Originally Posted by
john bono
The thing is, how you lock your bike depends on where you lock your bike. In NYC, if the lock isn't built of chromium steel and sheethed in 6 inches of depleted uranium armored plate, the bike is going to get stolen. If, on the other hand, you live in some remote area of eastern nowhere, you could leave the bike outside sans lock, and you could come back a decade later and the bike would still be there. Having a cable lock in a place where bikes aren't a popular mode of transport is probably more than adequate.
Around here, I have left my bike completely unsecured several times (I don't plan on doing this again) for up to an hour. When I came back, every time it was exactly as I found it. I now use a cable lock, and will get a U-lock if I travel somewhere where bike theft is a bigger concern--then, I'd probably use both locks; maybe use the U to lock the bike to a rack, and the cable to go around the rack, through the frame, and through the front wheel. My girlfriend lives in New Jersey, and her bike was stolen right off her porch when she went in for a short while. It was a broken POS though, so it wasn't such a big loss.