No Bike Rack at Work
 

Has anyone faced this? I drive a paratransit mini-bus and recently moved to a depot in a low-medium risk industrial park. There is no indoor storage possible. Unbelievably, not a single pole or other suitable thing to lock bike to! Employer will not provide rack. Commercial parking racks are 300.00-plus, so I'm trying to think of something suitable I could truck down to the parking lot to lock my bike to. I figure with the help of my son, I could load/unload something up to 150 pounds in my wife's CRV. I'm keeping my eyes open in my travels for a big hunk of metal of some kind, but wonder if anyone has other ideas. It occurs to me that something awkward would be as effective as something heavy...

I don't have anything to lock to at work, either. I am in a low risk area. I generally just lock the front wheel to the frame. My bike is heavy enough and awkward enough that I don't worry about it a whole lot.

If you've got QR wheels and seat adjustment, maybe take off the wheel and maybe seat (if of course you have a place to even put that?)?

Won't stop someone from throwing it in the back of their car, but maybe it would be enough...

Anchor bolts
 

http://www.mcmaster.com/#tie-down-anchors/=5wz4qd

A couple of concrete anchors, hammer drill and wall might work to give you a place to lock up your bike.

I second the anchor bolts. You can choose one of a number of types, including those that can be bolted or screwed into wood, concrete brick, etc. There are a number of ways to make the screws or bolts resistant to removal. In my garage I screwed a large eye-bolt deep into a wall stud so I can cable-lock my bikes as a deterrent to would-be teenage thieves. Removing it with the bike attached would be difficult. Two eye screws attached to the same cable lock or U-lock would be impossible to unscrew since each would prevent the other from rotating.

You might also take a walk around the building to see if you can find an elecrical conduit, water pipe or natural gas line. These are my usual last-resort locking sites.

A tree?

Drill a couple large holes in the side of the building to wrap a cable through.

I would talk to your employer about options as a $300.00 rack might be far too much for one bike whereas an anchored locking point might be something they could see themselves doing.

I have been so fortunate to have employers that were very amendable to providing secure storage, one let me turn a storage room into a bike locker that would hold a number of bikes and gear and another let me install wall hooks inside the bay door (next to the soda machine) to keep bikes up and off the floor.

The time I have spent working in bike shops has been the best as there is never a parking issue there.

Well you can always toss it at the back of the mini bus that you drive. Think of it as 'office parking'. ;)

Thanks for all your thoughts... I'm likin' the anchor bolts. Also, the equivalent of REI up here (MEC) has a case-hardened chain for only 37.00 - could possibly wrap it around the lone tree and leave it in place. It's amazing how utterly sterile this place is. We share the parking lot with the local DMV testing station and sinking a bolt into concrete would probably involve many layers of bureaucracy. They're in a cinder-block building with a gas meter - I'll ask. Considering this place is about two miles from the nearest bus stop, I'm amazed no one seems to bike here.

Um...not that I have EVER done that, especially dropping the bike in or picking it up from the shop during my shift.;) No, that would be wrong. Also, you run the risk of having to pick up two wheelchairs at a time which means something would have to go!

'tis better to beg forgiveness after than ask permission before? :D

No one will mess with your bike if you use a ball and chain to lock it down.

Anchoring bolts just might be the solution to our problems. I have a similar lack of lock down point for my bike at one location I park it at. It might be worthwhile to come there with a cordless drill on a quiet afternoon and sink a couple of anchors in the ground, that would make for an excellent point to lock my bike to. It just might work, didn't think about it before, but that is a really good idea!

I had a manager who use to say that. Problem was he used us as the scapegoats when he got caught out.

This post is awesome because it reminds me of my favorite song by Social Distortion :thumb:

I have nothing else to add.

Interesting problem and solutions. What about 5-gallon bucket filled with concrete and a steel piple down the middle and some tamper-proof hardware to chain/lock your bike to? Anyways, thowing out some ideas. :)

My wife isn't available right now, sorry! :)

Buy a beater minivan to leave at work. Call it personal bike storage. Drive it home on weekends.

Get some bowling balls and some yellow chain.