Hal Fisher

I have a full suspension with a lot of components on it worth stealing. Is there any way to keep a bike safely locked up when shopping? I am considering removing all quick release components and replacing with allen head or special locking head bolts, is either any safer than the other? I am not going to leave it locked up all day, just while inside a store on errands.

mtnbk3000

the allen wrenches will make it a little more secure, but if a person is out to steal bike parts, they are going to carry allen wrenches, i mean they fit in your pocket it!

Hal Fisher

Yea, the allen head stuff does very little I guess. They make locking bolts for the rims and seatpost but why don't they make them for the rear shock as well?

mcoine

With an allen wrench and wire cutter, someone can have your entire front end in seconds. Loosen stem bolts/top cap, cut cables. It happened to a guy I knew in college, in the middle of the day, in front of a class building.

jm01

If they want your bike, they'll take it....it take a couple of minutes to strip a frame, and our streets here are littered with frames chained to posts.

I keep my good bikes locked in the garage, ride my FS and HT on the trails and use a hybrid for city use. It's a very good bike so, like many commuters in Toronto, I took off the badge and keep it in black paint.

They usually go after the pretty bikes first

same time

Pick up a beater bike off Craigslist, something that costs about the same as the lock you're using. Add a rack and a milk crate, and nobody will steal it.

muteseh

electrify your bike

AfterThisNap

Best advice, even in NYC. Plus, you can carry way more groceries this way.

avmanansala

Does anyone know if those laptop motion alarms with locking cables would work on a bike...I'm guessing that there'd be too much movement at a bike rack to make it ineffective.

I'm thinking of something like this:
Targus DEFCON 1 Ultra Notebook Security Alarm


Is this a dumb idea?

same time

When the alarm sounds, it'll tell you your bike's been stolen.

Hal Fisher

Just want this so I can do things real fast. I also don't live in an area where much theft occurs (really). Now almost all areas are far worse than this area, it's just ALL middle/upper age/class people. I guess I can get locks for the wheels and seat but the shock will have to be on it's own. I only have a vanilla r anyway.

I did once take a bike to another neighborhood strip mall in another city (Milpitas, CA). There was a young kid following me around. I wanted to go punch the idiot because I knew he was going to take it the minute I turned my back. I didn't have a lock for it so I brought the bike in the shop I was going so he finally left.

Hal

Cyclist0383

I use Pitlock locking skewers.

https://www.peterwhitecycles.com/pitlock.asp
https://www.urbanbiketech.com/index.html

Patriot

I read somewhere an inventer was working on a touch conductive alarm system for bikes. It works on the same idea as a touch lamp. If someone physically touches the bike, it senses the change in conductivity which is inherent to humans, and closes a microcircuit switch that sends a signal to a small keychain activator/reciever device you carry in your pocket. It just beeps to let you know some has touched your bike. I have also read the guy was working on a solenoid hub lock. It will lock the rear hub when someone touches your bike while the alarm is activated. I guess it prevents you from riding off with it.

That way, if someone even tries to strip the bike, it senses them touching the components, and sets off the alram.

Minesbroken

it would probably take less than 2 seconds to disarm the siren...and you would never hear it in the store anyway.
get security torx bolts for your stem, headset and seat post...take the front wheel off and lock it with the back wheel and the frame together. most of these kids wont be carrying security torx drivers. and they wont be able jim a hex key in there anymore.

Hal Fisher

where do you get torx bolts from?

junkyard

Pay me to hang out next to your bike whenever you are going into a store.

WannaGetGood

You know, if you are going shopping, the best thing to do it to just walk. Don't try all this 'high teck' stuff. Unless its just like you and a friend going up to the gas station for a slurpee, then just get him/her/it to watch it for you.

Hal Fisher

A little too far to walk and that's not the point anyway. I am using the desire to go somewhere just to get exercise in. I'll just have to get the security bolts that I can to remove the threat of a the really quick theft and hope for the best (there are two bolts on the shock, maybe I can find a torx for at least one end).

WannaGetGood

Because all of these ideas just seem like you need to buy too many extras. The walkie-takie thing is kinda of a good idea, but if still doesn't prevent it from getting it stolen in the first place. The only way to make it so that it can't be stolen is to just walk. There might be something out there that none of us have found though.

TheFlip

Yeah and if you get one of the locks with a guarantee, some of them cover parts that are bolted to the frame. So while it may still be stolen and a pain in the ass you could at least get reimbursed for the cost of the shock.

WannaGetGood

What parts are you really worried about them taking? And where are you going to buy things? Because you would think that people would be walking by all the time.

scrublover

Buying all that extra junk to make your good bike more secure is a waste. If a bike thief wants it badly enough, it's gone. Or, if it's just an opportunistic person, they may just decide to screw with things if they can't actually steal anything.

Don't run errends on your nice bike, unless you are taking it inside with you. Hell, I dont even ride my good bikes into town to the coffee shop, where I can see it.

Take the money, and put it into a one speed townie beater with bolt on everything. Sticker it up. Make it look used and abused. This is not the same thing as riding like crap. You can still make a one speed townie beater ride pretty damn nicely, for what it's purpose is. Use a good U-lock. Don't worry about it. But then, in the even it gets ripped off, you're not out a ton of money/your good bike/parts.

mcoine

What's your daily rate?

Breitling

they do sell bike alarms on ebay. but everything will probably be gone by the time it goes off.

DirtPedalerB

hmmm which bike to steal... hey this one has an alarm.. awesome lets get that one..