Other than the obvious anchor / massive lock combo, does anyone else have any other form of security such as an alarm or lights to deter thieves and alert the owners to a 459 in progress?

If so, what you got and roughly how much was it? Did it help reduce your insurance premiums?

I had a battery powered alarm in my old shed was quite effective, only wish the battery was alive when it got broken into, I can only blame myself there… My new shed has double glazed windows and french doors, am hoping its enough to keep em at bay, plus locks on bikes and a proper full time powered alarm for good measure.

Hack bike left unfettered close to the fettered bike. If it's kids/smackheads they'll most likely take that instead. If they're professionals nothing will stop them.

(is that gun made out of lego?)

Not practical. Takes a lot of walking/looking after but effective in experience. Think an alarm or machine gun would be better.

My thoughts are that an anchor and lock will take time to penetrate, if the thieves have an alarm going off as well it'll be like countdown with them needing to get out of there quickly – making it a much more difficult job to complete.

I've never heard of people alarming the places the bikes are kept and from a discussion I had with someone in the industry seems easy to do, just wondering if anyone does it and if not, why not?

Had a cheap garage/shed alarm to but the batteries have run out (I mostly rely on the chain/anchor I have). Might get around to a semi-decent mains powered alarm sometime though. If you do have a cheap PIR alarm then make sure you tape over the arm/disarm status LED as otherwise it will take about 0.5 seconds for an intruder to find it and smash it.

just fitted a mains powerred burglar alarm to our garage.

Fairly basic system with remote keypad, bellbox, 2 PIRS – £100.
Took me one day to fit.

Do not bother with cheap DIY shop alarms they are not up to the job as they do not come with rechargeable backup batteries and the bell box is just a bell with no intelligence IE tamper and backup battery.

From Aliens Special Edition

This is what we need!

What sort of security arrangements do all the 3+ bike owners have?

We’ve got 5 bikes in the garage and only the 2 highest value ones are currently locked up (not anchored either), not too sure we’d need all of them to be theft proofed to the same level, maybe leaving the cheapest one in an easier to thieve position would mean the others get left alone, but I think we’re getting towards the sort of situation where some kind of secure storage rack would make sense, especially if it helped reduce the space claim of 5 bikes, does such a system exist?

Something as tough as a floor anchor that lets you mount 5 bikes (preferably vertically), I suppose there’s always 5 floor anchors…

I use a metal shed with a good lock. Iv'e reinforced the doors from inside.

The bikes are then locked with both shackle & coil locks.

I haven't used a shed alarm as I thought that a thief would simply smash it.

I've also registered the bikes on http://www.immobilise.com/ for free in case they get nicked.

A anchor – cut a hole in the floor of the shed and set a lump of concrete in to the ground.
Don't leave anything in your shed that can be used to lever over come locks and chains. (nor out side the shed)
Board up any windows.
Fit a PIR operated light covering the shed (fit one inside as well can be useful)
Fit 2 good locks to the shed door. use 2×3 timebers (in good lengths) to reinforce the shed and door where the locks are fitted.
Like wise for the hinges.
Make sure the pins can't be removed from the hinges or fit hinge bolts.
Fix all hinges, hasp's and staples with coach bolts through the said timbers.
Fit an alarm
Use a good lock per bike.

all of the above will make it harder and thus less appealling to theives, lets face it if they wanted to work for a living they would.

If you have to keep the windows replace the glass with poly carb, then screw and glue it in place.

You need a ground anchor, actually you need several. You need multiple heavy duty chains, daisy-chained through various parts of the bike (thieves after high-end bikes will cut the frame to get it). Cable locks are useless. You need a big-ass lock on the door and if you have an up and over garage door you need to permanently fix it shut, all around the door, into the brickwork with rawl bolts preferably. Those garage door locks that fit in the middle are useless as thieves will just bend your garage door over at the corner (top or bottom) and get in.

Also, make sure no-one can see inside your shed or garage, if they see a bike they will break in, and once they know they're in there they will go to great lengths to get them.

