My wife is sick to death of my bikes being in the house! (and to be honest it's a bit of a pain when they are covered in mud)

So it's time to put them in the garage. The reason they are in the house is that my garage got broken into a while ago, bike nicked, insurance paid out and now I’m paranoid they are coming back for the replacements. Organised as well, they only took the best bike and cut the lock off with a Gas Axe!

Now there’s a fair bit of full sus, carbon road bike, maxlight hard tail etc. to go in the garage.

But my problems are

[*]My Garage is not attached to the house opens onto a quiet side road.[/*]
[*]It's a standard (fairly crap lock) up and over door.[/*]

So what I need to know is what’s the best way to secure it up?

Willing to spend a bit of money on this (£250?). So ground anchors, chains, door things, alarms. I've had a sparky come and fit PIR lights and all that.

Recommendations please 🙂

Put your wife in the garage instead?

Roller shutters on the street.

Claymore mine on the inside 'just in case'. 😀

Put your wife in the garage instead?

I would but the Freezer's full

Yale Wire Free Alarms

Easy to install, can alarm garages & sheds…….lots of different kits can build up exactly what you need.

£250 won't go very far…, especially if the same guys come back again

Nothings going to stop a gas axe is it?

You need to make it so much hassle its not worth it.

Put in a roller door, and a couple of those 140dB alarms on the inside. Link them to an alarm in your house and a big flashing light on the garage roof so everyone can see where its coming from. Alternatively, you could brick up the door entrance and put a normal sized door in – which would make it more secure.

Everyone looks out the window at the car alarm going off at night don't they?

£250 won't go very far.

Fair point, willing to up the budget.

I could sell a couple of road bikes to fund it, anybody want a Dave Hinde and a Ribble?

I've got a Garage Defender

Recommended by my friendly locksmith and fitted in about 15mins. He offered to crack open the existing lock in 10s – I declined.

"The Masterlock 1490E has an independent concealed armoured padlock included. The Masterlock garage defender is a simple to fit unit that locks onto a solid steel base in front of your garage door, with the padlock to block the tilting action of the door. The 5490E has an attractive powder coated finish, a heavy construction body, is easy to fit within the hour and comes complete with full fitting instructions included. Every garage should have the Masterlock 1490E fitted."

Get something to beef up the garge door. Possibly one of these

A decent ground anchor and a 19mm chain.

Then alarm it so you can hear it in your house and preferably so your neighbours can hear it too.

Do you have garden access and do you use the up and over door much?

I have a lockup (as an overflow for my own garage) in an secured area and these used to regularly get broken into, generally by levering the up and over door and folding it over on itself to clear any defender that the person had.

What the owners of the block of garages have done is to hammer a wooden frame inside the metal frame of the door. If the wood fits tightely, and then is screwed into place the door is almost impossible to fold over itself.

If you don't use the up and over door, I'd frame it with wood, and then drill holes in the sides and use 13mm hex head coach bolts into the actual garage door opening.

For your own piece of mind you can't beat having an alarm though that is connected to your house.

A lot of roller doors are surprisingly easy to break into, especially if there is room in the road for them to drive away from the door after hooking something underneath. My parents neighbours had this happen to them at night and nobody heard.

As above – if the up and over is the only access, then either replace with roller shutter or strengthen the door and put a garage defender on it – and get an alarm linking to your house – the wireless stuff is getting much better. If you don't use the garage for a car, how about putting something else inside the door to restrict access / egress? Is it not possible to park your car right up against the garage door overnight as well?

Masterlock reviews don't look good.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Garage-Door-High-Security-Lock-Kit-Steel-Up-Over-/270635169345?pt=UK_Home_Garden_Doors_LE&hash=item3f031cf641

Seen this.

How to describe my Free garage protector..erm, I'll give it a go.

My garage is an up and over, so, with two left over pieces of wood from a little fence in the garden (about 20cm in length, 10 wide and 5 thick), and a sturdy 4 inch nail, create a simple cross action with the two pieces of wood, then nail this to the top of the garage (inside), just above the door, when you want to open the door, just swivel the top piece of wood overlaying the bottom piece. You can put one either end of the garage door to make it double secure.
Works a treat, you can only unlock it from the inside.

Wish I had a picture!