grindr82

I was thinking of purchasing two of the Kryptonite New York fahgettaboutit mini's along with the pinhead skewers on my tires, seat post, handle bar stem. My bike is a $1300 bike and I will be using it daily commuting to and from work, I am working on getting my boss to allow me to keep it inside of our second break room...but in case that doesn't happen...Id like to protect it the best that I can..It will be parked in one of two places (if not inside) either at the bus depot( I am a bus driver) which has a police officer/ security guard there almost all day, the bike rack is located near a window where its easily seen by anyone in the office or at our bus yard which is a less than desirable area to lock it up....too many transients and general public cutting through the yard even though they aren't supposed too.

I have done some research on U-locks but figured I would ask people that have hands on experience with different locks

Any suggestions, opinions, or advice?

fietsbob

Can you just leave the multiple U locks fixed to the Rack?
or will you be carrying the stuff around on the bike ?

I have a Chain Lock, that wraps around post and bike.

The hardened steel link is not the common round link chain,
that gets sold off the roll and cut with bolt cutters.

I have several locks of different varieties..

grindr82

I can leave the locks in our break room so they don't get tampered with at all when my bikes not locked up. Or, I can leave them attached to the bike rack, either way

fietsbob

but this is an electronics/lights/gadgets forum, why did you start this topic here?

grindr82

Honestly it was an accident...I was reading another post in this section and I thought I had switched to the appropriate forum....apologies

musick

A big part of safety is leaving it in an area that can be monitored. The other big part is locking it correctly.

I think you will do fine w/ those NY locks. Just remember, if a professional thief wants your bike, they will get it regardless of your choice on locks.

If money is an issue, consider a less expensive lock (big fan of OnGuard mini bulldog) but use more of them. The longer a thief has to spend defeating locks, the less attractive the bike becomes.

jyl

Answer: don't ride that bike to work.

Seriously.

grindr82

I have a couple things going in my favor. By looking at the bike, it doesn't look expensive, it's flat black in color, and fortunately my boss has decided to allow me to bring the bike inside the break room or allowing me to use one of our bike sheds for when people leave a bike on the front of the bus. I am still going to purchase the locks and I intend on locking the bike even in the break room, or in the sheds.

I wanna thank anyone that replied to this thread, I appreciate the guidance

americanlt2

U should buy one NYC lock and add a bike registry chain w/ upgraded padlock. But there in CHicago that bike would still be a target left out for 8+ hours a day. The best lock for it is probably your arm around the back wheel.

zebede

dittos...if you are at risk of theft...get or build up a sleeper. I ride a 1000 dollar bike to work and keep it beside my desk all day. But when I am going to the store in the evening or on the weekend, I ride a nice old chrome moly steel bike that is chipped and allowed to rust but is tuned and works perfectly. It was hard at first cause I wanted to fix it up and put on upgrades. If you can put up with bad cosmetics you can ride some really nice bikes cheap with no worries. Still lock right though! Your primary bike will forgive you.

whitefiretiger

id go with a cheap used bike and a moderate lock and if it gets stolen your not out much. leave the $ bike for other riding. my downtown bike cost me $20 for the bike and the cost of new grease and lube. i tuned it up myself and use a $10 u lock on it. i figure if somebody takes it im out what $30 instead of hundereds or over a thousand

grindr82

I have thought about finding a beater to ride to work...but I dont know what to even start looking for....I do have my Trek that I can ride to and from work...it's just not as much fun to ride

Cyclist0383

Look for a lock that is both ART Four Star and Sold Secure Gold rated. These are independent testers for the European insurance industry.

https://www.stichtingart.nl/sloten_resultaat.asp
https://www.soldsecure.com/search/

Also, in my experience PitLock locking skewers are much higher quality than Pinhead, and are much easier to use.

grindr82

Thanks Ziemas...Ill look into it...and is there a reason pitlock's quality is better?

