Originally Posted by
jefnvk
That is where I am. Not a financial hardship to lose or buy a new one, more of an annoyance I don't want to deal with. I like it.
Yep, France this time round. But, you raise a point that I kind of have opposing feelings on. If I am taking utmost precautions at every step of the way, it is also indicative of unnecessary worry being added whenever I am away from the bikes. I didn't really feel "unsafe" in bike thief haven Amsterdam leaving bikes outdoors overnight, but I also had a sigh of relief everytime I walked out and saw them still sitting there.
But again, not looking for right or wrong or the "proper" way to do it. I appreciate the opposing views, was really just more curious about how others perceived the risks on their own!
Where I used to work, there were maybe 100 bikes parked in the racks outside. And, yes there was some theft at those racks. One guy had front low riders on his fork. And he always pulled his front wheel off of his bike and locked his bike and front wheel up to the rack. The low rider front rack made his bike more stable when standing on the fork that way. I think the reason he locked the wheel up separately that way was that his lock was too short to go around both wheels. But, realistically, a bike thief would probably look at his bike last because of the amount of time necessary to re-assemble the bike to make it rideable. At the end of the work day, putting the wheel back on the bike took him less than a minute, he did it every day so he was pretty quick at it.
My 26 inch wheel bikes, when I have 50 mm or 57 mm tires on them, I can't pull a front wheel without deflating it first to get past the brake, so that would not work well for me. But, if I was really nervous about where I left my bike, pulling the front wheel off would be the first thing I would think of doing. And ideally, take the wheel with me instead of leaving it with the rest of the bike. And in Europe where more people know what a Rohloff hub is and what it is worth, I would probably want to take my rear wheel with me too.