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I’d love to take the bike camping and with 2 growing boys we will likely have 4 with us at some point. I’ve heard of bikes being nicked from campsites so how do you secure yours overnight and when you are out for the day not using them?
I’m thinking overnight inside the porch with an alarmed chain should be good enough
2 of those screw in dog lead spike things next to each other with a big lock through them and bikes. Can’t unscrew both as the lock stops it happening.
That, or locked to car.
Either way a tarp to bungee over them if they are cool looking bikes keeps them from prying eyes.
In the car if you have one - and covered up
Locked and inside a car, people have had bikes stolen at campsites during the night and the bikes were locked to the car with a big chain and the tent was right next to the car, they didn't hear a thing!
Ours were stolen in New Forest last year while locked to our van. Thieves cut lock off whilst I was sleep inside, literally 10cm from my head. Keep them inside if you can!
A lot of campsites on the continent offer bike storage facilities. It's a growing problem here in Germany as thieves know that a lot of people in big camper vans have very expensive ebikes.
Unbelievable.
What if you use a lock big enough to stop bolt cropper attempts by not fitting in the jaws? Then the only way through is an angle grinder that'll wake you up.
I use lots of locks (3 u locks and 2 cables), worked so far............
Chained to the car wheel.
In the porch, under a noisy old tarp bikes, locked to each other. Ground anchor idea is good.
If on my own, take the front wheel off and put axle inside tent. Lock wheel to bike and whatever you can find that’s solid ish, hope for the best.
how do you secure yours overnight and when you are out for the day
6 metres of finest Pragmasis, same as home. Only difference is that they're locked to the van axle instead of a tyre'o' crete.
Locked out of sight is the best n amongst locks but some fishing line tied discretely to the bike with the other end to the pin on a hidden rape alarm. If they move it with out seeing the line, off goes the alarm.....
When we used to do the 24:12, we'd always have a mini cow-bell passed through the lock itself & 'hidden' under the bikes, so as soon as anyone disturbed the bikes or locks the cow bell would tinkle.....
i'd always assumed that risk on campsites was really low and locked to car wheels or tow hook but this is a really good idea.
When we used to do the 24:12, we’d always have a mini cow-bell passed through the lock itself & ‘hidden’ under the bikes, so as soon as anyone disturbed the bikes or locks the cow bell would tinkle…..
Looks like there were bikes nicked from the Trail Days event this weekend barrstards
Great tips, how about if you are going out with the family during the day, not in bikes? Better off taking them on the rack and locking them on?
Does anyone know of any UK campsites that provide secure bike storage? It seems a great idea for not much outlay
I had someone try and cut my bike off my van in Peebles while I was in it asleep. It was locked into rack, chained through the chassis member, covered and had a cowbell on it. Didn’t stop them having a good go.
We never used to bother too much, just lock them together or around a tree, however in the New Forest this year the campsite warned us there had been many thefts in the night and from the campsite reviews people had had their bikes stolen at night, even when locked with decent D locks to their cars/racks right next to the tents. ****ers.
We now keep the bikes out of sight, in the tent, under a tarp, on their sides, awkwardly, and all locked together in about a million places so there would be 5 D locks to cut through before you could separate the bikes and move them one by one, and you can't get them out of the tent door unless you separate them.
Figured that there is a fair chance I would wake up if someone was having a go at that right by my head.
Sort of going for the approach to make sure there are easier targets than my bikes, rather than 100% secure as you can never be 100% secure from professional thieves.
During the day is a harder one - probably more likely for thieves to feel comfortable entering the tent if they have been watching it empty for a while and then they couldwork on the locks unchallenged, but we just make sure everything is zipped up tight and all the window blinds are up.
I had heard of the fishing line and rape alarm tactic, and that is something I would consider except I am quite clumsy and there is a high likelihood I'll set it of myself trying to get out of the tent to go to the loo at night!
Sounds like you need this these days - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby_trap
Does seem a shame you cant legally booby trap D locks so that when cut into the core they spray some kind of 'orrible stuff into the bike theif's eyes.
Following this with interest as I often take the pub bikes camping. I like the idea of augmenting security with some sort of noisy alarm type thing. I could just go cowbell, but something louder might be a good idea. I use an alarmed disc lock on my motorbike but I'd not want to put one of those on a MTB disc. So any other suggestions for a motion detecting alarm?
An alarmed disc lock can do onto anything. My oxford boss one is a massive padlock, not a tiny little one that clips onto the disc
You could pop it through the frame or wheel, the tiniest little movement can set it off
I like the double ground screw connected to a u lock to stop them being unscrewed- genius!
I’ve always used movement-sensitive alarm padlocks. Anything >100db will generate some attention.
The other option is one of those self-contained garage PIR alarms. Obviously this’d only work if the bikes are in the tent. You could just leave it pointing in the right direction. A thief would find and smash/lob it within 10secs but 10secs of 120db on a campsite will arouse suspicion.
Club-mates of mine went camping with their bikes and cable locked them to a tree down a slope and out of sight of the campsite. Next morning they had all disappared. They reckoned the thieves can only have known about them because the camp site owner tipped them off.
This isn't going to help if you're talking about a MTBing or other "proper" cycling trip where you want decent bikes, but I use the same anti-theft technique as I do in the city - I usually only take our cheap "pub bikes" (£50 1980's raleigh bikes), which I lock to the tow loop on the van. I've done several hours of woodland singletrack on my Raleigh Winner with 35mm schwalbe land cruiser tyres, it was fun.