I forgot to close my garage one evening and some dude decided he would 'trade' his broken longboard for my $1000 Trek with an $80 lock unlocked but attached to the bike. Bastard! I live in a decent neighborhood, but shouldn't have left the garage open.

I've had a good but "free" MTB stolen from the rack in front of my office (dumb cable lock). Since I've moved I ride my 2nd "free" MTB to the train station that I take to work and only use a crappy little $2 cable lock and it's never been touched. I think that since the train station I park it in is full of car commuters they would never think of touching a bike. If you have to lock it up somewhere ride a bike you can replace, locks are only a deturrent not a solution. A good bike I would not leave locked overnight outside unless I was sleeping next to it with an alarm!

I don't like to laugh at the misfortune of others, but...


Sorry. I'm done now...

I had a bike stolen from the front porch of a friend's house, where it was locked (big cable and U-lock) to the porch's wooden posts. The thief just sawed through the wood and took it away.

My Cannondale was not stolen in two years of downtown Toronto riding and outdoor locking (except overnight), with only the Krypto EVO2000 Bic pen special (edit: didn't know about the bic pen thing at the time, and was assured by the LBS that it was a good lock). I think that was luck more than anything else, though the bike's colour (black) made it less of an obvious target. I do generally make a point of parking next to flashier bikes. Not sure if that does anything, but I figure it can't hurt either.

The 'dale had its seat stolen in broad daylight outside a university library. The thief even bothered to take the seatpost-mounted mudguard off and left it behind. When I bought a new seat, I dispensed with the quick release. No problems after that. I think quick release anything in the city is just asking for trouble.

I've heard that Toronto thieves work in teams -- one guy will walk/ride around, finding likely targets, and will call up his friends in a van loaded with lock-busting equipment. They can get through pretty much anything, though the people I know with Krypto NY Locks never seemed to have any problems.

I've had a number of tries on my bikes, but so far (Knock, knock) I've been lucky. I now lock both wheels, and at least one to an object that can't be moved.

I have a Stock lock with a 20 minute street rating, the other is a Krypto (for locking the front wheel to the frame and possibly a fence).

Someone tried to saw the Stock in Wales, the Krypto has a number of marks I attribute to hammers. My beater tied to the fence at the subway has been pulled so many times the plastic has worn off the u-bolt. One guy was so pissed he kicked in the front wheel.

I never leave any bike for even a second without some protection. I have a homemade device I use for keeping the wheel straight on my touring bike. It is great for quick 'just a second' security in that no one notices the front wheel is being held.

My motto "Two wheel:Two locks"

i had an ex-girlfriend (or i guess i have an ex-girlfriend/had a girlfriend) who wittnessed a theft...she saw it through her window right in front of her house...she said it was locked to a stop sign (i guess w/ a cable lock) and the thief just cut it and took the bike...later that day, a kid and his dad came around looking for the bike...

she totally clould have stopped that...i mean she could have just walked out the front door, spooked the thief, and the kid would've kept his bike...i'm surprised i didn't give here more grief for that...b*tch...

i don't know if that added anything to the discussion, but i just felt like sharing that

I was having lunch with a friend and locked my bright yellow schwinn mtn bike to a light post right outside the window of the restaurant. I even asked for the table closest to the window so i could keep an eye on it.

The theives locked another yellow bike on the other side of the light post and then cut my cable lock and one guy took my bike. A minute later the second guy took his bike.

Since I could still see a yellow bike out of the corner of my eye I didn't realize they had taken my bike until the second thief took his bike and my brain cued in what had happened.

I tore out of the restaurant running in bike shoes and spotted my bike 2 blocks away. I ran after it down the middle of the street, but wasn't gaining any ground when a guy rode up on a bike and asked what was wrong. I pointed to my bike and told him it was being stolen. He bombed after the thief and when he got to him he grabbed him and then clotheslined him with an elbow to the head. The thief flew over the bars and the guy that helped my just rode off.

When I got to the thief I grabbed my bike and noticed he was bleeding and unresponsive. His accomplice was getting close so I bailed back to the restaurant. The second thief yells out to me "...hey he's unconcious and bleeding!!..." My response was "...f**k him..."

When I got back to the restaurant I grabbed my cell and rode back to the scene to call the cops and an ambulance. The thief was gone - he left his baseball cap and a nice pool of blood on the street.

