Bike Security in garage

Looking at buying one of these to put inside my garage
https://www.asgardsss.co.uk/bike-storage-x3-police-approved
or

Secure bike shed heavy duty Secure 2 cycle storage

Big advantage to the Armadillo is it comes fully assembled.

I know they are expensive and using ground anchor and chains maybe cheaper but i am not overally confident about installing a ground anchor and have visions of my concrete garage floor ust cracking. the garage is only 3 years old but have no idea on the quality or depth of the concrete. Plus by using a shed as above if my garge is broken into they then have to get into the shed’ too which hopefully will not happpen.
Apart from the installing the ground anchr another reason I am siding to the shed idea is that if bike is only secured by anchor / chain they may decide to just cut the frame and take the components from the bike !
Has anyone else gone down the shed within the garage route – Is it overkill ?

Surely you want to anchor the shed, otherwise they can just carry it off (van) and open it at their leisure?

If they have power tools, then they can get into anything. So, the first defence is out of sight, followed by an alarm and reasonable security. With an 18v angle grinder any padlock / chain is very easy to cut, so I wouldn’t rely on those as the primary defence strategy.

I noticed someone has used one on a D-lock by the bike racks at the top of our street, just left the lock with a nice cut through the shackle. Probably took less then 30secs.

footflaps

Member

I noticed someone has used one on a D-lock by the bike racks at the top of our street, just left the lock with a nice cut through the shackle. Probably took less then 30secs.

That does depend on the lock tbh- I cut an Onguard 16mm d-lock off my boss’s bike for him after he lost the keys, with a quality thin disc, it took about a minute per side (needed to be cut twice, though I could have cut it once and then pried it open with a jack or something- couldn’t bend it clear by hand). Was quite impressed considering how cheap they are.

The Onguard locks might be cheap but most of them are Gold standard bike locks.

I’ve cut the odd one for people who have lost keys and never needed more than a single cut to be able to get the frame out by hand, esp if you cut at the apex of the loop so you have maximum leverage.

But the point being, locks and chains aren’t really a hindrance to a thief any more.

You would be better off putting it outside the garage. Where people can see them breaking into it.
Thing is, once they are in the garage, they can shut the door , and within reason make as much noise as they want breaking into it. Who’s going to know. Unless you have a nosey neighbour, they are just going to assume you are out in your garage.

They could just lift the whole shed i suppose but at 145kg and the size of the shed it would take some doing but yes it is possible woithout bolting it down.

footflaps

Member

I’ve cut the odd one for people who have lost keys and never needed more than a single cut to be able to get the frame out by hand, esp if you cut at the apex of the loop so you have maximum leverage.

Yep, I’ve done that too in the past with cheapies and my old kryptonite that rusted solid, but it wasn’t happening with this one- the two of us could barely separate the cuts. Big ol shackle.

At the end of the day, any lock can be broken. But the thief won’t necessarily have the tools with them, and so many bikes aren’t really secured at all that it’ll often make more sense just to go and hit somewhere else.

So ultimately then the best form of defence is to stop them gaining entry into the actual garage – I only have one way in though which is through the up & over doors and do not want to use a garage defender as to me that just says I have something worth stealing inside garage.
I have a PIR stand alone alarm in garage and PIR lights on drive and CCTV so not sure what else can be done to beef up security on the actual doors. Might get a locksmith out to see if they can offer any advise.
So rather than the ‘shed’ in garage then i wouldn’t be losing any security by just using a ground anchor and chain.

Fit Enfield bolts to the up and over – far better than a defender and very discrete top and bottom if you want extra secure. Defenders are really obvious.

I’ve got Enfields in current up and over. Temporary measure before fitting side opening security door.
I’d save your money on the Asgard and spend on decent ground anchor and chain, I expect locksmith might be able to fit if you are unable to. If the current concrete isn’t thick enough (would have thought it would be at least 150mm ) then you can always dig it deeper, and fill the hole back in with more (and get a better anchor in there too)

I have considered fitting a side opening security door – will get some quotes.
Will also get some Enfield bolts fitted in the meantime then. Thanks.

Unless you have custom-made bikes I would just make sure the garage is reasonably secure and then rely on insurance. I fitted a ground anchor and spent hundreds on a couple of heavy duty chains but it all got too much faff and you have to be careful with the chains as they’ll easily chip paint/lacquer (I guess not too much hassle if you’re only talking one or two bikes but I had four and it was a PITA). I haven’t actually used the chains/anchor for a few years now, I guess I might feel differently if I’d had a break in but for me having decent insurance for the bikes is a better solution than the inconvenience of further securing bikes inside the garage.

