Sportive feedstop unlocked bike paranoia

Bordersroadie

When I did the Fred last year I felt a bit paranoid about leaving my bike outside unlockked for quite some time while I went in to warm up/eat/drink.

Of course there is some element of safety-in-numbers, with hundreds of valuable bikes lying around, none locked (I presume?) but am I the only one that gets the jitters at the thought that I might go back out to find that my beloved bike has disappeared?

Or do some of you use lightweight locks for such events?

NeXXus

Yeah you are. Take anything easily removable off (garmin for example) and leave it.

buckles

Bikes do get stolen from sportive events. It might not be a huge risk but it exists. If you're worried, take a lock just to be on the safe side.

nunowoolmez

Just don't stop ;-)

DeVlaeminck

I think it depends on the event - there's probably more risk of theft in urban areas than a village hall in the middle of nowhere - but no harm in using a lightweight lock. I've been at a road race where a couple of bikes went missing from outside the HQ and I've heard some people have lost bikes at the first feed stop on the Marmotte so it does happen.

zcapp96

Always lock mine up and it is just a triban 5! Have only done two sportives and bikes were stolen from both. At the second one a bloke drove in in cycling gear, put an unattended £3k bike in the back of his car and drove out again. Easiest thing in the world is to ride in on a cheap bike and ride out on an expensive one, and with events more popular now the organised gangs will not be far behind!

phreak

I haven't heard of anything in the UK, but there have been various stories of organised gangs targeting granfondos on the continent. As you say, a lot of expensive kit is there. Thankfully I don't think this is a major issue at the moment.

greasedscotsman

Bordersroadie wrote:

Or do some of you use lightweight locks for such events?

You could use something like this?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/abus ... -prod88999

marcusjb

It happens for sure.

As long as your bike is less nickable than the one next to it, that's as much as you can do sensibly in these events.

A little light cafe lock in the pocket and/or saddlepack is going to give you a little piece of mind. These are not locks for leaving the bike anywhere out of sight for hours on end (as most of them could be cut with very little effort), but it is a heck of a lot easier than carrying a D-lock.

A cafe lock just stops the opportunist thief who is likely to move on from any bike with even a basic lock on it and go for the one without a lock.

They've been a couple of occurrences of thefts of bikes on events I have ridden from outside of the village hall headquarters etc.

For the sake of a few grams, the piece of mind is worth it.

thegreatdivide

phreak wrote:

I haven't heard of anything in the UK, but there have been various stories of organised gangs targeting granfondos on the continent. As you say, a lot of expensive kit is there. Thankfully I don't think this is a major issue at the moment.

http://road.cc/content/news/90219-polic ... bike-theft

DeVlaeminck

Actually a decent lock isn't a bad idea either - you just leave it locked to a fence at the HQ when you sign on and then it's there to lock it up when you finish. Of course if everyone did that it might get difficult to pick out your lock.

Sith lard

I would lock it .two bikes were nicked from inside the TA compound during last years Cat and Fiddle ride. Bar stewards are thought to have walked in dressed in cycling kit

backo

Never thought of this but you are quite right. if you are inside having a brew / toilet break what is to stop someone dressed in cycling gear from riding off on your bike.

Thinking back to the last feed stop on last years fred whitton, everyone was inside with scenes familar to a refugee camp. the car park was a sea of abandoned bikes...would have been free pickings.

monkimark

I've only done one sportive and we stayed in a group so there was always someone to watch the bikes when we stopped but if i was on my own i'd definitely think about taking a lock - you can get alarmed retractable cable locks which would probably be ideal, no challenge at all to break/cut with a pair of cable cutters but that would require the thief to stand in a crowd of cyclists cutting a lock and then walking off as the alarm blared.

They're very compact too so you could easilly stash it in a jersey pocket.
http://www.seton.co.uk/mini-lock-alarm. ... wwodQBYAVA

markhewitt1978

I didn't know about the alarm locks, they look decent. I've been looking for something which would allow me to lock out outside a cafe etc, that looks just the job.

slowbike

I don't bother with a lock during the ride - I'm always with someone else so one of us can keep an eye on the bikes.
When we're back at HQ the bikes get put away first - locked to the rack ... then we go and sort ourselves out.

Bordersroadie

Maybe I'm not so paranoid after all...

http://road.cc/content/news/111806-pina ... g-clothing

I guess it applies only if you don't have mates with you to watch your bike, but I often do Sportives solo. If I'm doing so, I'll take a cable lock in future because in some feedstops it's not possible to stay with your bike.

dead sheep

A few years ago, members of a club run were devastated to find their entire fleet of bicycles stolen from outside of a cafe. Two men wearing lycra, driving a large van, parked outside of a cafe and loaded the entire stock into the back and then drove off.