I bought a kyrptonite NYC chain lock that day and will never trust a cable lock for anything, but dashing into a 7-11.

I guess that is life on the mean streets of Calgary Alberta Canada.....

I had my bike (8 month old EZ-Sport CX Recumbent) locked to the trunk of my car (Impala) through the little crack with a cable lock while I was parked outside a friends house and tied to my bike rack for about 3 hours. (Jackson, Ms) It was night time. When I came out the lock was still there, but the theif had defeated the combination (4 number standard combo lock). Since I had the lock I decided to see how easy it would be to defeat. Turns out due to either the guy breaking it while trying to steal the bike, or due to a manufacturing defect only 3 of the numbers had to be in place, the last one didn't matter. Not only that, but the lock gave a tactile response (you could guess the numbers pretty well by pulling the lock while turning the dial). I reported it to the police and waited about two weeks but it didn't turn up. Insurance paid 730 or so towards a new bike on a 1299.00 bike (different wheels, accessories, etc). I now have a 5 digit OnGuard lock with their mastiff chain. I'm seriously considering a NY Fuhgettaboutit lock as well (because of the warranty).

Does anybody have a good suggestion however for safely locking a bike when it is in transport (say I am driving to another city with the bike and stop somewhere to shop/eat?) to a vehicle?

Sorry to hear about your loss. This is a question I've wondered about many times. When I am going around town, I will sometimes just put the bike in the back of my Subaru wagon. If that is not convenient, I U-lock the bike, and then slip a fairly thick cable through the central tube of my rack (a Saris Bones) and lock that with a separate Kryptonite padlock. I try to make only short stops and park where I can see the bike.

My real hope is to prevent casual thievery--just make it look too annoying to be worth messing with. At night, for any length of time, I think it would be very hard to really keep the bike safe. I guess the Yakima/Thule roof racks have locks, but I find getting my bike up there a real pain and so don't use them. They might be better.

Great stories, everyone. So far I haven't had my bike stolen (I commute daily with a shiny white 05 Bianchi Brava.. sort of a bad idea), I've got a Bulldog U around the rear wheel and a cable around the front. I'm seriously looking at beater road bikes, though, I'm becoming increasingly paranoid. I don't know what I'd do if the Bianchi got stolen.

No stolen bikes yet. *pray pray pray* But I am paranoid. When I moved to Portland, I left my bike behind at my mother's house. Then I had it shipped here. I arrived home from school at midnight one night, and there's my bike in the shipping box, sitting in the lobby of my building. Anybody who wanted to could have stolen it. I couldn't believe the manager just let it sit there unprotected like that.

So I left it in the shipping box, and put it in my storage locker, behind some other boxes, but I started to *really* get paranoid about it, because a determined thief could get into the locker-- I'd go check on it at 3 AM, that kind of stuff. Finally I decided to just bring it in my apartment. No more waking up at 3 AM in a panic.

My girlfriend's cro-moly shogun commuter that is about 10years old was stolen from the back porch of my house. It was left overnight so i figure it was someone just lurking about people's backyard looking for stuff to steal. Now we both have decent racers we only lock them up in the university bike lock-up which requires key-card access and is logged. If I ever ride anywhere i always bring it inside and will not ride into the city ever. You can't lock everything, think how easy it would be to steal someone's cranks and pedals. Alone they are worth more than 3 Huffys.

The rules:
1. Lock the rear wheel and frame to an object (hopefully steel) which cannot be moved.
2. Lock the front wheel to the frame and another object if available.
3. Use expensive, brand name locks, not the dollar store variety. (Yes, they are heavy.)

Since I've followed the rules I have not lost a bike (knock, knock). Thieves have tried many times. My locks have hammer marks, plier marks and saw marks on them, but when I return the bike it there with both wheels. One thief was so 'pissed' he was leaving empty handed he kicked in my spokes.

No story here (thank God!), but on the "cautionary tale" topic I read this week that Master Lock is settling a class action lawsuit regarding one of their steering wheel locks (https://www.masterlock.com/252dat/) because it STILL has the round key lock that can be opened with a bic pen. Owners can send it in for a new one that doesn't have the round key.

This was news in the biking industry 2 years ago. How can they get away with selling defective locks for 2 years?

If I had one of those and had my vehicle stolen after ML knew about the bic pen issue, I would be upset right now.