How to (Almost) Never Have a Bike Stolen

if a bike fever really wants your bike they will find a way to steal it after seven years of bike commuting I've only had one bike related thing stolen which was a taillight that I forgot to take off I've never had a bike stolen which is pretty impressive or lucky depending on how you look at it considering that I've had periods of time where I would leave my bike locked up overnight in public so here's how to almost never get your bike stolen so your bike can stay your bike and if you're in the market for a beefy bike lock setup that will do just that feel free to check out my bike lock setup linked in the video description at any point during this video for bikes with a dreamy ride quality that are classy yet understated and don't scream at bike thieves to be stolen check out our channel sponsor wahby cycles linked at the top of the description here's the mindset and these strategies that I've used to never have one of my bikes stolen the best way to protect your bike is to know how thieves think and work bike thieves are opportunistic they want to make the most amount of money with the least amount of risk that means stealing the highest quality bikes or the highest quantity of bikes in the least amount of time and thieves are absolutely ruthless in a lot of major cities there are teams of bike thieves that drive around in trucks and vans and look out for bikes and even entire bike racks that are easy to steal effective bike thieves are equipped with angle grinders bolt cutters car jacks and lock picks to get through any lock that they come across the goal of bike thieves is to get free bike parts at your expense to make money they do that by disassembling three things your bike your lock and the rack itself if they can manipulate any of these three things in a short amount of time your bike is in trouble and why wouldn't they steal at your expense it's two hundred dollars and a trip to Home Depot to become a pro bike thief and they can turn a profit that same day without ever having to see the person that they're harming it's a wonder that more people orange bike thieves and I say almost never have your bike stolen because a bike can be stolen at any time in any place even from right underneath you the only surefire way to never have your bike stolen is to not own a bike but that's no fun but if you do on a bike you should treat having it stolen like an inevitability it'll make it hurt less in the unfortunate event that it does happen and it'll encourage you to take better preventative measures to decrease the likelihood of it ever happening if a bike thief wants your bike enough they will find a way to steal it how much they want to steal your bike Oh always boils down to the feebs formula the likelihood of theft equals reward - risk the more that you can manipulate this formula in your favor a less likely you are to have your bike stolen and one effective way to do that is to increase the risk for bike thieves and the first way to do that is with your lock selection with that said effective bike thieves can get through any bike lock in five minutes or less a lock does not make your bike theft proof all lock does is manipulate the thieves formula by increasing risk hopefully by a degree that they'll deem your bike not worth the time or the risk and skip on over and steal someone else's bike and as for the iron law of bike locks a heavier lock is going to be more secure and it's going to be less convenient and there's no way around that here are the three most popular types of bike locks plotted based on their security to weight ratio it's very linear the heavier lock you have the more secure it's going to be I'd be most secure and the heaviest and least convenience are chain locks chain locks can really suck to carry around if you're commuting since they can weigh up to ten pounds or more there are lighter more portable ones though but of course if you sacrifice weights you're going to sacrifice security heavy duty chain locks really shine though where security as above most importance and convenience is not such as when you're storing a bike in a garage or a shed or you can leave this lock at your workplace and then lock your bike the you lock though is a balance of weight and security it's the most popular telling a bike lock because it's good enough for most types of bikes that aren't crazy expensive to lock them up for hours on end and then there's the humble cable lock cable locks are the lightest and most convenient but if you're using this as your primary lock you won't even deter a sneeze from a bike thief you can cut these things in five seconds or less with cable cutters or even garden shears these are best for locking secondary items like low-value front wheels or saddles and then we have alternative locks like this tiger lock there's been a few alternative designs for locks that have cropped up in the past few years but they are all still on this linear line if you want more security you're gonna need more weights and sacrifice convenience and below this line would be in lightweight secure locks which I call imaginary these are the locks that claim to revolutionize the way that you ride your bike and how secure your bike is that you can find on Kickstarter a good rule of thumb is to spend at least 10% of your bikes value on locks if you've got a cruddy $80 Walmart bike you can probably get away with a cruddy $8 cable lock as your main lock because nobody wants to steal that bike anyway but if you have an eight hundred and ninety five dollar Baba classic that is likely to be the best riding bike that you've ever ridden a $90 lock is not so far of a stretch and if you really want to deter thieves you can spend more than 10% of your bikes value on locks but all the locks in the world don't mean a thing if you don't use them properly or consistently so for locking strategy always have your primary lock go through the rear triangle and through your rear wheel and attach to the e movable object this locking method secures they most monetary value and for your primary lock I recommend that you at least use a beefy hue lock and if you want something sturdy your use a beefy chain lock and then use a secondary lock usually a cable lock to lock your wheels together or to secure your saddle to your frame my locking strategy though that's gotten me to never have a bike stolen includes free locks first is the primary you lock which is a super beefy about $100 abbis you lock I use this to secure my rear wheel and my friends up to the rack and then I have a $30 on guard Bulldog you lock to secure my front to the frame I also have a cable lock to secure my fancy pants Brooks saddle you