Theresse

Hello -

My husband's and my bike were stolen a few weeks ago from our detached garage. Luckily they didn't steal 3 kids' bikes nor the Madsen bucket bike (cargo/utility bike) - the latter because they couldn't figure out how to back it up while it was sandwiched in between other objects.

I have a new bike on the way an my husband still needs to get a new one but at any rate rather than turning the garage into a fortress (it's a door that lifts to open and it has a lock) I'd like to lock the non-cargo bikes to the garage somehow - or else to an immovable bike storage rack of some sort. At any rate our garage is far too cluttered so I'm wondering if there's a bike storage thing I could buy that you guys specifically recommend for saving space in a garage and that will hold 2 adult bikes and 3 kids bikes?

If they're wall or ceiling-mounted racks, I guess my ability to lift them into place will just depend on how heavy the bikes are (and of course if the beams are strong enough to hold all that weight as well?). Though kids bikes are lighter...

Thanks!

zenith

Wow, that's no luck... There's a lot of things that can be done. I've found this: https://www.satoridesigns.net/wp-cont...ke-lockers.jpg There's also other kind of bike storage units available on the web.
It seems like a quite safe storage idea. This way they don't have to be hyper locked to each other. Also is there a way to secure the garage door other than the lock? We use wise grips and screw drivers to keep the garage door shut if someone want to enter they need to remove the doors.
Just a thought.

wahoonc

That sucks. I have had more than my share of bikes stolen from garages and storage sheds over the years. Things I have done to circumvent it: Hang the bikes on the wall, with a locking point behind it on the wall, usually a large eye bolt, that is through bolted. Put eye bolts in the floor to lock too. They also make bicycle lift systems that will allow you to pull a bike up to the rafter height. Not quite sure how you would lock those. I would also consider a motion alarm on the garage that would go off and scare the crap out of them. If you use a couple of different methods you probably will slow them down. FWIW I am willing to bet that the thieves are someone from the neighborhood that knows you keep bicycles. That was the case in 3 of my 4 thefts.

Aaron

chandltp

Why can't you just lock your garage?

You could do like Lowes and Home depot and get a 30 foot chain and / or cable and padlock your bikes to something. But if they're already in your garage, they will probably have all the time they want to defeat anything you have locked your bikes up with.

Looigi

I'd consider beefing up the locks and putting an alarm in the garage, as well as locking the individual bikes.

I keep my best/newest bikes in my home office. My old/secondary bikes are in the garage.

zenith

Aaron, that's quite scary when you think that people you know might be stealing your bikes at night. Not a nice thought.

Bianchigirll 

I agree once they inthe garage they have a bit of time to do their thing. a think cable is tougher to cut through than a chain and putting a few screw eyes in the studs to anchor them may help. use one cable for each bike lock them with two cables.

Do you have outside motion dector lights? Howabout inside?

One of these would your best line of defense but both the BATF and DOD are funny about ordinary citizens owning them.

Doohickie

This is what I would do.

Retro Grouch 

1. Go to the hardware store and buy 30' of the biggest chain they have. Strew it outside of your garage but be sure both ends are hidden.
2. Now go to the zoo and ask for some lion dung. Scatter that in your yard.
3. Post a nice tasteful "Beware of Doggie" sign.

That should do it.

wahoonc

Unfortunately it is the truth! On two of my break-ins I had my bicycles located and knew who the perps were within 3 hours of discovering the break in. Police could have cared less. I have recovered more of my own stolen property the police every have, as well as recovering stolen bikes for friends.

Best one was a high end road bike that was stolen out of his house while on vacation, I am driving down the road in my work truck and I see a kid on what is obviously a very high end road bike, it was my buddy's bike, very distinctive. Kid was stopped at an intersection waiting for traffic to clear, I drove up next to him and grabbed the top tube, told him to either jump or get ready to ride. I recognized the little **** from the YMCA where he was in one of the after school programs. I found two of my bikes in a similar manner. Unfortunately bicycle theft is low priority for police and insurance companies have a hard time believing that a bicycle is worth more than a low deductible.

Best thing to do is to protect your investment in your bicycles by securing them as well as possible.

