My wife and I use reasonable precaution, but not to the point where the bike becomes an anchor. We lock our bikes while shopping or eating, but leave our netbook in its spot in a rear pannier. It would take a lot of work to get to it. The thief would have to take the rack pack off and know how to release the Ortlieb panniers. In real sketchy areas we have lightweight cables, Ortlieb option, to lock the panniers to the bikes. In the 5 years we have had them we only used the cable once, and it was in a California campground.


At a campground in Switzerland we left our bikes cabled to that wooden fence and most of our gear stowed in the tent for a day. We walked the 3 miles to town, hopped a train and took it 300 km to a place I have wanted to see since I was a kid. Riding there and back would have taken us an extra week. I thought the risk was low and worth taking. The campground manager did hold our computer for us, and all the important papers and cameras were with us.