Places you know to be safe from bike theft

Muahahaha · 16-12-2014 6:11pm #1

A thread for cyclists to share spots where they feel their bike is safe, either by perception or through experience.

We all know no bike is truly safe anywhere but some spots might be perceived to be 'safer' than others because of their location and the environment surrounding them. When thinking along these lines I suppose it is important to try to think like a both a bike thief and a cautious cyclist at the same time. We all know some bike thieves are totally brazen and will steal a bike in full view of dozens of passing pedestrians. But given a choice my guess is most thieves are out to an easy theft. One factor in that is obviously what it is locked with but another has to be the location its in, pervalence of CCTV, chances of getting caught in that specific area, easy get away routes, etc, etc.

So I suppose the purpose of this thread is to try to identify locations you either perceive to be safer than others (please give reasons) and places you know are safer through experience of locking your bike there consistently without problem. If you know a spot to be safer than the norm please outline if you lock your bike there during daylight hours or after dark as a place than might be safer during the day may turn the complete opposite at night.

I'll begin, mine are from Dublin as thats where I'm based but feel free to add in locations in any towns or cities you please.

Dublin City Centre- I've been parking my motorbike on the footpaths outside Pearse St Garda station regulary enough for the last five years without a single problem. Been locking my bike there too in daylight hours for almost a year now at least once but usually twice a week. So far I've had no problems and my bike does stick out a good bit. While I can never *know* it is safe my experience of that spot is that it is one of the safest around due to high pedestrian footfall, widespread CCTV coverage and the fact the main entrance to the Garda station is only 20m away. Pearse St is a very busy Garda station and it has a lot of plain clothes detectives coming and going all day long as well as foot patrols going in and out. For those reasons I feel it less likely that bike theives would target this location.

A spot I perceive to be safe is the taxi rank beside the water fountain on College Green. I don't *know* it to be safe as I haven't been locking my bike there for all that long. Nonetheless when I lock up there I always try to get a spot as close as possible to the taxi rank. My hope is that if there were an attempt to nick my bike one or more of the taxi drivers at the rank would see it and speak up. There's no guarantee of that of course but if I were a bike thief nicking a bike from right beside a bunch of taxi drivers wouldn't be high on my list of easy locations.
The same goes for the O'Connell St taxi rank. I know it is not operational right now due to the Luas works but my perception is that there is no way the O'Connell Street taxi mafia would allow a bike theft to happen under their noses without challenging it.

That's it from me, hope it gets the ball rolling for a resource all us Boardsie cyclists can use to at least keep our bikes locked in locations where the chances of theft are less due to their location and/or environment & surroundings.

OldBean · 16-12-2014 6:26pm

All the Pearse St spots were gone, as of today anyways. Drury St. carpark with all the locks I can carry.

A handy spot is the bike rack in the IFI - There's usually a few people sitting outside, there's a security guard doing a regular round and some CCTV.

o1s1n · 16-12-2014 6:28pm

While the intent is admirable, posting a list of spots where you all lock your bikes in town may not have the desired results...!

howardmarks · 16-12-2014 6:32pm

Only safe place I've found so far has been under me.

not yet · 16-12-2014 6:43pm

My attic..

Konkers · 16-12-2014 7:14pm

o1s1n wrote: »

While the intent is admirable, posting a list of spots where you all lock your bikes in town may not have the desired results...!

Spot on.

maxamillius · 16-12-2014 11:04pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

A thread for cyclists to share spots where they feel their bike is safe, either by perception or through experience.

We all know no bike is truly safe anywhere but some spots might be perceived to be 'safer' than others because of their location and the environment surrounding them. When thinking along these lines I suppose it is important to try to think like a both a bike thief and a cautious cyclist at the same time. We all know some bike thieves are totally brazen and will steal a bike in full view of dozens of passing pedestrians. But given a choice my guess is most thieves are out to an easy theft. One factor in that is obviously what it is locked with but another has to be the location its in, pervalence of CCTV, chances of getting caught in that specific area, easy get away routes, etc, etc.

So I suppose the purpose of this thread is to try to identify locations you either perceive to be safer than others (please give reasons) and places you know are safer through experience of locking your bike there consistently without problem. If you know a spot to be safer than the norm please outline if you lock your bike there during daylight hours or after dark as a place than might be safer during the day may turn the complete opposite at night.

