Bike security in garage

topcattim

There's been a spate of bike thefts in my area recently - my mate up the road had £4k worth of kit stolen last night from his locked garage.

I'm looking for a solution for making my bikes secure. I hang them on the wall on something a bit like this.
I figure if I have a strong chain looped through a secure wall mounted bracket, that can then loop through the frame of my bikes.

I'd need to do this twice (to store all the bikes we've got, which are mounted on two separate hangers), and have a budget of about £100. Can anyone advise if that is a reasonable budget, and offer any suggestions for suitable kit?

ooermissus

Ground anchor and a decent chain is best, but there are good wall brackets too. Here's a place you could look. V good service. (I have no personal connection, btw, just think they're nice and make good stuff.)

http://securityforbikes.com/products.ph ... nd+Anchors

smidsy

topcattim wrote:

There's been a spate of bike thefts in my area recently - my mate up the road had £4k worth of kit stolen last night from his locked garage.

In that case...in the house next to the dog

topcattim

smidsy wrote:

topcattim wrote:

There's been a spate of bike thefts in my area recently - my mate up the road had £4k worth of kit stolen last night from his locked garage.

In that case...in the house next to the dog

Well, its sleeping inside tonight, but I'm not sure that its a solution that dovetails with marital satisfaction...

smidsy

It's a requirement of the insurance innit ;-)

smoggysteve

topcattim wrote:

smidsy wrote:

topcattim wrote:

There's been a spate of bike thefts in my area recently - my mate up the road had £4k worth of kit stolen last night from his locked garage.

In that case...in the house next to the dog

Well, its sleeping inside tonight, but I'm not sure that its a solution that dovetails with marital satisfaction...

Tell the wife its either that, or she sits in the garage instead!!

Mikey23

My best bike lives in the spare bedroom now

MattC59

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

I've also got a £20 B&Q PIR alarm, in a garage it has an oscillating high pitched tone that is so loud that its almost painful !

slowmart

Ground anchor and one of these http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/


Don't leave power tools around which could be used by the lowlife.

PIR inside the garage

That said avoidance is the best defence, make sure no one is following you home. All the online GPS routes, strava, endomodo have the ability for lowlifes to pin point your home, link that if you post your make and model up as well and you're vulnerable. Don't clean or fettle in view of the street. Just common sense really.

In most cases thieving scum are lazy, make it harder and they will move on to easier victims.

topcattim

MattC59 wrote:

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

That is a beast!

bernithebiker

topcattim wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

That is a beast!

Indeed, but I fear this would defeat it quite quickly;



Bring it inside!

desweller

bernithebiker wrote:

topcattim wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

That is a beast!

Indeed, but I fear this would defeat it quite quickly;



Bring it inside!

Mm, I dunno - a boron steel is gonna be pretty hard. You're not talking about a bit of steel bar from B&Q here.

danlikesbikes

Tusk do some good & reasonable anchors - http://www.tuskstore.com/index.php?cPath=24 which you can either put on the wall by the wall racks or floor based.

There are some good motor cycle ground anchors out there too - http://www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk/motorcy ... prod/74307

But as others have said its only as good as the lock/chain that you use it with.

knownothingbozo

I have all of our bikes attached through thick cable, to the wall, the fitting being behind some shelving I've now built in.
I also then have the car in the way.

However a determined thief may still succeed, in case the worst happens, make sure you have good photographic evidence of the security measures you have in place. It may help to convince the insurance company you did everything you reasonably could.

nferrar

Firstly make sure they're properly insured!
Almax chains and the anchors they sell are about as good as you'll find, also worth looking at alarmed padlocks so you'll know if they disturb the chain.
Make sure the garage has better security than just an up-and-over door (foldable).
At the end of the day though if you need to spend money on one thing then spend it on insurance - it's not uncommon for a well-secured bike with decent components to have the frame cut through (later ditched and they just sell the parts on eBay) so all the chains in the world aren't going to make it 100% secure.

ricky1980

diamond edged angle grinder will eat through most of steel plates/bars especially those with welds. the hardened steel are a little bit more difficult but still will eat through it.