Would an internal security gate work with the garage layout? A bit like the one Tracy shows in this thread.

For internal security gates i would need to effictively build an enclosure which brings me back to the asgard or armadillo shed idea. I did thing about getting 2 walls built in one of the corners of the garge to make an enclosure and then use a upvc door with 5 point locking etc but then the cssts would be spiralling and surely that would be much more expensive than my original metal shed idea.
i suppose i am being paranoid about all of this ! Never had my bikes stolen before and don’t even lock them up within the garage now as was meentioned in a reply above the faff of various chains / locks just got too much hassle but with a new bike in the pipeline i feel i need to make more of an effort on security.
i am getting some Enfield bolts fitted so that will help.
During all my googling i came across these
https://hiplok.com/product/airlok/
Nice simple solution with some security – easy to use and gets bikes off the floor.

If they want it they will take it no matter how much security you have . For me my best defence is get top bike insurance and just let them take it with minimum damage to everything around them.

@rando69 I did exactly this but instead of buying the asgaurd I got a heavier duty version made from a local engineering company with better locking detail. The key to security is layering and after 2 attempted break-ins to my garage I upped the security and in my mind-set if they get in to my garage theyve got to get through the box, which is only possible with an angle grinder, then theyve got to get through the internal security inside the box all the while the house alarms going off and ringing the police.

Shed in a garage seems like massive overkill to me in terms of money, whilst not increasing security that much as it’s just relatively thin sheet metal that you can get through quite easily with a number of battery powered tools. Plus, it’s loads of extra faff.

IMO..spend the money on alarm + insurance, and move the bikes inside if you get broken into.

Other things I’ve done…
– Fitted Enfield Garage door bolts.
– Taken the bike rack off the car as it signals there’s bikes in the house. Mostly I just use one of those suction ones instead.
– There is mottled glass windows on my garage, so I keep old my old bits of furniture, old doors, wood offcuts in front of them so it looks like the garage is full of junk.
– Keep my pub bike (90s MTB) in an unlocked shed in the garden as a decoy bike.

if you want to have a secure chained position for the bikes without fitting a ground anchor, fill a large builders bucket with postcrete/ready mixed concrete, then either sink an old D lock in so just the loop is showing or mount a proper ground anchor into this (either wet or cure it then drill/bond to the bucket).

the size of the buckets available you can get a fair weight immovable object to lock your bikes to (you could have two buckets/two chains for a bike: layered security) and move all of the ingredients into place individually so no heavy lifting all without drilling your floor.

We have an up and over, but I’ve got enfield bolts and a hasp lock with a CISA shipping container padlock.

The ‘expensive’ bikes are d-locked to a ground anchor and the kids bikes are secured with thick cables. I’ve also got a camera in that alerts my phone if movement detected.

My garage has a side window and door, but both are bolted shut and barred. We’ve had two attempted break-ins that didn’t get far – one had removed the glazing from the window (intact) but couldn’t get past the bars. Another had tried cutting the hasp off before I had the enfield bolts (again, slight mark never got far).

A neighbour had a DH MTB and race BMX’s stolen – they went in through the flat roof of his garage.

Just ensure it’s going to be very noisy to steel your bikes. If we are away, there is usually a car or two nosed up to the garage door too.

Some interesting points about whether you would actually hear a break in , of course you would….maybe not.
Few nights ago next door (attached side of a semi) got broke into. No alarm, No security lights, he lives alone and was out.
They kicked the bottom upvc door panel in, got into the conservatory, then smashed a full length double glazed unit to get into the house while we were in watching the telly. I actually did get up and have a nose out of the back upstairs window but you cant really see a lot because the roof obscures the door and it was dark. We heard some more noise from inside but nothing major. He came round a couple of days later to tell us and we told him we thought he was doing some more work on the house, which has been going on for six months now…..
Thing is, he hasn’t long moved in and by christ he is a noisy git. Door slamming, cupboard door slamming, loud telly, shouting at the telly when the footies on, shouting at alexa to change the music ….. I was actually gonna have a word with him about it but maybe later…gulp.
I always thought you would hear someone making breaking in type noises leap up and disable the cad with a swift sas inspired move (or not) but now..hmm
Needless to say I’m now reviewing all of the house and garage security.