Bike security

[Tin Pot]

I'm not a bike commuter partially due to the nature of my work, but I have a couple of opportunities to get some cycling in; once a week for the next four weeks...only four days.

I'm in a quandary about securing my bike - it has to be outside on a fairly busy high street on one of those thick bike stands. I only use my bikes for training so I never leave them outside anywhere, but this is 20-21 miles each way so a good opportunity for training.

So do I;
Buy gold standard locks and insurance for my road bike (£850),
Use my BSO which may fail a few times on the way but would be amusing if someone nicked it,
Something else?

Cheers
TP

 

[summerdays]

How many other bikes around? Nicer than yours or not? And any of them locked up with a cable lock?

I think if it was 21 miles each way I would want a reliable bike. I leave mine in the town centre and other places but there are lots of other bikes and a large number of those with cable locks so they are likely to target those ones instead ( well that's what I tell myself and so far it seems to have worked, though I still prefer to put it in the bike cages at work if I can).

 

[Tin Pot]

Hard to say. I haven't looked much. Most people tie their bikes to a security fence inside the car park, but that seems less secure to me because it is secluded.

 

[Feastie]

Can you take the bike indoors? A changing room/locker room/toilet area/fire escape (obviously not actually obstructing said fire escape...) might be ideal. Or google and see if there's somewhere nearby where they have secure bike parking. Certainly cheaper to pay for it to stay there a few days than £850 in insurance!

I don't know so much about secluded vs non-secluded. Statistically from friends who've had bikes nicked, it's actually more dangerous to leave them on a busy street than somewhere out of the way. I have no idea if this represents the whole country, but that's just my observation. Personally I never take my 'nice' bike anywhere that I'm going to leave it, I bought a rusty but serviceable steed specifically for that reason!

 

[Cyclopathic]

A good lock and black gaffer tape. The lock to protect the bike and the gaffer tape liberally placed over parts of the frame to make it look like a piece of crap. Torn and frayed at the edges works well.