There is something about riding to the station in the morning. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what it is, since I had that thought as I arrived at the station yesterday morning, and it has since left me.
Never mind, because it did also remind me of another thought about bikes at stations: the lost bikes. Not bikes that are lost, or stolen, from the station (like Holly’s bike was last weekend) but bikes which are just left, and forgotten.
Most of the time, you don’t even notice them. They hide amongst the regular bikes like ninjas, not doing anything to stand out. Unless they’re missing a saddle. Or a wheel. But late at night, or early in the morning, or at weekends, when the other bikes are all at home, they stand out like sore thumbs.
Why are they left behind? Did their owner just forget about them on the way home from work? Did the owner die during the day? Or did they just – as I once intended to do – dump the bike at the station and let it rust?
Of course, if you’re just intending to dump the bike, why bother locking it down? My excuse was going to under the guise of a social experiment, after my old bike had its valve caps stolen whilst it was locked up outside Woking Station. I wanted to see how long it would last locked up with a cheap lock at a busy station. I never did in the end, so I dumped it in a bush, where it could still be to this day.
But the bikes at Twickenham Station are pretty securely locked – well enough that they haven’t gone anywhere in months, if not years. They rust, but otherwise the bikes are fine.
And yet Holly’s bike was nicked after being left there for a couple of days. Hey ho, she now has a new bike, but it is annoying nonetheless.
So anyway, if you’ve left your bike locked up at Twickenham Station for the last few months, it’s probably still there. If you need a bike, I left one in the bushes by my old house in Woking.
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