i'm in need of a bike to ride to work, my mtb has too much value to leave out on the street all day. I also want a road bike for general fitness purposes, so my question is this is a £700-£800 road bike going to be as attractive to theives as a £1k mtb? for some reason i'm convinced that drop bars would put them off but have no real reason to back this up... trip to work is only a few miles so a light/quick bike isn't needed for that.
£50 rat bike?
drop bars are the best theft deterrent there is
Anthing of value is very likely to get nicked if you don't lock it away in secure storage, or keep a very close eye on it when locked up!
If you can be bothered, try getting used to a fixed wheel. No self respecting ned (Glasgow word for chav) is going to be able to get to grips with the technique of riding a fixed and if your lucky you might actually get to see their confused attempts at riding away!
Buy a knackered looking road bike. Cover it with duct tape or stickers and put older parts on it. Use a decent lock under a well lit area and with some activity around and you should be fine. Here's my current beater for locking up in town. I wouldn't even think of locking up my road bike without being sat next to it.
get a tatty fixed road bike off ebay. But as above, absolutely any bike is going to be attractive to someone. Not all thieves roam the streets looking for 2 grand MTB's, I should imagine a lot of them just nick whatever they can lay their hands on, they're not in the theft game because they're clever.
i should note that i don't have enough room for more than one (more) bike so it's either a £50 pile of junk or a shiny road bike...
That's not a road bike, it's a pompino! 😉 And no-one would nick that, it's got no pedals.
Drop bars, reflectors, rear rack, mudguards, encrusted road grime, boring unflashy paint job, uncool manufacturer, no visable branded componentry or flashy logos, paint chips and cosmetic rust. Very unlikely to get nicked, especially if you use a decent D lock.
It can actually be a decent little bike, so long as it looks like a heap o rubbish.
industrial camouflage - cover it in tape and dirt and use a serious lock - expect to pay £100 for the lock and it to weigh 2 or 3 kilos. this has worked for me. bolted seat clamp and take the front wheel off and lock it with the frame and the back wheel to something immovable
Just get insurance and a good lock to slow them down?
drop bars are the best theft deterrent there is
A couple of years back this would have been true, but I think the fixie fad has put paid to that. I'd say if you get one make it as distinctive as possible - change the bar tape for some ghastly colour, put stickers all over it, etc. My hack bike is covered in wood-effect Fablon and I'm only aware of one attempt to nick it. Also leave it as dirty as you can while still being functional.
Stealth. Make it look boring. Don't leave it lying around. An 'old bloke' bike is what you need - Skinny tyres, mudguards, reflectors, lights, rack, panniers. Don't clean it too much.
I've thought about an alarmed motorcycle disk lock. On motorbikes, disk locks are commeon, the fit through the holes in the brake disks and prevent the bike being pushed away. An alarmed one (motion sensor) is available which costs around £30. Not sure where they would fit on a pedal bike though, or even if they would fit on the disk on an mtb.
[url= http://www.mandp.co.uk/productinfo/548132/Security/Alarms-and-Immobilisers/Oxford ]Clicky[/url]
as above get a bike that looks poor bad paint job, surface rust, no suspension, v brakes etc and a lock that is substantial enough to deter but not to draw attention.
people will nick anything.ihad a hack bike.it was a rust cover old jap £80 new job but it had been i someones garden all year. it trully had no redeaming features!my son borrowed it and left it lying on a mates driveway for 2 mins unlocked and someone had it away! i half expected it to be 100 yards down the road as the bb was so knackered-but it wasnt!?
boring old and dirty is the key.
bike theives do steal road bikes.
could always get something resrayed in muddy plain colour and then dirty it to not look new?
Friend of mine had a knackered old cheap bike that had lived in the garden for years. Council wanted £15 to take it away, she put it in the front garden unlocked and it was gone within hours.
Scrotes will nick anything. Good lock and populated area are your only real defence. If your work has a secure lock up (like mine 🙂 then you fare a better chance although I have heard stories of audacious theives getting into these too.
Motorcycle Disc Lock 😀
Reminds me of something I saw outside an old motorbike spares shop in B'ham some years ago. A big old greaser was sneering & laughing at me & my mate on our new(ish)sports bikes, he fired up his naked GSX750 & attempted to gun it away. Trouble is he'd forgot his disc lock. There was lots of noise & then this chap just disappeared behind a parked car.
We went & helped him up & ended having a right old laugh about it.
disc lock eh?
well if you DO have discs on your commuter then surely a nice M6 bolt with a nylock nut on the end would be enough?
it'd be small enough that i bet any thieves wouldn't notice, jus slip it through a hole, do the nut up and if they do steal it, watch as they promptly go over the bars after one wheel revolution....might make a mess of your caliper/disc mount thoguh....
