I know the game: I know I can't make anything perfectly secure, I know it's a balance of actual deterrence, perceived deterrence, deterrence in context (i.e. it's not worth your time, thief), convenience, weight, cost, etc. The goal is a certain level of peace of mind.

I have my saddle tied to the frame with a 1/4" cable and my wheels have those skewers that take a allen wrench with a hole in it. You can get that allen wrench at any bike shop and most hardware stores, the 1/4" cable can be broken easily enough, but so far they're unbroken and give me decent peace of mind.

So I'm thinking getting a Pitlock set, or I might do the super-glue ball bearing trick for saddle security. What about that Kryptonite Wheelnutz device for wheels, anyone have any experience with that?

FWIW I've had a saddle stolen (surprising tiring to ride without a saddle) and I've had my pedals stolen (very difficult to ride without pedals), and had wheels stolen (impossible to ride without wheels).

I don't live in a high theft region but I have my saddle strapped with an old bike chain, I also have the bearing in the bolt for seat post, I have my pedals lock tited down so they're a bit more of a pain to get ( I can't get it with a allen key but pedal wrenches work). I have my quick release levers locked down (easy to undo with screwdriver) and then I u-lock both wheels to the frame and rear wheel to the locking area. with all of this done I tend to believe I'm going to be the most secured on the rack, if i'm not, I write down the other persons idea. I also uglify my bike.

I am fortunate to have a bike locker at my work which is enclosed and locked, but if it were me I would run a bike lock cable through the wheels and the seat.

I'd concentrate on the frame and wheels mostly. Since that is what would leave you completely stranded. For everything else, try self-insurance. Every month, put a $20 bill in a jar. After a year, you'll have $240, which is enough to replace your saddle or any other component that gets stolen. Adjust the amount according to how often you get components stolen.

I can't imagine going through all that,,, the. Bike I lock is the one I can afford to lose or won't hurt so much,,, the bike I don't lock is the one that will really hurt me if it got stolen,,, that's why it never leaves my side or sight,,,,

Your "self insurance" strategy doesn't work for me. If I get my seat stolen, or a wheel, and I'm 20 miles from home, my day is ruined. I can always buy a new bike but anger and stomach acid of getting ripped off is what I'm trying to avoid.

Good suggestions, but I'd like to add "don't ride an appealing bike if you have to leave it locked outside for more than an hour or so." Get a beater for commuting/errands, keep it in good mechanical condition but don't waste any effort in making it look nice, and use a good lock to secure it. Your goal is to make other bikes more attractive to thieves than yours.

If you have really bad karma or live in a really high-theft area, take your saddle and pedals with you. Nothing will stop a determined thief---and anyone who would steal your pedals ... that's just hard to fathom. Why did the guy have the necessary tools? Not a random thief, but obviously not much of a bike thief ... maybe you made some enemies?

But yeah, any lock can be defeated, any chain cut. If someone is out to get you, or out to get bikes and gets malicious when he can't steal yours ... don't leave anything removable on the bike. Of course, if the guy carries pedal wrenches and Allen wrenches, he could steal your derailleurs and brakes, too .... really, it doesn't end. If he brings the tools, he could steal your headset and fork, how could you lock that?

If you really don't feel secure, throw the pedals and seat in a plastic bag and take them with you.

Maybe it was a one-off by a malicious, petty person who will never again cross your path ... but locking up your bike in any public area is always a gamble. You have to decide what you are willing to risk.

One of the trikes I ride is a Cozy Cargo Etrike. Whenever I have to pull a wheel I fuss and cuss because on this trike it is a complicated operation but when securing the trike I can rest easy knowing that even pulling the front wheel takes special tools (You have to pull two shocks before you can get at it). No thief is going to spend a half hour just to steal a front wheel and the motorized wheel? Forget it. That really gets complicated.I suppose the saddle could be stolen but trike saddles are nothing special. The only precaution I take is to try and lock it up in a high traffic area. The more eyeballs around the more hesitant a thief is to risk it.

The most annoying theft I had was a garage door opener that I used to carry in a pouch fastened to the basket. What idiot steals a garage door opener when they (presumably) don't even know where the garage is?

Get yourself a shimano internaly geared hub with their roller brake. The wheel is almost impossible to steal. In fact, I have trouble getting the wheel off when I have it on the stand. It's hard to steal for a variety of reasons.

First, it's essentially single speed, so you have to deal with the chain. While that doesn't sound very hard, it is because of the second reason.
Second, the internally geared hub has a cable that runs down the right chainstay, like any derailleur, except it's a straight, short cable housing. It's just the nature of the hub. That straight short housing does a VERY good job at keeping that side of the wheel held back in it's dropout. Now, if you think about that for a few seconds, that means it's very difficult to remove the chain since you can't simply move the wheel forward.

Removing the wheel with those two things involves a intricate dance of moving the wheel forward enough to get a tiny bit of play in the chain, then carefully taking it off of the front chainring. Then you pull the wheel back and remove the housing from the braze on. Now, the second part of that can be made more of a pain if you use the single speed adjusters (tiny screws) screwed into the back of the dropout. If you actually adjust those to where they contact the axle, like you should, that actually means you have to loosen the right one before pulling the wheel back enough to allow removal of the small housing. Not ONLY that, but you also have to remove the actual shift cable from the hub because it'll catch if you try to pull the wheel back with it still attached. That involves having a small 2mm allen (or anything just as small) to act as a lever to lever the hub around, providing cable looseness that allows you to disconnect the cable from the hub.

