Securing bikes at home...your solutions..
 

Hello,

My wife and I rent an upstairs apartment which is entered through a porch on the side of a house. This porch is somewhat unsecured. It does have doors and screendoors but otherwise open. We both have new mtn bikes (under $300 each) and want to secure them there for ease of use instead of me bringing them up and down the apt stairs and putting them into spare bedroom.

I am thinking of some sort of bracket mounted into beam of porch wall and locking both bikes to it via kryp cable or u-lock (dont have yet).

The other thing is we have no renters insurance..(I know dumb!).....so is this just a real bad idea?

I would like to hear your solutions to bike security...

I live in VT and its not L.A. or a war zone...

If you feel incovenienced by bringing up your bikes and lock it outside. You won't have anything to lock... soon.

Not a good idea to lock up anything for loads of time in the same place, day in and day out. You might want to consider locking the bike up even if it's inside your apartment. People have had their apartments broken and and bikes stolen.

Well of course this really depends on how much you love your bike.

It does not seem like a good idea to me. When no one is home the porch may give some cover to a thief who wants to take your bikes. So he has ample time to bypass the locks. Locking bikes with a cable on a porch is similar to giving them away In most places. The cable is only protection if someone is watching. Most things that you can attach to a wooden wall are not too hard to get off of the wall. Maybe a huge eyebolt that goes all the way through a stud and is nutted on the inside of the wall? Then use Kryptonite NY locks? Or a New York chain? Even then I would prefer to bring them inside if possible. Taking the front wheel off will make the bike smaller and lighter, maybe that would help going up the stairs. Try a frame pack or bag. It fits under the top tube and allows you to balance the bike on your shoulder with a padded strap.

Keep a rabid Doberman on the porch? :)

Put them in the house.

Renters insurance puts my mind at ease, but then again I am fairly invested in bikes.

So what kind of neighborhood do you live in? I'd balance sensible protection and reasonable convenience to whatever I perceived the risk factor to be. In every neighborhood that I've ever lived in I'd lock $300 bikes on the porch with a cable or chain to a stout eye bolt and not worry. That's not a 100% guarantee that they can't be stolen but carrying them up the steps into your apartment won't get you 100% assurance they won't be stolen either.