Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Note attached to my bike

I found this note on my bike this afternoon:


Your bike is amazingly beautiful.

The lock doesn't seem to involve the frame. This is a high theft area.

No brakes?????!!

Bike Fan

How was it locked up?

my lock doesn't touch my frame either. through the back wheel inside of the rear triangle. locks up the wheel and the bike at the same time. if the hood is sketchy i'll pull off the front wheel and put it between the bike and whatever i'm locking it to.

How was it locked up?

Wheel inside the rear triangle :)

Yeah, I do that all the time as well.
Nice someone thought enough of a stranger's bike to leave a note.

Maybe I'm missing something, but isn't it smarter to lock the front wheel and frame to the post rather than locking the rear triangle/rear wheel to the post? Granted, if you're removing the front wheel or locking that as well, that's better, but as for a single krypto lock-up, why would the rear triangle be wiser?

I'd think front wheel theft (if you locked rear triangle) would be more likely than frame damage inflicted by a leverage attack (if you locked front whee and frame).

... so if anyone can understand that mess of words, what's the deal? Am I not thinking about this correctly?

rear wheels are more valuable than fronts.

true. I guess I should imagine myself in a more theft-prone area.

And at the moment, my rear wheel is hard enought to get off, even with the bike in a stand and all the time in the world.

Wheel inside the rear triangle :)
I assume the lock surrounds the wheel rim? If so they would have to cut through the rim to get the frame. Even if you have quick release, it's unlikely they could mangle the wheel enough to force the rim and hub up and out through the rear stays. Is your bike valuable enough that a thief would cut your rear rim to get it?
R

pic of your bike?

I thought the note was going to read like this...

"Dear bicykel ridr.

thanks 4 leeving yur bicke loked wit a cheep lok. I wil b abel 2 get sum crak 4 yur weel. yur the bess!

yur nayberhud junky"

I usually lock up with the u-lock going through my rear wheel and my seat tube and then around the post I'm locking up to. Add the front wheel to that depending on where I am.

Homealien, someone's knockin!

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

I don't understand why people only lock up the rear wheel? Someone with a 15mm wrench could take everything except the wheel! I always lock up my rear wheel and frame and then take off the front wheel and lock that too if there is space. And I'm usually not even in that much of a high theft area.

I don't understand why people only lock up the rear wheel? Someone with a 15mm wrench could take everything except the wheel! I always lock up my rear wheel and frame and then take off the front wheel and lock that too if there is space. And I'm usually not even in that much of a high theft area.

If you lock only the rear wheel through the rear triangle then it is impossible to simple remove the rear wheel and take the rest.

If you lock only the rear wheel through the rear triangle then it is impossible to simple remove the rear wheel and take the rest.


It took me a while to think about that... Now I get it. They could maybe still smash up the rear wheel, but I suppose now I'm just being paranoid.

true. I guess I should imagine myself in a more theft-prone area.

And at the moment, my rear wheel is hard enought to get off, even with the bike in a stand and all the time in the world.

That's 'cause you're not a pro thief. If you took wheels off thirty times a day, as fast as possible, with maximum adrenaline, you'd get faster at it. ;)

Homealien, someone's knockin!

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

You do know you just sent him to a website advocating that he use exactly the same locking strategy he's already using, right? ;)

but with the sheldon method if someone cut a hole in your rear rim and tire then a theif could make off with a bike that needs only a new rear rim and tire. Why not put the lock around the rear wheel and the seat/chain stays?

Are people here really talking about locking ONLY the rear wheel or am I just confused?

Are people here really talking about locking ONLY the rear wheel or am I just confused?
If you attach the lock to a bike rack or whatever, and to the wheel rim inside the rear triangle, you have secured the bike without touching the frame.

If you attach the lock to a bike rack or whatever, and to the wheel rim inside the rear triangle, you have secured the bike without touching the frame.

Can someone get me a pic of this?
You're talking not wrapping around the seat stays?

think about it...

you can't undo the bolt and pull the wheel back and out because the lock is inside the rear triangle (the lock will hit the inside of the dropouts if you pulled it back that far). and you can't remove the lock from the rear triangle because it's around the rim.

but yea, if you cut the rear wheel, free bike.

think about it...

you can't undo the bolt and pull the wheel back and out because the lock is inside the rear triangle (the lock will hit the inside of the dropouts if you pulled it back that far). and you can't remove the lock from the rear triangle because it's around the rim.

but yea, if you cut the rear wheel, free bike.


Got it.
Seems like an unnecessary risk.

but with the sheldon method if someone cut a hole in your rear rim and tire then a theif could make off with a bike that needs only a new rear rim and tire. Why not put the lock around the rear wheel and the seat/chain stays?

Can you begin to imagine what would be involved with cutting a rim, a tire, and an inner tube? I've never heard of anyone even attempting that feat. Crooks are lazy, and don't like going to jail.

Crooks look at the bike rack, and ask themselves: "Let's see, spend the afternoon attempting to hack through a wheel and tire OR take that other bike that has a K-Mart U-lock that pops open in five seconds....what to do...what to do?"

But...put the lock around the frame. A moron decides to use his prybar to "pop" the lock. That technique works well on a five dollar lock, attached to a heavy weight frame. But, when a fifty dollar lock is attached to a $1,000 frame, Mr. Crook's prying efforts turn the frame into a pretzel.

If a crook is going to pretzel some part of my bike, I'd rather it be the rear wheel than the frame.

