Commuting and security on a 'bent
 

I've been thinking about getting a 'bent trike, but it doesn't make economic sense unless I can use it to commute too. The up-side for me is that I'm not in a big city. The down side is that I work on a college campus and unless I can talk someone in to providing secure bike parking for staff, It'll be hooked to a bike rack. :eek: Seems to me that this kind of bike/trike is too flashy to leave sitting hooked to a rack. How are those of you who commute on a 'bent securing them at your place of work? Suggestions?

Veratomic quick-locks for the wheels; regular Kryptonite cable (but my place of work has a sort of communal backyard with the other businesses in the plaza, so it's *relatively* secure). But this is for a RANS Rocket.

I also had MKS quick-release pedals installed (since moved to another bike), but what I'd recommend most is to remove your seat and take it with you. Lose that and you won't even be able to ride the bike!

It may also depend on what trike you get. If it's something like a GT3, then you may be able to get away with folding it and bringing it into your workplace.

Just an observation from an old cop who has worked in "campus" law enforcement for the last 25 years....

Thieves don't tend to like the unusual. They want something they can sell quickly. We get bikes stolen all the time around here, and invariably they go for popular and easy-to-sell mountain bikes. They never take hybrids, and I've only seen one roadster reported in all this time.

Can you lock the front wheels by securing the brakes, then leaning it against a wall or something? That would make it hard to steal, or easy to store...

I commute everyday to work on my two-wheeler recumbent, a challenge fujin, but the risk of theft is minimal because noone exept a bentrider can ride away with it. As for a trike the problem is worse, but I've heard of alarmsystems for bikes that you can ask for at the nearest bikeshop.

I thought so till recently.

I had a broken chainstay on my mwb bent, a flat rear on my tri-bike, put the Dual drive in high and swapped the good rear with the flat rear. Got the replacement tube May 21, mounted it, but didn't think I had wrenches at work, so I thought I'd grab a wrench from home, and swap the 406 dual drive recumbent wheel with the 571 wheel the next day when I got to work. May 22, I stopped in a Wendy's in Alexandria, VA, the bike was stolen. Witnesses noticed the bike being ridden away specifically because of the unusual mismatch of wheels.

Thanks for the feedback. One other point worth mentioning is that I'm at work from 6 in the evening to 3 in the morning. The cover of darkness tends to make thieves bolder and none of the racks are in very observable locations. While I'm not aware of a big bike theft problem on this campus (most stolen bikes around here weren't locked in the first place), there does seem to be a lot of nuisance theft (easily removed items taken from bikes). I'm torn. I definitely want one, but don't know how I'd replace it if it were stolen. Maybe I'll talk to my insurance agent about what it would take to be covered in a situation like that.

Have you asked around about storage space for the bike? Surely there must some space on campus to store it.

There are bike lockers on campus. When I was hired I thought that would be perfect for storing my bike. Unfortunately the bike lockers are not owned by Parking Services or anything like that, they are owned by Student Housing. I've yet to find someone in Student Housing that feels they have the authority to rent one of the lockers to someone who isn't a student. Ah bureaucracy, gotta love it. :/

What about the building you work in? Any chance there's a storage closet that has a bike-sized space in it? Beg and plead with anyone and everyone you know. Maybe you could lock it to a desk in an empty, locked, classroom? Is there an unused workshop or an empty office?

If you can't find space on your own, I'd take it up with Human Resources AND Parking. Surely they don't want to be a place that doesn't encourage non-car transportation...

Well since my (thankfully cheap) headlight was stolen at work my bike has been stored inside. It's not supposed to be inside but either no one has noticed or no one cares. But I'm thinking that the extra space taken up by a recumbent tricycle might be a problem. There will need to be an official place to park that indoors for me to ride it. As far as wanting to encourage non-car transportation goes, this town, heck this whole state, was built on automobile manufacturing.