<p>I’m bringing my bike with me to college since I won’t have a car while I’m there. It’s a trek bike with a very unique pale blue color and it’s built for city transit. I will be using it for getting around and for workouts. This was a rather expensive bike that I got a few years ago, and I would be severely unhappy if anything happened to it. I will be etching my name into the frame and the seat. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good lock for it? </p>
<p>Use a hard steel lock, such as Kryptonite, not anything with a cable! Thieves love Trek bikes because they are so easy to sell. My daughter’s was stolen in the middle of the day while she was in class the second week of school. She had a pretty good cable lock because the info the school sent out said that would be sufficient. Unfortunately, a ring of bike thieves started working her campus, so now they recommend the most secure, most expensive lock you can find. Yeah, they weigh more and are a pain to haul around, but losing your wheels is a bummer…</p>
<p>Do not take an expensive bike to college.</p>
<p>If you insist on taking it wrap it in neon pink duck tape. Take the seat and wheel with you. Good luck!</p>
<p>Buy bike theft insurance. </p>
<p>Consider using two locks, one a cable, and the other a u-lock. You don’t actually need for your bike to be impossible to steal, but you do need it to be harder to steal than all the other bikes in the rack.
If you lock your bike in the same place every day, you can leave the lock there so you don’t have to carry it. </p>
<p>I thought that I should also mention that… It is not apparent that it is a trek bike. You have to look at some rather small simple black print that says trek. Else the only other spot on the bike is engraved right under the seat out of site. Here’s the bike I have but in black <a href=“http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/town/urban_utility/earl/earl/”>http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/town/urban_utility/earl/earl/</a></p>
<p>Do not assume that if you thread your locks through the wheels the bike is going to be ok. I saw that someone did it downtown Seattle, and a thief simply took the frame, leaving the locked wheels behind. Sad. </p>
<p>Do thieves generally have tools that they use to steal bikes?</p>
<p>The u locks were found to be easy to break with a pen, or a can of cold air (used to clean keyboards). DS had 2 bikes stolen, both locked. Agree-- buy a cheap one.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html”>http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html</a></p>
<p>Two locks: U lock and a separate cable lock. These require different tools to break, reducing the likelihood that a thief will have both.</p>
<p>U lock selection should favor those with the keyhole in the middle of the crossbar (so that there is no end sticking out to grab for leverage attacks), non-tubular keyhole (which can be vulnerable to the “pen” attack), and as small as possible to lock the bicycle to an immobile object (so that there is as little space inside the U as possible for attacks that require space inside the U).</p>
<p>Tools for stealing bikes: bolt cutters for cable locks; Bic pen for those old rotary-key U-locks; pry bar for u-locks; battery powered angle grinder with a diamond disk for u-locks.</p>
<p>That said, just make your bike harder to steal than the ones around it and harder to sell than the typical bike. Thick, heavy, hardened chains are the most deterring. A SMALL u-lock (lock back wheel inside of rear triangle) with a cable lock for the front wheel is second best and much lighter.</p>
<p>To make it hard to sell, I like water-slide decals and clear Krylon as a fast way to customize the frame and wheels. Thieves do not like to do too much work before selling a bike, like stripping off identifying paint jobs.</p>
<p>Take your bike, be careful about where you leave it, and enjoy it.</p>
<p>Edit: cross-posted with UCB. Yes, same strategy. BTW, I kept my racing bikes in my room. They were not for transportation.</p>
<p>Bike thieves have great tools, btw.
Its how they make their living.
Don’t take a good bike to school, but a bike that is $500 or less doesn’t really count as a good bike these days, unless you can’t afford to replace it.
Use two different type locks, both u lock & cable or chain.
Dont have a saddle worth stealing.
Go ahead & fasten your helmet through the lock, it wont be worth anything if strap is cut.
Keep spare tire & pump with you as some theives will hope they can get you to leave your bike by letting the air out of your tires.
Also get the smallest u lock, less leverage.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html”>http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html</a></p>
<p>I will see about keeping it in my room or in storage in the dorm. My campus is small enough where I will walk to
Classes. But I will bike to stores or use it to workout.</p>
<p>I engraved my name on the side of it by using a stamping tool. Should I do this in multiple places to make it more apparent?</p>
<p>And I will definitely get the two locks</p>
<p>Could anyone post links to some of the better locks?</p>
<p>Ucb great minds.
I guess I didnt scroll up.
:o</p>
<p>I would not bring any bike I cared about to college. Especially in the city. Buy a crap bike off craigs list when you get to school. Not sure where you are going to school, but in many cities, like Boston, have bike share programs. In Boston it is thehubway and I see those bikes everywhere. </p>
<p>Bikes get all busted up in bike racks at school. Others don’t care that yours is expensive and the clunkers will be falling all over your good bike in the jammed bike racks and busting it up. </p>
<p>I will echo the advice about buying a bike from craigs list or a pawn shop. If you do take your bike, heed the advice on the locks and storage. Also check local police dept. some have a bike registration program. Daughter’s friend found her stolen bike when the new, unsuspecting owner went to PD to register it and found out that it was stolen.</p>
<p>The advice to buy a bike from craigslist or a pawn shop, in the context of this thread, really ticks me off. Those are the two best places to SELL A STOLEN BIKE. If you don’t want your bike stolen, don’t help bike thieves sell stolen bikes.</p>
<p>I read yesterday, a story about a guy who bought a Gary Fisher bike for $40 bucks, from a guy that was standing next to it.
He gave it to him, then noticed the bike was still locked up, so he cut the lock.
His friends had to point out to him that he had just stolen someones bike!
I have’nt been bleen blessd with much common sense myself, but that guy takes the cake.</p>
<p>Ditto on registering your bike, and if you buy used, check first to see if it has been stolen.
I bought oldest a bike from a neighbor for D to ride at college.</p>