I'll begin, mine are from Dublin as thats where I'm based but feel free to add in locations in any towns or cities you please.

Dublin City Centre- I've been parking my motorbike on the footpaths outside Pearse St Garda station regulary enough for the last five years without a single problem. Been locking my bike there too in daylight hours for almost a year now at least once but usually twice a week. So far I've had no problems and my bike does stick out a good bit. While I can never *know* it is safe my experience of that spot is that it is one of the safest around due to high pedestrian footfall, widespread CCTV coverage and the fact the main entrance to the Garda station is only 20m away. Pearse St is a very busy Garda station and it has a lot of plain clothes detectives coming and going all day long as well as foot patrols going in and out. For those reasons I feel it less likely that bike theives would target this location.

A spot I perceive to be safe is the taxi rank beside the water fountain on College Green. I don't *know* it to be safe as I haven't been locking my bike there for all that long. Nonetheless when I lock up there I always try to get a spot as close as possible to the taxi rank. My hope is that if there were an attempt to nick my bike one or more of the taxi drivers at the rank would see it and speak up. There's no guarantee of that of course but if I were a bike thief nicking a bike from right beside a bunch of taxi drivers wouldn't be high on my list of easy locations.
The same goes for the O'Connell St taxi rank. I know it is not operational right now due to the Luas works but my perception is that there is no way the O'Connell Street taxi mafia would allow a bike theft to happen under their noses without challenging it.

That's it from me, hope it gets the ball rolling for a resource all us Boardsie cyclists can use to at least keep our bikes locked in locations where the chances of theft are less due to their location and/or environment & surroundings.

I would seriously refrain from parking my bike anywhere near Westmorland street,everyday the street is getting worse!

eeeee · 17-12-2014 12:14am

IFI is good, as is the bike parking at the Cake Box cafe out the back of Camden street, and Drury Street bike park.

I do park in between Penny's and the GPO if i'm north side, I don't know if it's particularly safe, but I have an irrational feeling of security in leaving it there. It's secluded but busy enough. Actually there's no rationale to justify it I just feel ok leaving it there!

tomasrojo · 17-12-2014 1:20am

I'd turn this the other way around, and look for information on places that definitely are not suitable to park a bike.

I've never felt good parking on Thomas Street. Never had any trouble, but I always was relieved to see my bike when I got back. Only parked there to sign on and go to Vicar Street (not consecutively). The former did not make me anxious, the latter did, since it was at night and I was away for much longer.

I feel fine parking in the places I generally go to by bike. I have a Fahgettaboudit, a Series 2 Kryptolok, bearing balls in the hex nuts for the saddle and the headset and a Pitlock security skewer on the front wheel. I haven't had anything stolen since I started using two locks. Had a front wheel stolen before that in TCD, but that was a long time ago.

(EDIT: I've a pretty good bike, but it's nothing amazing to look at.)

eeeee · 17-12-2014 2:01am

tomasrojo wrote: »

I've never felt good parking on Thomas Street. Never had any trouble, but I always was relieved to see my bike when I got back. Only parked there to sign on and go to Vicar Street (not consecutively). The former did not make me anxious, the latter did, since it was at night and I was away for much longer.

Ditto Thomas Street.

I park in NCAD in that part of town now. It's off the street and there are loads of nooks and crannies to park in away from the racks. The only thing is closing time.

Harrybelafonte · 17-12-2014 8:26am

Never park on Parnell St. Outside Cycleways. Some of the "hoops" can actually be worked loose. Bikes constantly being stolen there. If you're going into the shop, bring the bike in. Staff are usually cool with it.

Nowhere is safe, heard on radio awhile back, guy describing how his bike was taken from Drury St. Technique is all important.

Increase in drug abuse, open dealing on the streets, that particular scourge is back with a vengence and easy money is a priority again.

tomasrojo · 17-12-2014 10:03am

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Nowhere is safe, heard on radio awhile back, guy describing how his bike was taken from Drury St. Technique is all important.

I do think, with the right locks and eschewing the worst parts of town, there is an acceptable level of risk. I don't know how many times I've heard people say that their bike was stolen despite having an excellent lock, and then it turns out that their lock was a cable lock or a cheap u-lock. Even the Kryptolok Series 2, which is a pretty good lock, isn't a lock I'd use on its own.

That said, we shouldn't have to carry around 2-3kg of locks.

