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Old October 8th 17, 03:11 AM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
Joy Beeson
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Posts: 1,638
Default AG: Locking a bike


While cutting down some trees that my lopping shears could almost
handle, I was reminded of why a cable or chain shouldn't be allowed to
droop: if the cable is low enough that a thief can put the jaws of a
bolt cutter on it with one handle braced against the pavement, he can
use both hands or a foot on the other handle.

Also note that your bike is no more secure than the object you have
secured to. If a thief could throw your bike into his truck signpost
and all, or if your Kryptonite lock secures you to the thin wires of a
cattle fence, your bike isn't locked at all.

When we lived in upstate New York, I favored mail boxes as parking
places -- they tend to be very firmly secured, and thieves have
learned not to be caught messing with the U.S. Mail.

Mailboxes are scarcer here, but I lock up only when parking at the
library, where thieves come looking for bikes, and when I intend to go
inside and stay for a while. (My dentist installed a bike rack just
for me after I mentioned that I'd been coming so long that my cable no
longer reached around the tree I'd been using. He also had a younger
tree, but this spot is under his portico.)

There is much discussion about the efficiency of different locks. And
it does matter: this morning (5 October 2017) I was looking for
pedal-powered grocery carts (found one pie-in-the-sky patent
application) when I found a "wonderful" bike lock which consisted of a
string that went through the front wheel from one handlebar plug to
the other.

Chain, cable, U-Lock? Once a U-lock fan tried to convince me that my
cable was inadequate. I replied "how do I secure a U-lock to a
telephone pole?" He said it was easy -- just put a cable around the
pole!

Me, I favor a cable because it rolls up and stays rolled, can be
locked to the outside of a pannier, will attach to whatever
well-secured object I find, and is easy to thread through both wheels
and the frame. There are probably harder-to-cut cables or chains on
the market, but I ride a bike so old* and beat-up that I once came out
of a grocery store to find a five-dollar bill** clipped to the
handlebars. So my best protection is the shiny new toy bikes all over
the place.


*exactly once, I encountered a bystander who recognized it as an
antique.

**(On the way home, I stopped at a church that was raising money for
an impoverished family, and stuck the bill and a note to the
secretary's door.)

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/


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