Leaving the thing in the garage is even worse as the thieves will have all night to do the job out of sight from any passer bys or police patrols. maybe install a intruder alarm in the garage with the hardened steel anchors installed may well deter the thieves.

in door i am afraid if you have serious concerns.

ooermissus

Presumably, how you chain the bikes up makes a difference to - it can make it harder to get the purchase needed for the grinder to do its work.

ricky1980

the bolts bolting the anchors into the concrete would be the weak link. soon as they get through that the lot will be in the back of the van.

topcattim

While I agree that indoors is the safest option, its neither a guarantee (burglars come into houses ) nor a viable option.
I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but the last few posts seem to be based on the assumption that a very determined thief will be able to break into all security. I guess that's true, but I also figure that many bike thieves aren't necessarily very determined, or very tooled up, so that when they break into your garage, if the bike is locked up with a chain that can't be easily bolt-cropped, into a bracket that can't be easily unscrewed, then that might be enough of a deterrent to move them on. At least that is what I am hoping...

bernithebiker

topcattim wrote:

While I agree that indoors is the safest option, its neither a guarantee (burglars come into houses ) nor a viable option.
I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but the last few posts seem to be based on the assumption that a very determined thief will be able to break into all security. I guess that's true, but I also figure that many bike thieves aren't necessarily very determined, or very tooled up, so that when they break into your garage, if the bike is locked up with a chain that can't be easily bolt-cropped, into a bracket that can't be easily unscrewed, then that might be enough of a deterrent to move them on. At least that is what I am hoping...

Hmmm, not sure about that. Spend a few minutes reading through the sorry tales on Stolen Bikes. All kinds of locks, chains, etc. defeated; these guys come prepared. One guy even had the roof taken off his shed. Seems these toerags don't give a crap about making noise or getting caught - either they put up a fight or get caught and get 30 days community service. It's a win-win.

topcattim

bernithebiker wrote:

topcattim wrote:

While I agree that indoors is the safest option, its neither a guarantee (burglars come into houses ) nor a viable option.
I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but the last few posts seem to be based on the assumption that a very determined thief will be able to break into all security. I guess that's true, but I also figure that many bike thieves aren't necessarily very determined, or very tooled up, so that when they break into your garage, if the bike is locked up with a chain that can't be easily bolt-cropped, into a bracket that can't be easily unscrewed, then that might be enough of a deterrent to move them on. At least that is what I am hoping...

Hmmm, not sure about that. Spend a few minutes reading through the sorry tales on Stolen Bikes. All kinds of locks, chains, etc. defeated; these guys come prepared. One guy even had the roof taken off his shed. Seems these toerags don't give a crap about making noise or getting caught - either they put up a fight or get caught and get 30 days community service. It's a win-win.

:x

Lycra-Byka

DesWeller wrote:

bernithebiker wrote:

topcattim wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

That is a beast!

Indeed, but I fear this would defeat it quite quickly;



Bring it inside!

Mm, I dunno - a boron steel is gonna be pretty hard. You're not talking about a bit of steel bar from B&Q here.

It's the manganese steel that's the tough bit. A battery disc grinder would be useless!

Also diamond wheels are for concrete and such.

I use manganese steel at work and it takes about 10 times the effort to cut and if cut to quick(or drilled) it hardens. The added boron (about 0.01%!) just about rules out any portable cutting equipment. Good stuff.
Yes the fixing points are the weak point in any mount. Use something like a 145mm sleeve anchor to bolt the mount down. Then strip the heads of the anchors to stop them being removed. This can still be drilled out. The bolt head can now be drilled to receive a ball bearing in it. This stops it being drilled out as the ball bearing will spin with the drill.

