Bicycle Locks

The trouble is that here Dublin it is common for bikes to be trashed while safely locked. I usually see several with bent wheels and sometimes forks each time I visit the city centre. My strategy was to get a Brompton folder for commuting & city errands and to leave the lock at home.

Nick

quote:

Originally posted by Nick_S:
The trouble is that here Dublin it is common for bikes to be trashed while safely locked. I usually see several with bent wheels and sometimes forks each time I visit the city centre. My strategy was to get a Brompton folder for commuting & city errands and to leave the lock at home.

Nick

You see the same in London, damaged bikes locked up, I had always presumed that is was bikes that had been involved in a collision, and the owner had locked them up until they were able to come back and retreive them. On the other hand, once a bike starts to get stripped, the process usually goes very quickly until there is only the frame left. I'm not sure about bikes being trashed, just for the sake of it though. The only thing that disappears off the streets quicker than a Brompton, is a gold ingot. Apparently there were 440,000 bikes reported stolen in the UK last year, one every 72 seconds - where do they all go ?

Well, there's 18 Bromptons on e-bay.

Or get yourself an old Grifter, i'd like to see someone kick one of them in

Seriously though.. it's just as important to see where you lock the bike not just how you lock it.

some yobs go round kicking cars, breaking mirrors off, keying the sides and slashing tyres, same thing could apply in this sometimes very sad society.

regards, Steve

back on topic...

I use a Magnum UL1 u lock through the post and back wheel and main frame, then a long enough heavy duty cable with an eye at both ends routed through both wheels and around the post. Then i thread one eye through the other and onto the u lock before locking. This has worked for me so far, but if someone wants to wreck the bike out of spite, well... there's not much i can do about that apart from trying to lock it in a very public place in close proximity.

reagrds,Steve

quote:

Originally posted by Diode100:
The only thing that disappears off the streets quicker than a Brompton, is a gold ingot.

That is why I don't carry a lock and I bring it inside shops and the office. For the cinema and restaurants it gets hidden in its cloth cover and treated like luggage.

For a full-size bike I would go for the well-maintained, but old-looking bike approach, and use the lightest U-lock I could fine.

Nick