Started a new job in Mcr city centre, it's too far to ride daily but I want to bike to the station (four miles).
I wouldn't have dreamed of locking a bike up there and was going to buy a Brompton on C2W, however I've found out it has a bike shed with PIN access.
So I've picked up a nice-but-unflashy used hybrid for an absolute bargain price this afternoon.
My question is - what do you lot do to guard against theft? Both of full bike and nicking of bits off it?
Besides making it look as tatty and worthless as possible, nothing. If they want it, the scumbags will have it.
Attach a poacher alarm with a blank to the bike lock, that'll have the police turning up pretty sharp if someone does try stealing you it.
We have bike sheds on our railway. Seems popular but all the bikes in there are bottom end...including mine!
There is camera surveillance for what that's worth. No stations on the line ate reporting problems.
Wouldn't want to leave a half decent bike though. Padlock the bike. And we have mesh lockers to leave helmets and gloves etc. Supply your own padlock!
System works well.
Mine lives at Euston, it's got nothing flash on it & is quite beat up, even if it does run nicely!
I leave a weighty motorbike chain at the station & a chunky cable loops thru the front wheel.
Never leave lights on it- my rear lives on my backpack
Cheers for replies.
I have a decent chain lock so do people tend to put main lock through frame and rear wheel, another chain through frame and front wheel and maybe cable lock through saddle?
Do people nick bits like QRs? Won't be leaving pump or bag on it obvs.
This is the beast, got it legitimately for £120 - which is about what I was gonna spend on a shitter anyway...
I have a half decent commuter bike that doubles up as my winter road bike, this is left at the station. I have it insured to be left there.
Have had one stolen previously. It gets left in bike bays as it’s almost impossible to get one of the small kennel looking bike sheds.
I use a miriad of locks, takes me almost the same time to ride to the station as it does to lock it up.
I know if someone wants it they’ll get it, but at least I’ll be able to slow them down and they may chose a different bike.
I do leave it locked to a main stanchion though, so not just in the bay. Motorbike chain, New York Kryptonite lock and 3 D Locks.
I D Lock front wheel and fork. D Lock one chainstay and wheel to the metal wheel holder bit, D Lock the Seat Tube to wheel.
1.5 Long New York Kryptonite locking through the BB and under the metal part that the bike slides into. I always use the same end position where it is lighter from the station. There is a metal pole/stanchion that my motorbike lock goes through and through my frame. Locked with a decent padlock.
Had a bike stolen from local station a couple of years back. I made the mistake of only using the one lock - and not a very good one.
They did actually catch the stealer using CCTV and the British Transport Police were very good. He still owes me £200 by court order but I've not seen any of it.
Now I generally avoid leaving at stations overnight, but use two or three locks if I do leave it there during the day.
Oh yeah and don't have a bike with quick release wheels unless you can put the chain through the wheels too.
If it was mine I would be covering the frame in gaffer tape and making it generally look undesirable and tatty. IMO just the Giant name will draw attention, put some Apollo stickers on it instead :-). They will nick anything, my friend had his forks pinched whilst he popped into Sainsburys once and left it locked up outside for 10 minutes. Maybe consider changing some of the bolts to Torx or hex head to slow down any opportunists with a multi-tool removing components.
Cover that thing in black rattle can and odd patterns if reflective tape.
Make it look like a snotter.
QR replace with the bolt up type.
Leave a hulking lock and chain at station.
Spy where the CCTV looks and park it front and centre.
Ball bearings tapped in to the hex slot on bolts makes them nigh on impossible to get off. Bastardisation is the obvious one. Put Raleigh stickers on.
That looks half decent, therefore it’s desirable to a theif.
You need to make it look as shit as possible, plastic bag over the seat, spray anything with a brand name to hide it.
Multiple decent locks, nothing easily removable left on the bike, no lights or computer. No garmin bracket or similar.
Replace QR with a security bolt on type.
Ball bearings tapped in to the hex slot on bolts makes them nigh on impossible to get off
I've heard this before, but doesn't that also make future maintenance a PITA?
Couple of decent locks, but also learn how to apply them, i.e. off the floor and as full of frame, wheels and bike rack as possible so levers and tools are difficult to apply.
I'd also make it look unattractive with bad paint or tape.
You only need to be more secure than the least secure bike in the shed. I found this out the hard way when my SS, rigid, 26", full guards pub/station bike got nicked instead of any of the far nicer bikes at the station...
Some good ideas cheers, will try to scuzz it up a bit.
Was planning to fit some race blades I've got to it, do people nick stuff like that?
Aggh jesus that has nick me written all over it. As pretty much everyone has says you seriously need to f*ck it over with paint, wrap in tape or whatever. Make it look as horrid as possible, loose the bar ends (they'll get taken anyway).
Personally i'd have got something much nastier for a four mile run to the station and kept that for best
How long is the journey including the train?
Can't be more than about 25 miles from yours to Manchester?
Riding 4 miles to the station seems like the worst of both worlds. You'll still get wet on wet days and have a load of faff getting changed and all that.