I think he meant using it as a replacement padlock, for use with a chain, rather than as a disc rotor lock - which would be practically useless with a push bike, as you can just pick them up. It'd be an additional deterrent, with the alarm going off.
Its only sold silver secure though. I'd use a sold secure gold closed shackle lock, rather than an open shackle lock, or properly a decent D lock.
Fixie/SS road bike that's painted a nasty colour (brown, pink, orange etc) over the whole thing including tyres, drivetrain, etc. Have advised several of my London mates to do this and none of them have ever had one stolen even though the bike is functionally good with good quality components. Zero resale value, of course...
motorcycle disc lock has me wondering actually....
wouldn't stop a pro thief for sure, nor would it be any good for a bike left locked all day, but I'm slightly paranoid even about leaving the bike outside the pub while I pop in to get a pint and sit in the garden. A small 'suitcase' padlock through the disc to prevent it rotating would at least be enough to prevent someone hopping on and riding off, and while they could still pick it up and run with it I'd back myself to catch them then.
And would be funny too,
Round our way theotherjonv if you want to hang onto your nice MTB while you're sat having an apres ride pint, you'd better lock it up with a decent lock and be sat right next to it ...
remember seeing a vid with a bmx set up fixed and with loose bars. was quite funny. can't find it now though.
they will have anything i think.
replace all the key bolts (seat post, top cap, etc with Torque bolts of the same size. they might carry around allen keys for stripping bikes, but they wont have torque wrenches.
sercurity QRs, and most of all leave it somewhere busy!
if its on the highstreet, it should be fine i would have said.
you may have to walk an extra 200/300m, but it would be worth it (IMO)
Wire it up to the mains, anyone who tries to steal will be in for a shock
most of all leave it somewhere busy!
I've had a bike nicked from a really busy shopping centre on a Saturday afternoon, under CCTV. I've challenged someone picking a D-lock in broad daylight, again on a busy shopping street. He sauntered off and I got back just in time to see him finish picking the lock and walking off with it. You'd be amazed what people ignore, sadly.
I just got a used road bike. It's a Trek 1200, 2005 mint condition as it wasn't used too much. Bike for up to £300 will not ruin Your budget and You will not be so fragile about it :-). Tiagra and 105 components are good enough to use it for a nice ride, not only commuting. I use it to get to the gym as well. I've got full mudguards on it, a saddlebag, and used some black tape to cover all logos, even the SL Alu logo and rear mech logo. It looks like some cheapo market jobbie, but the tape can come off without leaving nasty marks.
I carry a big D lock and a really thick cable to lock the frame and front wheel, plus a cable lock to lock the rear wheel and a kryptonite saddle saver cable. Never had anything nicked from my old Kinesis and this one is still complete. I try not to clean the frame and wheels but try to have cables and drivetrain in good condition so it still rides nicely.
The annoying thing is if You leave Your bike secure enough there might be someone who will think that jumping on it and bending Your wheels/anything else is soooo funny or will be his revenge that he couldn't steal it. I locked my bike and came back to it later to see someone spat on it, probably some angry mtb riders that hate the dark side 😉
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I'm fairly sure the theives are not stupid enough to be thwarted by a bike covered in tape - after all, covering it in tape is pretty much like claiming its an expensive bike that you want to look old, but without the benefit of seeing your nice looking bike yourself.
Lock it well in a busy spot is about your only chance, if you're willing to risk leaving it outisde. As above, have seen bikes stamped and snapped when they couldnt be pinched - not much you can do about that.
If they want it, they will get it. buy a cheap bike that if it gets nicked you won't worry about it.
The tape works as the logos were all on black paint so You can't see it's tape from a distance, blends quite nicely. Works in some way as the Trek logo is quite big on this one and he won't know that it's actually branded bike. Again I paid £250 + £30 for mudguards so even if they nick some bits off it they won't be that expensive to replace.
There is a nice Giant road bike on BikeRadar for £260 with full Tiagra with Tiagra STI's. 9 speed so keeps costs lower than having a 10sp set up. Still perfectly usable bike for doing road rides but not overly expensive to worry about it when at work.
Spending £700 on a road bike that will be used as a commuter and will be locked outside is just too much in my opinion. Should be stealthy looking and no shiny things that would attract thieves like disc brakes, parts with big brand logos etc. And for £700 You'll get some nice carbon bits, and shiny parts.
Again common sense when choosing the place to leave Your bike and how and to what lock it is important as well. When You see a bike that is locked only by it's front wheel that is qr than it'll be gone in less than an hour.
Hope my bike won't be nicked but if it will than I'll go for something even cheaper but still usable. It's still in one piece so fingers crossed it will stay that way.