Since risk of harm from crime while cycling is not expressly related to the operation of a High Wheel bicycle, I’ll file these sort of things under the “Bloopers” category rather than “Safety“.
20251120 Strong-Arm Robbery, East London
Just passing Bow Church DLR station @ 0435 on a freezing morning (I departed exactly @ 0200) There’s a strong-Arm robbery: A male & female black are trying to strip the property of a male black who ain’t giving it up. On the rear camera mounted under my saddle you can see these mutts take him to the ground. There’s no faces visible in the video, so wasn’t worth sending to the “police”. Not that they’d do anything even if there were. The reason this shit is happening near a busy road is because The Met “police” no longer have any credibility with the criminals- or the public they were meant to serve but consistently fail to. Hence the their outrageous brazeness; they don’t care who’s watching…
20251120: Strong-Arm Robbery across from Bow Church DLR Station in East London @ 0435
20220802 Cycling through Walthamstow
In this @ 23:02 video a local on a bicycle stops to have a chat and warns me the area- Walthamstow– is bad and to get out of there, a fact I make clear to him I am not unaware of 😉.
When cycling, in addition to being aware of hazards from other road users, try to avoid planning cycling routes through high crime areas. Google Maps takes no account of crime when planning your route so you need to switch-off Google maps; that shit will get you into trouble. When cycling into London, I plan my route through The Woodfords to avoid Walthmstow, which has the dubious distinction of having the highest crime-rate post code in the UK. However, Google Maps is bloody-minded and will always keep routing your through dangerous crime shitholes that you’re actively trying to avoid. And definitely avoid cycling on tow-paths in London; cyclists are being robbed of their expensive bicycles & phones on these. In the video, Google Maps was routing me through tow-paths as can be clearly seen… 🙄. Seriously, Google Maps is a menace to cyclists; don’t use it.