Low life in Dordrecht

On our recent research trip for the new edition of Rhine 2 from Emmerich to Hoek van Holland we had noticed that our maps were out of date and so I nipped into the VVV information centre in Dordrecht to buy more up-to-date maps to check the routes when we finally finish the book. While I was away Judith chatted up a bicycle policeman and asked him about bike theft. He replied that Dutch roadsters were a favourite of Dutch thieves. "Odd or special" bikes like our Bromptons were not of interest to the bike thieves. They were too difficult to get rid of. The reverse is true in London.  Bromptons are standard bikes there and seem to be very high on thieves' hit lists.

Judith experiences the long arm of the law.

Bike Theft Locks

The German consumer testing organisation has recently tested bike locks and to put matters succinctly the organisation is not impressed. By far the majority of the locks did not stand up to the treatment handed out by a group of determined "bike thieves". What this means I suspect one needs to check around before handing over your hard-earned cash for a lock. I cannot give you the results of this test which is in German anyway because the test organisation would like €2.50 to release the results and would not like me to give it away for free. However there is a summary in German on http://fahrradschlosstest.net/fahrradschloss-stiftung-warentest/.

• However one piece of advice from the article that I can give readers for free is that bike thieves in Germany specialise in one particular type of lock, so it pays to use two types of lock when you lock your bike up.  

Our advice would be in addition:

• Keep your bike somewhere parked in the open in view during the day. 
• At night lock the bike away in a closed room. In addition try to run the locks through all the wheels. Do you really want loose your high quality wheels? 
• Lock the bike to a solid piece of street furniture. Otherwise the thief can pop your bike in a van and it's goodbye bike.
• If you are travelling in a group lock all the bikes together. The bike rustlers will find it difficult to put a package of four or five bikes into the back of white van.