How do you lock up your bike at home?

[ColinJ]

There is secure bike parking in the underground car park of the apartment block. Bikes get stolen from there regularly ...

That is an interesting definition of 'secure'!

I thought about getting a 'secure' metal bike shed for my enclosed back yard, but I would still be relying on a padlock to lock it. As a sad singleton I have oodles of space indoors so my bikes live in here with me. I currently have 3 bikes against the walls in this room, one road bike and a spinning bike in the kitchen, and am storing a friend's hybrid bike in my cellar. On top of that lot, I just about have enough spare parts to build a singlespeed bike, also stored down in the cellar.

I don't lock anything inside the house. I assume that if somebody gets in then my stuff will probably go. If I am in at the time and hear what is going on then I will 'go and have a word with' the intruders ...

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Similar to this - the best bikes are locked to a wall-anchored motorcycle alarm. Others are locked to each other (ideally head-tail) or to random heavy objects in the shed.

On the balcony, I'd treat any railings like a bike stand: D-lock at one end, alarmed cable at the other. If no railings, see if I can fix a wall or floor anchor to something, after checking with the landlord, offering to restore with concrete and paint before I leave but they might see it as a feature worth having.

I once had a landlord's managing agent in a leasehold flat who was simply agin the idea of bikes on balconies. "They devalue the property". He was also agin the idea of bikes in flats, and bikes in communal areas made him go absolutely nuts. Apoplexy was induced by bikes locked to the railings outside the ground floor flat. He hated bikes.

Yet he had no problem with tenants putting their tropical fish tanks in the communal hall, their barbecue and baby buggy on the balcony, and raised no query when I locked a golf cart and bag to the outside railings.

In the end I faked a solitor's letter asking him to point out the clause in the contract forbidding bikes on balconies. He couldn't, and then tried to fight a rearguard about me not being able to take a bike through the communal area as storing bikes there wasn't allowed. We sold up before that got resolved.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

That is an interesting definition of 'secure'!

I thought about getting a 'secure' metal bike shed for my enclosed back yard, but I would still be relying on a padlock to lock it. As a sad singleton I have oodles of space indoors so my bikes live in here with me. I currently have 3 bikes against the walls in this room, one road bike and a spinning bike in the kitchen, and am storing a friend's hybrid bike in my cellar. On top of that lot, I just about have enough spare parts to build a singlespeed bike, also stored down in the cellar.

I don't lock anything inside the house. I assume that if somebody gets in then my stuff will probably go. If I am in at the time and hear what is going on then I will 'go and have a word with' the intruders ...

cph has a terrible bike theft problem, as in "Dang, my bike has a flat tyre that I forgot to fix last night so I'll just take this other bike", and it is likely the offenders live in the block(s) and thus have access to the secure parking. It is actually illegal to leave a bike unlocked in a public place here.

 

[classic33]

IR proximity alarms and a Beretta Pigeon shotgun.

Kranks Landmine attached to shed door and another to each of the bikes inside.
If they carry on after the first one....

 

[classic33]

That is an interesting definition of 'secure'!

I thought about getting a 'secure' metal bike shed for my enclosed back yard, but I would still be relying on a padlock to lock it. As a sad singleton I have oodles of space indoors so my bikes live in here with me. I currently have 3 bikes against the walls in this room, one road bike and a spinning bike in the kitchen, and am storing a friend's hybrid bike in my cellar. On top of that lot, I just about have enough spare parts to build a singlespeed bike, also stored down in the cellar.

I don't lock anything inside the house. I assume that if somebody gets in then my stuff will probably go. If I am in at the time and hear what is going on then I will 'go and have a word with' the intruders ...

Will they understand an outsider though!

 

[Drago]

Claymore.

 

[mjr]

I once had a landlord's managing agent in a leasehold flat who was simply agin the idea of bikes on balconies. "They devalue the property". [...] Yet he had no problem with tenants putting their tropical fish tanks in the communal hall, their barbecue and baby buggy on the balcony, and raised no query when I locked a golf cart and bag to the outside railings.

