gugie 

It seems that Portland business allow bicycles everywhere. In California (Bay Area) I tried to ride my bike through a drive through, and I was told that it was against either their rules or the law. I moved to Portland and saw this at a Burgerville:



Driving on US 26 west from Portland (freeway) I often see bikes riding on the shoulder. It's apparently legal. I thought that the freeway rule was you could ride on it if there wasn't a reasonable alternative.

I sometimes think I've died and gone to bicycle heaven...

SJX426 

Where I work, the building management has a bike room that is locked and only accessible with a fob. The fob is activated after the application for access is accepted which requires that you be employed in the building. I feel confident enough to ride any of my bikes to work. I still lock it up as do the other riders. The full range of bikes is present but only about 10-15 people use the room.

I worked in a GSA building, a couple of years ago, with bike racks at the rear entrance that was covered by part of the building. The entry was all glass with about 5-8 guards inside screening people as they entered. The desk is manned 24/7 with guards. Yes, they are armed. I asked if any bikes had been stolen. The answer was yes. I then asked if they would stop anyone from doing graffiti on the building. "Absolutely" was the response. Go figure.

gaucho777 

Guard dog!



At work, we have a locked bike cage within an underground parking lot. There are video cameras and a security guard at the entrance to the garage. Although I would be crushed if it were stolen, I feel pretty safe parking my dirty, 40-year-old Cilo in there with a simple cable lock. There also a someone who commutes on a ~$8k Cervelo (not shown), and I like to park my bike near his.



I once left my Look outside a grocery store in Berkeley unlocked for a couple minutes. It was there when I came back! I don't plan to do that ever again though.

Even with a good lock, I won't leave any of my bikes outside for an extended period of time, say more than a few minutes to run inside a store.

3speedslow

If my bike is outside the house or shed on a ride, errand or commute it is locked with an Abus chain keyed lock when I stop. I don't consider most places I stop theft prone but I never want to find out.

Peace of mind is a beautiful thing.

Grand Bois

No need to lock mine at work. High resolution constantly monitored cameras everywhere, an 8 foot spiked steel fence and guards with vests and Glocks patrolling in pairs. The bike rack is directly in front of a guard station.

mobilemail

I live in a rural small town where bikes are commonly left unlocked on the sidewalk. The folks we bought our house from didn't even know where the front door key was.

However

I assume that opportunity will enable the misguided, so I always lock my bike if I have to leave it unattended. But I just use a thick cable lock, I forego the big-city two-locks technique.

Grand Bois

Those safe rural areas are becoming much less safe since they've become the popular place to set up meth labs. That happened to the small town I used to live in.

squirtdad

I routinely lock the bikes I use as utilty/commuters when I go into a store. I am never gone long. I lock more to prevent opportunity thefts ( unlocked bike let's throw it in the truck and run). I have upgraded my lock from a combo cable (after I broke one by dropping it) to an Abus bordo

My nice (by my standards) road bike is not locked as I don't let it of my sight

carbomb

My sentiments pretty much mirror @toavii
I lock them all up no matter where I am unless I'm literally sitting next to it drinking a coffee or something on a patio. U-lock around the rear wheel through the back triangle and a cable lock again through the frame and front wheel back to the u-lock. If it's my beater bike I have the thickest cable+lock combo I could find. None of these bikes are ever locked outside overnight, etc. Even if I'm at a party and we can bring the bikes inside, I still put the u-lock around the back wheel and frame. It sounds extreme, but you can't know everyone at a party etc. and I've never had a bike stolen. Everyone else I know has.

Living in LA makes this behavior mandatory. Good bike, bad bike... druggies don't care, they'll take anything and sometimes they have a nice job and a nice car, but are still a thief.

RobbieTunes

I never leave it unattended, maybe for 10-15 seconds at a convenience store to get ice, and I ask the clerk to watch it. We're rural here, and these kind of thefts are less common. If it was a weed trimmer, or blower, it'd be gone. On rides to lunch or breakfast, one of us goes in and gets a seat by the window, and we put the bikes by the window. The guy on the outside of the booth takes off his cleated shoes. Never had a problem, but once we were in a small diner after a 50-mile front leg, and a crowd gathered. They came inside (the bikes.) Crowd left. I have no doubt the crowd was to cover the theft.

Superia

I use this:

I always leave my bike at a place where everybody can see it and I always put the lock through the front wheel, through the frame and stuck to something like a pole or a bike rack,...

mtnbke

In Madison, WI the #1 crime committed was bike theft. Sadly on the Serotta bike forums and in these forums (not C&V) there were a group of young idiots that were encouraging each other to "free" bikes that didn't get ridden. I tried engaging with them, but they were buffoons. I think their rule was that if a bike hadn't been ridden in two weeks it was okay to break the U-lock or chain to free the bike, as if bikes were animals or people that were imprisoned. It was theft plain and simple, but they had a whole narrative of justification and rationalization. The most idiotic was that the owners of the bikes "didn't appreciate what they had" or that it was "too good of a bike to be locked up and not ridden." I tried to respond that since the owner clearly PAID for quality they did appreciate what they had. Apparently if you took a two-week vacation everything in your stable became community property.

