Last June I had spent the whole day making my way north thru L.A. with a combination of cycling and Metrolink train to Emma Wood State Park in Ventura. I arrived after midnight, exhausted, threw up my tent and crashed hard. In my near delirium I did not lock my bike, and a picnic table was right there. Woke up at sunrise and my bike and panniers were gone, a white 1992 Trek Multitrack 750, built for a round the world trip. Berthoud front bag and saddle, Son generator hub and Supernova headlight, Nitto racks, Carridice Super C front and rear panniers, Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires, all gone. But it was my first bike stolen in over 50 years, so I'm crossing my fingers and holding my breath for the next 50. :D
I'm over it now and started over with a new Bike Friday Diamond Llama decked out for touring.
Learned my lesson! :cry:

I did kinda wonder how effective they might be in real life. You just never know nowadays. I figured I would just keep the honest people honest. :lol:

Oh man that sucks. Sorry. Hope the Diamond Llama works out for you.

HelpSingularity Sorry for your loss...

Experiences like yours are clearly unfortunate. Rare, but they do happen. Thanks for reminding us that we need to be careful, even in a case like yours where you left your bike after sunset and it was already gone before sunrise.

***

My community used to license bicycles, I licensed all of mine to get the sticker on the bike that the police could use to find the owner if found later.

My community stopped licensing bikes, they instead recommended using Bike Index or a similar service. I listed all my bikes on Bike Index. I also bought the Bike Index stickers and put on my bikes. I bought the generic stickers (no QR code), but it appears such stickers are no longer available on their website.
https://bikeindex.org

These stickers and registrations are no guarantee, but they can help. Several decades ago my dad's bike was stolen, months later the police called and said come and pick up your bike. It was in terrible shape, but a local bike shop straightened the bent frame and fork, I got it working again with some use parts.

Someone on this forum (I do not recall whom) had his custom Co-Motion bike with Rohloff stolen out of his garage. Many months later, a bike shop called him, someone brought a bike in for repair and it sounded like it might be the one he informed local bike shops about. It was his. All serial numbers were ground off, but it was his.

use the medium-sized ottolock which coils up to fit in a rear jersey pocket (or can loop under the saddle rails…but that takes extra time to deploy and hang back up). able to install/undo in about 30 seconds. good enough to prevent opportunistic theft/snatch and go but wouldn’t feel comfy using it and having the bike out of my sight for longer than a quick, two minute bathroom break or taco shop lunch order.

A friend of mine had his Colnago C-40 stolen from inside a synagogue. Years later, someone walked into a shop trying to sell a C-40 for less than $200. The shop just happened to be owned by a cousin of the victim, who had sold it to him. The shop owner recognized the bike and persuaded the seller to leave it for a few days so he could inspect it. Dude agreed. The shop owner called his cousin who told him to look inside one of the bar ends. Sure enough, his business card was still inside. The shop owner also removed one of the tires to check for his signature, which he always put on his hand-built wheels. There it was. They ended up paying the asking price to avoid trouble later.

Good idea to put an identifier inside a rim. I put stickers here and there in some bikes, but they often fell off or got wet and became a wet layer of slush. I think I will try some inside rims, I am pulling tires off bikes often enough, I just have to remember this.

Most of my bikes have bar end shifters, not an easy place to hide a note.

Unfortunately, not that rare in the suburban SoCal coastal Hike and Bike sites. Expect a wretched hive of scum and villainy at some, but maybe you'll have a pleasant surprise...

I have heard that the further south you go on the Pacific Coast, the worse it gets for hiker biker sites.

I rode from Astoria to San Francisco in 2014. Twice reported some unsavory types to park rangers.

First was a big guy walking into my camp area with a large dog, he apparently did not see me at first, he was about 20 feet from a picnic table with a lot of our stuff on it. When he saw me, he seemed unsure, should he pretend he is innocent or threaten me with his dog. I pulled out my phone and opened it up (flip phone) so I could call 911 if I had to, he then chose to leave after saying that he paid taxes and had as much right to be there as I did.

Second time was two homeless people that moved into our site after we called it a night. Ranger chased them out.

I think part of the problem is how the staff treats their campers at campsites. In Oregon, the park staff were great, very helpful. In California I started to give some constructive criticism to a park staffer, and she immediately informed me that we were very lucky that they allowed us to have hiker biker sites because we were low revenue and the RV owners were the ones that deserved good service. At other California parks, I found the attitude to generally be similar to that. When that poor attitude of not supporting hiker biker site users is prevalent, that encourages the lawless faction to take advantage of that.

The beach one nearest me (San Elijo) is $15 apiece. Since they can jam eight people in that site, I don't think $120 has them losing money on the deal. And it's a terrible HB site anyway.

They have two campgrounds at 4000' and 5000' inland in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, and they still have the deal where you can use the huge day use areas for HB for $5 overnight--multiple nights OK, or the camps are only five miles apart. You just have to break down your sleeping arrangements when the picnickers are there. Lots of oak and pine, deer, turkeys, hiking, and you're away from the main campground with all its smoke and noise.

I strap mine to move weight forward
 

I use two short Voile straps to secure my cable lock around top tube and head tube to avoid adding even more weight to my rear-heavy touring rig. If I used a front rack then I would put it there.

Used my combination cable lock twice during last week’s 5-day trip. Once when I shopped at a large grocery store. Brought the bike inside the vestibule and put the lock around the frame and front wheel. The second time I locked the bike to a rack at a restaurant.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...87ec93e09.jpeg

I did a day ride today in SoCal May gray to check out the $15 San Elijo site, and it is improved. It has a table, a very good bike rack, a raised bed tent area, and a fire ring. It's now permanently #95, located directly behind the locally famous surfing "kook" sculpture. VG Donuts and Cardiff Seaside market are within a couple blocks. The market is upscale, like Whole Foods, but has BBQ cooking outside on weekends (the tri-tip is known as "Cardiff Crack"). No trees or poles for hammocks, except one could be hung between two Cyclone fence posts in a corner of the site. Lots of foot traffic, highway noise, and trains.

The site under construction can be viewed with Google Street View. Good locks/alarms are recommended. Here's an image from a few years ago; the small tree in the tent area has now been cut down to a small nub less than a meter tall. https://kartaview.org/map/@33.018960...0532805098,21z

locked to my bike under saddle