hypermaniac

well its almost school time again, and i was hoping some of you guys have some tips on locking strategies for college since i'm bringing my first real road bike to school.

Enviorment
Its going to be in front of my dorm, where there are many bike racks and bikes locked. i've seen regular x-mart bikes locked up with cable locks, and a fuji track locked up there all year. So its a good sign that not much bikes are stolen there.

i'm using sheldon brown's locking method, and a small china bought u-lock locking my front wheel. I will put a bicycle chain through my seat to my frame. also i'm thinking maybe super gluing ball bearings to the bolts.

Any thing else i should do? If it helps i'm going to U of illinois at urbana-champaign.

anther question i have is that i'm wondering for onguard locks, is it able to be sawed through with a hack saw? i understand that hardened steel is improbable like the faggetaboutit, but i believe mines isn't as it only cost 30 dollars.

o yea also buying locks on craigslist, ebay, or used, is it generally safe to buy from there? my worries are that they have the spare keys and somehow will get to my bike they sold to me hypothetically, and unlock it, or some other method. i'm probably just being paranoid lol.

MWPdx

You say it's in front of your dorm, does that mean you're locking it overnight? Is it an expensive bike? It's generally not a good idea to leave a bike out overnight. I'm guessing a $30 U-lock is probably not that great unless you got a good deal on one that would normally be more expensive. I wouldn't worry too much about used locks, especially on ebay where they probably aren't anywhere near you. But anyway, the way I lock mine up (just while in class or whatever) is take the front wheel off and line it up w/ the rear wheel. Then the u-lock (Krypto mini) goes through the rear triangle, around both rims, and around a solid bike rack/lock.

Sirrus Rider

If it were my bike I'd make space in my dorm room for it. Keeping a bike locked up outside exposed to the elements is a surefire way to kill it over time.

hypermaniac

yes i'm locking it overnight and its in front of my dorm. its a khs flite 500 '03 that i got for a steal on craigslist for 200. not too terribly expensive. my u-lock is a mini onguard bulldog, but i'm thinking of getting a krypto evolution mini or a fuggetaboutit.

i'm first going to try to see if i can put it in my dorm. but most college dorms are pretty small anyways lol. just hope that my random roomate will let me.

yes, leaving it outside would probably kill it slowly =/, i was thinking about just a light lubing after rain/snow or something. hoping my bike isn't that fragile where just being rained and snowed on will kill its components.

xenologer

I wouldn't worry about that. There's a line drawn down the middle of the room usually, as long as your bike fits on your side of the line he can't really stop you. I'd probably put a pair of bike hooks into the ceiling above my bed and hang it there. Just make sure you spackle over them at the end of the year.

No clue about the quality of the found in china mini lock. How about replacing that with a cable lock for the front wheel?

tekknoschtev

Personally, I think what you're planning on doing is better than most people do on campus, at least around here. With so many bikes around, one big factor is just making your bike look less accessible than the one next to it.

The thing is, if someone wants it bad enough, they're going to get it. A friend of mine broke both of his keys and needed his bike back or the university was going to take it for being unregistered and unmoved for so long. We brought the minivan, a 50' extension cord, a power inverter and angle grinder and cut the lock in front of quite a few people - no one said anything.

At least for me, some of the dorms had indoor bicycle storage. It was, in my mind, less secure than outdoor storage because you simply locked your bike to a long cable that was bolted to the ground every 8-10'. The only advantage I saw was that the bike was saved from the elements. But outside, I got a nice metal loop cemented to the ground to lock my bike to. Trade offs.

Then I moved off campus and had a garage so no worries about storage

Jude

It's true, if you look like you belong where you are, nobody will question you. A bike thief who acts like he already owns the bike will not draw anymore attention than the actual owner, while cutting through the lock.

angelo

The best bike locking strategy is to lock a bike that no one would want to steal. Seriously. A well-maintained road bike just screams "steal me!" when locked up for extended periods of time on most campuses.

lil brown bat

Do not lock your bike in a public place overnight if you want to see it in the morning. Sorry..

politicalgeek

This^^^

Old bike and good locks mean you still have a bike. Make it harder to steal than the 3 surrounding it.

hypermaniac

sadly, i'm aware of the possibility of getting the bike stolen. But my choices are to bring the bike to school and hopefully be able to bring the bike in the room, if not then lock it outside. That or leave my bike home and not ride my bike, which i enjoy so much. So i don't think the latter is an option for me. I mean whats the point of getting a bike if i'm not going to ride it lol.

So to minimize the risk of having my bike stolen, i'm going to buy a fahgettaboudit chain or u-lock. Since you can't hacksaw your way through those, the thief's only option is to get a power tool like an angle grinder. I'm going to lock it up the sheldon brown method if i get the Ulock, to prevent a bottle jack from getting in there. There is no outlet too close, and if there is they would need an extension cable. Using an angle grinder would probably at least buy me 5 minutes, and because its so loud, someone will eventually look out the window to tell them to stop or call the police, but not because its the right thing to do, cause its so damn loud lol. And its going to be very bright.

Another plus for me is that there are MANY xmart bikes locked only with cable locks. Hopefully if they do steal bikes, they'll go for the way easier ones. Plus i've seen a few nice bikes locked up all year long outside the dorms.

One more thing i may do is to uglify the bike with innertubes on the top and bottom tube. Plus i kinda need it for carrying my bike.

Most importantly the enviorment is pretty much a suburb like area, but with a college campus. Not much posting of stolen bikes on craigslist, and most stolen bikes are unlocked bikes or with cable locks. I honestly don't believe theres professional bike thieves there, but with those steps above, hopefully it will deter them enough or give me enough time to stop/call police.

So any more ideas? Criticisms or improvements? I'm pretty set on bringing my bike, as i haven't learned how to take the public transit to get around the campus because i rely on my bike so much.

exile

I'd check with the campus police if there is a lot of bike theft. You may also want to lock your bike outside the police building (don't think thieves would be that dumb). You may have to walk a bit, but i'm only offering suggestions. I am not familiar with your campus but some schools it is almost a necessity to have a bike to get around campus (thinking Ohio State). Other schools however, bringing a bike to campus to get around is pretty useless conidering the time it would take to unlock---travel---then lock again.

I've seen a couple of dorm rooms and some are a good size, but the majority are not. We had a problem at my (former) school of triple'ing up; meaning rooms designed to be doubles were now triples (and singles became doubles). We even had for a year or two students living in a hotel across from campus because we did not have enough room . Also, when you are sharing living quarters you never know what the other person is going to bring.

politicalgeek

Another question might be what you are planning to use the bike for? Getting to and from class? Recreation on the weekends? Grocery runs to town?

One thought might be to take that money you want to put towards a lock and look at a folding bike. Look at ebay and craigslist to start. Dahon and Downtube both have bikes within the budget of a college student (speaking as one). Would give you peace of mind by allowing you to stash the bike in your dorm closet or under the bed.

BurnMyEyes

What does that do? I've never heard of anything like that.

politicalgeek

It keeps a thief from unscrewing your bolts-like your stem. I think it can be dissolved at home pretty easily.

degnaw

Solder can be easily melted with a lighter, which may or may not be a good thing depending on the number of on-the-road adjustments you make and the knowledge of local thieves about this fact.