Not sure Drury Street is especially safe, as it doesn't seem to be as closely watched as was initially made out, and some very good bikes are left there because of the initial promises of excellent security. It is out of the rain though.

check_six · 17-12-2014 11:33am

I don't like the racks in Drury St., but at least your bike is out of the weather when it is in there. I used to park between Penneys and the GPO years ago. Wouldn't park there in a fit now. Penny Farthing cycles had a customer come in after leaving their bike locked to the racks directly outside the glass doors. Dude with an angle grinder and van got the bike before the customer got bike from the counter! You can't compete with that sort of organisation!
Parnell St is a really bad spot, loolahs just tugging at bike locks as they pass by for the hell of it.

Steo M · 17-12-2014 2:02pm

UTube Dublin bike thieves, half the time they don't even need tools to rob bikes. The cable locks are snapped with a good yank & the cheaper U locks can be broken by using the bike as a lever. Some of these gits have brains to burn when it comes to robbing.

Orion · 17-12-2014 5:12pm

OldBean wrote: »

Drury St. carpark with all the locks I can carry.

http://www.broadsheet.ie/2014/12/17/focus-people-2/

diomed · 17-12-2014 7:15pm

My kitchen.

WoollyRedHat · 17-12-2014 7:19pm

Shame you can't electrify your bike, so that if anyone attempted to rob it, they'd be zapped. Of course, innocent bystanders may be affected by accidentally brushing against the bike, but collateral damage is neccesary in any battle.

Other less rash solutions could be a device which senses any prolonged movement or touching of the bike throgh sensory technologhy and promptly sends a distress call to your smartphone.

Alternatively, businesses should be more bike friendly and provide places within the premise to store bikes.

CramCycle · 18-12-2014 9:58am

Muahahaha wrote: »

Dublin City Centre- I've been parking my motorbike on the footpaths outside Pearse St Garda station regulary enough for the last five years without a single problem. Been locking my bike there too in daylight hours for almost a year now at least once but usually twice a week. So far I've had no problems and my bike does stick out a good bit. While I can never *know* it is safe my experience of that spot is that it is one of the safest around due to high pedestrian footfall, widespread CCTV coverage and the fact the main entrance to the Garda station is only 20m away.

Since coming to Dublin many moons ago I know two people in trinity who had their bikes lifted from there, and one night in Doyles, there was an attempt made on my first kryptonite lock with what appeared to be a hacksaw (they only got to scratching the cover though).

I imagine with the cover from other bikes, they felt happy enough to kneel down and have a go, I wouldn't leave my bike there unless absolutely necessary, the few times I have frequented Pearse St. Garda station I brought it in with me.

Bloggsie · 18-12-2014 3:30pm

gadetra wrote: »

IFI is good, as is the bike parking at the Cake Box cafe out the back of Camden street, and Drury Street bike park.

I do park in between Penny's and the GPO if i'm north side, I don't know if it's particularly safe, but I have an irrational feeling of security in leaving it there. It's secluded but busy enough. Actually there's no rationale to justify it I just feel ok leaving it there!

Gadetra,

my office window looks out on to the street you mention, I have seen several John E Scumbags trying with & without cutters trying to remove bikes from outside. Also saw a vintage motorbike be kicked over by some little toerag

There is a bike there most days with panniers on it & most days a scrot will walk past & stick a hand in to see if there is anything left. My evil side wants the owner to put a mouse trap into the bag for the scrot to get a surprise, if for nothing else than to make me & my colleagues laugh.

Happy Christmas etc.

NiallBoo · 18-12-2014 3:56pm

Here's my list (in no particular order):

eeeee · 18-12-2014 7:02pm

Bloggsie wrote: »

Gadetra,

my office window looks out on to the street you mention, I have seen several John E Scumbags trying with & without cutters trying to remove bikes from outside. Also saw a vintage motorbike be kicked over by some little toerag

There is a bike there most days with panniers on it & most days a scrot will walk past & stick a hand in to see if there is anything left. My evil side wants the owner to put a mouse trap into the bag for the scrot to get a surprise, if for nothing else than to make me & my colleagues laugh.

Happy Christmas etc.

Ah damn it! Another one gone off the list.

Where do people park on the north side of town?

Also I am getting panniers, I shall put a trap in each one

Places you know to be safe from bike theft

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