Bike Enclosure - preferences?

adodsk

Hi all,

I've been tasked with designing/specifying a bicycle enclosure at work. Basically there seems to be 2 streams of thought in the office:

1) Perforated metal sheet which obscures the bikes from view and maybe conceals thieves as they work?

2) Open mesh which allows the bikes to be seen but maybe also means that thieves might be deterred as they would be seen?

The whole enclosure would be undercover in an existing carpark, lockable and with a stand to lock bikes to inside it. I'm also stuck with the above options or a mix of both so no fancy gold-plated suggestions!!:)

Maybe i'm letting paranoia get the better of me.

Anyway, any good reference projects which you could point me to would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

adodsk

Hungrycol

We have a floor to ceiling cage with a combination button punch door lock thingy. Also inside are the usual D bike stands that they lock their bike to.

ba

Perhaps a simple solution works best...


Have you got someone to assemble some drawings for pricing?

adodsk

Thanks for the replies folks. I like the idea of the coded entry - saves people from losing/forgetting keys.

I also like the rack suggestion Ba but it's more the cage/enclosure i'm thinking of. We'll have a simple rack inside - probably not as aesthetically pleasing as that one though!

HivemindXX

In my previous work there was a bay in the basement where you could fit a couple of cars but was basically a bit of a bunker due to the support pillars of the building. They fenced off the front of this with heavy duty wire panels and a coded combination lock.

The main problem was that the door would often be left open. People going in didn't lock the door when they were inside because that didn't seem to make any sense which meant that sometimes the door swung out in to the path of cars. This also meant that someone who arrived while someone else was already in there didn't have to open the door and more importantly didn't realise they should lock it behind them.

Short version, the door was often left unlocked. The very existance of the door made people think the area was safe so they often didn't lock their bikes when they were inside this cage.

So, I'm interested to know why someone feels this enclosure is needed. Maybe free range bike parking would be just as good.

BostonB

Put a spring on the door that automatically closes. With a handle on the inside obviously.

Enclosed is better, as people won't nick other bits off the bike and leave the wheel and frame that are locked. Also keeping the bike and lock out of the rain is going help keeping the bike in good condition.

It would be hand to have lock rail where people can leave locks they don't want to carry every day, instead of them being left in the rack. And getting manky dirty and in the way of others.

Doctor Bob

We have a cage with swipe card access, but the problem is that the door release button inside the cage can be reached from outside with a short stick or something similar- as my colleague found out today when he discovered that his bike, which he left there on Monday, was no longer there. At least, we assume that that's how the cage was accessed.

Three levels of security - car park gate, cycle cage gate, bike lock - and his bike is gone. The lock was crappy enough, but you'd think the other two barriers should be sufficient.

Anyway, the lesson from this for anyone considering a cage is Make sure as far as possible that access is impossible for 'non-members'. And even with two external security levels, you still need to lock your bike as if it were on the street.

ba

how much money has your office committed to this project?

Lumen

I would focus mainly on the security of the racks (e.g. Sheffield stands concreted in), and not worry about an enclosure at all.

Any solution with shared access can be defeated by social attacks (e.g. bribing the security guard), and a cage just gives a false sense of security so people will tend to use crappier locks.

There are countless stories of people having bikes robbed from "secure" apartment carparks and cages.

If there is spare money I would spend it on:

- A code system where each user has a unique code, and there is a full audit log with timestamps. This would discourage people "lending" out their codes.

- A decent hi-definition CCTV system and security lights.