As from my other thread, i plan on cycling Barcelona to Belfast, a long tour fully loaded...

How do you guys lock you bikes up??? Do you secure your panniers?? Do you venture far away from your bikes, or have them in sight all the time??

What type of lock do you guys recommend ??

There will be two of us on this tour, so we were thinking along the lines of, one does the shopping the other watches the bikes.. is that the way to do it??

Another thing is Bike insurance.. were gonna need to get working on that seeing as ive already got my bike, and ang will have hers very soon, and neither of us have insurance!!

Cheers!!

And I would like advice about the same for travelling ALONE.

When I was in Europe in 1982 I used a simple cable lock, left all the bags on the bike, and left a sign with this pathetic message: "I am 3000 miles from home, and everything I need for survival is on this bike. There is no money, passport, or other valuables on the bike. So please don't steal it."

I did that only a few times, in crowded city pedestrian malls. The rest of the time my fear about having my panniers stolen but a definite damper on my trip, as I refrained from visiting beautiful castles etc.

I plan on using a mini U-lock for the frame/rear wheel and a light cable for my front wheel.

i had a thought about something that might work which i'll be trying out in a few months. basically it's like the thing in the attached link and is designed for use on normal backpacks - i've still got one from when i was traipsing around europe 10 years ago.

https://www.corporatetravelsafety.com...roducts_id=108

i kinda figured that with something like that you could "wrap" it around the two rear panniers and thread a cable lock through it then d lock the whole shebang to something secure. weight shouldn't be too much of an issue - the one in the link says it's 1.5 pounds, which is like 500gms in the sensible measure but i reckon mine's a bit heavier.

folds down to about the size of two cigarette packets sat side-by-side. check the picture on the green bag to see how large the "opneing" is which sould allow you to get it around your two bags pretty comfortably before tightening it all in around the downtube and through some of the spokes on your rear wheel.

We've been using the the Pac Safe for more than a year now and (knock on wood) have had no problems with theft. Right now our gear and laptop are locked in our guesthouse room in Bangkok using one.

I have been using a "pacSafe for the last year myself. I wonder if i was the first to think of that? Anyway, i found it too much hassle to wrap it when the panniers are on the bike, so I just take all my panniers off (4+H/Bar bag) and stuff them in the pacsafe mesh and lock the closed mesh to my bike frame. Works well, and is pretty secure.

no, I wasn't

ha! i had the same thought! still haven't tried it so i can't claim to have put it into practice. the more i think about the logistics of it the more what you're saying re: removing the panniers makes sense.

Nice idea with the pacsafe, im a big hiker, so i could definatly get more than one use outta that as well...

Still got to get my panniers, nearly sure im getting the orteliebs, but will look into pac safe for them.

Decathlon is selling 3 cable locks of various sizes for 5 euro... that was my other idea, but less secure, cheap locks and all that.

In general I would say don't worry!! I was probably the most paranoid person in the world before we went on this trip and the longer we travel the more relaxed I am. We don't leave our bikes and belongings unattended in big cities for long, but mostly we are in small towns or rural countryside where there is very little risk. I would go for a couple cable locks and a motion alarm (we use the Timani one), which is great just to let you know if anyone is touching your bike. It's very sensitive and was quite useful in Morocco where curious fingers (not necessarily stealing ones) were always tempted to touch our bikes.

Nice... ive went for a thick cable lock for the back, and a thinner for the front, decided against the U-Lock style because i think it is less versitile, and i doesnt load onto the frame, so a waste having the attachments..

Motion sensor ? Bit fancy :-) Expensive ???

I agree w/ avatarworf but have never tried the motion sensor. You can really work yourself into a lather worrying about your bike and gear but it shouldn't get in the way of you experiencing the places you visit. I must say I have been awfully lucky in that I have never had anything stolen except for a helmet and a towel. You can usually find some place to store your bike when you are in a larger city and if you have to pay a couple dolars, so be it. Wen it comes down to it, the only thing that really matters is your passpport, id and credit cards. Take reasonable precautions and try not to worry.

I agree with avatarworf.

After a few weeks of touring, I stopped worrying about that stuff.