ShadowGray

The #1 reason to have a lock is to prevent someone from walking off with it. Anything beyond that requires tools to break it open.

If you're just running errands, it means you probably won't be leaving it for more than a half hour. A lock will prevent people from just running off, and it requires people to bring a tool to steal it. Usually that kind of theft, like stated above, requires premeditation and planning. For a simple stop, thieves usually won't be planning to steal that bike, or if they do will not have enough time to execute it.

daoswald

I'm really interested in this thread. I live in Los Angeles, and often run errands on my bike to promote using the bike more, and to get my butt out of the car.

But I seldom lock up -- instead, I go places where I know they won't harass me about walking my bike into the store with me. The problem is that I may have good luck with that technique a couple of times, and then eventually some gung-ho will tell me I can't have my bike inside. From that point on, I'm reluctant to try again, and have to cross that place off my list.

This really annoys me. I live in a city where I don't feel it's safe to lock my bike up outside. And I do see people pushing all sorts of strollers, riding Little Rascals, pushing dirty shopping carts.... Is my well-maintained road bike really a problem by comparison to these other devices?

Anyway... I have locked up before, but it usually leaves me uneasy knowing that there are homeless scavengers and pan-handlers sitting outside the store next to my bike the entire time I'm inside. Even if the bike can't be be stolen, a 105 deraileur has got to be pawn-able.

What will it take to get the message out to stores that we're no more of a problem than a shopping cart or stroller?

CaptainCool

I don't have a car. No way in hell I'm going to run all of my grocery shopping and errands on a bike that costs $80 new.

Stop worrying. My big errands bike will be a Big Dummy, as soon as I finish moving across the country. I have spent about $1600 on it so far. I'm going to put $300 in racks and bags on the back. I'm going to lock it to good racks with an $80 set of Pitlocks and a $80-100 chain. And I'm not going to worry about it.

I wouldn't commute on a bike that cost me more than a grand. But up to that limit, I'd feel safe with a good mini U-lock and a cable if I were just about anywhere outside of New York or San Francisco.

Wahooligan

Didnt stick my nose in and ask...but I'd venture to guess that they were. I've never really seen unlocked bikes just sitting around.

ukie

Get a good Kryptonte lock. They will give you insurance (you need to register within 15 days of lock purchase). Top locks have $3,000+ bike insurance.

black_box 

i had a bike stolen out of my parents garage. Mom had just gotten home and the garage door was open all of 10 minutes when i went out to ride. The bike was sitting literally 2 feet from the door into the house, but it wasn't locked. $300 bike, but lesson learned. We installed two eye-bolts in the wall and a coated steel cable through them.

For people using a cable, don't use a small one. I witnessed a guy stealing a bike in downtown chicago. This was in the loop, with people all around at lunch time. The guy looks around a bit, squats down next to the bike and pulls out some hand-held wirecutters from his coat pocket. I was in shock that he was so brazen, he was 5 feet from me stealing a bike like it was nothing. Thankfully another guy noticed the guard post at the Fed Reserve bank (50 feet away). He got the guards attention and one of them came out. By this time, he had already cut the wire and was getting onto the bike. When the guard yelled, he just calmly got off, leaned the bike against the rack and walked/jogged across the street. I was disappointed in my response, I guess i should have yelled at him or something. I thought about kicking him in the head as he was squatting, but he was definitely bigger than i was and i didnt know what else he had in that coat. We also noticed he had another guy that went with him, possibly a lookout? anyway, good lessons in bike locks and situational awareness were learned (U-lock or huge wire/chain, help/guard post, look for accomplices before doing something rash).

mlts22 

Bike alarms are a joke. People ignore alarms on cars, on a bike, they would provide little if any help, and may get the bike impounded if the alarm goes off so often that its considered a nuisance.

Bike theft is also highly dependent on where one lives. For example, in some rural neighborhoods, one can lock a bike to something with a $3 chain lock, and it will be there for years. Move to downtown in a major city, or near a large university campus, and even two Kryptonite locks might not be enough because the thieves will leave the frame and the wheel that are locked up, but pull the fork, derailleur, and other components. There are plenty of bike skeletons in racks around UT (University of Texas) that were ridden there at once time. One frame even has its bottom bracket missing.

As the economy collapses, more people will be not as questioning where bike parts came from, so bike thefts are definitely going to rise, as well as part stripping... which is why I always recommend the full Pitlock set, down to the stem and brake bolts.

Buglady

I figure most thieves are (a) not tremendously smart, and (b) probably not all that persistent. The rare professional thieves who are both smart and persistent will probably get my bike anyway if they really want it, but the majority of thieves fit the first profile, and those are the ones I am most likely to encounter. So I go with a big ugly lock, and whenever possible I lock up next to a bike that's nicer and/or has a flimsier lock than mine. But I absolutely refuse to let some dishonest idiot stop me from taking my bike wherever I damn well want to.

mlts22 

True that. A lot of bike thieves are pretty much meth-heads who are just trying to lift something to chuck at a fence for their next fence regardless of condition. However, as the economy goes into a 1920s style depression, more and more people with IQs higher than ambient temperature in Alaska are starting to consider bike theft as a secondary form of income because of the spiraling unemployment and inflation rate... the people who are smart enough to know that a Bic Pen is mighier than a sword or pair of bolt cutters when it comes to undoing some U-locks.

Even $25 (+ shipping) buys you a decent U-lock (Planet Bike Super Guard) from MEC in Canada that has the basic security features (Abloy-like cylinder, double locking), although without any Sold Secure tags, it may look secure, but there isn't any info if it can deal with what typical bike thieves looking for U-locks bring to the arena.