We moved to the current office building around Thanksgiving and until a few weeks ago I have not seen another bike in the bike rack.

We are in an office park, accountants, engineers, etc with very little "customer" traffic, so I just have a very small cable on my commuter bike.

The next bike to show up had a larger cable.

Another bike showed up today that I have not seen before, with an even bigger and just out of the box cable lock.

I wonder if they are consciously buying bigger cables and subcribing to the theory that the bike thief will take the easiest to steal? As my bike hasn't been stolen in 5 months of being parked there every day I'm not worried. But it got me thinking about other places where people commute, do you see escalating lock sizes?

I guess bigger is better, or something like that?

Not sure about your area, but in New York, I would say most people carry the heaviest lock they are comfortable with.. My heaviest lock is heavier than all my bikes.

cable envy?

Personally I would opt for a bigger lock. Do what I do -- buy a very strong lock and cable and keep it attached to the rack when you leave work for the day. That way you don't have to lug it around. Keep the small cable lock in your seat bag in case you need to make a quick stop somewhere.

you could always buy one of these: https://www.kryptonitelock.com/Pages/...PNumber=999492 and leave it attached to the rack when you head home

I like that idea. And be sure to put up this next to your lock:

I recently locked my bike at the bike rack outiside a well known store in Honolulu. I locked my back wheel Sheldon Brown style with an Onguard Pitbull Mini lock and had the front wheel secured with the 4' cable from the mini. I was in the store for only 5 minutes. When I came out, I discovered the cable had been cleanly cut (bolt cutters?), and the front wheel quick release and u-brake had been undone. I was lucky that my bike was not stolen and I was able to ride home. The point is, any cable and lock can be defeated and only buys you time. At the very least, a cable lock or cable should only be used for the most minimal, if there is such a thing, theft situations. Good luck out there, and watch your bike at all times.

Lock Litter, that's how I'm starting to think when I see bike racks and lockup places with dozens of locks and few bikes.

I've got a teeny tiny combination cable lock, you could probably cut it with a pair of plastic scissors. I use that one or a slightly bigger one when I'm riding locally, I call it my Port-a-John lock, good enough when I just a thin door away.

I don't think there is a macho lock competition happening in the OP, just people using what they've got. Just for grins add a leather shoe lace and tie the bike to the rack with a bow knot just to see if anyone notices. You could also mess with their heads and see if a LBS has a broken heavy lock that you could have, then just lay it on the ground next to the rack just to see if any gossip gets back to you through the office grapevine ( I appear to be in a strange mood tonight, oh well, let it roll.)

Agree! They revamped our bike cage at work a few months back, cutting off all the old locks (after giving more than a months notice). Already almost every single slot has a lock hanging from it. This is especially annoying to me, as I don't even bother to use a lock at work. The cage requires a key to get into already and only about 20 people use it. I don't figure any other bicycle commuter who works at the hospital is going to steal my bike and no one else can get to it, so what's the point in locking it? I've taken to swinging some of the locks over to an adjoining slot so someones lock isn't banging against my $200 front cargo rack when I put my bike in there.

Every other bike in the cage is locked up (even some seriously ugly beaters), mostly with U-locks.

Abus 'bordo' folding link lock. + a chain lock, are my new favorites..

got another bike built with a ring lock.+ a chain.. ring lock stays on the seat stays.

Exactly.

But I'm thinking of adding to the lock litter, and keeping the smaller cable lock for grocery store/errand stops.