Cycle Security

[-Matt-]

New and first bike on the cards soon.

After years of being super-safety captain-cautious with my motorbikes security, wondering what is realistically enough for a cheap bicycle. Are the small chains probably good enough or do they get snipped and go walkabouts in no time. The D locks looked a bit sturdier but also heavier and more bulky to transport.

Do people tend to leave tyre pumps/water bottles/speedo computers attached most of the time or do they all get nabbed by local thieves as well

[Ste]

Small chains are a waste of time.

I remove anything easily removable. Depending where I'm leaving my bike I also remove the seat and take the front wheel off so that it can go through the lock that going through the frame and the back wheel.

A good lock is an investment that'll last years. My lock of choice (I've got three to choose from ) must be 15 or 16 years old now.

[Joncrete Cungle]

13mm Pragmasis chain & Squire SS50CS padlock. Remove seat, front wheel etc.

[Llama-Farmer]

I've got a sturdy D-lock which also has a separate thick cable you can loop round the front wheel or solid anchor point such as a lamppost. It's relatively bulky, but I usually have a small rucksack with me if I'm cycling, and the lock did come with a bracket to clip it onto the frame... I've nowhere to put that though as I have two drinks bottle cages instead.

Depends where I am leaving the bike, but I tend to leave most stuff on it... used to cycle to the gym and leave it outside for around an hour locked up in the bike area, with lights, seat and under-seat bag still on it. Figured nothing they could easily pinch was worth the hassle of stealing, especially in daylight in front of a gym which has 20+ treadmills looking out directly into the cctv-covered carpark.


Again would usually only leave it locked up in other busy carparks and not for too long a time, no more than an hour usually. Places like supermarket car park, where there's plenty of activity to deter most opportunists, as it's not a quick snatch and grab.


At work I used to cycle in only on the weekends, very few people working on the weekends so used to put my bike in the corner of the room I worked in, out the way. As did a couple other people.
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[Ste]

Daylight in view of however many people doesn't make much difference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wzlae15BN7U

There's loads of videos like that. Years ago there was something like that done by MBUK and it was only when they were waving the bolt cutters around in the air and shouting that they're stealing the bike that anyone said anything. Have seen one of those videos in America and after lots of people waling straight past and doing nothing as the tools used went from bolt cutters to hacksaw to angle grinder to generator and a bigger angle grinder, someone actually stopped but only to give the 'thief' advice about what tools to use.

[-Matt-]

Was thinking of this one potentially

https://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/220739322249?nav=SEARCH

[Llama-Farmer]

[bamt]

As a rule, people will nick anything that's easy - if only for the "fun" of it. Also, if a pro wants your bike you've lost it, so you are really aiming to discourage opportunists.

Bike security involves making sure that you need tools to remove anything that's left on the bike - if your lights have quick releases, then they'll need to come off or you'll come back to your bike in the dark one evening and find you have none. Quick release wheels and seat posts are very convenient, but also mean it's very easy to steal them. This can be because the thief needs a wheel - perhaps just because theirs is punctured - or you've left your bike securely locked up but the front wheel not locked, and someone else has made the mistake of locking up their bike only by the front wheel. The thief takes their bike with your wheel and rides off not having had to touch a tool. Replace them with pitlocks or even just an allen bolt skewer.

For locks, I tend to use a Kryptonite Evolution Mini as first line of defence as it is small and easy to stash in my saddle bag. The best portable security is to use both a D lock and a conventional cable/chain with it's own lock. Ds can be very quickly broken using a bottle jack - make sure you fill as much space in the D as you can with frame and whatever you are attaching your bike to in order to discourage this - a big D lock is not as secure as a small one. A cable can be easily cut with bolt croppers - or even cut with a multi tool or pliers for many cheaper ones, where a thick plastic coating is applied to a tiny bit of wire to make them look strong. However, bolt croppers aren't good against D locks, bottle jacks aren't good against cables. You are making the potential thief look at your bike and think that there are easier targets.

I know people who commute on reasonable bikes, but make them look really rough (dodgy hand-brushed paint jobs, wrapping tubes in duct tape etc.) so they are not attractive to thieves, even though they are mechanically perfect and ride very well. Ideally park your bike up next to a brand new shiny one that has rubbish locks, and you'll have some additional protection!

[handbasket]

A chinese lock?

I’d spend more than £16 on a lock. As mentioned upthread, they will last a long time. Never use a cable lock or a substandard chain.

Having said that, when I’m on an Audax ride, I don’t carry a big lock, I carry a "cafe lock". It’s a thin cable lock with a combination. Easily cut. It’s for when there are lots of other bikes around which aren’t locked, and there are other cyclists on the same ride around etc.

For leaving the bike while I’m in the shops I use an Abus D-lock. If you’re buying a cheap bike then you don’t need to spend quite as much, but I think a cheap lock is a false economy that you’re likely to regret in the end. It’s really not just the cost of replacing a cheap bike, it's the hassle. I’m always hearing stories about bikes being stolen. When I ask about the lock, the reply always seems to come back "oh I used a cable lock".

I try to avoid leaving bikes in iffy places. So far, I’ve done Ok, the last time I had a bike stolen was in Glasgow in 1993. That was with a D-lock, nothing will stop a determined thief.

