Devil's Advocate points out (through some book on urban cycling that I was perusing at Barnes & Noble the other day) that when you lock up your bike with a bunch of other bikes, you make it easy for a thief to disguise his/her actions. This bike actually suggested locking your bike slightly removed from large racks filled with bikes. Of course, when you're talking bike shows, then you're talking a huge convention center or something full of rabid, theft-paranoid bicyclists.

I visited my Mom a few months ago in SF. Coming from New York, I was flabbergasted at how blithely people there lock up their bikes on the streets. Transplant some crackhead from here, and they'd have field day!

Jeez, now I feel better. I thought I was the ONLY one. (And my bike's a POS)

I think they actually make a special drill bit type thing that fits over the whole head of the screw snugly.

yup, ya gotta be vigilant - and a little lucky - to hold on to your bike in NYC.

It makese sense. Too bad you never actually see this type of locking on the street. Most of the time the rame and wheel are locked to the post. Newbs.

Frankly, I think locking that locking the rear triangle is a bit safer, because that way a thief can't cut or deform your rear in order to steal the frame. Not that I think that happens much...

Nowhere in DC is safe. At work, I lock my bike in a garage that has valet parking and building security. Even in this seemingly low-crime environment, every bike on the rack lost rear wheels except for me in one 12-hour span about six months ago.

NY-Chain around the rack, frame and rear wheel. Mini-U around the front wheel and frame. The chain stays at work and the mini-u/cable combo travels in the bag for quick errand stops.

I've got to disagree w/ Sheldon on this one. The less room you have to put a tool in there, the better. Locking the frame and wheel takes care of this. It's the same reason he advocates the Krypto mini lock.

I've always thought the sheldon brown method was dodgy if only because a thief might do some damage to your rear wheel and frame before they figured out that they can't get it off easily. I'd rather they could tell from a distance that my bike was securely locked.

tim