Cyclist0383

They don't rust (my Pinheads did), the key is much easier to use (the Pinheads tended to slip)l, and you get two keys instead of one.

whitefiretiger

what i did was go looking at all the cheap $50 and under bikes people put on craigs list and stoped at yard sales when i saw a bike. test rode them and bought the one i liked the most. i made a decision between 5 i liked out of the 20ish i checked out. i picked the cheapist one of the ones i liked, reminding myself that its only a beater bike. im acturaly thinking about selling it come spring because im building another bike (giant acapulco im turning ss) that im going to replace it with that so far i only have spent $20 on it for new tires and i paid for them with money from selling extra parts.

i pick up free bikes all the time (mostly wallmart type bikes but once in a while i get lucky and somebody gives me a quality bike like the giant) that have one problem or another and i either part them out or fix them for people i know that want to start getting into biking. i donate a lot of parts to the bike kitchen here too.

sorry i started to blather but my point is keep your (and your friends/family) eyes ans ears open you never know you might get a great beater bike for nothing to use to get to work. heck i just got a beautifull lugged frame road bike the other day that some workers pulled from a basement of a condimmed house thats now riped down.

Cyclist0383

Life is too short to ride a crappy bike. Why let a paranoid worry of theft take away from your enjoyment of riding? Use a high end lock properly and the risk of theft is extremely low.

whitefiretiger

You don't have to ride a crappy bike just seems crazy to ride a new multi thousand dollar bike to work and leave it out all day.
I had a nice road bike that was around $2500 new (from what the lbs said) that I got from a police auction for $75 that I would have used in such a way because I had so little into it. I ended up selling it for $400 because I didn't have space for it when I moved. But my point is instead of working to find an ultimate lock and spending big bucks on it use that energy and money to get yourself another bike you like that if it does come up missing you didn't lose your good bike.

Bike thefts are crazy here. A group of cyclists here set up a couple test around the city with cameras monitoring bikes locked to racks in 3 different parts of town.
One was outside a burgerking in a rougher bar of town one was outside a coffee shop in about the best part of town and another was outside a movie theater downtown.

Bike #1 was locked to a rack using a u lock. It was striped of every part that wasn't secured to the rack. All that was left was the rear wheel and frame. They even took the skewer from the rear wheel and the chain and crankset. This happened during the middle of the day outside a restraint in a bad neighborhood.
Bike #2 was locked up with two thick cables running between the wheels and frame. A guy rode up and locked his bike to the rack sat his backpack down between the bikes and was digging in it till nobody was near then out came bolt cutters clipped both cables very quickly and put the cutters away pulled the cables off and rode away. About 5 min later came walking back unlocked his bike and rode away. This was again in the day.

Bike #3 was hooked to a rack with two u locks and two big cables. This bike was left mostly in tact but was once again cables cut off and every part that wasn't held by the u locks to the rack were taken. Again during the day.

If I'm not going to be riding most the time or have visual on my bike at least 90% of the time I ride a bike I have less invested in.

Oh thanks to the video the police were able to catch 4 suspected bike thieves and found that one was selling the parts on cl.
The two bikes that were stripped of parts had at least 5 people each take parts from them.

Another scary think is that bike thefts are higher now than they were last summer and its not even spring yet. The police are urging bikers to make there bikes easy identifiable to help make them easier to find if stolen.

Cyclist0383

Then use locking skewers and non-standard bolts. I'm not going to let the fear of theft keep me from enjoying my nice bikes.

zebede

Ok, I would agree that is not not much fun ridding a "crappy" bike. I still think about that brand new red Schwinn Le Tour I had stolen in 1977.

One of the reasons I ride bikes is the reliability. WE ALL KNOW they are vulnerable to theft. When a person ask about locks it strikes a chord with many about there own entire bike operational, ownership philosophy. I also own a quality FOLDING BIKE and of course one of the main reasons for owning a folding bike is to prevent theft.

I own quality locks Hardened steel chains, brand name U-b0lts, and cables for seats and wheels and I know how to lock a bike VERY well if needed. But there are places I just would NOT take one of my better LOOKING bikes (none of my bikes are crappy).

Lock strategy is as important as the quality of the lock:

https://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html

whitefiretiger

Yes to each their own. I just am not willing to lose another bike if it can be helped.
New or old and used I like all my bikes equally; Even my eh if its stolen bike I'm not
out much bike. But I know most people don't feel that way.

Btw using non standard bolts does no good when the people shilling parts is using
crescentwrenches and gator socket type tools.

Back to the question then. Just buy the best locks you can and enjoy.