and wear running shoes/wear a conspicuous helmet-cam
It’s sad, I grew up cycling-commuting along Midlands canals (and later on MTBs) and never thought or heard about such a thing happening. Times are a-changing.
Hopefully the police will do an undercover operation with a plain clothes Bobby or two riding up and down there on some nice bikes from their stores
“Inspector Plainclothes successfully disarmed the primary attacker by kicking the armed attacker into the canal. Inspector Plainclothes simultaneously tasered the attacker’s nearest accomplice mid-manoeuvre, while tracking a further two fleeing accomplices via 360deg helmet-cam equipped with facial recognition. Armed-drone-support successfully neutralised the fleeing suspects as they attempted to scale a fence situated 300 yards away from the initial encounter. At time of going to press it was not known if any of the suspects survived the incident”
I grew up cycling-commuting along Midlands canals (and later on MTBs) and never thought or heard about such a thing happening. Times are a-changing.
No they aren't, we're just much better at reporting it these days. You would've been pretty hard pressed to jump on an Internet forum to report the theft of several thousands of pounds' worth of bikes in the 1970s. Gangs of shitheads is not a 21st Century phenomenon.
Also,
He’s a big lad but luckily has had the sense to realise a bike can be replaced and he can’t be.
That.
I’m concerned about my garmin, can anyone else access its data to find my start points?
I'd hazard it's far more likely to be fenced in the local boozer for a pint of Evo-Stick than it is to be forensically analysed by Neo to find your home address.
It does rather raise an interesting point though; it's easy to worry about "what if...?" after it's too late. Lock your devices, back up your data, don't start a GPS track from your front door.
It’s an old edge 250 not sure it can be locked? I had recently wiped it as it’s all on strava and seems daft on both so only about 5-6 rides on it. Strava I have privacy zones but yep in future start the clock a bit futher away.
Edge 520, autocorrect…
Having just skimmed this thread, I took my youngest out for a local spin, local alley with a get off and push under gate there's a tracksuited scrote stood rolling a spliff on the seat of a Trek Rail E-mtb which looked a good £3+k above his typical price bracket (sorry for the assumptions)...
As I trundled my ancient stumpy past him he was clearly just eyeballing it, to the extent that I was looking directly at him for a good five or six seconds and he was focussed entirely on the bike (or my crotch) pretty much oblivious to me.
The graphics are sublimated black on black, and it's a good few years out of date so he probably had no clue what it actually was but could clearly smell a level "proper bike" about it...
It was the sheer obviousness of it, it wasn't an admiring glance, it was a long appraisal of the risk/rewards of knicking a bike off a bloke out riding with his kid...
I suppose the whole covid cycling boom has made bike theft an even more appealing option, the likelihood of capture is as low as ever, while the rewards are currently higher.
It was the sheer obviousness of it, it wasn’t an admiring glance, it was a long appraisal of the risk/rewards of knicking a bike off a bloke out riding with his kid…
I'd have let him then made off with his eeb after the thick **** took your beater.
Or alternatively, maybe he was just trying to work out what it actually was.
That is awful. Hope it doesn’t do your brain in too much.
I commute via canal in Leeds. Had a few situations with gangs etc, but I am a bit intimidating/ugly.
I got grabbed round the neck by a bloke a while ago and I laughed in his face, he backed down. Crapped myself.
Used to ride through harehills and chapeltown with a bike chain in my pocket years ago. I was ready for it.🥴
These days I don’t know? Not sure I could hand over my bike to anyone though. Maybe I would. Or maybe I would go nuts?
Hope you can get back on the canal one day and feel safe✌🏻
Same thing happened to me by a canal in Glasgow almost 25 years ago now. Funnily enough it was for my Orange P7 (maybe there's something about Oranges).
The police actually got the bike back in the end and the two junkies who did it plead guilty. Still ****ed me up for a good while after though.
