I can easily put a mini U-lock around the massive rear tire and wheel on my mountain bike and a typical parking meter post. Downtown Houston has thousands of parking meters. Good news for folks who use mini U-locks. Bad news for people who drive downtown.
DON'T put your chainstay up against the locking post. Place the U-lock near the top of the tire, about twenty inches off the ground. Lean the bike about 20 degrees toward the locking post so that your tire is pressing up against the locking post, but there is an inch or two of open space at the chainstays. This method works great with parking meters.
The "rear wheel" locking method is not intended for schoolyard racks. Schoolyard-style racks are NOT designed to secure your bike against crooks. Those racks were designed for no locks, or for cable and chain locks. It is impossible to correctly lock-up a bike to a schoolyard-style rack except at the outside position at each end.
Always use the smallest U-lock that will fit around the rear wheel and a locking post. NEVER put a U-lock around any portion of the frame, including the seat tube. A crook will "lever" on the U-lock, and snap your downtube.
Some bike messengers sometimes need to lock up to telephone poles and light poles that are more than a foot wide. So, they need the Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit. NO U-lock is big enough for those poles.
Last edited by alanbikehouston; 05-25-05 at 01:16 PM.