Lock down

The bike moves - the next thing I have to make sure of is that I am the only one who is moving it. I knew I needed a lock - but a quick search for reviews on the web through up some interesting a fairly frightening statistics and facts about bicycle theft in the UK.

Over 100,000 bicycles are officially stolen in the UK every year, and this does not include the figure for the ones that are not reported (estimates suggest that it could be 5 times this number in reality!). I thought that the £9.99 lock that I picked up while getting some other parts would be ok - it looked relatively tough - that is until I watched a video that showed a similar one being cut with a pair of garden pruning shears in under 10 seconds!

Bike theft is a growing industry, and after watching "Gone in 60 Seconds - The Bike Crime Wave", a film about bike crime in London, you can understand why. A lot of locks can be cut through in seconds, people stand and watch as bikes are taken, and bikes are very hard to trace back to owners if they are ever recovered.

Locks

Although my ride is not that desirable these days, I would be totally gutted if it were to go missing - so have decided to invest in a decent 'D lock'. I will keep the other cable lock to make sure the front wheel can be locked, as well as the back and frame with the 'D lock'.

Wheels

While parking the bike up I have noticed that loads of people lock only the wheels of a bike, or only the frame. I have also seen a few lone wheels in bike racks!
I have quick release mechs on my wheels (and they are the most expensive looking parts on the bike). So not only do I lock through both the front and back wheel, I have also zip tied the quick releases just to make it a little more frustrating for anyone who attempts to liberate them.

Register and post-coding

My bike had a postcode stamped into the frame may years ago, and this process is still used now. The local police force have days that you can ride up and get your bike stamped with a registration number to help identify it if it does go missing and is found again. This service is usually free of charge, but you would have to check with your local Police Station to see what they can offer.

I have also seen sites like bikeregister.com that offer a comprehensive solution to give you the best chance of retrieving a bike if it is stolen. It seems like a good system, that would not only help to identify a bike - but with the visible stickers on the frame may make a bike thief beside to move on to the next one!

How to lock a bike properly

I found some great films on YouTube about how to lock a bike effectively - but there was one series of videos that stood out above the rest from "Legendary bike mechanic from Bike Habitat New York - Hal Ruzal". In the first video Hal shows how to lock a bike correctly, and in the second he heads onto the streets (of the UK) to rate the how well people are locking their rides up.








More info can be found at http://www.halgradesyourlocks.com