Yeah, a bike is nowhere near the worst thing that people put outside in flats. I took a quick look at my most restrictive tenancy I've got handy and it only restricts strapping TV/satellite antennas to the balcony. I do tend to ask about bikes before signing if it's at all unclear, because it would be a deal-breaker to me - but it would probably also be a deal-breaker to many people around here so I doubt many cause problems.

That tenancy was another flat with a "secure" bike park that was badly designed and so bikes got stolen from it. Bike park design is something which I've worked to improve when I can, through the local CycleNation group's planning consultation responses. That "secure" bike park didn't meet the policy in force when the flats were built, so the council officer should never have approved it. I wonder if it would help if the landlord and council had to pay a proportion of the cost of bikes stolen from substandard parking - but how would you prove it?

 

[ColinJ]

I forgot to mention that I lean tall objects against the insides of my exterior doors when I am at home. They will not prevent anybody getting in through the doors, but there is no way for them to do it quietly! Once they have, for example, knocked a stepladder over onto a tiled floor, they would have about 20 seconds max before being confronted by a rather angry ColinJ defending his home! (I think the noise would probably have scared them off by the time that I got downstairs anyway.)

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I forgot to mention that I lean tall objects against the insides of my exterior doors when I am at home. They will not prevent anybody getting in through the doors, but there is no way for them to do it quietly! Once they have, for example, knocked a stepladder over onto a tiled floor, they would have about 20 seconds max before being confronted by a rather angry ColinJ defending his home! (I think the noise would probably have scared them off by the time that I got downstairs anyway.)

You are Macaulay Culkin AICMFP

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Yeah, a bike is nowhere near the worst thing that people put outside in flats. I took a quick look at my most restrictive tenancy I've got handy and it only restricts strapping TV/satellite antennas to the balcony. I do tend to ask about bikes before signing if it's at all unclear, because it would be a deal-breaker to me - but it would probably also be a deal-breaker to many people around here so I doubt many cause problems.

That tenancy was another flat with a "secure" bike park that was badly designed and so bikes got stolen from it. Bike park design is something which I've worked to improve when I can, through the local CycleNation group's planning consultation responses. That "secure" bike park didn't meet the policy in force when the flats were built, so the council officer should never have approved it. I wonder if it would help if the landlord and council had to pay a proportion of the cost of bikes stolen from substandard parking - but how would you prove it?

The lovely lovely thing about cph, ok one of the lovely lovely things about cph, is of an evening when the lights come on, you can how many people have their (weekend) pride and joy road bike, as opposed to their city/commute bike which is left outdoors downstairs, in pride of place in their living rooms.

For some reason tlh does not think this is a particularly lovely lovely thing.

 

[Roadrider48]

40 Rotweillers and a Sarin landmine on the balcony.
No room for the bike though

 

[Saluki]

Hanging off the bedroom wall, not locked. There is a loose Jack Russell in the flat, she's a bit interesting in temperament department, with strangers. Actually, my Lurcher is a bit sharp too, now I think of it.
It's a tiny flat in a very safe area but the bikes are still inside. Even when I lived in the smallest bedsit in the world, my bike was inside.

I did have a gavanised bike box, anchor bolted to the wall, with 2 rings sunk into the wall and my bike was D locked to the rings. Got nicked. Ex husband had it away and sold it, I'm pretty sure although he denied knowing anything about it.

 

[Yellow Saddle]

Would your budget run to an Area Denial Weapons System?

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View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyAjzowYP1o
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"Area denial systems". Rolls nicely off the tongue. However, the bicycle specific one has to stiffer, lighter, faster. And roll better. I like the little white feather that floats down and settles on the tripod at 54 seconds. After all that noise all it hit was a dove. I was going to say, "how very American" but the origin surprised me somewhat. Poor 'roos.

 

[Mrs M]

Electric fencing

 

[Drago]

40 Rotweillers and a Sarin landmine on the balcony.
No room for the bike though

Recently my eldest daughters ex partner turned up and started to have a go. Unfortunately, he failed to understand that her Rottweiler puppy was now a 58kg ox of a dog, who was none too pleased to see his Mum in distress. I can't describe the scene as I wasn't there, but apparently he was screaming like Dale Winton at a wedding dress sale while running up the road at a pace that would have put Usain Bolt to shame.

Sufficeth to say I'm a big fan of rottweilers at the moment.