Today’s lesson, don’t use John Lewis insurance, they are claiming as I didn’t have this bike on the insurance listed due to it being under the requested value they won’t pay anything. Won’t even cover the garmin or gopro attached to the bike.
Not sure where to go now…maybe c2w scheme.
That really is shit LMT. You must be seriously pissed off.
Hope you sort something out soon.
Tossbags.
Look at your home insurance? Or is that what that was?
It was my home insurance, I didn’t list my work bike as it’s under there value but the call handler was pretty blunt and no empathy at all. I understand if I’m not covered I’m not covered but his attitude was as if i was just making it up and making his day worse.
Just a word of caution if you do tell the C2W people: if you still have outstanding payments then you’ll lose the tax relief as you now don’t have a bike. So not only have you lost the bike, but you will have to pay extra for the privilege. It’s not their fault and it doesn’t seem fair, but it’s the rules from the Inland Revenue.
Today’s lesson, don’t use John Lewis insurance, they are claiming as I didn’t have this bike on the insurance listed due to it being under the requested value they won’t pay anything. Won’t even cover the garmin or gopro attached to the bike.
Doesn't make sense. Back up a bit.
Did they tell you to list bikes above a certain value only?
Was the bike under that value at the time?
Was it under that value when stolen?
Did they tell you you had to tell them if the bike changed in value and went over the threshlold?
What do you mean by "the requested value"?
I'd not accept that from the insurance gang. I'd have another go with a different agent, and if still the same response go through the formal complaints procedure. You've got to do that before you can go to the insurance ombudsman. Resolver website might be useful here. https://www.resolver.co.uk/about
That sounds very odd indeed. Check your policy thoroughly. In my experience if its UNDER a given value it need not be listed.
And sorry about the loss of your bike, some people are just scumbags. Me and all my mates had our BMXs taken from us around 1983 and that still bugs me to this day.
Resolver website might be useful here.> https://www.resolver.co.uk/about
I've used resolver before and it worked very well (4 month long battle with My Hermes over a parcel they admitted losing)
C2W it’s an old one, my current scheme I got clothing and shoes and it’s on its last payment.
The insurance stated originally they would cover up to £500, bike is an Orange speedworks at £899 so I didn’t list it as value over years dropped, I have my mtb listed as a separate unit. I thought it would be at least covered up to £500 and with my garmin and other bits but unfortunately they are declining to offer anything. A friend is an insurance broker she is looking at the policy for me and if it’s my fault and so be it, she will find me a much better deal if it’s there’s she will give me the technical wording I need to get it sorted.
When I lived in East LDN I was riding to Shoreditch along the Regents Canal on my Kuota carbon CX, a commuter not looking coming in the opposite direction hit me head on and bent my front wheel making the bike unrideable. It happened just next to Queensbridge Road Hackney and it took about 5 minutes for the 'vultures' to see there was 'injured prey'with a very nice bike to be swooped down on. I instantly realised this & thought my best plan of action was to leave the canal and head up onto the road. I also called my mate to see if he would pick me up which he said NP I'm on my way. I sat on wall in the most conspicuous place possible and waited. About 10 minutes later I heard a scooter along the road and somehow intuitively held on tight to the bike, the scooter mounted the pavement came straight at me and the pillion passenger went to grab the grab ! Luckily my grasps was tight enough for him to let go or else he would have been yanked off the back. SHIT ! I knew this was gonna get worse so I headed back down on th canal where there was plenty of commuters and as I expected the 'vultures' gathered heading towards me. I found a huge stick but thought 'don't take a stick to a knife fight' then thought **** it I'll throw the bike in the canal and come back for it - they're not very deep. Just then my mate turned up on the bridge overlooking where I was and he's quite a big ol' unit (rugby) the gremlins saw him and backed off - I legged it up the bridge to his car and got away 😀 Eventually sold the bike during lockdown
I’d not accept that from the insurance gang. I’d have another go with a different agent, and if still the same response go through the formal complaints procedure
Definitely - I've phoned about car insurance before and got some smug, unhelpful **** on the phone, wouldn't give any details about the claim - called the next day and got a completely different response from a very helpful agent. Found out everything. (Churchill this was, I won't use them again)
the call handler was pretty blunt and no empathy at all. I understand if I’m not covered I’m not covered but his attitude was as if i was just making it up and making his day worse.
