Lock it Up

Don't Lose Your Bike to Thieves

You just spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a new bicycle, you definitely want to lock it up, so no one steals it. Bike theft is unfortunately very common in urban areas, particularly on college campuses.

But just locking up your bike isn’t really enough, because there are right ways and wrong ways to do it; so some locking systems are definitely better than others. In this helpful video from our friend Court Rye (mastermind behindElectric Bike Review) we learn an advanced technique for properly locking our bikes up.

In the video you see a beater bike with just a single cable lock tied around the head unit and a standard steel bike rack. On the other hand, if you have a $6,000 electric bike like the one Court shows in the video, you don’t ever want to leave it unlocked, and maybe not even unattended. Even some of the components on a high end ebike like this are targets of savvy rip-off artists. Like the front wheel with a through axle and the nice 203mm hydraulic disk brake. You don’t want your seat to get stolen.

In the demonstration, Court uses several relatively inexpensive parts to fully secure his ride. These include a U-lock and several cables, along with a strong lock.

In the video Court uses a U-lock fromBlackburn. It’s shackle is made from hardened steel. It is wrapped in a rubberized silicone sheath to prevent scratching your bike paint. It weighs only 1.7 pounds, the lock thickness is 10mm, and it costs about $30 at REI and comes with three keys. One of the nice features of this device is that is has a lock on each end of the shackle, so a thief can’t just cut one bar; they would have to cut both to get it off, which of course would take twice a long.

Next, Court uses both a thick and a thin locking cable (both from Kryptonite). The thicker cable is the 710 Double Loop Cable (model number 210610) which has a 10mm braided steel cable, providing increased cut resistance, and a protective vinyl cover. The thinner cable is the 525 Double Looped Cable (model number 210719) which has a 5mm braided steel cable and protective vinyl cover.

With this technique, the thicker cable is used to lock the front wheel, and the thinner cable is used to lock down the seat. The first thing you do is loop the cable through the front wheel (thread it through itself), then pull the loose end all the way to the back of the bike, where the U-lock will be used. Now do the same thing with the smaller cable, looping it through the saddle rails and through itself, then bring the loose end to the back of the bike and thread it through the larger cable.

Now that the two cables are securely tied together, the last step is to take the U-lock, put it through the bike rack, your bike frame, and the rear wheel. Now both wheels have been secured, along with the bike frame and the saddle. That’s it.

So now you can see that even if someone used the quick release on the front, they wouldn’t be able to take the wheel without first having to cut the thicker cable. They wouldn’t be able to take the seat, or the nice seat dropper, and they wouldn’t be able to take the rear wheel or the frame, because the U-lock has gone right through the bike rack and through one of the seat stays.

In Related News

In related news, whenever we come upon a new product we think our customers will find useful, we post about it here. Check out OTTOLOCK™- an all-new cinch lock for both cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts who need a lightweight, compact, and secure solution.  (born of a successful Kickstarter campaign).