I know this comes up every week, but I have a slightly different question. One reason I am put off ground anchors and chains etc is because I know I’d get lazy, and the one time I don’t lock everything to everything else is the time I get robbed.

I have a decent size garage and I am planning to turn the back end of it into Fort Knox, and keep the bikes and other kit in a kind of cage. The garage is concrete block construction with a timber roof. I was planning to get a load of 40x40x5 angle steel welded up to form a cage, and use some rebar mesh to fill the gaps. Probably then clad it will some kind of insulation (to help jam any angle grinder attack), and then timber or plasterboard to make it look innocuous. It’ll be bolted into the walls and floor. It’ll just need a front wall and roof, as the garage walls will form the sides and back.

I know nothing is completely safe against determined thieves, but I should be able to knock something up for less than £500, and combined with an antisocially loud alarm it ought to be enough to deter your average bike thief.

I was wondering if anyone had done something similar, or had any tips? I’m mostly just interested in cage ideas, as I’ve read quite a bit about all the other security tactics and will be using a few other deterrents as well.

Cheers,

I’m doing the same thing myself. Effectively look like a prison cell.
Roof is also getting done with welding mesh sandwiched between 2 layers of 18mm ply.

Surely the effort involved in building a cage is a lot more than just locking a ground anchor?

Where do you people live? Is the threat really high enough to justify this (honest question, not judging)?

Initial effort, certainly. But 8 or 9* ground anchors and associated chains, when the ****ers can easily just chop through the frames and make off with the bits? I’m quite happy to spend a weekend welding and building to have a more useful secure area which I can put anything in, not just bikes. I think it’ll be quite fun actually 🙂

*it’s not just my bikes going in there

I saw a programme about jails ages ago, sometimes the bars on cells will be hollow, with a solid rod inside that is able to spin around, making it harder for a cutting disc to bite. Not sure if it could be done with loose bars inside box section, or if they need to be mounted on bearings somehow.

Make the cage from box section, make sure they’re sealed and pressurise them with tear gas. Cutting the cage will release the gas.

Land mines, no home is safe without and maybe some of those poison darts like in indiana Jones. Oh wait the rolling boulder and the Knights who say nee

Why don’t you just build a brick wall?

You could even make a secret door so looks like the end of the garage 😉

tear gas, isn’t a gas, its an irritant particulate in a solvent aerosol for dispersal. it is also really still bloody evil in solid powder form, having been on the wrong end of rather a lot of it!

have you though about an arrestex* or similar sleeve over the bars to be angle grinder proof?

*multi layered kevlar used in chainsaw PPE

If they can get in the garage then close the door behind them, can they not just take their time to force your inner door and get to the good stuff?

Noise is your friend, that and flashing lights and fireworks!!

Couple of these should scare them off

http://www.henrykrank.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_44_47&products_id=2964

The only problem I can see is that they can just shut themselves in the garage and take their time.
Steel isn’t a particularly hard metal so it’s pretty easy to cut/grind through.
The cage will most likely stop casual thieves but pros will be through in 10 minutes. Hardened ground anchors, chains and decent D-Locks (Kryptonite) are what you need. And a loud alarm.

The best protection is caution. Never let anyone know you have a garage full of bikes, always be art when driving home, never leave garage door open fr passerby to see.
And the most important way to protect your bike is to not live in Bristol! (Learnt that lesson the hard way).

Tom KP

What are you going to use to lock the bikes into this cage?

In my shed I have:

THIS and THIS to scare em off, and THIS to warn me they’re in there so I can hopefully be standing out front with my baseball bat when they’re trying to get away. (Not the actual alarms but you get the idea)

I’ve also got the bikes secured to each other and to the shed so they can’t just whip one away.

It seems to work, as I recently found out.

What are you going to use to lock the bikes into this cage?

Probably something like a shipping container padlock in a shrouded box on the door.

I do plan to have numerous alarms with motion sensors too. I generally only ride my road bike to and from home, the mountain bikes go in the car so I’m doing reasonably well at not letting people know there’s bikes in the garage.

I’ve seen rebar placed inside steel tube then filled with pitch

V hazardous to anyone using a disc cutter …..

Pitch vaporises burns clogs cutting discs gives perp a new complexion etc

I must admit after investing in ground anchors and almax chains I got lazy after a few months, only a couple of infrequently used bikes get locked up these days. Other than that I’ve just put metal bars across the windows and rear door and had a couple of bolts put into the up and over door – and have gone with Pedalcover insurance. Unfortunately it’s illegal to kill/maim thieving scrotes so I haven’t gone with more active defenses.

I know this comes up every week, but I have a slightly different question. One reason I am put off ground anchors and chains etc is because I know I’d get lazy, and the one time I don’t lock everything to everything else is the time I get robbed.

But aren’t you going to get lazy and not bother locking your cage thing then? 😕

I’ve been looking at doing something similar but have neither the time nor patience to begin trying to cobble something together, I saw a large steel tool chest for sale like on the back of a flat bed truck near the bulkhead,

I thought fixing this to the floor would suffice? I know they do the anchors and stuff but I just thought out of sight out of mind, rather than let some Scrote bugger up my bikes trying to cut, hack grind through chains and cables, in the unlikely event they get disturbed I’ll be left with sabotaged frames and wheels and that would reek havoc with my OCD,

I thought the inner bar stuff was also about the bar dropping down when it’s cut, constantly pressing in the side of the cutting disc. Which would really happen with a big bar in a big tube – two-inch perhaps.

That’s a guess, btw.

I think hollow bars might be slightly more effort than I can be bothered with – my plan was a steel frame from 40×40 angle and 120mm rebar mesh, then clad in a sandwich of 1mm sheet steel, some sort of fibre insulation, then 10mm OSB board. As I accepted at the top, nothing will stop the determined scrote, but this lot ought to put off a lot of them, especially with a 130dB siren going off from within the cage.

I have a cage and can just about get 3 bikes in it. I had the welders at work knock it together out of spare angle and flat bar. All it cost me was hinges, anchor bolts and locks. Its designed with bi-folding doors that use two padlocks and a loop inside so I can chain the bikes together and to the cage for an extra level of security.

It was designed to go in my shed after that had been broken into so the width of it was dictated by the shed door and the length by the shed width. If I was having one built now it would be bigger as I have a garage now. The bars poke out of the doors and the wheels poke out of the ends, two bikes fit in with no protrusions. Having it between two walls makes sense, and will be more secure.

In terms of being lazy it’s easier for em to be lazy because all 3 bikes are a squeeze but I always make sure I put them in there no matter how hard. Although the garage is pretty secure and someone breaking in would have quite a job trying to get unsecure bikes.