horizon wrote:ben88: that's the kind of information I was hoping for in this thread. It reminds us not only that what the bike is secured has to be secure but also that it may be worthwhile making it unrideable. I know of someone else who saw their cable lock being cut and the thief riding away on their bike (also on railings).
Yep. I know that many people may say this, but it's really true that 95% of the time I will have the lock going through the wheel (or both) rather than just the frame. It's really important and it was idiotic of me not to. I wasn't going to leave it out for any length of time. And usually I'm the very exemplar of good locking practice -- just not this one time
So while I'm appearing hypocritical:
-- I'll normally avoid cast-iron railings. Jeez, I'm an idiot on this occasion, but however.
-- I usually make sure that my D-lock [and I'd never bother with any D-lock under about £60 -- if you use Evans's and Cycle Surgery's price match, you'll get a £90 lock for about £45] is going through the back wheel. And I'll put a cheaper lock on the front.
-- If possible, I'll have the front lock attached to another secure point rather than just to the bike itself. This prevents twisting attacks.
-- My feeling is that the hassle of taking front wheel off just isn't worth it. Same with saddle -- I think Pitlocks are really grand, albeit expensive.
-- In terms of being impossible to ride, people at the LFGSS website seem to recommend putting a motorbike-style disc lock on. It's worth looking at their discussions, but I think it's overkill for the kind of bike I ride -- about £600 worth, including fittings.
-- There's the story of the two boy scouts who are camping in the woods when they hear a bear. One starts putting on his trainers, and the other says "Why are you doing that? Everybody knows it's not possible to outrun a bear." And the first one's response is: "I don't need to outrun the bear -- I just need to outrun you." My view is that locks are the same. As we all know, any lock can be defeated. But it's a matter of the defeatability of your locking set-up versus that of others with a similarly valuable bike. I reckon that a top-end Kryptonite on the frame and back wheel and something like an Evolution Mini on the back [the two will cost about £100] and Pitlocks for seat tube (and you can use superglue and ballbearings for saddle itself) is ample for a £500 or so bike in London. ***Just don't be an idiot like me and lock to a cast-iron railing ever. Jeez....
*** I don't know anybody with that kind of set-up who's fallen victim to bike theft. But I do know several people who've had £350 - £450 range bikes nicked that have £35 locks.
-- A decent lock is pretty heavy, and one thing I do is leave them at various different places. One at the gym, one at the library etc. It can seem a lot of money to spend if you're buying 3 or 4 £60 Kryptonite locks, but I reckon it's really worth it. The M18 Kryptonite (£100 from Evans but available for about £55 using price match) weighs over 2kg, I think. The difference in cost between a racer weighing xkg and one weighing x-2kg is really substantial, and it always strikes me as silly when I see commuters lugging these things around on their pricey bikes.
Anyhow, I've had a number of bikes stolen over the years. But never when I've followed the above thinking.
[Which I failed to do the other night...
]
