ColaJacket

In addition to this, talk to your management or HR. Tell them that you want to be healthy and commute to work on your bike, but that you're afraid of vandalism/theft of your bicycle. If your company has a wellness program, then talk to the person in charge of the wellness program. They should be your advocate in this. Explain how the exercise will help reduce the health insurance costs that they pay on you.

It is national Bike to Work Month (and today is Bike to Work Day), so take advantage of this timing.

GH

rms13

Makes me glad to work for a company that encourages alternative transportation. I can park my bike at my desk (I have a coworker that has six bikes in his office right now), we have nice shower/locker room and I get $1/day when I do commute by bike. I even won an ipad mini in a raffle just for logging my commute (of course value of ipad was added to taxable income so not really free)

GreenAnvil

Make sure you take a nice photo of your bike so that you can remember it fondly once it's gone...

Jiggle

When I commuted to a college campus, I found the busiest part of campus and chained my bicycle to a railing using Grade 100 3/8" chain. I figure, because my bicycle was a piece of cycling art, no one ever gave me any flak about my choice in location. In fact, I think the consensus was that the aesthetics of the area was improved by the presence of my machine.

JohnJ80

Yep.

Look at the youtube videos about this. A skilled thief will be gone in well under a minute. The OP's bike guarantees the best will be looking at it because of the high value parts.

And in seconds (<10s).

+1 to all of this.

The bike the OP describes provides a lot of incentive for a thief to figure out how to steal it. For this they would be willing to wait until the guard had to make a run to the john or whatever would take him away from the desk for a while or to even create a diversion to occupy them. There are many youtube videos that demonstrate that passersby on the sidewalk will likely do nothing to stop it and a good thief would just tell them it's their bike but they lost the key (and isn't that a shame).

Your bike wouldn't last a week, I'd guess. And if it did, it would start to show the damage from locks etc... in short order. Nice bikes for commuting need to be inside supervised by you.

J.

Nachoman

I once saw a fireman use some sort of bolt cutters that sliced through a thick motorcycle lock in less than three seconds.

superdex

two thoughts -- 1) the relative weight of all those locks will make you not want to bring them. And weigh more than the bike. 2) Isn't there a bike rack as part of the building? Is there an indoor garage? --at least around here, indoor parking lots tend to have bike racks --some even in their own caged area.

If it's that short a commute, I'd probably just ride home, swap bikes and keep going...

gpburdell

I like the idea of a beat up old van as a bike storage locker. Emergency transport if something comes up where you need a car, bike's hidden from view and relatively secure, drive it go for lunch once in a while to blow the dust off and change parking spot. Keep a long extension cord and battery charger with start-assist in it though...

indyfabz

I was outside of a pharmacy last Saturday evening watching the bikes while my GF was inside shopping. In the bike rack was a LiteSpeed Firenze or something. Then I noticed it was not locked up. At first I thought I was seeing things or that there was some thin, hard to see cable being employed. Nope. It had just been left there. I assumed someone has stolen and then abandoned it because I could not conceive of someone leaving a bike like that unattended and not locked, especially since there was no way you could keep an eye on it from inside the pharmacy. After about 5 min. some college age looking guy walks out and takes the bike off the rack. I said to him "You might want to seriously consider never doing that again if you want to keep that bike." He told me had been a little worried about leaving it outside, but that he took some comfort in the fact that there was a security camera on the outside of the building. WTF? Did he really think there was some security guard in the back room watching the feed in case someone tried to walk away with his bike? Those camera are for later IDing robbery suspects as they are fleeing the scene. Sometimes I think the film "Idiocracy" is prophetic.

Stun

I did the old beater van trick before for a while about 15 years ago...It worked well. The van was worth about $200, and the bike was worth about $1500. No one ever even tried to mess with it. I think people think it is a real crime to break into even a very crappy worthless automobile, but not to cut a bike off of a rack and take it.

RocThrower

Reminded me of this:

chaadster

No, not really. I'm far more concerned with enjoying myself, and being able to do what I like to do, which in this context means riding a nice bike. I know I'm fortunate to have the means to take that position, but I'm also not talking about leaving $5k cash on the sidewalk in the ghetto, but rather taking reasonable security and insurance precautions.

When I was college, back in the early '90s, I had my dream bike stolen, a custom build Fat City Yo Eddy Team Fat Chance. Metallic purple, and I'd polished and anodized the rims, seatpost, cranks, bar, and bar ends in gold; it was off the charts hot in those days, especially with the 3D violet anodized bits. Man, I sold a car to put that thing together and loved it. I easily spent close to $4k on it. It
got stolen from my workplace. I was mad, and I still have never had a bike as nice as that, but looking back, I'm glad I had the chance to experience it.

Better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved, as the saying goes.

chaadster

Turned out the guy was a winner though.

