BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Mini u lock and a double looped cable if you're nervous about your wheels.

+1 on using a u-lock. In the two years I've been on this message board there has not been one bike stolen with a u-lock. Plenty stolen with cables or chains.

Sheldon Brown also recommended mini u-locks. His lock strategy page is worth reading.

I think we did have a report of a u-locked stolen bike last year. Just one such report though, and it's always possible that the victim hadn't secured it properly somehow.

+1 on Sheldon's lock strategy. Also, there are wheel and seat locks available. Not cheap, but you're carrying less stuff around when you out and about.

If I remember correctly, the one bike that was stolen using a u-lock, the bike and lock were locked to the steel hold-down cable of a utility pole, and that cable was cut. So even with a good lock, judge what you lock to carefully.

I'd say go with a full size u-lock, it keeps your locking options much wider. And if you have quick release wheels, you can lock the frame with the back wheel in place, take the front wheel off and get that in the lock too, and you don't have to piss around with a cable. I don't care for the mini's.

The only fault that could exist with Mr. Brown's method is that it doesn't look that secure. When locking up around cities with high bike theft rates, where thieves know what is going on, it may dissuade someone from attempting theft. Around here, some yinzer criminal may try messing with it a while before getting pissed off that it won't come undone. Both of which may lead to enough damage to be an annoyance.

Regardless of that, my two cents on how I lock: Through the front wheel and the down tube. I have a quick release rear, but I am never locked long enough/in a poorly visible area, that I think anyone is going to spend the minutes of trouble to undo. Also, my rear hub is a little too wide for the dropouts, so it's a pain when I do want to take it off…

I thought geocities was only available in Japan nowadays....

There's a bike rack by the entrance to the athletic building towards Heinz, nobody should mess with your bike there. The showers are also open pretty much all the time if you need to change in that building as well.

@Pierce thanks for the tip.

I agree about the mini-u, I usually carry a full-size lock now after encountering too many situations where a mini wouldn't work or at least made locking a pain. The argument is its harder to get a jack inside a mini, but there's no evidence of that happening in Pgh so it doesn't seem worth it.

I also use the Sheldon method but I wonder the same thing about whether it looks more enticing. I've also had my wheels go mysteriously out of true, not sure it was due to someone messing with my locked bike but it's a possibility. With the full size lock I can usually get wheel plus frame, and in a lot of cases could get the front wheel in there if I'm so inclined.

I think I remember one more report of a ulocked bike stolen, but it was by pnc park employees. Cyclist locked to a meter, employees took it on themselves to remove the bike with an angle grinder.

Cyclist got their bike back but were sort one ulock..

Obviously the pnc park employees were in the wrong as meters are city property, not park property and the park employees have no jurisdiction over them, especially when city ordinance says you can lock to them.

Either way, pnc park would have bought me a new lock, and thats the only other bike I have heard of gone missing with a ulock.

+1 on the mini u-lock and sheldon brown's method. Locking skewers also alleviate the need for cables.

I highly recommend removing all lights and saddle bags and taking them with you.

Due to inept key carrying skills, I now posess a regular U, a mini U, and a double loop ended cable (and another large U that has no keys to it). My tubes all seem to be too thick to use the mini effectively (I typically had to lock a wheel to the frame and cable the frame to something else - NOT the way to do it), so I mostly just carry the regular U and the cable. But I don't lock it overnight or places where people would mess with it for very long.

And having re-read the sheldon brown link, I might switch back to the mini. Though it really doens't LOOK secure, like others have said above... I'm not sure I'd trust it, either - thieves are much more ingenious than I am so I don't doubt that they could imagine a way to thwart it even though I can't.

Stories about thefts from places like London and NY creep me out. Really glad we don't have those issues.

Hm. Sheldon's method relies on the thief being unable or unwilling to quickly destroy the rear wheel. I don't think that would be so difficult.

Hm. Sheldon's method relies on the thief being unable or unwilling to quickly destroy the rear wheel. I don't think that would be so difficult.

have you ever tried? i'm not sure what you have in mind, but a saw would be utterly worthless, for example.

It's pretty difficult Lyle. You can't cut the rim when it is laced up.

I don't use Sheldon's method. I think it looks less than secure, and is inviting to have thieves mess with the rear wheel. Mini-u and cable if I'm worried about my wheels... Lots of riding all over the country on fancy bikes and they're all still mine.

You don't have to cut it. You would just have to fold/taco it enough to cram it through the rear triangle. You'll likely destroy the frame and the wheel in the process, but I'm guessing that would upset you a lot more than it would upset the thief.

A criminal so versed in Geometry is probably going to be busy cracking safes and planning bank heists. That level of intelligence would allow them to realize the costs far outweigh the benefits.

In my opinion, of course.

@dwillian

I think that would take a lot of folding and cramming. A lot of effort.

Same mini u-lock could be used for one of the triangles, then to a pole or something.

You can't cut the rim when it is laced up. Yeah, not what I was thinking of. But lest someone's bike get stolen using my method, I'm not going to post the details here. I've got a crappy wheel I can use to demonstrate, I just need to steal a set of long-handled bolt cutters first.

Don't worry about your proprietary bike theft method, the real thieves prefer unlocked bikes and ones with cheap cable and chain locks on them, and there is no shortage of them out there.

Truth.

Turns out my advice was bad. They're doing some kind of construction over there and moved the bike rack.

Are you the Trek Portland under the Milton building?

Showers and stuff are still there though

@ Pierce Yes I'm the Trek Portland under Milton. You must be the other Trek under Milton.

@ Pierce I'm the only guy at CCAC in spandex you can't miss me