Locking a bike - preventing bike theft
On this page I would like to share some thoughts about bike thefts. I had two bikes stolen - one of them disappeared when I was still at the young and naïve age of eight, the second was taken when I was in high-school. If I had known what I know know, I'm sure I'd still have these bikes.
How Bikes Get Stolen
- Bike not locked
- Most bikes are stolen when they are not locked, like in the classical case of «I left it in front of the shop only for a few minutes...». This happening to someone who is older than 10: very stupid!
Note: it happened to me when I was eight... - Bike left on the porch / in the garden / in an unlocked garage
- Keeping your bike in the garden / yard so that it is visible from the street is not a good idea, neither. Especially if you don't have a tall wall and a gate that comes with it. Remeber: a bike weights around 10-16 kgs, it's not a big deal to climb (step) over a low fence with it on the shoulder. And if by any chance you leave in a family house with no walls around the garden whatsoever - like the Simpson family estate - any passer-by can pick it up and bike away into the sunset.
- Bike is left outside on a regular basis
- You commute to work with your bike? Take it inside the building with you! It is quite risky to leave it in the street, in front of the office, every day, for 7+ hours. This gives all the time a thief needs to prepare well for the crime...Remember, leaving a bike out in the open, in the same place, on a regular basis: very bad idea!
My second bike was stolen like this. I was taking drumming classes, an hour once a week. I locked the bike to the same three in a small street in the heart of the city. It took approx. two months for someone to notice and come with the appropriate tool to liberate me from the bike. The theft could have been prevented though with the use of a more serious lock - the chain I used was tough-looking but easily cut - see below... - The lock is no good
- The lock isn't worth a penny. Low quality bike locks are very easy to break or to cut through. Most commercially available bike locks can be compromised within two minutes using simple tools like hammer, hacksaw, crowbar or power cutter. To find out which lock is can serve your best, take a look at my quick overview of different types of locks below. The type of lock itself is not a guarantee - see What happened to my supposedly heavy-duty Luma lock?
- Bike locked to itself
- See Bike left on the porch...The thiev just lifts it on his shoulder and walks away, puts it in a car / van, takes it home and cuts the lock in his free time while watching TV-series...
- The Opportunists
- These people are not walking the streets keeping an eye out to steal a bike - they are kids from poor neighbourhoods, junkies or simply teenagers with too much free time on their hands. If they stumble upon an unlocked bike, they might as well grab it and run for it. The use of a simple cable lock can prevent these thefts. As these people don't have any equipment, simple locks can be of enough protection, although they might be good at lockpicking.
Prevention: always lock your bike and lock it to something very heavy / not moveable! Even if you leave it only for a minute. - «Ordinary» Bike Thieves
- They don't hesitate to carry some cutting tools and they probaly have a certain operational territory. They notice if there are any bikes left unattended in the same place on a regular basis, this gives then enough time to determine the value of the bike and what equipment do they need in order to break through the lock. They probably have some basic ideas of the weak points of popular locks, too. If you leave your bike at the same place in public for longer periods of time, have a damn good lock unless there's someone to constantly keep an eye on your bike.
Prevention: in medium or high-risk areas, don't lock your bike in the same place for prolonged periods of time on a regular basis. Repetition = Pattern = Risk! Plus use a good lock... - Professional, Organized Bike Thieves
- Cross your finger that you don't cross paths... They are well equipped, with serious cutting tools and using small trucks / minivans to transport the stolen goods in imortant quantities. If you have to leave your bike in an area that has a reputation of massive bike thefts, use the best lock you can get like the Kryptonite FAHGETTABOUDIT or the Abus Granit-X Plus series (this is informative, use it as a reference). And of course: lock your bike to something that no one can cut or move!
Prevention: hardly possible, although well-known heavy-duty bike locks might convince thieves to get the two bike next to your with weaker locks... - U-Lock, aka D-Lock
- One of - if not THE - the most effective bike locks available, introduced by the american company Krytonite (at least they say so). The U-shaped shackle should be at least 12mm in diameter, of course made of hardened steel. These things are heavy for sure, but you can leave them locked to something where you usually lock your bike, this way you don't have to carry the all the time around.
- These lock are often forced open using a car jack ( if there is enough free shackle, one can insert the car jack between the parallel parts of the shackle ) - a small car jack can lift 2.5t, only the best U-Locks can survive this. To prevent this from happening, Try to fill up the U of the shackle as much as possible - if the thieves cannot place the car-jack, you're in winning position. For details on good locking techniques, check this out!
- Known Weaknesses: car-jack attack
- Pros: Good protection when buying quality and using them correctly!
- Contras: Weight?
- Chain - Lock Combo
- These types of locks are the only ones that can compete with - even surpass! - quality U-locks. Their advantage over U-locks is that they don't have a fixed shape or length, you can turn 'em and twist 'em as you like, you are much less constarined when locking your bike to an object. Of course there is a disadvantage : they can be really heavy, the toughest Kryptonite models can weight over 3.5 kgs (New York Fahgettaboudit - 3'3'' model). The leave-them-where-U-use-them principle is strongly recommended!
- Known Weaknesses: none to my knowledge (provided they're big enough)
- Pros: Good protection when buying quality - and in this case size really does matter!
- Contras: Weight...
- Cable
- These locks come in two types: armoured or simple cable locks. In both cases the components of the locks are a steel cable and a lock - easily defeated by thieves, as cables can be cut by bolt cutters. Steel cables used in bike locks are rarely thicker than 12mm in diamater, these can be cut - the thief might need a big bolt-cutter, but it is feasible. Armoured cable locks have the cable running in an articulated «tunnel» made of steel cylinders. To cut the cable, one has to get through the «armour» first.