also need to think about the accessories that you have on your bike and how to secure those if they can be removed without tools you need to take them with you after you lock your bike and if you have quick releases it's a good idea to never leave a component unlocked that has quick releases unless of course you want to donate a front wheel to a bike thief and if you want extra security you can protect components that take an allen key such as your cockpit if you're riding brakeless it's particularly a problem and your CE post with these components you can glue a ball bearing into the socket head so they can't be unfastened without first dissolving the glue at which point it's too much work for thieves the level of security that you need for your bike largely depends on the amount of time that you're going to leave your bike unattended number one never ever ever please leave your bike unattended in a public space unlocked number two never leave your bike locked in a public space overnight it'll take a thief with power tools 120 seconds to 5 minutes to steal your bike and that's plenty of time under the cover of night also always make sure that you're at least using 10% of your bikes value and locks no matter how short is going to be locked whether I'm leaving my bike unattended for 10 minutes or 10 hours I always at least do my minimum lock setup it's about $140 in locks to protect my $1,300 bike it might seem a bit overkill to use three locks for such a short period of time but I always assume the worst and I've never had a bike stolen well it's a good idea to lock your bike in a well-lit area with a lot of foot traffic don't expect other people to stop a thief in the act that's because of the bystander effect people will naturally come up with any excuse to not stop a bike thief some common excuses that people might come up with to not get involved include that's probably fair bike and they just lost the key or they probably work for the city and they just need to get the bikes out of the way to do construction or I don't know what they're doing and I'm keep it that way bike thieves know this and don't even play into this disguises so people don't interrupt them from the two to five minutes that they're stealing a bike they'll wear hardhats and reflective vests they'll wear helmets to look like they own the bike bike thieves are smart locking your bike in a public area with a lot of people will deter some thieves but the best thieves know that they can get away with almost anything so make sure that your bike is really secure with your rack selection protip the closest rack to your destination is not always the best bike rack and sometimes the best bike rack isn't even a bike rack per se the best things to lock your bike to are number one closed as in the thing that you're locking to is a closed loop it's not a pole it's not a tree number two they're immovable that means stuck to the ground preferably with concrete unfortunately a lot of bike racks are just bolted to the grounds this is better than nothing but you should be cautious about these bike racks that's because a thief can unbolt an entire bike rack and steal it some public bike rafts though are freestanding and they're not even bolted into the ground making them very easy to steal if you do need to use a rack that is freestanding though do make sure that it is so honk and big and heavy that it won't fit in the back of a van or truck number three it needs thick metal tubing it doesn't matter how be feed your lock is if the thin metal tubing of the bike rack can easily be cut with an angle grinder or bolt cutters and number four make sure that wherever your lock your bike is visible visibility won't deter the most confident thieves but it does help so here are some good and bad bike racks this rack checks all the boxes for a good bike rack sound out of ten this one not so much is at the side of the building with very little foot traffic my lock is harder to cut than the rack itself it's rusted to hell and the bolts that keep it fastened to the ground are loose one out of ten and some good improvised bike racks include sturdy park benches sturdy railings some bad improvised bike racks that you might consider but really shouldn't use if you care about your bike our chain-link fences street signs and trees of course the most secure location for your bike is in privates if you can take your bike inside your workplace or inside a secured courtyard do it if you can muster up the space in your garage or shed your back yard at your apartment do it thieves are opportunistic and the best way to keep your bike your bike is to not invite them to steal your bike always be over cautious borderline paranoid when locking your bike always use at least 10% of your bikes value in locks lock the rear wheel and the frame to an immovable object and always make sure that all of your valuable components and accessories are secured and never leave your bike unattended in a public area unlocked and never leave your bike locked in public overnight what best tips did I miss in this video let me know in the comments so we can help people keep their bikes and speaking of keeping bikes our channel sponsor Bobby cycles has classy yet understated bikes that don't scream at phoebs at the bike rack hey come steal me lobbies are the embodiment of fixed gear simplicity and every component and design choice is carefully made to give you the best ride quality for your money lobbies are constructed out of high-performing and lovely riding Reynold 725 steel or Columbus spirit tubing and respect with respectable but not flashy high-performing components and make it tough even for a fixed-gear elitist such as myself to replace any of the stock components with a fancy or brand name because they all perform just as well so if you're looking for your ends all be all bike that's beautiful in the details I mean its composition yet at the same time doesn't call too much attention to itself consider checking out our channel sponsor Bobby cycles linked at the top of the description and if you haven't ridden your bike yet today stop watching me right now instead ride your bike everyday to be reasonably dangerous

Channel: Zach Gallardo

Views: 648,991

Keywords: fixed gear bike, fixed gear bike review, single gear bike, best cycling, fixed gear, fixed gear cycling, fixed gear track bike, fixie bike, bike, fixie, fixie review, bike lock, stolen bike, bike thief, bike stealing, stealing bike, bike theft, avoid bike theft, bike locking, how to lock a bike, best bike lock, how to lock your bike, u lock, cable lock, chain lock, properly lock bike

Id: G-xSNw-iF4s

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 17 2019