A friend of ours had their bike nicked from their tenement last month and she’s trying to figure out how to secure its replacement. The bike lives at the bottom of the stairwell and the one that was stolen was d-locked to a railing. To nick it the thieves cut the railings off.

She’s asked for ideas on how to secure it in such a way that it can’t be nicked like this again and I’m a bit stumped- I’d think ground anchors were an option but doubt this’d go down well with other people in the block or the council/landlord.

Unfortunately it has to live there not in her flat as she lives on the top floor, has pretty severe back problems and the bike’s a fairly hefty hybrid.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Take it into her room. If someone sees it and wants it, they will take it – no matter what she does.

what they say – remove wheels to make it more of a pain to take it?

As above, it’s not an option for her to take it upstairs and she’s not bike savvy enough to remove wheels I don’t think (I’d show her but she’s not local).

Millions of bikes get stolen from stairwells.

She needs to have somewhere within her flat to put it. If she can’t get it up the stairs she needs to get a lighter bike.

flog the hybrid, use the proceeds to buy a secondhand brompton, take the (folded) brompton into the flat

edhornby, she’s a friend. Friends don’t let friends ride Bromptons.

😆

Buy a bike so cheap and rubbish no-one will want to nick it?
Fit an alarm?? http://www.amazon.co.uk/niceEshop-Motorbike-Security-Bicycle-Bike-Black/dp/B00DTMNRRY (at risk of annoying the residents)
buy an actual anchor (or other heavy thick object) and lock it to that?

Move somewhere more suitable to her needs / with better security provision?

Maybe worth raising with the landlord; even if they won’t provide secure facilities they might be willing to allow the tenants to build something (especially if there’s more than one biker and they club together)? Or CCTV even?

Can’t see why other tenants would object to a ground anchor if they haven’t already objected to the bike itself.

Cougar- that sounds pretty reasonable (not the moving, although I’d be lying if I said when I moved into my own house bike storage was not more of a priority than it should be). I’ll see if she can go for that.

This is in Edinburgh and I’m not quite sure who is in charge of the stairwells- I thought it was the council? Thinking back I’m fairly sure I’ve seen another bike there so maybe they would be happy with it.

This has always been a problem in Edinburgh stairwells. I once had a bike torched because the thieving scumbags couldn’t nick it, they piled newspaper up and used that to start the fire.
Could she buy a longer chain and lock that round round multiple bits of the bannister/railing then d-lock to that.

Bikepawl- nice idea. Cutting lots of railings is a fairly big deterrent compared to just the one (it was d-locked to 1 railing). I’ll recommend she gets a decent motorbike chain to leave around a few of the railings to supplement the d-lock and cable she’ll be using already. Thanks.

We lost a bike from our stairwell too back in the student days. They don’t even need to cut the balustrades as they are usually brittle cast iron and can be kicked out in seconds.

More locks does sound best, especially round the wheels. Carrying a heavy hybrid would put me off

there is no way to secure it, if it is left unattended for hours out of sight of everyone.

If it is a traditional tenement flat with cast iron railings, there are no simple solutions I’m afraid. Cutting through or breaking cast iron is remarkably easy without too much effort but can be a major expense to replace. Repeating the same mistake may make her unpopular with her neighbours if she does the same thing again as no one likes to see their insurance policy costs increase. Having had cast iron stolen, you can be looking at repair bills into the hundreds or even well over a grand.

Is there a back green area with any form of storage such as a wash house or could she get a secure steel bike shed installed. This would probably cost more than the bike though. 🙁

Is there an outside space (shared garden) where should lock it up. Same thing happened to me, bmx was chained to the trailing on top 3rd floor. Miss that bike. Could someone drill in a ground anchor for her?

Could she get a friend to help her move an extremely heavy weight into the stairwell to which she could secure the bike?

As others have said, there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop someone stealing a bike if they really want it.

The only way around it is to buy a really cheap bike which will be more of an inconvenience than a financial loss if/when it gets stolen.

I managed to find an Edinburgh Contour 100 for £25 when I needed a cheap runabout which was going to be locked up in public areas.
My lock I use costs more than the bike.

Something like this would do, but even that looks a bit flashy!
All you need to do is just make the bike look a bit scruffy, slap a bit of Duct tape over the frame names etc..

Ground anchor set into a builder’s bucket of concrete might be acceptable to neighbours. The anchor bit can be an old d-lock, the concrete bit she would need help with of course.

Weather balloon. Once it’s at the top of the stairs just pull it into the flat
Failing that speak to the landlord ^^

If leaving bikes in the stairwell chained to railings is ok, I can’t see how fitting a ground anchor would be such a problem. I’d probably just do it, doubtful anyone would complain.

Ground anchor set into a builder’s bucket of concrete might be acceptable to neighbours. The anchor bit can be an old d-lock, the concrete bit she would need help with of course.

Was going to suggest this kind of idea* AND assuming stair access isn’t secure, getting onto the landlord/other neighbours and sorting out the entry buzzer system. In everyone’s interest to stop any old passer-by wandering into the close I’d say…

*although I wouldn’t assume she wont be able to make up ready mix concrete – cos that would be blatant every day sexism wouldn’t it?

I think she needs to buy a decent bike bag and learn to remove wheels.

Wherever it’s left with whatever locks if they want it they will take it again 😕
Either don’t bother getting another, or bag it and move it into her apartment, then just slide the bike under the bed or something?

An alarmed padlock or motorcycle disc lock through the chainring will both make a noise if it’s moved, and also stop them riding off with it unless they break it too.

I wouldn’t assume that either MussEd, “severe back problems” and top floor flat might be a hinderance though.

Surprising success, a neighbour is going to help he concrete something into the floor. Failing that I like the bucket of concrete thing, nice idea. Thanks all!

Surprising that , good result.

I half expected it was some neighbour who removed it , pissed off that there was some random bike in the hall way.