Is that perhaps designed to intimidate you not to pursue the claim?
If they really don't have any obligation under your existing policy then surely there is no reason why it shouldn't be explained in a calm sympathic way?
People who know they are right tend to be calm and patient.
The insurance stated originally they would cover up to £500, bike is an Orange speedworks at £899 so I didn’t list it as value over years dropped...
Ah, maybe if it's a new for old policy you should have told them about the proper replacement value. Still sucks though, I hope your underwriter friend can help you out. They should at least give you the £500, less whatever your excess is.
FSA might be a help here.
Update on the insurance, had an apology about how the call was handled, the guy in complaints came across genuine and much better than the initial calls. Oddly he only deals with complaints and I was advised to call sales and find out what’s gone wrong.
So a lengthy call, the person I spoke to said my policy had issues as I had listed bikes there’s no reason I wouldn’t have bike cover, it’s seems my other bikes would only of been covered if stolen from the house because at some point they have made an error. If that error works in my favour I have no idea, it’s being reviewed again I should find out in a few days what the outcome is.
Not sure what’s worse trying to sort this out or finding a bike, very little in stock. My plus bike has picked up commuter duties for now.
Fingers crossed! Hopefully they'll want to offer you some kind of payment to deflect the chances of a proper complaint for their customer service performance/mistakes.
I think in that regards there won’t be anything, most including where I work feel apologising is enough, went through a stage of apologise goodwill but most feel there’s no need as it’s been abused. In my favour there is a recorded call and they have said it’s not acceptable from the call handlers.
Police appeal
Looks like a junkie.
It's terrible that the police waited until someone was injured by the perp to pull their finger out and launch an appeal.
There’s been about 15 attacks that I’m aware of since mine, last 2 that I’m aware of have lead to hospitalisation of the guys attacked. In the last week the police finally upped there game with patrols but after yesterday’s attack it’s still not enough.
I’ve replaced my bike, and other stuff, and avoid the canals now as it’s not worth the risk.
I missed this when It was originally posted. I have cycled a lot on the canals in Birmingham over the last 30 years with zero trouble.
The only reason I can think that’s the case is because I never cycle on them alone - always with at least one if not more other people. I’ve often felt that if I was alone something like that theft experienced by the OP could easily happen.
Sorry to hear of your original theft and now the insurance hassle OP. Both suck.
I wonder how it would go down if you threw your own bike in the canal, or even jumped in too....
Pleased you are Ok, OP
I always used to cycle south on the canals never had any issues but lockdown a mate lives the other side of the city so we started meeting up halfway down the canals, we have had some great days out on the bikes but this experience has stopped me, and him too.
The insurance was terrible they never paid out a penny, ended up ditching them and signed up with admiral on the face they seem much better, able to change new for old and increase value of bikes in line with value of the new models.
Only downside is i got a trek hardtail for work duties while it’s trail ready..I’m doubting it has the balls tbh! Need to replace the forks and tyres so I can use it to hit the trails after work next spring.
It’s odd to explain I get some anxiety mostly at work when I’m running the shift solo which is rare but due to sickness at work/covid and having to have an unplanned night cover means more of running solo, but it’s better than it was.
The police have removed the post, here’s hoping they have arrested the offender.
I hope so, was a decent mug shot so hopefully someone has identified him
I’ll keep my fingers crossed. I shared the shit out of it today.
There were a few racist replies so it might have gone due to that as well but let's hope they have him.
^^ Always a risk IME.
Not nice LMT hope you're OK buddy.
Rest assured Karma is an absolute bitch and I really doubt these gentlemen will reach their full potential in life.