Bicycle Security V.2

[Blue Hills]

only bike of mine Ive ever caught anyone trying to nick was a folding 26 inch wheel dahon . they'd damn near got through the cheap cable lock. Its now in the back of my car under a blanket. Sister in London has had dozens nicked.

Dozens?
Any pattern to them?
Not a cheap cable lock I hope.

 

[Badger_Boom]

[/QUOTE]

The chain goes round two bikes, so even if they can break the ground anchor, it's still going to require a huge effort, and a lot of noise, to break the chain.

Noise and effort are a bit of a red herring sadly. A friend lost a motorbike secured to a ground anchor. They had no choice but to site it in a front garden (it was a rented shared property). Thieves simply rocked up in the early hours with a van, manpower and an angle grinder. It probably took seconds to cut it free and they just hoofed it into the van and buggered off. It was never seen again. It probably was noisy, but not loud enough to wake anyone.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

I don't remember seeing this thread before, and I immediately recognised the two photos with the yellow, orange cryptonite locks and my Reynolds 351 single speed bike




I still use the yellow lock which is about 2kg together with an Abus Granit-X Plus 540 230mm.

I only take them on my Surly Ogre do it all bike when I have to go into town or to the shops.



Yeah, I'm a bit paranoid But I have to say that I don't mind carrying the weight for 2 miles each way, I can relax while I do my errands.

It's funny to see the look on people faces when I start locking up the bike and they have just a thin cable with them....

The technique I was trying to show on the first two original photos can't be used with newer bikes, the tubing is thicker and the locks aren't big enough for that, but the idea behind was not to leave any room for a mini jack, having said that, I've never seeing a report of mini jacks being used in the UK and nowadays thieves use angle grinders.

I keep my bikes bihind locked doors but also with a massive chain anchored to the concrete floor.

 

[weareHKR]

Cost us £600. Not bad work if you can get it, eh?

Cracking work...

 

[Big John]

View: https://youtu.be/jZtNEC1uGg4


Thankfully the guy doesn't explain chapter and verse how to pick the lock but you see him do it. Lock? What lock?

 

[mjr]

Thankfully the guy doesn't explain chapter and verse how to pick the lock but you see him do it. Lock? What lock?

An expert, with the ideal tools and an ideal grip on an empty lock, still takes 55s to do the big and 45s to do the small. Like he says, it's probably secure enough for most people for now. Before long, we'll have cheap locks that undo with a radio tag or our phones and all picking attacks will be gone. Instead, we'll be worrying about the lock battery going flat... or the cheap handheld mini plasma cutters.

 

[Spoked Wheels]

View: https://youtu.be/jZtNEC1uGg4


Thankfully the guy doesn't explain chapter and verse how to pick the lock but you see him do it. Lock? What lock?

Fortunately 99.9% of bike thieves don't have the skills to pick a lock like these.

 

[CharleyFarley]

I'm in Florida, and bike thieves around here look for unlocked bikes parked outside homes, and just ride off with them. I'm not in the city, though, where most bikes are stolen. I have two bikes in a locked building attached to my home. Each of the bikes has a heavy duty cable lock through the wheels and attached to other things such as a hand cart (dolly). When I'm out on a ride, and I stop at a fast food place for coffee, I have a heavy duty 'D' lock for my fat bike. It fits perfectly around the tire and rim; that makes it unridable. A cable is attached to the 'D' lock to be wrapped around a post. Then I sit inside the fast food place where I can watch the bike in case someone takes an interest in it. I am also armed in case I should have to deal with a belligerent thief. As careful as we may be in securing our bikes, some thieves carry battery-powered grinders that can cut through a chain or 'D' lock in seconds. No self-respecting thief is going to carry bolt cutters.

I also registered my bikes with the local police who photograph the bikes, record the serial numbers and put a sticker on the seat tube. The officer who did my bikes said that if a thief takes the bike, he will likely remove the sticker. There might be a very slim chance if it's stolen and I report it, immediately, and a cop happens to see it and stop the guy, I might get it back, but most likely I'll never see it again. Bike thefts in Florida run around a million a year, and very, very few are ever recovered. Bike insurance is prohibitive. The last time I checked it was going to cost $100 [£71.50] a year. My fat bike cost me $1,700 [£1,225]. It will be five years old, this year, and I have no idea what it's current value is. It's not really worth insuring it.

 

[Drago]

A nice "Armed Response" sign for your premises. Moderately loose gun laws in your state, so the local light fingered may believe it.

Similarly, an NRA decal on each bike is a nice adornment.

 

[battered]

Similarly, an NRA decal on each bike is a nice adornment.

I rather like the notion of having a sticker on my bike saying "NRA - you can have my bike when you pry it out of my cold, dead hands" but I doubt anyone would be coming out of a cafe and strolling up to a bleu mistraleBianchi in full Rapha and packing a Colt 45.

 

[battered]

An expert, with the ideal tools and an ideal grip on an empty lock, still takes 55s to do the big and 45s to do the small. Like he says, it's probably secure enough for most people for now.

I bet I can get a cordless disc cutter/angle grinder (£80 in Screwfix) through either in less than a minute, and I'm no expert. As the guy says above with the motorbike, 2 men can lift a motorbike into a van in a couple of minutes, so if they want it enough, they will. The only hope is that somebody strolling round a city in a van with an angle grinder is very definitely "going equipped" so this may be a deterrent to all but the most determined. In addition, in our favour, most people don't know the difference between an expensive bike and not.

 

[DaveReading]

In addition, in our favour, most people don't know the difference between an expensive bike and not.

Whenever I lock my bike up, I hope they can.

 

[battered]

My pal has a Pinarello Dogma. I have a Decathlon bike that cost Eu 800 when I bought it 15 years ago. The other day we got back to his place and left the bikes in his back yard. I did remark that if anyone climbed over the wall and nicked my bike over his, I would be seriously brassed off.

 

[mjr]

I bet I can get a cordless disc cutter/angle grinder (£80 in Screwfix) through either in less than a minute, and I'm no expert.

Then you may have a promising youtube career ahead of you, but it may take a while to make back the cost of the cutter.

 

[Blue Hills]

Whenever I lock my bike up, I hope they can.

yep - me too - may seem self interested but when I lock my various self-builds around London I bank on crooks appreciating the many many better pickings.
In any case I think most thieves, or at least the ones with angle grinders, know the difference. I know someone who the other week had a black surly long haul trucker knicked in london. Not a flash looking bike at all but seems to me that the crooks had an idea that as equipped he had paid almost £2,000 for it. He had only had it for three weeks. Knicked from a London hospital estate - must have been loads of CCTV around. Not odd at the moment of course for folks to be in masks though.