DON'T LEAVE YOUR BIKE ON YOUR PORCH!

**WaistDeepGroomers** · 04-19-2017, 10:54 AM

Gonna try and steer this back to the center...

what's a good bike lock folks are using to supplement the flimsy hitch mount loop locks? Gonna be driving cross country this summer and don't want some Kansan walking away with my Following, especiially since I got it in Steal Me Hunter Orange.

**reckless toboggan** · 04-19-2017, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Ryan Dunfee

Gonna try and steer this back to the center...

what's a good bike lock folks are using to supplement the flimsy hitch mount loop locks? Gonna be driving cross country this summer and don't want some Kansan walking away with my Following, especiially since I got it in Steal Me Hunter Orange.

Depends on what rack you have. I use kryptonite u locks to lock my bikes to my NorthShore rack. Then use long cables or chains made by kryptonite and/or hiplok to lock both the bikes and the rack through the frame of my vehicle.

Tldr

Regardless of rack type, lock your bikes to your vehicle frame using a couple of different types of locks.

**Dantheman** · 04-19-2017, 11:13 AM

A hotel room. A burly U-lock is your best bet, but in the age of portable angle grinders nothing is safe.

https://www.outsideonline.com/214328...r-stolen-again
http://bikesmarts.com/5-best-bike-lo...e-unbreakable/

**reckless toboggan** · 04-19-2017, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by Dantheman

A hotel room. A burly U-lock is your best bet, but in the age of portable angle grinders nothing is safe.

https://www.outsideonline.com/214328...r-stolen-again
http://bikesmarts.com/5-best-bike-lo...e-unbreakable/

Yup. Only lock your bikes to your car while travelling.

If you stop, the bikes come into the room and also get locked up there.

If you stop for a meal, eat in your car, or on a patio right next to your car (and don't go to the bathroom).

It helps to travel with a friend or S.O. so you can swap off and go to the bathroom eventually.

To clarify my previous setup. Use two different locks to lock your bike to your car frame, so they have to break two, which takes longer.

At the end of the day, you need to make your target not worth the hassle, when compared to the guy parked next to you.

**WaistDeepGroomers** · 04-19-2017, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by reckless toboggan

Yup. Only lock your bikes to your car while travelling.

If you stop, the bikes come into the room and also get locked up there.

If you stop for a meal, eat in your car, or on a patio right next to your car (and don't go to the bathroom).

It helps to travel with a friend or S.O. so you can swap off and go to the bathroom eventually.

To clarify my previous setup. Use two different locks to lock your bike to your car frame, so they have to break two, which takes longer.

At the end of the day, you need to make your target not worth the hassle, when compared to the guy parked next to you.

Good points. I'm using a Yakima Holdup tied to a VW (with a small key lock on the hitch itself). Will be a pain to loop it around the frame but I'll figure it out.

Two locks is a good point. Ideally would be able to thread through two frames and then the car frame, seems like it'd need to be long.

**jm2e** · 04-19-2017, 12:14 PM

Seems like the old school idea was to get a cable or long ass little chain to go through both wheels and frame, imagining a thief dismantling stuff.

Seems like the new thought is to get a big ass chain but just focus on the frame to rack. Cables and small chains are too easy for less professional, more opportunistic thieves.

I like the theory of two different kinds of lock. One chain, one ULock. Not a lot of bike racks have a good way to utilize a ULock though.

**kidwoo** · 04-19-2017, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Ryan Dunfee

Gonna try and steer this back to the center...

what's a good bike lock folks are using to supplement the flimsy hitch mount loop locks? Gonna be driving cross country this summer and don't want some Kansan walking away with my Following, especiially since I got it in Steal Me Hunter Orange.

kryptonite fuggetaboutit chains.

I happily leave my bikes chained to my bike rack (chained TO THE VEHICLE CHASSIS) in whistler and other similar thievery hell holes. Given, I have 4 of them. Plus two cables. Plus a burly locking cotter pin for the hitch rack. All wheels forks, frames and handlebars well wrapped and contained. Kind of an "I've love to see you try" sort of thing.

I guess I could get a rear shock stolen. Need to buy an Evil frame I guess. Even owners can't get to the shocks on those damn things.

**teledad** · 04-19-2017, 01:11 PM

I'd look at heavy duty chain locks made for motorcycles, since weight isn't really an issue. But that's still not going to stop someone determined with power tools.

**Damian Sanders** · 04-19-2017, 01:42 PM

A battery powered 4-1/2" grinder with a diamond metal blade or thin cut off blade will go through almost any bike lock in under a minute.

**jamal** · 04-19-2017, 01:53 PM

I got a bike stolen from inside the house when I was in college. I lived in a room upstairs at the back and there was a wide, short hallway just outside my door which seemed like a perfect and safe place to leave it. Some asshole managed to get in the house, walked upstairs and took it out the back at some point on a saturday night, when people were generally around and up late. There was some shitty cruiser bike left in the main room downstairs so I guess they upgraded. Still pissed about that one.

I have also left my bke outside the garage after an evening ride a few times. Go inside, shower, eat, relax, go to bed. Then realize at like 1am I forgot to bring it in. Quiet, dark neighborhood, you could probably walk by on the sidewalk and not notice the bike there at least.

**Ottime** · 04-19-2017, 02:01 PM

Buy my rusted old hardrock. No one will
Want to steal it.