I make and install some of the best security doors in the uk(think bank vaults/prisons) , if anyone wants security advice pm me and I'll be happy to help stop these scumbags.

ThatBikeGuy

I was thinking about this just the other day. Though in my case the garage is filled with all sorts of automotive tools spanners, wrenches (2 chests full), probably worth more than the bikes!

The only weak link is the side door which is obscured by the gate. Both doors are wired into the main house alarm its just a matter of remembering to set the bugger.

Bike security wise i just use my kryptonite lock around the wall mount, and hope they aren't savvy enough to use the power tools i have kicking about! :roll:

crescent

Unfortunately, all you can really do is make it less attractive so that they will try someone else's shed/garage. Not very charitable I know but that is the reality of it. I have a ground anchor and decent quality boron chain but keep my good/summer bike in the loft during the winter months.
I hate the outlook that, "if they want it they will get it one way or another", seems very defeatist to me but difficult to know what to do for the best, short of electrification - I looked into this very seriously, probably in more detail than I should have, and decided against it :oops: .
Unfortunately, in some cases they may break into the house and steal the garage keys so worth keeping them hidden away somewhere too. In a recent incident near me they broke into a house and threatened the owner forcing him to hand over the keys to his Audi S5. Doubtful they would go to this extent for a bike but worrying and blood-boiling all the same.

MattC59

bernithebiker wrote:

topcattim wrote:

MattC59 wrote:

I've got one of these, 2m long. If they can get through that they deserve the bike for effort !

That is a beast!

Indeed, but I fear this would defeat it quite quickly;



Bring it inside!

Unlikely, a battery grinder just doesn't have the oomph, and the steel used in Almax chains is sufficiently hard to wear out disks in no time.
The anchor also has a series of roller bearings inside it, so a grinding disk doesn't have anything to grind as the bearings just spin. It's also chemically bonded 180mm into the concrete.
Add that to the noise of the grinder and an alarm screaming away, and you've not got the most inconspicuous of environments.

Sure, if you've got a big enough grinder, time to mess around changing disks and there's no one about to hear a grinder and burglar alarm, then the bike I yours.

You're right though, bringing it inside, behind the safety of a Yale lock is much better.

bernithebiker

There's a test here;

http://gizmodo.com/5922074/the-best-bike-lock

that tested 4 good U-locks, and none lasted more than 2 minutes under a cheap battery angle grinder.

I'm sure the chain mentioned above would last longer, but loads and loads longer?

Vinnyc19

If they want it and come prepared I think they will get it, locks these days are just deterrents

MattC59

bernithebiker wrote:

There's a test here;

http://gizmodo.com/5922074/the-best-bike-lock

that tested 4 good U-locks, and none lasted more than 2 minutes under a cheap battery angle grinder.

I'm sure the chain mentioned above would last longer, but loads and loads longer?

2 mins to make one cut through 14mm 'hardened' steel, to defeat the lock.

You need to make two cuts through the 16mm case hardened manganese boron steel chain to defeat it. At best, that's 4mins +, assuming that the steel is the same. As the locks can be defeated by croppers and the chain can't, I'm going to guess that they're not the same steel.

So, yes, loads longer.

topcattim

I thought others might be interested in how I worked this one through. Thanks for all the advice that helped me with this.

I got a wall anchor from Halfrauds £30 now but it was on special for internet buy = £24

And a pragmasis security chain for £70. I got the 13mm version, 1.5 metres, which is long enough to loop round two bikes on a standard wall hanger, with relative ease. The 13mm chain is a beast, and I wonder whether I could have got away with an 11mm chain.

And a squire combination lock from amazon for £24.00. Not the very highest level of security but I wanted a combination lock to avoid going in and out with keys. Incidentally, I had very good service from the Amazon provider, Saunderson Security - there was a problem with the Squire product itself, but when I reported it, they were back in touch with me within 30 minutes - twice!

So, two bikes all tucked up nice and safe, at a cost of £120