In Madison it became so prevalent the Capital, Campus and city Police all started a program using "bait bikes" to catch bike thieves. They had radio transpoders in them. It didn't make a dent in the number of bicycles being stolen. It wasn't one or two, or ten, or a hundred. It was an endemic thing in Madison, WI.

In Boulder County and more so in Boulder itself bike theft is a huge issue. There is a guy in Arvada that "strips" bikes and sells parts that have to be stolen. He never lists or sells the frames, as they would be too identifiable. If you know where to look you can find his frame sets for sale on the internet. It took me awhile to figure that all out. I couldn't believe that he gets away with it in "broad daylight" so to speak. I went down to see his shop with my own eyes. It was exactly as I expected. Just a strip operation. It made me sad.

He doesn't even get much. He just wants everything SOLD! I'd pay him the couple of hundred to get my bike back from him. That's all he gets.

CroMo Mike 

Here's a video on youtube showing a guy openly stealing bikes and nobody stopping him. It was actually his own bike he "stole" 7 times. It was done for demonstration purposes; the point is that no passers-by, including police, made any effort to stop him as he used bolt cutters to forcefully liberate the bike in public places.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4yydGUB88c

Superia

There's something wrong with the mentality in the USA I think...

My friend's key once broke in the lock itself so he couldn't unlock his bike anymore and the only thing he had was a tiny saw to cut it open... While we were trying to cut through the lock (it took quite a while...) there were 4 people who tried to stop us, until we showed them the broken key...

jon c. 

Never leave mind unattended. Don't ride to work often, but when I do it sits in my office. The building manager forbids bikes in the hallways, but I carry it up an outside stairwell with a door only ten feet from my office. He's seen the bike in my office, but has had the good sense not to comment on how it got there.

TheManShow

When I lived in Sacramento, CA we had a stolen bicycle ring that took the bikes from Sacramento, to Seattle or Portland to sell. What they stole up in Portland & Seattle they sold in Sacramento. It all ended when some alert cops noticed a Penske truck unloading bicycles into a public storage.

TheManShow

Guard dog looks like they would lick a thief to death.

Bicycle Addict

I left my bike outside a shop once, came out in a hurry when I saw someone trying to steal it, he did not get very far as I was in high gear then coasted to a stop parked bike and got off walked into shop, he fell to the ground as he tried to pedal away.
So as silly as it sounds I leave any bike in high now even locked as a secondary thing

Kobe 

68cm bikes are a pretty good theft deterrent, who can ride them and who wants to deal with a guy probably bigger than you.

I still use a cable lock if I go into a store for more than a minute or two.

Shp4man

I have an old cable lock from the 80's, but reading this thread has made me think again that bike thieves have to be the lowest scum on Earth. Walking sacks of dog crap. I could go on, but....

brianinc-ville

It really depends on where you are.

In my NC college town we've got plenty of garden-variety teenagers and addicts who'll steal anything they can get their hands on, but not (as far as I've heard) professional bike thieves with tools and skills. Also not much of a market for used bike parts (as opposed to whole bikes). I use a U-lock through the frame and front wheel, and I've never had a problem.

When I ride in NYC, DC, or Boston, though, I add a cable through the saddle and rear wheel to the U-lock through the frame and front wheel (my bikes have dynamo hubs up front, generally more valuable than what I've got in the rear -- reverse that, if your RW is more valuable than the FW). Hal remains the authority on how to do it:

IcySmooth52

I don't have a city bike right now. (Don't live in a place where one would be much help due to distances). But I had outfitted my single speed with torx bolts at the seatpost clamp, seatpost collar, stem, and put those safety skewers on. Then I just used a nice U-lock through the front wheel and front triangle. Never had a problem in Boston & Portland.

garyus

Back in high school a buddy of mine had a mid level Follis. He would lock the frame and rear tire up and leave the front wheel in his counselor's office. Nothing ever happened to it and this was in Detroit. A member in our cycling club had their carbon trek stolen out of the back seat of their unlocked vehicle. This was a couple weeks ago. You can never assume anything now days.

John E

It all depends on my destination. When shopping locally or going to the local YMCA, I use a lightweight cable with my Abus Diskus lock. When I am going to the university or anywhere else, I use a heavy cable or even a chain, if taking it inside with me will not be an option. If security is likely top be a concern, I ride the Peugeot beater instead of any of the more valuable bikes, acknowledging that no bike is theft-resistant.

brianinc-ville

Cyclist 'messed up' over bike & gummy worms stolen in Portland

"It was stolen on Monday outside Alberta Co-op Grocery in Northeast Portland, even though Dimacali secured it with a cable lock."

'Nuff said. I get that a U-lock is a heavy thing to carry over the Rockies, but yeah, a cable just won't do it -- not in Portland, not anywhere.