I use a Kryptonite combination U-lock. It's pretty good. My favorite coffee house, however, has an "arty" rack that is very pretty, but made of that thin rusty-looking metal ... I think you could cut through it with actual scissors, and certainly you could just throw the whole rack in the back of a truck. There are street posts (no parking signs) but they are usually already occupied by other bikes, and I don't want to carry a cable big enough to go around a tree. I'm not too worried about theft at that spot, really, but the rack is so flimsy that my pink mixte (which does not balance well due to the rear baskets) probably wouldn't even stand up without falling over. It's just a horrible rack to use at all, never mind the flimsy factor!

The coffee house where I am working today is probably fine. Lots of bikes, lots of sidewalk food traffic. The racks are very old fashioned and flimsy, but really their biggest problem is that they are usually fully occupied so there is not much room.

The city recently removed most of the parking meters here and replaced them with two-bike bike racks, but they are only on the busier streets (side streets didn't have parking meters to begin with). That is what makes the Starbucks, etc., better for bike parking.

Aren't they cute, though?