locking your bike.

drdeadlift

I spent 900 euro on my last bike,i didnt bother buying a lock as i intended not to leave it outside as the level of bike theft in Dublin is crazy!
Just a question to yeee here and those living in Dublin,how put off are you locking your bike in the city center and who has had their bikes stolen.

martinedwards

NEVER use a combination lock.

I grew up on a farm and would ride my bike down the lane and chain to to a gate 20 yards in from the road.

coming home after sports etc in winter it was pitch dark. out in the country so no street lights etc.

30 years later I can still open those locks faster in the dark than I can when i know the combination.

one day in school, a pal & I swithced the locks on the 20 or so bikes that were chained up. caused mayhem, but it was SOOOOO funny and I was 12.

Amirani

1. Buy a good lock. If your locks are better than the bikes around yours then you should be fine.

2. Use more than 1 lock. Try using different types - e.g. u-lock and cable lock as different tools may be required to break open different types of lock.

3. Lock to immovable objects. If you're locking to a lamppost/signpost, make sure it's tall enough so the bike can't be lifted over it.

4. Lock the frame and both wheels. Remove saddle if it's of the quick release variety.

No lock is unbreakable but if you follow these you should be fine.

Lumen

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html

There are many bikes around town locked with crappy cable locks, so any half-decent u-lock like a Kryptonite Mini (used properly) should be safe enough in a busy place during the daytime.

I also like Pitlock/Pinhead skewers for the front as they save having to carry a cable lock, although they're at the top of an expensive slippery slope of lock accessories.

Most stolen bikes are sold for 50 quid (including my 1000+ quid cyclocross bike), so the fact that yours cost 900 new makes it no more attractive to the average junkie/scumbag than something half the price.

Squidgy Black

I always lock my bike in town, never had a problem. I use the underground car park off Fade Street, there's plenty of bike spaces and it's well supervised. I use a Kryptonite Series 2, through the wheel and frame, and a small cable lock for the front wheel.

I'm gonna pick up a Kryptonite Evo mini for the rear and use the series 2 for the front wheel.

endacl

Drury st car park. Brilliant.

Also, search for 'Hal ruzal' on YouTube. Legend.

Mycroft H

This is how I lock my bike. 2 kryptonite minis - one through the rear triangle to secure the wheel and the other to secure the frame and the front wheel.

mcmoustache

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I like your strategy there bx but I couldn't help noticing that the stand appears to be made from the kind of cheap light piping that is used for gates down the country. It's easy enough to cut through.

That said, however, the thief would need to cut the stand, put the bike into a van and take it somewhere with an angle grinder or bottle-jack. As long as another bike nearby has a cable or combination lock, they'll go for that instead of wasting time on two kryptonite locks.

endacl

mcmoustache wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I like your strategy there bx but I couldn't help noticing that the stand appears to be made from the kind of cheap light piping that is used for gates down the country. It's easy enough to cut through.

That said, however, the thief would need to cut the stand, put the bike into a van and take it somewhere with an angle grinder or bottle-jack. As long as another bike nearby has a cable or combination lock, they'll go for that instead of wasting time on two kryptonite locks.

Absolutely. It's really a safety in the herd thing. Aim to be the hardest bike to nick on the rack. I regularly lock around town. Nice bike, with E200 worth of locks. Overkill maybe, but lucky so far. Although a few 'neighbour' bikes have been interfered with in that time.

Mycroft H

mcmoustache wrote: »

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I like your strategy there bx but I couldn't help noticing that the stand appears to be made from the kind of cheap light piping that is used for gates down the country. It's easy enough to cut through.

That said, however, the thief would need to cut the stand, put the bike into a van and take it somewhere with an angle grinder or bottle-jack. As long as another bike nearby has a cable or combination lock, they'll go for that instead of wasting time on two kryptonite locks.

You're dead right. However, all the bike racks in UCD are made from that steel galvanising (in the end I used to throw it down the back of my lab). The way it was locked though, even if the rack was cut away, both locks were looped through both wheels so its still unrideable. Anyways its better locked then the vast majority of bikes there, especially the nice Canyon that I saw one day locked with a cable lock through the QR front wheel :eek: