Vintage Schwinn

There is no way to completely keep the thieves away.
Perhaps, outta sight, as locked in the giant trunk of a 1965 - 1975 Cadillac Sedan De Ville, or some other period land yacht with a huge trunk.
Possibly a Ford Econoline van or Chevy van....
Does the last version of the Ford Crown Victoria / Mercury Grand Marquis (1992 - 2011) have a large enough trunk? It seems the boxy shaped '89-91 Crown Vics had the largest trunks. Perhaps a 1988 or 1989 Lincoln Town Car...
The latest Ford Transit and Mercedes vans look like they would be fine.
A low budget approach might be an old ex- UHAUL enclosed trailer... A new enclosed motorcycle trailer would not be low budget.
IF ALL THIS SEEMS TOO SILLY, you'll just have to keep an eye or your bike(s) when parked. Locks only delay the thieves for just about two minutes, but that may be just enough to have them pass on attempting to swipe yours.

Nachoman

Normally I don't like leaving my bike out of eye sight. But if I do . . .
First three U locks: One securing the frame to the hitch rack. One locking the front wheel to the frame. And the other locking the rear wheel to the frame.
Then three cable locks: One looping through saddle rail, locking frame to hitch rack. One locking front wheel and frame to hitch rack. And one locking rear wheel and frame to hitch rack.

Jicafold

Geez. Take your medication. The OP said "I would like to take my bike to work or store for a later in the day ride, but I don't want to find that my bike was stolen. ", so putting a bike inside the car is a legitimate answer. He is from GA and likely has tinted windows so it is unlikely that anyone would even know there is a bike inside.

huffman 

I keep nothing in my car, not even spare change. Thieves sneak around the housing developments at night with spring loaded car window punches and clean up. They make less noise than using a hammer plus it's quicker. Thieves broke out 28 car windows in one night last year in the 2 developments next to me. We have cameras & motion detection security lights, driveway lights up like a prison yard long before they can get to the cars. Most car parts places sell the Key Chain Escape tool for $12 so not a capitol expense for thieves though they probably shoplift them.

I have a 1-UP and use U-bolts & heavy duty cables. I always pass one of the cables through the car frame, 1-UP locks aren't all that good, a rock coming off the road broke the head off one of mine at the hitch mount making it useless. Anybody with a hammer to break the head off & the right tool to loosen it can get one off in less and a minute, maybe a couple if loaded with bikes. My theory if they want it, they will get it. I just make it look so hard & time consuming to get off with multiple locks & cables they will pass it by. Yea it's a PITA but has worked so far.

Back in the 70's somebody stole a whole rack of bikes off the UNC campus. Theory was they backed a roll back wrecker up to it and pulled the entire rack bikes & all onto the truck and were gone before anybody saw them. If there is a will, there is a way.

DrIsotope

It’s not a legitimate answer to the OP’s question, and your response adds nothing pertinent to the thread. No medication required.

dkatz1

I have a hitch mounted (Thule) rack that has a built in lock and cable. Which I'll depend on if: I'm traveling somewhere and stop to get coffee or food. AND then I try to sit by a window...I have better locks and cables but I go Way out of my way to not leave the bike sitting on the rack. The rack itself locks to the car, but I would guess both of it's locks are easy to break...I could bring a better cable and ulock, but I'm happier just not living it sitting.

Leinster

A video went the rounds here a couple years ago of thieves rolling up beside a parked, expensive car, deactivating the alarm (they had some sort of codebreak/hacking device for this purpose) and pulling out the ~$5k race bike which had been ready for the owner’s triathlon the following morning. It’s not the only instance around here of a competitive cyclist/athlete’s house being staked out and their high-dollar ride being taken the night before an event.

Against that, there have also been any number of videos showing thieves taking bikes off the racks of cars while parked in traffic. No locking method is 100% thief proof.

Leinster

It’s a perfectly valid response. One of the benefits of BF is that questioners frequently get not the answers they asked for, but the answers they need. Eg, the question “which groupset should I upgrade to?” will 95% of the time be answered with “you should upgrade your wheels instead.” Since the OP didn’t specify, it’s also reasonable to think the OP might not have already considered storing inside the car.

DrIsotope

Next time you're taking a test of any kind, try out the technique of answering a question that was never asked. The actual, word for word title of this thread is "How do you secure your bike on your car bike rack?" Not "should I lock my bike in my car" or "what's the safest place to store my bike." Only a select handful of people have made any effort to answer the question posed by the OP. This is not analysis of literature-- we're not here to play the guessing game as to what the question posed may or may not mean.

rm -rf

See my chain comment below.

I have a Kuat Sherpa 2.0. It's great. It's lightweight, about 33 pounds, so it's very easy to lift off the garage hooks and mount on the car, about 60 seconds. And the bikes load securely in 30 seconds.

There was a recent thread: Kuat NV Stolen off Car Beware

The empty racks are a good target for thieves. My Kuat has a 1 1/4 hitch, so the locking pin is only 3/8 inch thick, unlike the 2 inch receivers that have 1/2 inch locking pins. I think a crowbar would pop the lock off the end of the pin, or a moderate sized bolt cutter would work. Even the hitch is only held on with a few bolts!

From my comment in that thread:

Any cable can be quietly cut with a good, sharp electrician's diagonal cutter, snipping a few strands at a time. My Kuat comes with a cable that locks into the rack. It's good for stopping grab-and-go thieves, that's about all.


Long chain
I may get a long case hardened chain if I want to leave bikes on the rack for a few hours. This site sells Abus hardened chains by the foot, with or without a cloth cover. I need 9 feet of chain to go through both wheels of two bikes, and back to the hitch's hook loop -- that will be about 20 pounds of chain!

Leinster

This isn’t a test, though. It’s advice.

If I’m taking an exam, I will always answer the question as written, because the person writing the test is examining a specific area of my knowledge on the subject matter. If a client asks me a question, and it appears to me that they have not considered all the variables in their question, it would be professionally remiss of me to not alert them to those other variables.

Kapusta

Bike Forums: All the advice you never asked for and don't want.

Nachoman

Classic!
I answered the OP's question. Do I win a cookie?

Siu Blue Wind

Jicafold please leave this thread.

coffeesnob

What ever you do make sure you use a backup safety rope for a backup in case something fails or comes loose.

frogmorton

When I stay in a hotel, I take the bike to my room. I’ve never had anyone say anything when I roll it through the lobby and I to the elevator.

SpeedyBlueBiker

I don't like bike racks that attach to cars. Too much road dust & dirt gets into the cogs, chainrings, and chain. Then if it rains, ughh. Always the chance of getting rear ended. Possible to back up and into someone. Harder to parallel park. I always put the bike in the car. I have an older (2005) Camry with a trunk and a lot of miles on it. It's my car to park at trailheads whether hiking or mtbking, park & ride lots, and road biking when meeting others. As it's a trunk there are no windows. No one knows there is a bike inside this older car. I used to have a 2002 CRV. I could take the front wheel off and fit the bike in with the rear seats down. If I was parking the CRV for a long time and the vehicle unattended (like when I'm at work) I'd cover the bike and front wheel with two blankets. Very hard to tell there was a bike there. Looks more like a messy car than anything else!

tim24k

I use a good U lock through the frame and back wheel securing it to a bike rack set in concrete. If I’m out of eye shot of the bike I will then take the front wheel off and take it in with me.

LV2TNDM

Some racks offer security, others don't. Trunk racks are the worst - for theft AND reliability. Thus I refuse to use them. Roof and hitch racks usually lock. However, the locks can be defeated. I've heard of entire Yakima systems being pried off of roofs with bikes attached. But that was San Francisco.

I just stopped using my Yakima roof rack system for everyday bike transport. When I had four or five bikes up there, I used the SKS locks as well as my ulocks and cables to secure the two bikes on the ends. A good enough deterrent to stop all but the most determined of thieves. I'd leave them locked overnight in front of our hotel or at the campsite. But not overnight in any urban environment with moderate to high theft incidence.

Now I'm using a Kuat hitch rack (and loving it!). I utilize the built-in cable locks for almost all low-theft scenarios. As well as backup in case of a bonehead move not securing a bike properly. But the built-in security are cable locks and inherently low security. Thus, on trips, I bring along my Kryptonite chain, disk lock and ulocks. The 4-bike Kuat rack alone is over a thousand bucks, so it's worth redundant locking it alone, even more so the four bikes attached to it. So I can lock the chain to the cutout in the trailer hitch and lock all the bikes and the Kuat rack in one shot. This is enough to allow me to sleep at night. Anyone going to town with an angle grinder would get my rack and bikes. And that's ultimately what insurance is for.

I hope that helps.

PS I LOVE the Kuat and their awesome customer service (sent me four matching lock cores for my mis-matched system free of charge). BUT, why on earth does Kuat stamp the lock key number ON THE LOCK CORES??? Right there for everyone to see! So before hitting Utah this last spring, I took the trusty Dremel Tool out and ground off the lock core numbers. Jeez people, let's NOT make it easier for thieves, shall we?!!!

LV2TNDM

This comment couldn't be more wrong! Not locking a bicycle inside a car often results in TWO violations:
1) Your bike being stolen
2) Your window being smashed
Unless you live in Pleasantville where there's no crime whatsoever, your advice is seriously lacking. For the rest of us who live in the USA where bicycle theft is a major problem, locking your bike in your car is absolutely necessary. In fact, you want to be sure to lock it and be sure the thieves see the bike's are securely locked. Maybe even put a note on the window saying, "Bikes securely locked to vehicle inside."


The only advice worth considering is NOT leaving bikes in vehicles in the first place. Because even with locks, many idiot, crackhead, addict thieves will smash the window anyway just to discover the lock IS ACTUALLY HOLDING THE BIKE! I don't think I'd leave a bike in a car in an urban environment for this reason. But if I had to, I'D PUT SEVERAL LARGE ULOCKS ON THE BIKE(S) AND MAKE SURE THEY'RE OBVIOUSLY LOCKED.

And yes, vehicle content burglary in many urban areas is so bad that people clean out their cars and leave the doors unlocked. Some SF residents put stickers on the windows, "Unlocked, come on in! Nothing here to steal!" or "Unlocked! Don't break!" Window replacement costs more than many people's bikes. So take that into account when considering bicycle storage.

And I'll add that the adage, "My bike's too nice to lock!" is about the dumbest statement anyone could make. Or "I don't let my bike out of my sight." Really? You have it with you in the shower? When going to a movie? Or any other number of scenarios where you can't be near your bike. If you own a nice bike or bikes, you should own a nice lock or locks. Lock your bikes wherever you leave them. My college roommate laughed uncontrollably at me for locking my beloved '85 Cannondale mountain bike in my apartment bedroom. Boy he thought I was the most paranoid person he'd ever met. (My first bike was stolen on campus.) But I didn't relent and continued locking my bike WHEREVER I left it. And boy am I glad I did. Subsequent to college, I managed several LBSs in San Francisco. I lost count of the number of times customers came in and said, "I need a new bike. Mine was stolen out of my apartment." People forget that bikes in homes and apartments are PERFECT getaway vehicles for thieves after they burglarize you. So "having a bike too nice to lock" is hogwash and absurd. Lock it if you love it!

Fargo Wolf

Wouldn't know. I own a P/U truck. XD That being said, I have seen peeps use U- Locks through the wheel and frame, so that would be thieves look else where (or at least hopefully they do).

blakcloud

Thule Roof rack with their locking cylinders. These are basic at best but help slow things down. I then use Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit locks with a cable. I don't drive with these locks on just when I park.

TommyTwoTone

I solved the theft problem in this way, I have a GMC Cargo van, and put my bike in it and lock it up, I also use it for camping and traveling and it works great, and the bike is out of sight. Some things to consider.......first thing is, a van is not for everyone, but it's something to consider for hauling your bikes around, you can only have one passenger and with my solar panels on top I can't put it in my garage anymore, not the greatest gas mileage and not the most desirous of good looking vehicles but it doesn't stand out and draw attention, there are so many just like it that no one pays any attention to it and I have lots of room, I also have a Kuat swing away bike rack carrier and can keep my bikes locked up to the bike rack with a couple of U-Locks and chain wrapped around everything and that's a pain but sometimes I can't fit two bikes in the van along with my camping gear but I prefer keeping them in the van, no rear windows and the side door windows have a deep tint so you can't easily see inside, plus, the partition makes it so you can't see anything from the front windows. Privacy plus protection.

Doc_Wui

[I have a Swagman XTC platform rack, with the center beam that folds up/down and it has ratcheted hooks to hold the bikes. . One day we took the bikes into Chicago, and I threw a cheap cable lock round both bikes to deter some kid possibly taking a bike off at a stoplight.

Coming in on the freeway, I look in the mirror and see no bikes behind the car. Oh no. I pull to the shoulde Both bikes are there, but are almost horizontal, with their tires strapped into the tire trays, but I had forgotten to pin the center beam and it had folded itself, allowing both bikes to tip over, Only my cable lock was keeping the handlebars from dragging.