How To Lock Your Bike Securely | Urban Cycle Security Tips

Locking your bike securely and properly is the best way to deter and stop bike theft, especially if you are leaving the bicycle for a long period of time in a town or city. We've teamed up with Kryptonite to explain the best way to safely lock your road bike up, and the different types of locks, cables and chains that are available.

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How do you lock up your bike?

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[gcn]

How do you lock your bikes up when you leave them? Do you have any security tips? Share them in the comments below 🔒

[MrGregory]

Those security ratings are the amount of seconds needed for TheLockpickingLawyer to open those locks

[andywalford]

One of the unwritten laws of cycling...” all bikes weigh the same, the lighter and more expensive the bike, the bigger and heavier the lock carried to keep it”

[fishcake]

Got myself a new lock recently...
So the one I had before was a shitty cable thing I felt like I could break by hand with enough effort. So, I did some Internet digging to find a good make and type of lock. Wound up ordering a very substantial propper chain and reasonably secure lock. Brilliant.
Except in my infinite wisdom, I didn't pay much attention to the weight class of this chain 🤦‍♂️ When it arrived I realised I've ordered the world's heaviest chain (probably for a motorbike) that weighs nearly as much as my pushbike 😅 Needless to say, if I DO feel like lugging it about a thief would have better luck cutting up the bike frame itself than this beast. The things so weighty I might be better off weaponising it and fighting people off instead 😂

[roleypup]

Ollie's next video: Building a "sleeper". (A bike that doesn't look like thiefbait but still has top-level performance.)

[dalailambda]

Theives sometimes cut through those dedicated bike railings, like at 9:15, then hide the cut with duct tape or something. Then when someone locks their bike to it and leaves, they just rip the tape and bend the rail, and slide the bike off.

[chrisplatten]

Stick a cable through the saddle rails as well. Saddles even cheap ones get stolen by people who just find it funny that you will have to ride home without one.

[Casperdroid]

So sad we need to worry about these things...

[andyhaochizhang]

Ways to reduce bike theft, from most effective to least:
1) make less people want to steal bikes
2) make it less risk/reward effective to steal bikes (e.g. more likely to be caught and harsher punishment if caught)
3) better biking facilities (e.g. guarded public bike parks)
4) stronger locks

[Alchemetica]

LockPickingLawyer uses an appropriate chain lock as they are more difficult to cut in the field with an angle grinder. Keeping a link steady is harder than cutting a D lock. There is a good chance a non diamond disc will slip and shatter firing shrapnel everywhere, hopefully some of the shards embed in the thief. 💀

[paulgreen]

I now live in the Highlands of Scotland, not many are stolen there, I can leave my bike safely outside whilst I order coffee and food, no need to carry a lock anymore, after having 3 stolen in the London area, with 3/4 locks that where broken in next to no time outside my offices, best decision I ever made was to leave the city behind and relocate

[brenjmcg]

9.00 "This is a nice area... its well lit"

Well yeah, its 1:30pm Ollie

[aliancemd]

My anti-theft solution: I just don’t get off the bike.

[robofish]

A couple of years ago, i locked my bike up with a cheap cable lock (not the cheapest), in the centre of town on a saturday afternoon (100ish people walking by every minute), it was 2-3 meters from a police car, with the officer standing right by the car. I know i was only going to be gone for 20 mins top, so wasn't concerned. I came back to the lock left, it had been cut through, police office still next to where my bike was, and wasn't interested in helping me at all, and told me to ring 101. Bike or thief was never found.
Since this day, i don't let by bike leave my vision, and I never locked it up (decent bike locks weigh too much and damage my nice new bike frame).

[solarsky]

I'll share a funny bike theft experience here: fifteen years ago I lived in a horrible part of Dublin in a shared house, when one night the garage door was forced open and someone managed to cycle off with a house mate's bike chain-locked to a steel bed frame. Incidentally the bike and bed frame were found a mile away, the thief had however stolen the saddle. Fun fact: my own bicycle, which was much nicer, had been parked in the garage right next to the bed frame and not locked - and remained there, inspite of the break-in. So, that thief must have been extremely stupid (or high on drugs...).

[fishcake]

Great video, thanks for the tips!
Another point I always make to people is to remove anything that can be removed easily such as lights, or a bike pump that clips onto the frame. Most of these unclip easily and fit in a bag. If someone can't nick your bike, they'll still take everything attached to it. Had my light nicked from the front of my bike when I popped in the shop for about 5 mins! The light was only worth like £10/$15 so no major loss but I had to make a long trip home in the dark because of it 🤦‍♂️
(You're usually alright leaving the mounts themselves on, if you're only leaving the bike for a short time)
Fortunately it was a super cheap light, but it taught me a valuable lesson that should've been common sense on my part to be honest 😅

[maxyrox]

A simple alarm with these locks can help very much. I dont know how much it may cost but i dont see people not buying such additional tech to protect the expensive bikes.

[soljachrist]

Use 3 locks with 3 separate keys 🔑
1. I use a top tier abus d lock for back wheel and frame.
2. I Use a thick chain with solid padlock for front wheel and frame.
3. I Use a thick abus cable not attached to d lock for bike seat and front or back frame depending on what i am locking my bike to.
I also use a handle bar lock that needs a key so thief's can't steal my handle bars & gears, I also use a different type of tool to put through my front and back wheels instead of a quick release skewers 😅
Takes me 30 seconds to lock everything up 🔐

[jeremie]

I've seen SO MANY bikes locked by the seat post. Brilliant!

[jojoadeyemi]

Never attach a lock solely to the wheel. Especially if its quick release. I've seen too many wheels, locked and lonely and the actual bike is gone.