Maybe I'm simply ignorant or killed too many brain cells in my younger days, but how do you lock a bike to a bike rack using the rear triangle method? I've tried turning it around and all it did was fall over onto some dudes over priced road bike.

And what do you do when some jerk locks their bike to yours and doesn't ask or say anything and you have no idea who they are? I almost kept it, but then thought how I would feel. I hate seeing roadies cry.

Cutting the rear wheel basically can't be done, even with power tools... try it some time on a junker, and you'll see. (WEAR SAFETY GEAR!) Because of the spoke tension, you'll keep shattering blades as they bind up in the wheel... and it's hard to cut a tire, as well.

Hm. I suppose you MIGHT be able to do it with a grinder. You sure can't do it with a saw. And if you had a grinder, wouldn't you just cut the lock?

you don't even have to cut the wheel but just brake a couple of spokes...bye bye bike.

How would cutting a couple of spokes do it(not to mention how hard cutting tensioned spokes is)...it would weaken the wheel but you'd still have to cut the wheel.

It was mentioned to lock through the wheel and triangle....i haven't seen it written that the lock is also around a seat or chain stay.....just throught the triangle which this still is.

its through the wheel and triangle...if you took the wheel off you couldn't get it through the frame without taking the lock off the wheel...

um..did everyone hit the bong too many times tonight?! this thread is freaking ridiculous.

LOL! This threading killing me. i suggest anyone wondering about the method check out sheldon's aforementioned site. it does a good job of answering all your questions.

yo

yo

You are so totally from Toronto.

if anyone is still confused, they must have missed this link

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

If people here can't even figure it out, don't you think a thief might see it locked up that way, think they could get it loose, and mangle your wheel and whatever else in the process?

i dont think they would get very far. it would be like the experience of people who read about it first.

'well i could just... no that wouldnt work'

'what if i unscrew... no that doesn't help either'

'you can just snip the... nope'

after that they'll probably just pass out from all the brain exercise.

You are so totally from Toronto.
You like my post-and-ring?

i seriously can't believe this thread. just read sheldon's lock strategy! and if you don't belive it go and lock up your bike and try to steal it. the only way you would be able to steal the bike is if you cut a chain or seat stay!

You like my post-and-ring?

Very much.

You're supposed to lock it to the post.

you don't even have to cut the wheel but just brake a couple of spokes...bye bye bike.


I've had fairly good results tying my bike to racks by using a ribbon wrapped around the brake cables. If you really can't get your mind around the rear-triangle method, you might give THAT a shot - if you can tie a shoe, it'll work for you!

http://e.discogs.com/release/114764

If you cut the spokes and then bang the **** out of the rim you could potentially fit the mangled wheel through the triangle and get the bike. But it's probably MUCH easier to just break the lock at that point.

I'm a huge fan of this method of locking. It's especially effective if you've got two locks and two bikes. Put them end to end and lock through both front wheels and both rear triangles. My girlfriend and I do this all the time. It's WAY more secure than locking them both seperately.

As far as what Mr. Brown says about using a cable for the front wheel, I would be VERY careful about that. I take my front wheel off and lock it with the back any time my bike will be out of my sight for more than say....35 seconds or so. The only times I DON'T take off the front wheel are when I'm going in a restraunt which I will watch my bike from the window of or something of that nature, and even then I'm MUCH more likely to take the stupid thing off than leave it.


I sell WAY too many new wheels/bikes to people who "just left it for a minuite".

Also, if you lock your front wheel on the outside of the stack (i.e. front wheel, back wheel, pole) they have to cut BOTH wheels to get your bike out, whereas if you lock it between the back wheel and the pole, they only have to cut the rear (unlikely as it is, I like every advantage I can get).

I understand why this method works.
I guess just for my own piece of mind, I like locking my bike up in a manner that for the thief to get it he/she would have to destroy the bike. (read: pointless)
As unlikely as it is, someone could cut through the rear wheel and then they would have an undamaged frame.
And as that famous video of guys in NYC stealing their own bikes using angle grinders and the such in broad daylight shows, anything is possible.

I've locked my bike this way since I read the site for the first time, and still nobody every believes that "cutting the rear rim is much harder than you might think. Since the rim is under substantial compression due to the tension on the spokes, it would pinch a hacksaw blade tight as soon as it cut partway through. Then there are the wire beads of the tire, also difficult to cut."

Go ahead, steal my front wheel, I can wheelie home. I figure on average the number of calories I save not carrying two locks or a cable I can afford to buy a new one when it happens. Hasn't in ten years, but go ahead, lock the front to the frame and let me swipe your phil and 19t cog.


[mod edit]Please don't hot link a picture from a site if the owner of the site has expressed not to do so.

um..did everyone hit the bong too many times tonight?! this thread is freaking ridiculous.

Please pass.

If you cut the spokes and then bang the **** out of the rim you could potentially fit the mangled wheel through the triangle and get the bike. But it's probably MUCH easier to just break the lock at that point.

I don't think that's true, looking at the size difference between a rim and the rear triangle... Remember, you'd have to find a way to force the 3/4 of the rim circumference that's normally outside the triangle into the triangle from the back and then around the corner and out through the side... I think it would actually be easier to cut the rim and tire, which I've already claimed is impossible! ;)

Hehe, some seriously slow people in this thread...

Funny thing is, the lock-only-the-rear-wheel-within-the-rear-triangle method is completely pointless on trackbikes in the first place. The wheel is so close to the seattube that you can include the frame as well as the wheel. And if you can, why not? Why have some idiot think that it will be easy to cut the wheel? He will then try to steal the frame and ruin your rear wheel.