I saw this disturbing story today in my local paper:

Bike thieves are taking out bikes with u-locks. One guy even had 2 u-locks!

Growing trend of BART bikes thieves thwarting U-locks

So if u-locks are getting breached, what else is there? How else can you lock your bike?

Just don't buy a U-lock that is too big for your use:




https://www.bike.bikegremlin.com/2015...ing-a-bicycle/

You should use a lock that has as little space as possible open inside. Ideally you should barely be able to get it over your frame/wheel and what you're locking to. This makes it difficult to get a jack inside the U.

folding bikes dont get left in the rack @ the station.

there is no such thing as a fool-proof bike lock.

and if you live in a big city known for rampant bike theft like NYC, chicago, san francisco, etc., then never leave anything you aren't willing to lose left locked and unattended on the street.

you can take measures like making your bike as unattractive/nondescript as possible and using multiple locks of varying types (2 is better than 1, 3 is better than 2, and so forth), but if a thief wants your bike bad enough, he will get it. no lock offers 100% security, they only have different degrees of deterrence.

folding bikes are a good option. i live in chicago. if i didn't have secure indoor bike parking at my office, i would ABSOLUTELY ride a folding bike to work and take it inside with me as opposed to leaving my bike to fate out on the street all day long.

What is interesting is that the stations with the most bike theft are the suburban ones. #2 is an upper middle class burb. Urban stations in Oakland are at the bottom of the bike theft list.

The BikeLink lockers are great when you can get one; not enough of them though and not even they are totally thief resistant:
Bike stolen from BikeLink locker

And the high security racks that Pleasant Hill BART is considering look pretty stout, but I wouldn't trust them without additional locks for wheel, saddle, etc.

I wonder if that wouldn't succumb to a bottle jack? Pretty cool rack though. Around here, we have been pretty lucky. The students do a horrible job of locking their bikes, but none of them seem to get stolen

I think all the racks around here would last a few seconds with the right tools. I have heard of racks being attacked, but only in bike havens like PDX

Number one rule of thefts at bike racks. Make sure your bike is less attractive than others with the same lock/ease of theft. Most of those bikes are stolen for resale. Highest valued bike (to the thief) for the amount of work/time he is willing to do will be the bike he takes.

I ride fix gears with 30 year old frames. I make it a point to only clean the area of the bike I need to work on. (I do hose it down after rain rides to keep it pleasant to pick up and keep the brake pads and rims grit free.) Within those constraints, you can still ride a sweet bike. That sweet ride isn't what the thief is after. He isn't going to post a three paragraph description of the great riding properties of your "junker". No, he just wants a fast turnover.

If you do have to ride a new bike, you can lower the attractiveness very fast with a few off road rides (esp in the wet) and a can of spray paint. (Yes, that will destroy the resale value. But that same resale value is what the thief is after.)

Ben

Doomed ..


They Know you wont be back for 8 hours, so have time to bring what they need to defeat any lock.

The photos shown in the news story are of the U-lock type that has a little j-bend at one end of the shackle. It only needs to be cut once.

If you want my bike, you better come prepared. I use a Kryptonite mini U-lock with a heavy duty Kryptonite chain and an Abus Bordo Granit X-Plus 6500 folding lock. That's what you need to get through after gaining entrance to a locked parking garage with security cameras and a roving security guard, and a locked fenced bike cage. It's easy if you have the garage access card and 3 keys, but quite difficult and somewhat risky otherwise. Good luck. BTW, I'm not telling where the bike is located, so you'll also need that crucial piece of information.

If you do the math based on the article, the theft rate is down by nearly half, while the rate of u-locked bike theft has about tripled, so the total number of U-locked bikes stolen has less than doubled. The thieves are attacking more u-locks because there are more u-locks.

Also it looks like roughly two bikes per day across the entire BART system. I wonder how that compares to the total number of bikes parked per day.

Yeah those look like the Kryptonite Evolution Series 2 locks. I have one. I recently switched to an Abus Mini because it had slightly thicker shackles and was also double shackle locked, so they have to cut both arms off. It's also a little smaller than the Krypto Evo 2. At the end of the day for these bikes that are locked up all day not so sure that would make much difference.

That right there is the key vulnerability. I'm not familiar with the stations, but I'd guess that the ones with the highest ratio of parked to foot traffic are the ones with the most thefts.

This is definitely the kind of problem that needs to be solved by the BART administrators and/or the local police. If you are parking your bike in a place where thieves know there are a lot of bikes and not enough security. You can try to improve your personal security solution, but there isn't a lock in the world that can't be broken in 8 hours.

FIFY

This is one of my locks

Some additional context. It sounds like many of the u-lock thefts were from people who left their bikes overnight. Stations are red then, that's for sure.

I try to put my bike in the bike locker and time things accordingly. My closest station has about 250-300 bike parked on the standard racks daily. Most of the racks are behind the fare gate. Not all in view of the station agent, but potentially in their view.

There are outdoor (outside of the fare gates) racks and secure lockers - about 70 of these.

I wonder if a U-lock could be made with the same kind of mechanism as this old fashioned bike lock:

Search Products | Master Lock

This would allow a bike to be locked tight against different sizes of poles and racks.

Nice setup.

That's why I prefer a chain.

I use a heavy chain that can be wrapped fairly tightly around just about anything. I assume that it's still breachable though. I only carry it if I know I'll be leaving my bike unattended for a long time. Stopping some place for lunch or grabbing groceries I just use the ring lock on my rear wheel.

Ultimate solution is secure bike storage so talk to your city, county, state, rail operator, etc.



BTW, the upper rack she's using is surprisingly easy to get up and down so is not a problem for most people and these rack systems are very space efficient.

both chain and ulock have their advantages.

this picture shows bad locking technique. should have used a smaller lock, or chained one wheel as well, not leaving room for a jack.

That has more to do with time at the stations than anything. Those stations are at the far ends of the BART lines, so the commuters spend the most time on the trains. Many of the bikes will be parked for 10+ hrs (8hrs + 1hr each way).

I'm guessing the thieves know that the bikes get parked for long periods of time and target those stations.