Originally Posted by
tempocyclist
This. And if you do need to leave it / lock it someplace, make it harder to steal than any other bike around it.
Your advice in action...Last week, my daughter moved into her college dorm along with a bunch of her classmates who brought bikes. The bikes were put in a locked cage at the dorm, and each bike had its own lock(s). That first night, the cage was broken into, and most of the bikes were stolen by sawing though the steel frame of the bike racks. One of the few bikes to survive was that of a non-freshman who used 8 u-locks on his bike.
In preparation for her move to college, I had spent a couple of weeks putting together a late-90s steel Bianchi "townie" bike for my daughter. At the last minute, she decided to leave it at home until she got a feel for how safe it would be. This tuned out to be a very good decision.