Lock Advice?

[Blueberry]

I'm paranoid about having my bike stolen. There are a couple of places (high foot traffic) that I will leave it for a short time with a cable lock (e.g. the farmer's market), but for most stores I use a mini U-lock around the rear wheel inside the rear triangle locked to a rack and then lock the front wheel and frame to the rack with a cable lock. A regular U-lock would go around some railings that the mini might not, but they won't fit around poles, etc). Theory is that most thieves don't carry both kinds of tools (or at least it would be a major pain in the you know what to steal). Not sure about mounting - I usually throw the locks in a rear pannier (which you may want anyway if you are running many errands and will need to carry things).

If a store doesn't have an appropriate rack, the bike comes inside with me.

CA

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Bike racks? What are those?
Seriously though, in the rural towns in my area there are literally NO racks, and we must just lock to odd things like trees , lamp posts, and stair railings, etc. So we need a 6' cable to go around stuff like that. I have a 3/8" cable with integrated lock. It does take up some space in my saddle bag but what the heck.
If I lived in a big city like NYC or Chicago though, I'd have WAY more major locks than that.
Campuses are another stealing hot spot.

Better safe than sorry- better a bigger lock than you need than a smaller lock than you need.