**Kopi_Red** · 04-19-2017, 02:14 PM

Originally Posted by reckless toboggan

Use two different locks to lock your bike to your car frame, so they have to break two, which takes longer.

At the end of the day, you need to make your target not worth the hassle, when compared to the guy parked next to you.

^^^This.

Locks only keep honest people honest.

**reckless toboggan** · 04-19-2017, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by Ottime

Buy my rusted old hardrock. No one will
Want to steal it.

This is another effective option.

**frorider** · 04-19-2017, 05:01 PM

Lock it in a steel box with an alarm:

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**kidwoo** · 04-19-2017, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by frorider

Lock it in a steel box with an alarm:

Thanks for the ID pic. Cannot WAIT to find out what that alarm sounds like.

There's an ibis in there right? If so you're safe for now.

**BC.** · 09-26-2021, 05:23 AM

Huge bump…..(also could be added to the “Shit that Annoys You” thread)

Daughter/roommate got their bikes stolen right off their their front porch recently……(Live on College St. in Burlington). They had a shit cable lock on both of them, so that didn’t help…..but the thieves literally went up/on to their porch to swipe them.

Just found out about it this weekend….so every green bike I’ve seen the past 3 days…I’m doing a double take……It’s a shit GT bike we got at Dicks Sporting Goods just for college life…..but still, it got her around/campus.

Thieves suck/

**billyk** · 09-26-2021, 07:18 AM

My bike was stolen (way back when) in the middle of the day on campus with hundreds of people walking by.. it was locked to a handrail outside the library using a heavy duty wire cable about 3/4 inch thick. The thief used wire cutters to nibble away at the cable until it was cut. Took him about 15 minutes to cut the cable, and there were lots of witnesses. They even called the campus cops, but they didn’t arrive before he made his getaway on my bike.

I actually had the bike returned to me about 2 months later when the cops found it (along with a bunch of other stolen bikes) in a house they raided. This was after I bought a replacement bike. My stolen bike was all trashed out and modified, so I didn’t feel all that good about getting it back.

The thief was a juvenile, so I was unable to learn his identity, or even sue him for damages. The cops warned me that the kid was dirt poor, and there would be no way to collect anything if I went that route.

**S.B.** · 09-26-2021, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by BC.

Huge bump…..(also could be added to the “Shit that Annoys You” thread)

Daughter/roommate got their bikes stolen right off their their front porch recently……(Live on College St. in Burlington). They had a shit cable lock on both of them, so that didn’t help…..but the thieves literally went up/on to their porch to swipe them.

Just found out about it this weekend….so every green bike I’ve seen the past 3 days…I’m doing a double take……It’s a shit GT bike we got at Dicks Sporting Goods just for college life…..but still, it got her around/campus.

Thieves suck/

Burlington bike thefts have been crazy recently. 5 bikes have been stolen just from the cycling team in the past two weeks, one of which was a 2020 megatower with a really nice spec. The bike thieves know what they're doing it seems

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**BC.** · 09-26-2021, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by Teenaged

Burlington bike thefts have been crazy recently. 5 bikes have been stolen just from the cycling team in the past two weeks, one of which was a 2020 megatower with a really nice spec. The bike thieves know what they're doing it seems

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Pricks…….

I told my daughter to just file a report and you never know…..they may find it…..At least it provides a record of theft/especially since they actually went up/onto porch to steal them.

**SumJongGuy** · 09-26-2021, 05:44 PM

Sometimes the good folks win in the end..

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle13951281/

**S.B.** · 09-26-2021, 07:29 PM

Originally Posted by BC.

Pricks…….

I told my daughter to just file a report and you never know…..they may find it…..At least it provides a record of theft/especially since they actually went up/onto porch to steal them.

I'll send you a PM, might be able to help her get a bike if she's a UVM student

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**XtrPickels** · 09-27-2021, 08:58 AM

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...Y2XAdh_AWxb0MS

LockPickingLawyer's YouTube Playlist for Bike Locks.

**BC.** · 09-27-2021, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by Teenaged

I'll send you a PM, might be able to help her get a bike if she's a UVM student

Sent from my SM-G960U using TGR Forums mobile app

Saw that….thank you very much. She is, I forwarded her the info this am. Appreciate the help.

**MTT** · 09-27-2021, 10:02 AM

Originally Posted by MTT

I leave mine on the porch sometimes,

Sometimes I have woken up late at night. freaked out, went outside and brought bike in the house.

I am never comfortable when I ride to town unless I have it in one of those closed meatal bike cages

My bike was stolen off my porch a few months ago. I am now bikeless

**Peruvian** · 09-27-2021, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by BC.

Huge bump…..(also could be added to the “Shit that Annoys You” thread)

Daughter/roommate got their bikes stolen right off their their front porch recently……(Live on College St. in Burlington). They had a shit cable lock on both of them, so that didn’t help…..but the thieves literally went up/on to their porch to swipe them.

Just found out about it this weekend….so every green bike I’ve seen the past 3 days…I’m doing a double take……It’s a shit GT bike we got at Dicks Sporting Goods just for college life…..but still, it got her around/campus.

Thieves suck/

Just catching this now. Has she posted in Champlain Black Market, Front Porch forum (ironically), CL, etc that her bike was stolen? Also she should let Old Spokes Home know in case someone comes in with it.