Now, if that weren't all a pain in itself. The rollerbrake adds ANOTHER small housing to the LEFT SIDE chain stay. This one is slightly easier to deal with, but only because I'm the one who installed it. It has an odd quick-release that most people wouldn't get without being shown. It also has a "coaster brake like" attachment on that chainstay. Basically the rollerbrake has to be dealt with before anything on the drive side can be touched.

After all of that, the hub itself bolts on to the bike with 15mm nuts. I wouldn't guess that many thieves are carrying 15mm wrenches around. Allens probably, but a set of wrenches? Probably not.

All in all, it'd take FAR too long to steal that rear wheel and it'd be far too much of a pain to steal it while the bike is attached to something.

(Oh and it doesn't matter if the cables are cut, the housings are still in place so the thief would have to know to cut those specifically to allow the wheel to fall out.

A potential thief might get so frustrated he'd steal your pedals.

I use a 1/8" leash to lock the seat, a pretty meaty cable to attach the frame and wheels to whatever I'm locking to, and a U lock to attach the frame. A pro thief could steal my bike in a couple of minutes, I imagine, or just steal the seat - but my bike looks pretty beat up, and my seat isn't high-end (although it's comfy) so nobody wants it anyway. I figure you want to put enough locks on to make it more inconvenient to steal than the nice bike next to it

I carry a set of serious bolt cutters wherever I ride. I park next to the nicest bike I can find ... and cut all the locks securing that bike.

I have a lead on what I consider the ultimate cable lock; I have a stout 3' chain & padlock, but it won't do frame AND a wheel.

The cable lock is 6' long, 1-3/16 thick, metal shrouded cable.

Just a little strapped at the moment.

Just hobble the bike to get the chain set up to work. Take off the front wheel and place it next to the rear wheel. Lock both wheels and the frame to a secure post. A long U lock works well for this.

Look at the chain in this picture. That's what you want.



GH

I that dude comes around the hood with that chain , the boys would steal the seat just for the hell of it ,,,,hahahahah

All chains aren't equal (pewag chain in the video below seems to have a hardness of about rockwell 63 and an abus magnum chain of about rockwell 65??, the most badass looking chain was cut in seconds at 7:22)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSnS4ZkTGUY

abus chain tested here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ndpia0Zt5Cc

Security Chain Info
ABUS Canada - Padlocks ? Granit / Steel ?37 Series

Now !! who"s going to be riding around with 50 lbs. of chain and locks wraped around their body???? i'd just assume walk,,, forget about the bike,,,,hell I might even buy a cheap automobile.......

If it hasn't been said yet, a 1/4" cable is a joke to a thief.

A million times !!!!!!!!!!!!!! but it does have it's ****ion in minimul secrurity,,,just enough so someone does"nt walk up to your bike and ride off,,,,

The one feature I dislike about my bike is the quick release saddle clamp. It's unnecessary. Occasionally in high risk areas I'll remove the saddle and run my heavy duty cable through and lock it along with the rest of the bike.

Usually I wouldn't worry about theft of bits and pieces like inexpensive no-name saddles and plastic platform pedals. They have no real resale value. But in my experience vehicle theft and thieves aren't always logical. All of my personal experience with vehicle loss to theft indicates most thieves are inexperienced adolescents and ignorant of value at best, more interested in vandalism than value, and more often drunk, high or mentally ill. The most memorable example was the theft of a cheap spare motorcycle helmet locked to the bike. The thief cut the chin strap. In perfect condition that cheap open face helmet might have been worth five bucks as a no-questions-asked used item. With a sliced chin strap it was worth nothing other than as a trophy or Halloween costume.

If I had to park a bicycle in a place like I used to park my motorcycle near downtown Dallas, I'd get a cheap used bike worth riding but not worth stealing or worth worrying about if it was stolen. If the bike looked too good I'd ugly it up. I'd put on bulletproof tubes and tires that would never need attention unless sliced open, ditch the quick release stuff and use thermal glue on bolts so you'd need a heat gun or soldering iron to soften the adhesive for removal. Same with the saddle clamp and every other bolt, nut and screw. And I'd get a hard saddle that resisted slashing, or carry Gorilla tape in my off-bike bag to repair vandalism. But adhesive or tack welds will only deter the laziest thieves, and maybe only those with cheap adjustable wrenches with poor tolerances. The other will use vise grips to remove fasteners and steal components.

Until penalties for bicycle theft are as serious as all other vehicle theft - including motorized lawn mowers - there isn't much disincentive for thieves. They know it will rarely be prosecuted as a felony and there's no organized database for registered bicycles - even bicycle manufacturers don't consistently keep that information.

IMO, it's too risky to pay more than $500 for a bicycle that will be parked in an area without reliable security guards and/or monitors. For most short distance commuting and errands I'd spend $200 or less on a bike and be prepared to replace it as needed. I'd only spend more on a bike that I planned to never leave unattended.

I'm of the firm belief that if something is stealable, no matter how beat up, ugly, or obviously not worth anything - it will get stolen. For that reason I dont leave my bikes outside anywhere for even 30 seconds. They're not worth anything but would be stolen quickly regardless, imo. Fortunately I never need to leave my bikes outside, but I know that others dont always have that luxury.

"If you actually adjust those to where they contact the axle, like you should" I have believed for the past 50 years that those screws were just a convenience, helping one to line the wheel up quickly for a speedy wheel change/ I have not used those screws with because the bike di not have them or the threads were frozen.the screws broken, sometimes for years.

"The rollerbrake adds ANOTHER small housing" Isn't the thief just going to take the bolt cutters he brought for cable locks and cut both cable and housing?

I do agree that making things harder does seem to improve the odds. I have never had a front wheel stolen from inside a Lowrider rack and almost all have been quick release. There are too many fix gears here in Portland. I suspect many thieves have 15mm wrenches.

Ben