Securing Bikes in Your House

[Aggie_Ama]

Austin has been plagued by high end bike thefts lately. The most recent hit a friend and pried open his door, making off with all his bikes and bike tools. We would like to set up a system in our garage to store them but keep them secure. With our stable we don't have room to store in the house. We're at 5.5 bikes with eyes on a single speed and maybe a cross bike for me. DH has 3.5 (one is a single speed work in progress) and has a new mountain bike on order but won't be getting rid of his. In theory we could be nearing 9 some day in the not so far future.....

I am thinking somehow bolt racks to the ground using concrete anchors? Then getting a good heavy duty lock. That will at least make it more than a grab and go operation. Our house faces a busy street where we know many of the neighbors who don't work our hours. So we could easily have someone who knows what we got, we try not to let on the value but anyone who cared could figure it out.

[tangentgirl]

Stolen right from the house - that sucks.

You could get something like this if you can drill into the garage floor: http://www.outdoorbikeracks.net/Cust...c=BQ116%2D1005

Then lock your bikes to that.

[Biciclista]

when I go out of town I lock my bike inside the garage (not attached to anything, but with a Kryptonite D lock). That gives me a little confidence.
Bike thieves are lazy, if you make it a little difficult for them, they'll leave the best bikes behind and grab a junkier one.
I like the bolts into the concrete thing though!

[Eden]

when I go out of town I lock my bike inside the garage (not attached to anything, but with a Kryptonite D lock). That gives me a little confidence.
Bike thieves are lazy, if you make it a little difficult for them, they'll leave the best bikes behind and grab a junkier one.
I like the bolts into the concrete thing though!

Bike thieves sneer at a bike locked only to itself.... (ask me about the one I had stolen from a locked inside room at college. It was indoors in a room set aside for bike storage and had the frame locked to the front wheel with a U-lock). Since they can walk off with it and break the lock at their leisure its no problem - a nice angle grinder will make short work of the lock.

[Aggie_Ama]

Actually the ones hitting Austin are anything but lazy. Have known 3 people had them stolen when locked to their car. In one case they only took 1 or 3, the nicest one which was in the middle. The guy broken into they pried the door to his apartment open. I want to make it where if they try they will attract attention, they probably won't hit my area since I am way outside of town but they are definitely casing their targets. Local cops I have spoke to agree.

[smilingcat]

Keep an eye out for a person who doesn't fit at an event such as Crits, TTs. He may be using the events to find his targets. If I were the thief, I think that is where I would start or look at bike shops who are sponsoring training rides.

My bikes are locked in my bedroom. Never in garage. My sister had her mountain bike stolen out of the garage. And it was locked to something.

[Veronica]

How about alarming your house?

Veronica

[marni]

you could go the gun route- bring your bike into the house, remove the wheels and store them in one locked cabinet or closet, remove the seat and store it in a locked cabinet elsewhere and then take the frame, lock it to something large and immoveable and store it in a secure third locked location and then alarm your house. It depends on how much your bike (s) are worth.

My daughter lives in austin but hwat she has is a clunker so she is not too worried although I have convinced her to bring the bike in off her balconey, take the wheels off and store them in her car trunk and secure the frame to the beframe as she can't afford to lose it and replace it at this point in her life.

[NbyNW]

I've been thinking about installing one of these in my garage, but haven't gotten around to it.

[Aggie_Ama]

Smiling Cat - Yup, we have one in jail right now. Caught casing people and had a large amount of stolen bikes in his possession. He even robbed a girl he was using the cover of trying to date. The community is starting to wonder if we have another.

Veronica - That is planned.

Marni - I have a no handgun policy in our house. Had a friend murdered and have never felt the same about them. Plus with an ever expanding stable there isn't enough room unless we double the size of our house!

[Biciclista]

I'm not going to lose sleep over losing my bike in my house. If you lock it and that's still not enough, I'm sorry you had such rotten luck. Your idea about an alarm is a good one.
I think Marni was suggesting you take your bike apart the way others take guns apart to keep them safe too. (But i could be wrong)

[Becky]

I think Marni was suggesting you take your bike apart the way others take guns apart to keep them safe too. (But i could be wrong)

That's how I read it too. It's pretty common practice...

[Pedal Wench]

Most of mine are locked onto the hot water heater in a closet.
Edit - with alarms on all the doors and a motion sensor alarm.

[Catrin]

Smiling Cat - what do you lock your bikes to? I have raised the limit of my renters insurance (replacement cost) and after thinking about it will probably raise it again.

My apartment front door is quite solid, metal, and has two deadbolt locks - only one of which can be unlocked from the outside - you can't even tell from the outside that a second deadbolt exists. Of course there is a patio sliding door - but they would have to literally break the glass to get inside and that is quite the attention getter.

After reading this discussion and thinking about it, I've moved my Gunnar into my bedroom where I never open the blinds, which means I now have Gunnar and Jamis is in the bedroom and LHT in living room. If I open the blinds all the way in the living room the LHT is right there, but I rarely do that and a bike thief in the know would know it isn't a very expensive bike.

I do not have a locked closet or anything that I can really chain my bikes to, this is just a small 1-bedroom apartment.

Good topic, thought provoking.

[marni]

Aggie Ama

actually I have a no handgun policy as well. I was trying to convey the idea of keeping bits and pieces secure in different locked locations the same way someone would if they had to have a handgun in the house and had any brain cells at all.