What do you Anchor to?
 

Enough about the locks. The lock is only half as good as the thing you lock to.

What do you lock to at work? At home?

I ask because my place has an unbolted rack so i've cabled everything to each other, the rack, extra wheels, my surfboard and a whispy drainpipe. I don't own so i can't concrete an anchor.

I've seen some bike racks with loose hex bolts holding them to the concrete, sign posts or meters that pull out of the ground, and had a bike nipped by a theif unscrewing the street sign and sliding the bike over the post.

I'm considering buying a giant antique anchor, and locking to that.

Stories, ideas, tips...

My bike is inside at work so I don't need to lock it.

At home, my bike is in an undercover outdoor area. I have a heavy duty cable that I use to lock it to a solid pergola beam.

When I am parking a bike in public places, I avoid the standard bike racks where you can pull the bars out with your hands.

Downtown Houston has some nice (but hard to find) bike racks that use hefty steel poles set in concrete. If I can't find one of those, I use parking meters, or a very tall pole, preferably one owned by the City of Houston, or owned by a utility company.

Downtown Houston is flooded with police...the city police, the transport "Metro" police, sheriff's deputies, constables...none of them would left a finger if a crook was sawing away on my OnGuard lock, or was dismantling my bike. But, if a crook was sawing away on a parking meter post, they would throw down their doughnuts and waddle into action. Crooks are lazy, but not totally dumb. They know that no one gets arrested for stealing bikes in Houston. But, damage the City's property...big trouble.

I won't leave my roadie anywhere unless I can see it!

My MTB I'm a little more flexible with as the wheels aren't quick release and the thing's so darn heavy!

Even so, I only lock it to those steel bars set in concrete or to posts set in concrete. I just don't think it's worth the risk in society today.

We're lucky here in the SF Bay Area because most business districts now have good bike racks on the sidewalks. Ribbon rack or upside down U's provide excellent anchors for U locks and chains. It's very functional and aesthetically pleasing - much better than the old locking rack systems popular in the late 80's. Overly complex bike locking "docks" with loops, sliding latches and some even had chains. And the worst were the concrete "feet" which had a slot for your wheel and a little loop at the bottom.
At home I've sunk eye-bolts into the studs in my garage. I run a U lock from the bolt to my bike; this secures the first bike and prevents the bolt from being unscrewed. From there, I run an motorcycle anti-theft chain through the adjacent bikes. Works pretty well.
I am strongly of the opinion that a bike should ALWAYS be locked. I hear "those in the know" say, "Never lock your bike, it'll give you a false sense of security!" Blah, blah, blah. I worked bike retail for almost 20 years and I heard numerous stories of people being burglarized. And guess how the thief got away after the burglary? Yep, on the victim's bike! f you own a bike and a lock, why not leave the lock locked to the bike wherever the bike's stored? So, for those of you with bikes "too nice to lock," if you don't lock it, a thief may really appreciate your attitude some day if you don't take my advice!

When I'm in a public place, either a bike rack or a street sign. If it's a street sign, I check first to make sure it's firmly bolted to the ground. Some time back, there was a warning on the news about bike thefts because theives were removing the bolts from poles, and when people locked their bike to it, the theif would return, lift the pole and take the bike. Bleah.

Koffee

The college I work at upgraded the bike parking a couple of years ago, so that there are loads of this this type of rack bolted to concrete. The nice thing about these racks is that you can roll your bike into a wide bay that gives you multiple locking points. I lock my bike every morning out front of my building, and take peaks through the glass doors when I walk by to make sure it's still there. :o

Elsewhere, I lock to bolted stuff, preferably in line of sight.

At home, I lock up to some fold-out bike hooks I bought at Home Depot. They are basically rubber-cushioned hooks that can be folded nearly flat to the wall. Each rack is secured with long anti-theft screws (the ones you can't unscrew), and each features an integrated 1/2" cable that you can loop around the frame, and secure with a lock. You's need a battery-operated cutter to steal the bike.

I've heard stories of people buying the heavist junker bike that they can find, i.e an old 50#+ steel crusier or a wallmart mtb, and locking their bike to that, inside their apt or house. That way, the theif thas to either break the u-lock, or carry off 70+# of bike/lock....

I go to Edgewood College there are a lot of rack some bolted some not. What I lock to is trees, no one will care if some ones f****** with the bike rack, but the tree hungers will kill over the trees.

GEEK

I've found post office boxes to work well

My bike can usually be found locked to tall lamp posts.

Koffee, wondering how you you prevent the bike from being lifted and removed from the top of a sign/pole? Do you only use a sign pole if it's a busy public place?

i'll get that one...
if you use a mini u-lock they're too small to fit over the signs.

Unless they remove the sign! I've heard of THAT happening too. :(

My anchors of choice are either lamp posts or traffic lights. Both are well anchored in lots of concrete, My lock of choice is an Abus Granit Extreme Plus 59. I fell rather secure with my choices.

http://www.abus.de/us/main.asp?Scree...4003318248481m