[KLR600]

Lock it or lose it. Sometimes even lock it and lose it as has happened to me. I locked my old bike up to a bike rack in a car park with CCTV pointed at the bike rack and the bike was stolen about 10 minutes later. The guy who stole it cycled in on some other presumably stolen but rubbish bike, cut the lock on mine (it was a cable combination lock) and then rode out on it all within about 10 seconds. I got the CCTV from the car park office and some other CCTV from a pub next to the carpark that clearly showed the face of the guy riding my bike out of the carpark. I tried getting through to the police (999 told me to call the non emergency number) but I couldn't get through to anyone despite trying to call for most of the night.

The next day after a morning of fruitless calls to the police I took a cycle (on my other bike) around the Manchester suburbs in the hope of seeing it left outside a shop or left in someone's garden. I was gobsmacked to see some chav of about 14/15 years old riding around on it in Salford. I charged at him on my DH bike (big bike with lots of suspension, also very heavy) and crashed into him and tried to grab both the bikes and leave. We had a bit of a scuffle but he managed to grab the bike back and make off. I chased him as best as I could but the soft suspension on my DH bike made sprinting hard and he managed to lose me. He dropped his phone though which I picked up and after he'd gone out of sight I rang the police again (999 this time) and relayed what had happened. I was told to stay where I was and a unit would be with me in a few minutes.

Over an hour later (I was worried this guy had gone to get some of his mates and come looking for me at this point, Salford isn't exactly a nice neighbourhood!) I get a call from the police asking If I was still where I'd seen the bike and then about 15 minutes later a police van turns up. The phone the guy dropped had broken on impact (it was some £10 Tesco phone) and wouldn't turn on so I couldn't get any numbers from it. I tell the police my story, how I couldn't get through the night before and went out looking for it in desperation and then they ring through to base to report the whole thing. Eventually I'm given a crime ref number, I hand in the phone and I'm asked to head into the local police station with the CCTV footage and to make an official statement.

At the station I'm told that they'll need to run DNA tests on the phone and it could take a few weeks. If the results turn up anything then they'll be able to make a visit. I was sure I'd never see the bike again at this point. Lo and behold the DNA on the phone matches someone on record and about 6 weeks after the bike was stolen they make a visit to the guys house. He admits to having had the bike (said he bought it at a market the day I saw him on it), he admits to the scuffle with me and says it all went down as I said but after a search on the house with the bike not being there he says he doesn't know where it is and is left to go free. That was it, case closed as the copper who reported back to me said it.

The only reason it got that far was because I was badgering the police and the guy assigned to my case. I don't think they'd have done anything with it after I'd handed in the phone and CCTV if I hadn't of been calling them all the time.

I've just moved to Berlin where cycle theft is a serious problem. Thieves will steal bicycles, sell them to tourists as cycle tours are popular here and then when they're locked up outside a pub/wherever they'll steal them again and sell them on again! My plan is to buy a really rubbish €10 bike, make sure the brakes work, spray it black/acid green/luminous yellow and get a decent D lock for when I need to cycle into town. My nice bikes never leave my sight when I'm out of the house now.

https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/Bikethiefsmaller.jpg
Enjoy the bike, I hope a lorry runs you over on it.
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[G]

I use an Aldi motorcycle chain. It's cheap, but a chunk heftier than the typical push bike chain - my bike already weighs a fair bit with the panniers, motorcycle muffs and so on. On that, those will hopefully make it a less-ideal demographic for thefts.

[cagiva gezzer]

For cost and ease of transport get a mini5/7 with a cable for wheels. The cables are weak though and every other bike rack in london has a cut cable hanging off it.

Had an oxford lock, but it kept jamming and locking the bike in one spot.

As above, Aldi have just had a cheap lock on offer. Look to spend 10% of the value of the bike on a lock.

I have, in order of beefyness:

Kryptonite evo mini-5 - Every hipster in London has one in their back pocket. My choice for popping to the shops.

https://makergo.com/shutup/images/10_02_2008/krypto01.jpg

Kryptonite series 4 - Good enough and has double locking feet, as opposed to single lock and bent foot of the above.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WWEkx7t6SC0/UPwjx3VZX7I/AAAAAAAABpg/lGj0wFHur94/s1600/IMG_0728.jpg

kryptonite NY m-18 - Beefier than the above with a double metal sheath over the barrel

https://www.disturbinthepeace.co.uk/pics3/kryptonitem18.jpg

Kryptonite NY - As above, but short and stout so nothing can get in there.

https://images.evanscycles.com/product_image/image/47d/4e8/83c/48979/large/kryptonite-new-york-3000-lock.jpg

13mm Pragmasis chain

https://securityforbikes.com/prodimages/protector13-lrg.jpg

11mm Pragmasis chain

https://securityforbikes.com/prodimages/protector11-lrg.jpg
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[-Matt-]

Have never looked in detail at the low-end pragmasis chains before - 29 quid for 0.8m of 11m chain weighing in at around 2kg isn't bad at all.

Quite tempted to get one of them now - sure it can be wrapped around the frame for transport fairly easily too.

[TheBikerStig]

I also suggest the Kryptonite New York. I have the mini. I also have an Abus Granite Steel o flex cable but this is for additional security for more than 1 bike. If leaving a bicycle somewhere I would use the D-lock as main security and a couple of cheap cable locks through the wheels. All easily removable stuff should be done by yourself, dont leave them for someone else.
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