Dent

I live in an apt and its a hassle to keep bringing my bike in and out of my room. So I opted to park (lock) my bike outside permanently

Aside from the obvious threat of theft, are there other cautions I should watch out for such as the rainwater rusting my gears?
Or do a lot of people park their bike outside....




Thanks

-VELOCITY-

I'd rather go through the hassle then wake up one day and find it gone. Or that the elements would start to get to it and make it rust.

barba

It will very definitely decrease the life span of parts (especially the chain) beyond the risk of theft.

Dent

ok. thanks.

I already had it out for 4 days. One night there was a huge rainstorm...

Would my gears start to slowly rust because of that incident? What kind of oil would be good for my gears?

barba

Is it a steel bike? If it is water can be especially bad.

If it has been out in the rain I would clean and lube the moving parts. Rainwater itself is fairly clean, but the stuff that bounces back up off the ground in a hard rain is much less clean. If you continue doing this, make sure you lube the chain up fairly regularly.

Dent

this is my bike


I'll definitly get some lubing of the moving parts done asap.

supcom

Although your bike is not very valuable, it's much more of a hassle to earn the money to replace it than to secure it someplace safe. If you rely on the bike to get to work or school, consider the hassle of getting to your destination on time if your bike is damaged or stolen. Thieves thrive on other people's laziness.

In addition to theft and deterioration, you may find your bike vandalized by some idiot who thought he could impress his buddies by tacoing your wheels with his foot.

operator

Locking the bike outside night aftert night is a recipe for disaster.

SemperFi

The extra effort to bring your bike inside is well worth the inconvenience you would experience if you had to replace it or be without a means of transportation.

Dent

tacoing? Is that when they stomp on the front bike, thus bending it and making the bike immobile?

Stacey

^^^ Bingo!

nelson249

There was also a thread in the commuting section a while ago about people sabotaging bikes left unattended. Vandals might damage or tamper with a bike that may not be as obvious as stomping on the wheels. For instance, imagine your chagrin to discover that someone had loosened your quick release on the front fork after you started riding in traffic. If you have to leave your machine out over night, please give it a once over to make sure it's safe.

Even if you have a cheap bike, it still represents an investment that should be protected as much as possible.

Caspar_s

Depends on the area, my building has a couple locked up outside. They are under cover though, by the parking spaces there is a bike rack, so they don't have a rain problem. I stopped after having my bell removed again (just the cover, not the internal spinning part) and I got a brooks, so the bike has doubled in value :-)

Jerseysbest

Generally, water is bad for your bike, so bring it inside if its going to rain, your bike will operate correctly longer.

Its your call whether your area is safe enough to lock it up outside. I used to lock up my old Fuji road bike outside because it was barely worth anything, but it was in a fairly safe neighborhood and anybody walking down the street lived on it. 12 months outside and never a problem. But i did recently strip and paint the bike and redid the drive train, so its value to me has increased so no more outside locks ups.

AndrewP

My son-in-law in England keeps his bike in the back yard to save the trouble of getting it out of the shed. He bought a waterproof cover from the bike shop. I rode it when I was there last month on vacation and it doesnt seem to have suffered.

donnamb 

Absolutely. It took just 30 minutes of me not being able to be in direct view of my bike on a very crowded train for someone to decide it would be fun to tamper with my brakes. I was so lucky that my first stop didn't hurt or kill me or anyone else. I shudder to think what someone could do with a bike left outside overnight.

Eggplant Jeff

I locked mine outside 8 hours a day at my old job, and now I have nowhere to put it inside so it gets locked in the bed of my truck (but, ironically enough, my new job has indoor bike parking). Yeah, some of the screws here and there are rusty... I dunno, it's a utility thing to me. It's the same way I don't really care about the paint on my car being oxidized from being parked outside. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

I would recommend OIL for the chain if it's going to live outside. Any of the bike-specific crap (especially wax) washes right off. Good ol' motor oil or tranny fluid (I use tranny fluid because the fresh washes the old off better than motor oil).

I'm in a good neighborhood, haven't had any problems with anyone touching anything on it.

I'm assuming your frame is aluminum, but even if it's steel, it's not a huge deal as long as you treat the inside of the frame with something and promptly sand/repaint any rust spots on the outside.

Eli_Damon

If you store your bike outside, get a tarp and wrap it around the bike vertically when you put it away. I stored my bike in my back yard for a year this way and I think the tarp protected the parts from rusting.

I agree with the others though about storing your bike in a public place. It's not safe.

bruce19

If you want to keep your bike safe and rust free, NEVER leave it outside overnight. Personally, I consider that "machine abuse."

bruce19

tsl

I U-lock mine to the fire escape outside my kitchen door, unless there's threat of rain. Even when I'm asleep, I hear feet clanging up the steps, so the fire escape is an effective alarm system too.

Before winter, I have to sell some stuff and re-arrange the furniture and some paintings so I can fit an indoor bike rack into my 400 s.f. apartment.

krazygluon

When I initially got my bike (bought it and my gf's bike at the same time) I kept it outside while I was getting it back in working order. Now I seem to keep it indoors mostly because

1) I refuse to park it outside of my patio (which is surrounded by 4ft tall fencing) and the complex probably wouldn't let me do it anyway.
2) lifting it over the patio wall is just a pain
3) wheeling it from the front door of the apt to the patio door would get my carpet even dirtier
4) it was much easier to just make a little space right inside the door of the apartment to keep the bike.

that said, my gf's bike, which she doesn't ride that often, stays outside under a tarp. temperature isn't the enemy so much as moisture, and decent lube and a tarp should be all you need if its really easier to keep the bike outdoors.