Hi,
When you tour, how do you enter places which require you to live your bike outside? For example, you want to enter a museum or a mall.
I'm talking about a loaded bike with panniers.

https://www.iwantoneofthose.com/room-defender/index.html

How much it weights ? LOL

My strategy has usually been to leave my bicycle and gear at the campground or hostel, and then spend a day touring. On the odd occasion, I've just locked my bicycle outside and hoped for the best.

Sometimes you can get someone to help you, ask locals. I took my bike into a movie theater once, and the staff put it in the back room for me. I've left it in the visitor center more than once. Every once in a while you'll find a bike locker. Other times, I lock it up in plain sight of a security guard or cop. If it's a sketchy place, I just don't do it. I don't tour much in big cities, though....

Although it's most certainly not the best way to do it, I do also lock my bike up (fully loaded) at places I want to visit, but never in cities. In the city, it's in my sight at all times. However, I guess I have been fortunate. All I do is just bring my handelbar bag w/ me and use it as a day/shoulder pack and put my essentials, any valuables, and important info as well.

I do just like the others I go with a gut feeling If it doesn't look safe I pass by. I avoid large cities. At times I have to ride through and just keep going. At dinners and libraries I prop the bike up against a wall and go in with the handle bar bag with the important stuff. only on occasion I have locked it to a post.

One time I was in a dinner eating pancakes and the waitress asked if I was worried about someone stealing my bike? I looked at her and said, the bike is dirty it is heavy and it is loaded making it even heavier, Id been out on tour for close to 5 months I said If someone steals it then I WONT HAVE TO RIDE IT ANYMORE! we both laughed about it.

Seriously though there have been a few places I worried but those are few and far between
Catfish

Rain proof pannier covers help to cover everything up and can offer some psychological resistance to petty theft, a prospective thief has to cut them off or untie them before they can start to go through your things.

Some panniers (i.e. Alkels') can be locked to the rack with small padlocks. Zip ties can also secure things but you will have to cut them off later.

Better to plan in advance not to be in that situation at all. But sometimes during the day you need to stop for groceries, etc. If forced to leave a loaded bike somewhere, lock it in a really visible location and if possible ask someone to watch it for you. Sometimes old people are happy to help that way.

In some countries you can pay someone to watch your gear, or a small store will let you park your bike in the back for a small charge. In some third world countries, i.e. in Africa or South America I've routinely had to pay some to watch a vehicle to keep it from being broken into or stolen.

I got an alarm once thinking that would be a good idea. It had a cable that when cut or the alarm base was brutilized (I'm reluctant to call it a motion detector), the alarm would go off. However, the alarm wasn't very loud, it wasn't waterproof, and it ended up attached to the lawn mower instead. In fact we couldn't even sell it for $1.00 in the last garage sale we had.

When we are just passing through a city, we just lock them up outside the museum, grocery etc. Most places in Europe have a bike rack outside. Toured for 3,5 months like that and never had a thing stolen. WE just put all the valuables in the handlebar bags and take them with us. The chances are, noone wants to steal tourer's stinky clothes anyway.

When I first started touring I wouldn't leave my bike anywhere for fear of theft. Then I got bold. Very bold.

From my experience thieves don't spend a lot of time breaking bike locks when in an area with a lot of people around. They want to make it look like an owner unlocking a bike while they cut the lock. Anything taking longer that a minute, or using obvious tools attracts too much attention. Two locks of different types (coil and U-bolt) solve that. One lock must be attached to something that will not move. The other for the front wheel and frame.

As for pannier contents, I only carry an old camp stove and dirty clothing, so any thief would be welcome to that. My valuables are in the handlebar bag that I take with me.

Nobody has mentioned the dirty undies/shorts in the top of the panniers yet?

I've mentioned it several times elsewhere ... I figure everyone has read it already. Yeah, that's what I do!

We generally avoid visiting places along the route if we are unable to leave the loaded bikes in a secure place.

Here in Asia we leave our gear locked in our hotel room (right now in fact) in our pac safes.

We also used the pac safes while touring with a tent.

On our transamerica we didn't worry too much about it. We used our judgement about how risky the area was and locked them up or not. We didn't usually bother in small towns and we weren't in too many cities. I always took the handlebar bag with me and kept the most tempting items in it. Wallet, camera, cash, etc. were not left on the bike. Most of the other stuff wasn't all that desirable to a thief. Who wants our dirty clothes and beat up gear?

It helps that bikes are awkward and heavy when loaded and not all that much of a temptation to most would be theives.

In cities big enough to have a serious bike thieves we tried to not leave the bikes unattended or at least left them somewhere that would be relatively safe. This was not always easy and sometimes I was a bit nervous.

In general terms, this is what I do. However, in the bigger cities I'll usually sort out my accommodation first, and leave my panniers and so on there while I travel light to explore. Usually in cities the accommodation is the first thing I sort out. Generally the campgrounds are a long way from the attractions of most cities, so I usually take that opportunity to pursue more formal accommodation, and that generally needs to be sorted out earlier in the day. That generally leaves me plenty of time to explore the city without having to worry about my equipment. That said, I've never left my wallet or camera unattended in a hostel, not even in a locked room.

I often just ask if there is somewhere secure I can park the bike. People are usually pretty nice about it. Other times, I get a hotel room and leave my bike there...after asking of course I will say that most of the touring I do is in the wide open spaces of the US. Seldom do I go anywhere near a museum or mall.

One thing I've done...if I really wanted to see the sights...is to plan a couple of rest days for it. On my last trip (this year's didn't pan out...bummer), my daughter and I wanted to see Mt St. Helens and the Mary Hill Museum but those were many miles from The Dalles, OR. We rented a car for 3 days so that we could see them. There's no shame in that.

My wife and I did that 20 years ago in Scotland because we didn't want a 10 mile walk in the rain to see Dunnottar Castle.

I toured on a sailboat several years ago. We'd anchour offshore and then dingy in. There were always the usual 'warfrats' hanging around the dock, looking for something to scoff. The skipper would find the natural leader and offer him $10 US to look after the dingy. Once it was agreed on, he would tear the bill in half and let him that if everything was in order upon his return, he would get the other half. In our Caribbean tour we never had a thing stolen and we never failed to have to give the other half of the 10.

I prefer the dirty laundry ploy though.

We always travel in large groups. Usually someone stays near your stuff on organized tours. Non organized tours, most of them have been in Europe. Have had too much worry there. Still I lock up by bike with a u bolt if I stray too far from my bike.My Panniers are a real pain to take off. Usually just brave it.