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  • As someone that biked in Chicago for over a decade... You make your bike harder to steal than other bikes. Very few bike thefts are targeted; they're largely opportunistic. If it's a targeted theft, they're going to get your bike.

    Start by getting a good lock. If you're riding a bike around that's more than about $1500, spring for the Kryptonite New York series of locks. I'd say get a chain and a very small shackle, because that gives you the most places to lock your bike. When you lock up, remove your front wheel, and run the chain through your rear wheel and both the rear and front triangle, and through your front wheel. Make sure that what you're locking to is sturdy, and difficult to move or cut quickly; city bike racks (the steel ones that are set into the concrete) are pretty good. For buildings that have exterior gas and water pipes, those are pretty great too. Take your seat and seat post with you. Get the tiniest, most uncomfortable-looking clipless pedals you can (Crank Bros. Eggbeaters are a good start, I had Speedplay Frogs before they were discontinued), and wear cycling shoes everywhere; as dumb as it sounds, a bike that someone can't easily ride off on is less likely to get ripped off.

    Don't leave your bike locked up outside overnight. Don't leave your bike in a garage, in a fenced-in back yard, or on a back porch. Set up a place inside your house to store your bike (yes, this means that you need a large shower mat to catch the melting snow in the winter). If you commute to work, see if they have a place inside where you can keep your bike during your shirt.

    Declare your bike on your homeowners' or renters' insurance, and make sure that you specify replacement value, and exact duplicates rather than equivalents.

    Yes, Kryptonite locks can be picked. The people that can consistently pick the new ones quickly are very unlikely to be ripping off bikes.

    It's not fool-proof, but I commuted to and from school in the loop, and to and from work in Skokie, and had a grand total of zero thefts across two high-end Cannondales, one mid-level Fuji, and a Specialized StumpJumper Pro in the years that I lived in Chicago.

  • I've been cycling all over the place since I was a kid and I've never had a bike stolen. Either I've got lucky or my approach is a good one!

    The standard advice in the UK is to have two locks, at least one of which should be a good D-lock. Two locks are twice as good as one, because breaking two locks takes twice as long as breaking one, and thieves generally want to be able to steal bikes very quickly.

    By a 'good lock', I mean in short, an expensive and usually very heavy lock. I have a couple of D-locks for taking out with me and a couple of very heavy chain locks that I keep for locking my bike up at home. I only take the chain locks out if I'm unsure about where to lock my bike, because they're so heavy as to be barely worth the hassle!

    Ideally, a lock should be secured around a frame and a wheel, and then to an immoveable object. So, extending that idea slightly, the ideal place to secure two locks is one around each wheel and the frame. I personally find that this is often difficult to achieve in real life. But, again, that's where having two locks comes in: a bike that's secured to a bikerack with one lock and has the rear wheel imobilised with another lock is difficult to steal.

    Regardless of lock type and placement, the best places to secure a bike are those that either have their own security or have lots of foot traffic. Thieves are less likely to operate where there are lots of potential witnesses.

    Good luck! Bike theft is sadly common but it shouldn't put you off cycling if you're going to be smart about security, which it sounds like you are.

  • D-lock through the drive wheel and frame, steel cable though the d-lock and front wheel, steel wire though a closed metal ring/railing. I've used this technique for yonks and never had so much as a wheel stolen.

    You don't need ultramax security unless you're locking it up outside at night. Deterrence is plenty good enough to stop people from snipping and running.

  • Get a good kryptonite lock and lock the bike up in a high traffic visible area whenever possible. Bike thefts are an unfortunate eventuality most of the time so don’t bother getting a super expensive bike.

  • Abus Granite is the gold-standard.

    Never ever use anything weaker than a pair of Kryptolok's, so you get both wheels locked-up ( or undo the front wheel & put it beside the bike when locking it up with a single Kryptolok )

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