Flounce

1. The 18lbs of locks/chains will stay at the bike rack every night. I wouldn't imagine carrying them while riding a 15lb road bike.

2. For those informing me that these chains can be snipped in 3 seconds and that I should take a look at youtube... I've researched the locks and chains in depth and am familiar with them and the various tests that they have been put through on youtube. The 16mm and 19mm Pragmasis-Protector / Allmax-Immobiliser chains are chains used to lock up motorcycles, are well known, and are popular because they cannot be cut with manual bolt cutters/croppers. Like all other locks/chains, they can be cut with a portable angle grinder and other power tools, but it is not a 3 second job. Please see original post.

macdonwald

Well, for what it's worth, I locked up my nice Lynskey cross/commuter build (about a $4K value) on a rack on the side of my building in Center City Philadelphia for five years or so without incident. (I'm now in a new job with a secure room.) I used this heavy duty Krytonite chain through the frame, front wheel, and bike rack. And I added a pretty standard U-lock usually just through the frame and rear wheel. If you're leaving the locks there, definitely go heavy.



Amazon.com: Kryptonite New York Legend 1515 Chain with New York Padlock (30 Inches Long When Locked): Sports & Outdoors

moobot22

You might look at additional options like GPS trackers. There are a number of those specifically made for bikes. Also look at locks that have the highest guarantee claim limit possible. I think some Kryptonite locks go up to 5K. Actually claiming that guarantee money is a set of flaming hoops, but I've heard it can be done. They want the bike lock itself, the key, the receipt or proof or purchase, the bike's serial number, a police report (remember you have to file that before leaving the scene) and I think you have to register the lock within 15 days of receiving the lock. This may be a pain since smarter thieves will take the lock too to keep from leaving any fingerprints at the scene. It doesn't matter how busy it is or how safe the city is, bystanders do not care and will not lift a finger to stop a guy with a powered grinder going through your lock. https://youtu.be/UGttmR2DTY8 you're really just relying on the security guys.

If you can't leave it inside at work I'd at least leave it under a security camera, and check with the company that owns the security camera where exactly it's pointing and how much detail you can see in it and make sure you can get access to the footage should the bike be stolen.

Otherwise, I'd be more concerned about the wear and tear inherent in locking your 5k bike to a metal signpost or bike rack. It's going to get scuffed all to hell and look like a beater within a couple months guaranteed. That matte paint job isn't going to help at all either. Plus, if it's in an area with any kind of foot traffic at all, or especially other bikers locking to the same post or rack, none of them are going to give a a single salty **** about moving/knocking/shoving and bending your $5,000 bike aside to get around it or get their bike off the rack. If you're locking up next to other people, or you have it in a high traffic area get used to the idea of your 5k bike will ride like it's got Claris parts on it from people knocking into the derailleurs and the wheels will never be true unless you service it every day.

Johnny Mullet

Flounce

Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this.

Buffalo Buff

This. There's always somewhere to fit a bike. My last job we had a utility closet with breaker switches where I kept my bike.

Bob Ross

^^^This. A million times, ^^^this.

The streets of Manhattan are littered with the frames of a thousand bikes (of all sorts of pedigree, some crappy POS, some very nice like OP's SuperSix EVO) still securely locked to a signpost with the best Kryptonite has to offer...and all completely devoid of any of the parts that made them a "bicycle" rather than a "frame"

kevmk81

I don't trust others to allow my bike to sit outside. Too easy to removes parts and sell on craigslist/ebay, or just break the chain/lock whatever you're using and take the whole thing. I'd buy a cheapie ride if you have to do that. Plus, if you ride to work consistently, the weather will really put the hurt on your bike, in my opinion. Keep good stock of chain lube.

unionmade

I'd be worried about banging up the nice bike with those heavy locks, even if no one else ever touches it.

pgoat

Heh, it took me a few mins but I finally got that one.

caloso

Jacob Marley, not Ghost of Christmas Past. /dickenspedant

PaulRivers

I hear you. I did something somewhat similar, except by the time I was riding my high end bike to work, they had come out with a new generation of Dura-Ace, and it was several years old. So what had been a $5k bike, I had bought used for $3k, and was only worth maybe $1.5k max.

I certainly sounds like you've thought of almost all the stuff I can think of for securing the bike. As other people have said someone could strip expensive parts off the bike, but that was a risk I was willing to take as well. It's possible to use techniques to keep that from happening - like I've heard of people filling in the bolts with glue that that can melted off or something later, but then that also makes working on your own bike a hassle.

The one thing I would check that I didn't see mentioned is how secure the rack is. Can the rack be lifted off the ground? Can one simply cut through the rack far easier than they could cut through any of your locks?

Otherwise, I wish you luck. My bike was fine (though like I said it was also older) as long as you're comfortable with the financial risk.