The mysterious case of the black Boris bike

Well, the Mayor certainly highlighted his hire bikes in his conference speech, dedicating five minutes to them.

He also highlighted the fact that three had been half-inched in the capital.

Actually TfL say it's five - but the Mayor isn't counting two that the contractor Serco left out undocked that then got nicked.

Who'd have thought cycling would be the centre piece of a Conservative party conference speech?

Anyway, I digress.

After the speech I was emailed this mysterious photo of a locked up hire bike.

Is it black? Is this the Darth Vader of the bike hire world? The black sheep? What is it?

It looks like it's locked up, so has it been nicked as well? Are we on six stolen bikes or four if you use Borismath?

A stolen and customised Boris bike? (photo: Jacob Bond)

The person who send me it said:

"The bike was at Salamanca Place, Lambeth. It was really scratched up (my photography skills obviously don't do it justice) and mercilessly de-stickered.

If you zoom in you can see the thieves actually locked it to the railings. TfL weren't too keen to come fetch it... It was still there 48 hours after I told them about it."

In the meantime, here's what TfL have to say for themselves:

"One of the keys to the success of the Mayor's flagship cycle hire scheme is that a number of measures were incorporated into the design of the bikes and the docking stations to reduce the risk of crime.

The TfL funded Police Cycle Task Force have also been working hard since the scheme launch to protect the bikes and tackle crime.

"To date only five bikes have been reported stolen and while we are not complacent about the low rate, we do believe it reflects the honesty of Londoners and their sense of community ownership in the scheme."

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