Beyond

I can guess most of you have a "just don't do it" approach to locking up your nice bike in most major cities. I purchased a scapper bike but don't want that stolen either so I've decided to buy a Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit Mini U-lock and a high security chain to combo that with. So while doing my research I came across these videos on youtube. They looks like promotional videos for ***** chains and how well they hold up to other brands.

Guy cuts through some major chain locks with a bolt cutter including a Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboutit chain in about 30 seconds for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cpf35C7wu6Q

Apparently this is their own brand of chains. Again I'm not sure how much you can believe since they are the ones doing the videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bZMvrPo34g

If you consider the retail cost of most of these chains ($100+) and how they only add a few more seconds of work to the guy stealing your bike. I read somewhere it would take about 12 minutes to power saw through the u-lock. If the chain lock can really be bolted through this quick. $200+ dollars of security can go out the window is about 15-minutes. I guess the best security in this case is parking next to other bikes whose owners aren't willing to pay that extra $$.

Top 10 Worst Cities for Bike Theft
https://unbreakable-bonds.blogspot.co...0-shocker.html

15 most bike friendly cities in the world
https://matadortrips.com/the-worlds-1...iendly-cities/

Jinker

If a guy shows up with a pickup truck and a half dozen friends, he could just lift the bike rack.

That or a quantity of liquid nitrogen to freeze the lock and shatter it.

Or he could cut your frame in half to take the components.

You *cannot* stop professional bike thieves.

The 'amateur' thieves (guys looking to steal a bike to fence for $15) will usually have one of two tools. A bolt cutter that fits under a jacket or a duffel, or a prybar or car jack (often Volvo since they're narrow). Defeating these guys means parking in a public location, and properly using a u-lock so that the inside of the lock is full of bike and bike rack, so that you can't insert anything to pry it with. Also using a cable and u-lock in parallel helps as they take different tools to defeat quickly.

BOHICA

It's not possible to make a bike impossible to steal. It's more of a case of making it require more effort than it's worth. Most thieves are lazy, otherwise they wouldn't be thieves. Also, if you park next to nicer bikes that are less secure or in crowded public areas where it looks suspicious to hack through these locks will help.

Quel

The bolt cutters that guy is using are freaking gigantic. Not concealable. And 12 minutes for a u-lock is an eternity if it's in a spot with foot traffic and other people can see the thief.

CPFITNESS

i have fuhgeddibout it lock and new york noose chain. I also have the pinhead skewers. I live on the Upper east side and park my bike outside quite a bit. so far so good. I love the pinhead skewers, anyone familiar with them? i'm sure there is someway someone could get them off if they really wanted too but I think it would probably take too much time. Of course my real fear is that someone will see the skewers and get pissed off and kick in my tires or cut my break/shifter cables just to be an ******* but I guess that is better than getting wheels, fork, and seat stolen.

lukasz

I'm pretty sure you can just drill through or dremel most locking skewers. Both of these tools, of course, are available in cordless versions. These always looked pretty good to me, but I am too cheap to buy them: https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/pitlock.asp

CPFITNESS

okay so the videos are interesting but i immediately noticed when they are trying to break their own chains they aren't tryin nearly as hard! In the first video they are practically jumping in the air putting all their weight into it, on the 2nd video they are merely pushing the cutters with the their handds.

Beyond

Well, looking at the videos of those guys stealing their own bikes in an open public area, I don't remember anyone even giving a second glance. This one guy even took a plugged in a power saw and went to work on the u-lock as people walked by annoyed by the sound. I guess this is why those u-locks with alarms don't work. People just don't care. I would instead create a u-lock with an alarm that sounds with the message "the guy who is stealing my bike right now has a 1-inch penis." I think that would get the thief to walk away more then an annoying sound.

So I guess you have a simiar setup of what I'm looking for. Actually I'm looking for some skewers myself. What are your recommendations? Someone mention pitlocks were good
(and as I'm writing this lukasz just posted a link to that ones I'm talking about).

Sometimes I wonder if a simple tarp over my bike would be the cheapest and most effective solution.

liquefied

Most of the theft I've seen in SF is stolen wheels and saddles. I've got locking skewers and I use an old chain wrapped in an inner tube to secure the saddle to the seat stay. I'm thinking about getting some security torx bolts for the saddle and seatpost clamps if I can find them.

AEO

this keeps opportunists away. If the thief is determined, both of these can be easily defeated.

liquefied

Oh, certainly. My only goal is to make my bike slightly more of a pain in the ass to steal than the one next to it.

botto 

1. wrong forum.

2. search engine.

3. old news.

CPFITNESS

I'm happy with the pinhead skewers. they were 70 bucks for front, rear, seat and stem skewers so definately cheaper than those pitlocks. I live in NYC and work as a personal trainer. a lot of these high end doorman buildings 1. won't let you bring a bike in through the front door. 2. Don't have anywhere for me to put my bike indoors and they frown on leaving it out in a hallway, even if I'm only there for one hour. Ultimately, I need to be able to lock my bike up quickly. Having the bike drastically saved me cab fare thus far and lets me schedule clients better. I ahve a small window of time I'm working with becaues people want to see me before they go towork. Ideally, everyone comes to my main gym and I can schedule them back to back, but for those clients that have a gym in their bldg already and want me to come to them, i can lose a lot of money by scheduling a full 30 minutes before appts. The bike lets me schedule 15 minutes apart since I don't have to deal with removing wheels, removing seat and all that other jazz, just lock it up and go.

AEO

my pointers for a bike you are using for commuting and need to lock up outside...

keep it unattractive
use functional, but dirty, old and cheap looking parts.
make it look personalized.
lock both wheels and frame together.
keep your bike inside your home and out of sight.
put a heavy lock on it if it's going to sit in a visible spot.

there's no reason to use a more attractive and expensive road bike for commuting purposes.

exhibit A:

saddle and seatpost: unattractive, worthless if you try and sell it, but doesn't kill my ass
all parts, other than the frame and wheel are very low end.
QR wheels: so it's easy to lockup the frame and wheel together.
colour: very drab metallic grey. I think this colour can only be beaten by brown.

nitropowered

You know how much people don't care what goes on in their surroundings? I had a lock jam up and could not open it. So I went and borrowed a pair of bolt cutters, pulled them out in broad daylight with plenty of people around, cut the lock off, and rolled away with two bikes. No one said a thing

383

Many people never say anything. They did studies on this with like women calling for help in a faux **** type situation. They either just want to avoid confrontation, or feel it's someone elses job.

coasting 

how would you convince a policeman it is actually your bike if he intervened?

coasting 

don't steal bikes, bro

CPFITNESS

lol, hillarious. I'd do the same **** if I caught someone trying to steal my ride. I think thats why i lock it up so much outside, just to see if anyone tries!

Reynolds 

I doubt any chain/lock could resist this:

liquefied

Hope you've got all day.

nitropowered

I know the police in the area. wouldn't have been an issue

Beyond

LOL!!! I can't stop laughing at this picture!!!

sstorkel

If I were ever going to be a bike thief, I'd skip the wheels and frame. Stealing components is the way to go. With a pair of wire cutters and a multi-tool, you could strip quite a few pricey components from a bike in a matter of seconds. Easy to conceal, easy to sell, and completely untraceable...

AEO

I'd go after the shifters, bars and stem.