Plus it's northern rail, so chances are the train won't be there anyway
that's a nice bike
... and so clearly will be nicked
here's mine, left outside a hospital with negligible security
Looks a shitter but it's a great, reliable (if HEAVY) 25 miles a day commuter
I'm especially proud of the silver tape on daft on-one bars with the questionable stem spacer and trademark scaredypants tennis ball on the top of the steerer
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^^ Scaredypants, you are a legend.😳
LOVE that bike for all the wrong reasons which is exactly what you have aimed for.👍
That hybrid says steal me! Far too nice to leave overnight. The bike you are looking for is a used Raleigh 20. These are basically invisible to the thief. Any small-wheeled shopper is the same. If you can remove it from a bike, someone will. That ncludes QR skewers, and you won’t get far without a set, wheel locked or not. Pitlock overcome this but so does a bolt on wheel
Honestly, rough it up and get two good locks. And a Raleigh 20 for when it’s atolen. You can still put nice tyres and wheels and n a shopper. Sheldon Brown has a lovely page in homage.
Cover the frame in gaffer tape and use up the old rattle cans from the garage, preferably rust colour. Tis surprisingly quick and effective.
I still had my pannier pinched, fortunately it cost less than a £5er:
Those OnGuard Pitbull D locks are best value, good as the expensive ones. I leave one on the racks and attach a cable to go through the wheels too.
They do say two locks will make most thieves look at the next bike.
If I were a thief, I’d target the bikes that were easy to steal, and the ones that were very desirable. If you lock that Giant up well (two different types of good quality lock) then It’s neither of those two things IMO so you ought to be OK.
It’s v nice for the money you paid but I don’t think it would leap out as amazingly desirable to any would be thief. I agree that painting the frame badly would help.
That looks a much better bike than I see chained up at any of my local stations!
I want to start getting the train to work again to get my fitness back up but due to only 3 bike spaces on the train which are nearly always booked I was looking at buying a couple of cheap bikes and leaving one each end.
I reckon keeping an eye on eBay for the cheapest, nastiest (but still mechanically sound) bike I can get for about £30 is the way to go, that way its not the end of the world if it gets stolen!
This is a useful thread for locks... not sure if chain locks are recommended, you can't beat a D-lock for security vs weight.
LFGSS.COM I use pinhead locking skewers and a 16mm diameter tubing D-lock.
For a PIN accessed area, the hybrid should be ok. For regular train station, i use an old Raleigh M-Trax that cost 30 quid. It's now had all the gears removed too. OH has a similar Saracen 90s MTB.
Nothing. I’m on my fourth bike with shopping basket and there’s no rhyme or reason as to which bike they’ll take. It’s just sport to the thieving scumbags.
I got a bike from the tip. The trick is not to be tempted to pimp it.
I made the mistake of locking up my old Roadrat at Horwich station a few years back (once). Came back to it two hours later, to find my helmet broken into pieces (as it had been threaded through the D-lock), and some dents in the top tube, where the scrote had tried to break the lock by twisting the frame. Kryptonite D-lock survived, as did the bike though. Wheels had security bolt-ups in place of the QR.
15 CCTV cameras around that station, and not a single one directed at the bike lock-up area (at the time anyway - not sure now), so I'd be unwilling to leave anything there again, no matter how tatty it was.
I normally just throw a Kryptonite D lock around my Roadrat when its left at the station and I've had no problem doing that for years now but in October got back to it and someone had (very neatly) relieved me of my brakes and grips (but weirdly left my QR wheels and stuff).
All in an area covered with CCTV but some bits being nicked off a bike doesn't really both the Transport Police. Said they'd look into it and provide me with updates either way. Heard nothing back.
Still need to get the new brakes fitted but there are a few bike locker things at the station too so I've bought a padlock so I can lock it AND put it in the locker.
@scaredypants haha, that is an amazing rat Zaskar - very nice for a burly commuter...
Wrap the top and down tube in an old inner tube that way it'll look shit and the locks won't Mark it
Get rid of all the qr stuff on it as well
Cheers for the input.
Just to clarify, as the thread title may be ambiguous - no way am I leaving it overnight, I'm talking about in the daytime at the "home" end of the journey.
Also, as I mentioned in the OP, it'll be in a locked bike shed (PIN access). This has been in place a year or so and they've apparently had no reported incidents.
Scaled - 20 miles total journey, but on some horrible busy urban roads with loads of stop-starty bits. If it were leafy lanes I'd ride the whole way for sure.
All downhill and flat on way in, so no need for a shower on arrival I hope.
Can you lock it up in the bike area/cage or not. I'd use two gold rated dlocks and a motorbike chain on that. There's no need to spray the frame, just use duct tape over the logos and around a bit and leave it dirty.
Best way to lock it up is a dlock with each arm either side of the seattube so it goes through the rear wheel too. I would put 2 dlocks like this and use a long cable to secure the front wheel to the dlocks ( and the rear wheel again too ). I would then add a motorbike too chain through the front triangle to the stand. Make sure the chain isn't too long. You could also put the motorbike chain either side of the seattube again like the dlocks. Just make sure the lock cannot be placed on the floor.Use a small cable for the saddle. This can be looped through the long cable to the front wheel.
😮 all that for a £120 hybrid?! It's a nice commuter and all but he'll have to get to the station about 30 mins before the train!
put all of that on and a thief will not even look at it. Thats what I use in dodgey areas and it works.