Most of all you need an alarm. Not a £12.99 battery operated one that the thieves will smash, a proper mains powered one with a very loud siren. But it's no use unless your bikes are securely locked up too, otherwise they'll be away with them before you can put on your dressing gown and peer out of the window.

Our garage has been broken into three times now in 18 months. At calculated, written-in-some-scumbags-diary, six month intervals. The first time it wasn't alarmed and the thieves got £4K of bikes, and we didn't know until the morning, now they just keep coming back for the replacements. When the alarm goes off they leg it, otherwise they'll be happy to hack away at your locks, or dismantle your bikes, un-disturbed all night. They're not too bothered about noise, you'd be surprised what it takes to wake people up, our house is in a very quiet area and they drove a car into the garage door (across a very noisy gravel drive) to bend it and get in last time. Security lights don't seem to bother them at all either. But as soon as the house alarm went off they legged it.

This is all from personal experience, don't leave it until you've had a break-in, because after that the thieves will keep coming back for your replacement bikes, and every time you come home or get up in the morning you'll be wondering if you've been broken into again.

You need to be paranoid about security when you have mountain bikes. watch for people following you home, and they will do it in stages if you take a regular route home, or they'll use several people to follow you on different parts of your route home. Don't leave your bike carriers on the roof of your car outside your house (that's the mistake I made). You might as well have a big flashing light saying 'come and steal my bikes', don't ride home through town, or stop at the local with your bike propped up prominently.

I know it sounds extreme, but when you wake up and find your pride and joy has gone it's not very nice. It's not about reducing your insurance premiums, it's about stopping the thieving mutants from taking your stuff. These people are very serious about stealing bikes, they make a lot of money from it.

@Driller. I agree with many of the individual points, but it strikes me as prohibitively costly/timely to do all that relative to the cost of insurance. For example taking the roof bars off our car is a good half hour job (plus the same to get them back on). To get power to our bike storage and change the door would cost thousands. Good insurance looks like a bargain in comaprison. I would also be concerned about making you the individual the weak link rather than the security.

We had 5 (reasonably high end) bikes stolen earlier this year and have had 2 others stolen from the city centre. It is a horrible feeling when it happens and 6 months later I'm still riding a bodged singlespeed waiting for a replacement.

I have been surprised how little advice there is on how to secure a set of bikes though. Ground anchors are good but fitting 5 and two reinforced doors is not cheap or hassle free option.

Just to add if you are thinking about buying a shed buy a site shed, much more heavily built to start with.

i fitted a rape alarm which has got a strobe light built in using a piece of cord atatched to the door,blinding and seriously deafening,very cheap just don't tell anyone it's there, leave just enough slack to get your arm in the door to hook/unhook

What I've found most effective is a multiple approach to shed security.

I lined the timber shed with steel sheets (including the roof and floor) then fitted a two camera cctv system (interior and exterior) and sensor that links to my mobile phone via a secure router with a fixed ip address. This gives me an alert and live images should the sensor be set off. These images can be directed to the local Police station if needed. At one end of the shed I have a trap door which allows the 3 dogs I keep to be released inside the shed with anyone who happens to be there. They are of a similar type to the photos in the afore mentioned post and I feed them only minimum rations first thing in the morning so they are hungry during the night. If I do release them then I tend not to forward the live images to the Police station.

Outside the shed I picked up a couple of retired Ghurkas who make first class security guards and due to the UK governments decision not to grant them a full UK pension you can hire them reasonably cheap.

They are armed with AK47's and carry out a mobile roving patrol around the shed throughout the night and during the day if I'm not there.

There is only one way into and out of our street and I have positioned 50 calibre machine guns at 2 seperate ambush points. These come into use if all the afore mentioned measures are bypassed by the intruder.

To date I have only had one attempted break in and following the press release (which took place after the clean up) no one has repeated any further attempts.

I also found I saved money as I don't require bike locks, anchors or insurance. The only problem I found once was when I forgot the password to get past the Ghurkas.

If anyone wishes to square away their shed security to this minimum standard please give me a shout.