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Reading station cycle hub racks have design fault says commuter

Manufacturer investigating but says it’s had no previous complaints

A commuter has claimed there is a design flaw in the cycle racks installed at Reading Station after he had his four-week-old bike stolen. The council has spoken to the racks’ manufacturers and they are now investigating, but added that problems had not been reported anywhere else.

Nick Ralph told Get Reading that his bike had been secured to one of the cycle hub racks with a Kryptonite D-lock but when he returned in the evening, it had gone.

"All the thieves had needed to do was remove four small bolts and carry the bike away, still locked to part of the cycle rack. I checked the racks a couple of days after mine was stolen and three have been dismantled in the same way so it's clear this is an issue. Obviously this is a very poor design and something needs to be done otherwise bikes will continue to be stolen in the same way."

Ralph has urged people not to use the racks and added: "There is a little lay-by by the racks so it's easy to park a van there and they could be off in seconds."

Funded by the Local Sustainable Transport Fund, Reading Railway Station’s cycle parking hub opened in May with space for over 600 bikes.

Reading Borough Council spokesman, David Millward, said:

"The council has spoken to the manufacturer of the cycle parking racks about this reported incident at the northern interchange at Reading station and they say there have not been any issues of this nature at any of their other installations across the country.

"However, the company is now investigating the report and we will be requiring them to come back to the council with their findings. The 600-space cycle parking hub is well lit and visible from a CCTV camera located adjacent to the racks in Trooper Potts Way."

Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.

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15 comments

Avatar
a1white | 7 years ago
1 like

My Local Asda only has a few of these rubbish Butterfly stands. Car parking for hundreds of stands, but they see fit that these crappy worthless things are good for bikes. This is South East London- Put any bike of value on these and you'll come back to just a front wheel! Ridiculous that they think these are acceptable.

Avatar
Pub bike | 7 years ago
0 likes

They should have used security nuts that shear off at a predetermined torque.  Anything that needs a tool means the thieves will find a tool.

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P3t3 replied to Pub bike | 7 years ago
0 likes

Pub bike wrote:

They should have used security nuts that shear off at a predetermined torque.  Anything that needs a tool means the thieves will find a tool.

 

Yep, that or as a retro-fix a blob of weld on the bolts.  

Back to the subject, they have these double decker racks in places like Amsterdam... where there is so much demand they have the biggest bicycle parking in the world.  Back in Reading some Sheffield stands would have done the trick for the circa 20-30 bikes that park there.  Parking is low downt he list of things to fix.  

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WillRod | 7 years ago
3 likes

Are there any security problems with the Sheffield Stand concreted in the pavement?

Ok, you can only attach 2 or 3 bikes to each one, but I have never had a problem with one yet.

As for the ones that only grip one wheel. Surely they are next to useless?

Avatar
brooksby replied to WillRod | 7 years ago
2 likes

WillRod wrote:

As for the ones that only grip one wheel. Surely they are next to useless?

Yep. But it's only bicycles, innit?

My local Tesco still uses the toast racks, despite people complaining. A Tesco Extra the size of Wales, with acres of free car parking, but they can only afford a toast rack with total room for maybe sixteen bikes. Grocery must be the terrible business...

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burtthebike replied to brooksby | 7 years ago
1 like

brooksby wrote:

My local Tesco still uses the toast racks, despite people complaining. A Tesco Extra the size of Wales, with acres of free car parking, but they can only afford a toast rack with total room for maybe sixteen bikes. Grocery must be the terrible business...

My local Tesco also has toast racks, and just to make the point that cyclists really aren't all that welcome, they have the sloping top tube so your bike falls over.  I have mentioned this several times to the management with the rather predictable result of nothing happening.  I don't shop there any more.

 

Avatar
brooksby replied to burtthebike | 7 years ago
1 like

burtthebike wrote:

brooksby wrote:

My local Tesco still uses the toast racks, despite people complaining. A Tesco Extra the size of Wales, with acres of free car parking, but they can only afford a toast rack with total room for maybe sixteen bikes. Grocery must be the terrible business...