- Armoured Cable Lock
- These lock are represent the more serious members of the cable locks family. The articulated armour protects against direct attack by bolt cutters, thieves have to use a hacksaw first. People often consider them better than they are - when you see something 1.5'' thick, covered with black plastic, well, you are tempted to think «Now this is what I call a lock!». I can't repeat often enough: if it's really that good, it'll show on the price.
- Known Weaknesses:Cable might be cut directly if exposed - try bending the lock at the cable-lock junction, don't be shy! If you manage to really damage it by bare hands...
- Pros: Lighter than Chain-Lock Combo and quite flexible. Can provide good protection even in medium risk areas.
- Contras:After all, it is a cable lock...Me, I was not that lucky with this type - see what happened to my armoured cable lock - but I don't exclude using this type again in the future
- Coiled Cable Lock
- Probably the most popular lock type where I live at the presen (Lyon, France). Most people are not willing to pay the price of a good lock after paying hundreds of euros for a new bike...As these lock have a price tag that people find acceptable, it's actually hard to find anything better, even good LBSs don't always have better than these coiled cable locks.
- Known Weaknesses: Can be easily cut with bolt cutters
- Pros:Light, long and totally flexible! Can be used to fix helmets and other smaller items. Relatively inexpensive.
- Contras: Limited Protection - should rather be considered as a mild deterrent, or something to lock the bike with when leaving it font of a shop for a few minutes / half an hour.
- Frame Lock
- A real classic! This nice little lock you have to fix on the rear triangle of the frame, you can lock the bike by passing a little metal shackle between the spokes, making it imossible for the rear wheel to turn. Those were the good times, when this much was enough to stop a wannabe thief...:) Still effective in towns smaller than 10000 habitants...
- Known Weaknesses: The lock itself - locks the bike «to itself» - you can pick up the locked bike and walk away, or throw it in a van.
- Pros: It's always with you, light, cheap. Can be an excellent solution if you stay close to your bike, you see it constantly and only a door separates you from your bike.
- Contras: It's a very mild deterrent, stops only the real amateurs and only when you are around. Needs constant vigilance from the owner's part.
- You can't steal what you don't see
- If you have a chance to bring your bike inside at your place of work or keep it in your flat for the night, do so!
- It's hard to move a lamppost / tree
- Always lock your bike to big, unmovable objects! Pay attention that they cannot be dis-assembled by a simple screwdriver...
- Use an appropriate lock!
- No need to lock your bike with a 5kg chain-lock combo if you jump in somewhere for a minute to get a loaf of bread / don't leave your multi-thousand $ bike in the middle of a high-crime area with a frame lock!
- Don't leave your bike on the street for all day, regularly!
- If you really have to - you have nowhere to put it at work - then use the best locks possible
- Check out Sheldon Brown's How To Correctly Lock Your Bike page!
This is but an oversimplified list of course - but if you don't commit at least these trivial errors, you have already greatly reduced the risk of getting your bike stolen.
On Thieves
Most bike thieves belong to one of the following big groups:
Again, this is a very simplistic classification of bike thieves. The important point not to miss: we have bike thieves who steal because they can (unlocked / moveable), who steal on small scale and those who do it in big. The opportunists are relatively harmless, all you have to do is to lock your bike.
The ordinary bike thieves use some equipment but this is quite ligth and cannot be used to break through serious locks - if you have a relatively sturdy lock, there are chances they will leave your bike alone and pick another one, easier to steal.
Thieves working on large scale will not stop in the centre of the city, cutting bike locks and loading dozens of bikes on their truck in front of everyone. Unless you leave your bike out in the street for the night or in an remote place for hours or days, there is little chance that they will cause you much headache...
Bicycle Lock Types
Before you start: I have no commercial interest in promoting Abus products - I took the photos from their sites to illustrate as they have a well organised online catalogue. Long hours of research on the internet convinced me that Abus is a company with solid reputation when it comes to security products - a sort of European «Kryptonite». Why not illustrate with Kryptonite products? Or else? I'm from Europe and just about to buy an Abus U-Lock, so it only seemed logical to me.
Before You Buy, Don't Forget:
One thing you should absolutely pay attention to: apart of the plastic/rubber covering material, the metal parts of the lock should be made of hardened steel! Ordinary steel can be cut through easily, and even a heavy U-Lock is worthless if it's made of simple steel.
Don't judge a lock by it's looks - judge 'em by thteir price! Good locks are made of quality, hardened steel and have a good locking mechanism, these things don't come dirt cheap - as a rule of a thumb.Good locks are priced from 40 Euros and upwards! If you see a sturdy-looking lock for 20 Euros - it's a joke, don't buy it rather check out what happened to my 25 Euros lock...
As I was showing you Abus locks all the time - here's a link to their site, in german AND english!:)
Tactical info for locking your bike
By choosing well where and how do you lock your bike, you can greatly reduce the chances of theft:
The Quality of the Lock Matters!
I bought this lock in october 2002. It was used more or less regularly, 3-4 times a week and almost never in bad weather. What you see is what happened after three years of use:
Yeah, the thingy in the midlle of which the key was turning is separated from the body of the lock...I paid 25 Euros for this?!
One more take - if you have a weak heart, you love your bike and you lock it using a Luma lock bought in 2002, well, run for your heart pills...
As you can see, the locking mechanism simply fell out - actually it stayed on the key when I was locking it...As this happened spontaneously, I strongly beleive that the same result could have been produced by a single stroke of a hammer even when the lock was brand new.
Conclusions: I was very lucky during these 3 years as anyone trying to steal my bike could have succeeded breaking through this lock - I must have chosen how and where to lock the bike well enough...
