Originally Posted by dstrong
Then I remembered a thread recently by someone who uses a "parking brake" on his bike using a thick rubber band on the handlebars to squeeze one of the brake handles and engage the brakes. I now have one my daughters hairbands on my bars and can't wait to try it out!
Another way of doing this is to set your front brake up such with the release lever wide open, its nice to make it so you can remove the wheel too. So now when you latch the release lever closed it contacts the rim, thus you have a parking brake and to some extent a theft deterrent.
On my commuter that I lock up I wrapped old handle bar tape on the TT for this very reason too.
I remember as a kid I used to like to watch my bike with its kick stand on melt into the hot pavement and make holes in it. I don't think there is any harm in resting a bike in the grass or leaning it against a building. If anything it's probably more secure then a kickstand which can fall over from the wind.