Bike chain/lock and wall/ground anchor.

[migrantwing]

I've been looking at On Guard's range of chains and locks as I want to get a decent set up for locking my bikes up securely. I have the bikes in a brick outhouse with a wooden door and frame that I've strengthened by installing bolts and the like instead of the old screws.

My intention is to get a wall/floor anchor and then run the chain through this and the two bikes. The choices I have are either:

Mastiff chain and Boxer U lock

or Beast chain with padlock

Would a chain and U lock be more secure than a chain and padlock or not? These products are hefty and quite possibly overkill, but for the small difference in price, bigger is better as a visual and physical deterrent.

Also, can someone explain what the bar is far in the picture below. Is the bar there to thread through wheels, making it harder for a thief to roll a motorbike/pushbike away or is the end weighted somehow, just adding more weight to the item? I've seen these before but have never quite known why they are made like this.

Thanks, folks!

 

[Milkfloat]

I use a something similar to your top picture, but I also thread a D-Lock through the chain and frame, just to really annoy the thieves.

My understanding is that the lock with the bar is used with a ground anchor and then the bar goes though the disk brake holes on a motorbike, although it would work on the frame on one of my bikes, I don't see how it would work with almost any other bike.

 

[raleighnut]

I'd also use an alarm inside the shed just to pi55 em off a bit more, nothing that is visible from outside just a 120db siren that goes off if they defeat the door.

 

[migrantwing]

Cheers for the info, @Milkfloat. Your description of the chain with the bar makes complete sense now. I knew it would be something like that, but couldn't wrap my head around as to why.

I've been in this area for 3 years now and not had any trouble so far. It's nothing like my hometown, thankfully. I just thought that for the reasonably low price of these On Guard locks, it would be a worthy investment regardless of it being a relatively low crime area.

 

[migrantwing]

Very good tip, @raleighnut. I've got a cheap door frame alarm that goes off when the door and frame contacts are broken and a cheap infra red sensor alarm in the interior corner of the outhouse. It's fitted behind a metal cage to stop anyone tampering with it which is bolted into the wall. It's a pain in the ar*e to open it all up and change the batteries, so I'm hoping it would be a pain in the ar*e for a would be thief to gain access to it. I'm renting this property, but if it were mine, I'd have power running to the outhouse and have a proper alarm installed. The padlock on the door is a decent one, too. I know it's not impenetrable, but I didn't want to make it blindingly obvious that something of value is in there.

 

[Flying Dodo]

Have a look at the ground anchors available from Pragmasis. I've got 3 installed in my garage, which along with the heavy duty chains running through the bikes, means someone would have to spend a very long, noisy time trying to steal the bikes.