My local Tesco also has toast racks, and just to make the point that cyclists really aren't all that welcome, they have the sloping top tube so your bike falls over.  I have mentioned this several times to the management with the rather predictable result of nothing happening.  I don't shop there any more.

Ah yes, these:

https://goo.gl/images/Fu2diz

Tesco must have bought them in bulk...

They just bolt to the floor, so the bolts have a suspicious tendency to go missing.

And even though there are hundreds of car parking spaces, often half empty, there are only three of these racks (space for maybe sixteen bikes).

I have to admit, I choose to go to a different supermarket which uses 'proper' Sheffield stands now.

I wrote and complained to Tesco (after speaking to their customer services stand numerous times), but they clearly don't give a cr@p.

Avatar
GoSlowToo | 7 years ago
0 likes

The other thing you  - sorry manufacturer / supplier / fitter  - can do is hammer a ball bearing into the hex hole.

 

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A V Lowe | 7 years ago
4 likes

Noted that these racks at Euston also had missing nuts  and this one at Croydon was only secure because the shelter roof got in the way when rollers fell out the back.

https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1700/24647137464_fc940d020b_z.jpg

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5766/24028364301_36990e1c53_m.jpg

Many tin bashing companies leapt on the bandwagon to make look-alike units with thinner steel, minimal galvanising, fewer and cheaper rollers & bearings.

One notorious maker who supplied Southeastern at Orpington & Sevenoaks to my knowledge, plus Milton Keynes Central and Glasgow Caledonian University has now gone out of business - by far the worst made, and worst assembled units I've ever seen where the lack of a detent meant that is one rack got rolling a whole domino effect could bring the upper tier crashing down (twice at Sevenoaks hitting a user on the head and requiring hospital treatment) As they say buy cheap - buy twice.

The 2-tier design was originally by Jan Kuipers, who still make one of the better designs, and the Orion units (German) are a defining standard, but their cost cannot compete against the corner cutting designs - even Falco has had to offer a 'budget' model ,  to a substantially lower spec than their regular units, to win contracts awarded on price rather than to meet a basic quality standard.

It is also worth noting that many installations skimp further by reducing the space to load the racks properly,  you need at least 4 metres from back of the rack to the nearest obstruction in front. By reducing the loading space the parking capacity can be made to appear more impressive.  Its also worth noting that the 2-level overlapping basic stands, widely used in NL, Germany, Italy  etc offer a parking density close to that for 2 tiers at a muct lower cost with no moving parts... 

 

Avatar
chrisbrown2050 | 7 years ago
9 likes

I don't believe Falco, the manufacturer. Cambridge cycle point has the same racks with exactly the same fault: the lock bracket can be unscrewed with a screwdriver bit available for £1.79. We have complained to the Falco rep, and since then we believe some of the racks were fixed. I took this picture in February: https://www.cyclestreets.net/users/chrisbrown/photos/#&gid=1&pid=2 Why they don't just weld the lock brackets to the stands in the first place I have no idea.

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Prosper0 | 7 years ago
2 likes

Lots of the new double decker bike rack appearing at stations are completely not fit for purpose. No way to lock the frame!?

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Cupov | 7 years ago
5 likes

And when people don't use these racks the public will complain of money being wasted on cyclists.

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kamoshika | 7 years ago
1 like

Sounds like a right f#*k up! How hard can it be to design a bike rack that's fit for purpose? Are there any photos / could any Reading based road.cc readers go and take some? Curious to see just how bad the design is.

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brooksby | 7 years ago
1 like

I suspect neither the council not the rack manufacturers are going to be in a hurry to admit there's a problem...

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Dr_Lex | 7 years ago
2 likes

Condolences to Mr Ralph; when he says that his bike was stolen "still locked to part of the cycle rack" and that "three [racks] have been dismantled in the same way", does that mean that there are missing components to bring to the attention of council and equipment provider?

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