Locking a bicycle that is worth less than $1000 USD

[ARF-GEF]

HAHA
I imagine Wizer shopping around in town for groceries on that bike with such chains

[Wizer]

Evey time I see this on bike stands, I do a facepalm.
Seriously, if you have just one lock on your bike, don´t do this:


You can see how easy it would be to use the quick release on front tires of the 2 bikes next to each other.
No tools, no noise, and maybe 1-2 minutes, and the thief is pedalling away.

[spoonzor]

In the video posted before (365 days of a bike) it was interesting to see how after the obvious (loose/easy to steal) water bottle, basket in the front and the saddle the lock is among the first things to be stolen! Or maybe they just took it off because it was worth more then the bike.
Once the tires are empty and the saddle is missing it goes faster and people start to feel like it's ok to take parts from this bike...

I agree that lock picking a bike lock is pretty rare. Brute force, even with power tools and such, in clear daylight, with a lot of witnesses doesn't seem to be a problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGttmR2DTY8
Would you get involved if you see someone doing this to a bike that is not yours? Really?

I did the same thing once with a motorbike (that was mine). We used the electricity from a nearby shop and a power tool. Lot's of people looking at us, but once you look back they quickly walk on. Yes, this was many many years ago. Nowadays I would have taken the time to open the lock in a non destructive way.

[Rewt254]

Evey time I see this on bike stands, I do a facepalm.
You can see how easy it would be to use the quick release on front tires of the 2 bikes next to each other.
No tools, no noise, and maybe 1-2 minutes, and the thief is pedalling away.

That is actually awfully common in Finland as you probably have noticed In student bicycle parks I've started to see people shifting from the front tyre locking towards frame + front tyre locking. Sometimes I see bicycles parked backwards so that the back tyre is locked into the bicycle stand. This is of course better than the front tyre, but even I can release the back tyre in under a minute with right tools.

Another thing I see a lot are bad pin/wafer locks used for expensive (>600€) bikes. It really doesn't matter if you have a 40 mm thick steel chain going around your bike for 5 times if you lock it with 5€ padlock from China

A bit off-topic, but should there be a thread in which we could post "How to not lock your bike" pictures and maybe bicycle locks to avoid? I've bought at least 2 locks which are at max. decent locks for a bicycle and both were advertised as "secure"

[ARF-GEF]

Well Rewt you should start one then
I for one would surely enjoy seeing bad methods and bad (but advertised as secure and for bicycle) lock.
I'm sure it would be very useful and educational.

[Squelchtone]

This is an interesting concept, a digital bike lock with full smart phone alarms and gps tracking.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/10/28/lock8/

Enjoy,
Squelchtone

[ARF-GEF]

I wonder if it get's made or dies in it's infancy. Let's hope it makes though, it looks like a promising idea.

[Squelchtone]

I wonder if it get's made or dies in it's infancy. Let's hope it makes though, it looks like a promising idea.

I like the idea but it doesn't look very strong though or very hidden, I would just beat on it with a hammer until I got inside and then remove battery or destroy the circuitry so it can no longer send messages to owners iphone.

[ARF-GEF]

True!
But I hope once the genie is out of the bottle it gets updated and refined