I feel lucky to have never (so far) been a victim of bicycle theft. However, I feel the pain of anyone who reports having lost their trusty steed in this manner. Today, while considering relieving my bike from the weight of my useless cable lock, I was thinking about new ways to fight bicycle theft that would require less “thought” and fewer accessories.

My first thought was “Why not quick-release pedals? You can’t get away very fast on a bike with no pedals!” But then I realized that a learned thief would either carry a set of pedals in his or her tool kit, or could figure out a way to jam some dowels in the pedal slots to use as makeshift platforms.

What about fold-down pedals, like the ones on folding bikes, but ones that lock in the down position until opened with a key? Or maybe something along the lines of the old steering wheel “Club” that would slip into the chain ring assembly and prevent the cranks from moving at all? It would have to be A LOT lighter and less bulky, though.

I’m sure at least some of you are reading this and thinking, “Where has this guy been? These ideas have been explored a million times! I’m going to post a link to this exact product on Amazon.” I welcome that kind of reply and will not be offended.

Otherwise, what I am REALLY interested in are ideas for Do-It-Yourself security concepts that don’t involve dragging around a lock that weighs as much as the entire bike. Anyone?

The common solution is to leave the best lock (=heaviest lock) at the place you usually lock your bike to for the most time. You won't have to carry it then.
All those approaches with blocking the wheels or drive train have the problem that a thief can still carry the bike away and solve the problem in his garage with lots of time.

Folding locks integrated into the rear triangle of a frame on a city bike solves that problem because the thief cannot pedal the bicycle (same net effect.)

...Which leads me to the question I forgot to ask the first time around: Does anybody know the percentage of bike thefts that involve a thief actually riding away on a bike, as opposed to picking it up and throwing it in a car?

When I lived in Copenhagen, thieves would often remove the entire bike rack from the ground (including the bikes attached to it) and place it into a truck and ship it abroad for dismantling.

Lazy UK example:

Yowza! That hurts.

Also, just some stats for Denmark (population 5.8m ppl)

According to new figures from the national statistics keepers, Danmarks Statistik, 52,465 bicycles were stolen in Denmark last year. While it sounds like a lot, it’s actually the lowest since statistics began to be kept 42 years ago.

Essentially 1% or 1 in every 100 Danes had a bike stolen.

That's how it goes. Just ride a piece of junk that works well.

You could spend some cash and buy rinko style pedals: https://www.renehersecycles.com/shop/components/pedals/mks-sylvan-touring-next-pedals-rinko/

... but I'd spend my money on a better lock.

^^^ There are much cheaper quick release pedals. I was looking at some for the kidback on my tandem, so I could shift it between riders more quickly. Rene Herse only sells the fanciest. But in either case they are not sold as a security feature.

Two good ways to avoid carrying a lock are to leave the lock where you are going or to use a bike box. But the limitations of that are obvious.

Nah. My pedals are $5, not $125.

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I rarely leave my bike unattended, so, while a better lock might provide a little more confidence to do so, I don't consider schlepping one of those anchor-sized U-locks a good trade-off for the extra convenience. My bike is what some of you might consider a "junker," so if anybody is going to steal it, it'd be just for the rush of getting away with it. NOBODY is going to haul away an entire rack for THIS bike, if you know what I am saying.

Something as simple as hindering the pedaling of the bike with fold-down pedals or some kind of jam in the crank would be more my speed. Nothing that adds weight to the bike. In fact, scratch that idea about the "Club" thing!

I remember an item from a few years back. I've tried to find where I saw it, but have had no luck. It was a lockable headset. Instead of an Allen bolt in the middle of your top cap, there was a key slot. With the key inserted, you could turn you handlebars sideways and then lock them in place there (to make it take up less space for storage). It would be hard to steer with the handlebars attached sideways.

Or, you could turn the key the other direction and it just left the handlebars loose. Basically, you can't steer a bike without the handlebars locked in place.

There are reports on the CTC forum of London bike thieves carrying 4, 5 & 6mm allen keys and stripping every component they can off a bike, leaving the double locked frame and wheels behind. There are various security fasteners offered to deter this. MKS has an entire cornucopia of removable pedals. Dahon offers their proprietary pattern Quick Draw pedals.

Of course here in the modern era we have lock picking enthusiasts offering tutorials and specialized bike lock picking tools online.

You can always fold your bike up and take it with you.

That's super common if a bike is left overnight (not during the day.)

Most people change out stuff for security locks or pour adhesive in so that it can be scraped away later if need be just to prevent common tools from stripping a bike.

A small padlock through the chainwheel around the chain, perhaps?

(I'd probably choose a different lock; this is just one I had on my workbench. Hmm. And perhaps orient the lock inside rather than outside. Hmm.)

Note: the rear wheel can still freewheel and the bike can still roll forwards.

My 1976 Raleigh Superbe had a key operated locking fork.

Source: https://forum.cyclinguk.org/viewtopic.php?t=10397

^^THIS is why I lock to lamp poles or flag poles whenever possible. If they cut it, perhaps it will fall and kill them.

That's a pretty good lock, because of the curve, it'd be really hard to cut off. Great deterrent to the random thief.

But if it's a bike that's wanted, it'll still get taken. I always think of my mate's motorbike, alarm screaming as it was going away down the road in the back of a van.

That's a 60mm disk lock that just barely fits over my chainwheel and chain. Playing for keeps, I'd go with an Abus 24IB/60.

Time to Move go find another job in a place that steals very few bikes...

Wouldn't the crank still be able to fully turn?


It looks like you would just have chain rub against the lock, but that the bike would still be rideable.

I have no issue with a 1.5kg Abus U-lock attached to my bike, but if that is too heavy for you, then you could get a frame lock for the rear wheel that weighs between 650 to 900grams.

Abus Bordo Granit 6500 , in a pouch on the top frame tube on my bike Friday,

Axa frame Ring lock on my Koga Trekking bike with a chain to lock it to stuff..

The lock appears to be around the chain+chainring. You would get about 1/2 crank revolution before experiencing "chain suck".

Of course, with a freewheel/freehub, you could pedal 1/2 revolution, then backpedal 1/2 revolution, and repeat.

There was a Kickstarter bike pedal lock. Thin cable in the pedal. If the cable is cut, an alarm would sound.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...cycle-security

A spindle lock would have made riding the bike cumbersome, but I don't think that was included. Just the alarm.

Unfortunately, funding fell through.