Aaron

fietsbob

tsl , I read, got some wall mount wheel hook + trays with a loop to lock the bikes to the rack ,
he apparently uses them inside his apartment.

pdlamb

You might go for the overlapping locks trick we used with the kids while camping. Every bike has it's own lock; the idea is to lock every bike to at least one other bike, preferably two other bikes, and it's great if you have at least two locks on each bike. Then, instead of rolling off a 25 pound bike, you have 120 pounds of bikes + locks that have to be carried or cut.

SuncoastChad

Pit Bull.

Theresse

Oh good - I'm so excited to see I have some responses!

I have to run off shortly but I'll answer a few things here and then I"ll come back later and read the rest of the responses:

- My garage does have a lock. It's a slide open typical garage door (not automatic) and the lock is a pretty standard one. The key isn't very beefy at all. I'd given my mom the key to go get out the bike pump for my child's science experiment and stupidly didn't make sure she locked it up again. She said "I *think* I did" and said it with no conviction whatsoever. So if I know my mom (and I blame MYSELF for this), I should have gone out and made sure it was locked afterwards. She may have thought it was locked when the door wouldn't pull up again (after closing it) however one turn of the handle would have shown her it was still unlocked (if indeed she left it unlocked). The lock isn't broken.

- They wouldn't have all the time in the world once in the garage because the door is LOUD (light aluminum-sounding, rattling thing) and sits right between my and my neighbor's house in a very echoey driveway that we share. They were very gutsy - you could spit on the garage door practically, from a corner bedroom we have there. I in fact actually heard them open it (!!!) - in the corner front bedroom - and I STUPIDLY (yet again) thought it was my next door neighbor's garage (they sit side by side) cause he's always in there late and it was 1:30 a.m. when they opened it. What kills me is I almost got up to make sure - as I have countless times in the past - but I thought I was being paranoid! The moment they opened that garage, they grabbed the two easiest things they could and quickly left. I heard either a car or truck bed door close only moments after - though oddly didn't hear the motor drive off (but I have a white noise little machine thingy in the hallway that might have drowned that part out). So in that sense, it's not the easiest place to rob.

- Also, my next door neighbors usually have a light that turns on automatically when anyone's walking between our houses back toward the garages. I'm guessing the bulb went out and they didn't bother replacing it cause they built a fence around their garage so no longer need the security. If we got along with them better I'd offer to put in a new bulb myself but they're not the friendliest beasts you ever did meet and would probably ask me in an accusatory tone who's going to pay for the electricity use. That light worked wonders though. We never once were broken into until that thing went out!

- They're not someone we know, most likely. It goes in waves in which they hit our whole neighborhood every couple of years and it's always the detached garages (thankfully) and they're always after bikes. Besides we know everyone and their dog and it's just not characteristic of anyone around here including any mischievous teenagers or anything like that. Of course i could be wrong. There are a couple of interesting characters who walk by every so often and might be scoping the places out - though we definitely don't know them (but yes, they could be watching and looking for patterns). They may have already discovered the light was out, for example. Yeah - not the happiest thought!

Ok thanks for now - very much!

p.s. my son's up super late for a school night and just saw how much I wrote here and said "Uhh, they must think you're a real chatter box." Hahaha - gulp - sorry!

chandltp

All they have to do is close the door after they're in. Unless you go out to investigate, they might even have all the tools they need to defeat any lock.

You could always get a lock with a bike alarm and lock it to one of the bikes that's locked to all the other bikes. That way you'd know if they were in your garage or not.

However, if your garage is locked, they'll likely move on to an easier target, unless they *know* there's something worth their time in there. If you have windows, try covering them up.

tpelle

Do you have a regular entryway door to the garage? If so, you can securely lock the garage door with a padlock - better than the flimsy tumbler lock built into the garage door latch handle. My garage door tracks even have a hole in the track for a padlock.

As an old retired firefighter I can tell you that an overhead garage door is the easiest door on your house to force. All it takes is a crowbar (we used to use a Halligan Tool) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halligan_bar under the door to force it up, and the locking bars bend.

johnhaak

I bought a couple of the vinyl coated 'c' hooks from the hardware store and screwed them into the rafters. Then locked the bikes to the rafters. Locked, upside down and a few feet off the ground seems like enough of a deterrent for me.