Locking advice

jeepie
jeepie Posts: 497
edited July 2008 in Commuting chat
The more I commute by bike the more I enjoy it. I'm thinking of riding my road bike in to work more now, rather than using my battered old hybrid. However, whereas I would be very annoyed if my battered old hybrid got stolen I'd be absolutely gutted if my road bike was nicked. My road bike's a very stealable brand and ostentatious colour too - (can you guess who makes it?) - so I need to up the security for the road bike when I leave it unattended.

Having seen the very favourable reviews of:

http://www.torc-anchors.com/security-chains.php

Protector 13mm 1.2m 5.0kg

I was thinking of getting this chain.

Then I was thinking of locking the bike by removing the front wheel as shown in:

http://www.missinglink.org/Pages/bike_locking

Point 3 "Park free when you ride a bike". They use a D-lock in the piccies, but I thought the chain might be good as I know it's been peer reviewed favourably here on BikeRadar.

I have carbon forks so I'm worried about damaging them by resting the forks on the concrete when locking the bike as shown in point 3.

Question: Is this locking technique OK if you have carbon forks?

Any other comments/advice really appreciated.

Cheers

J

Comments

  • dondare
    dondare Posts: 2,113
    edited July 2008
    Keep riding the old bike unless you've got a 100% secure stable and a lock that costs and weighs more than the bike.
    This post contains traces of nuts.
  • thesmellyone
    thesmellyone Posts: 44
    Hi If you were going to spend that much on a chain i would recommend the Almax series 3
    http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/ ... /p-73-123/

    I've got one but it's become redundant looking to sale if you're interested pm me. I've since moved to a d lock as my wheels have locking release nuts now.
  • jeepie
    jeepie Posts: 497
    Thanks for the advice....sounds like a possibility if I get a strong chain. Will ponder your offer Smelly one and let you know as my research progresses.

    Any thoughts about putting the carbon forks on the ground and damaging them?
  • dazzawazza
    dazzawazza Posts: 462
    Instead you could get locking skewers for the wheels, Pitlock or Pinhead.
  • Bikerbaboon
    Bikerbaboon Posts: 1,017
    with chains like that you will need to leave it at work... dont leave it out side as people have been known to steal the locks over night to force owners of the bikes in to haveing to lock up with something weeker the next day makeing them quicker to be pinched in hte dayligh hours.
    Nothing in life can not be improved with either monkeys, pirates or ninjas
    456
  • beegee
    beegee Posts: 160
    Did you read the article about taking ftont wheel off ? It said "Over 4 billion bikes are stolen every month in Berkeley alone. The average time of ownership of a bike before it is stolen is only 17 minutes." ! I'll never complain again about having my bike stolen after 2 months. But seriously I thought that if you leave a bike in a scummy area and they can't pick the lock or cut the chain then they put glue in the lock which means you can't take it either and they can come back at 2 in the morning with something that can cut the chain.
  • jeepie
    jeepie Posts: 497
    Yeah - the article must be an exaggeration - SURELY! - but it did get my thinking. Looks like commuting on a relatively expensive bike is a bad idea, so back to the battered old Ridgeback I go.... such a shame as my commute is my main opportunity to ride....

    Will have a ponder and let you know how things develop.

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