Security

bigriff

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Joined
Aug 22, 2015
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1
Considering converting a bicycle as the benefits sound awesome.

I'm wondering though, since some of the places I need to go I would have to lock up the bike, won't it just be stolen? Sure a good lock etc. But, with a $500 or more battery on it- wouldn't that be a thief's dream?

What do you do to secure your bicycle? I've thought about removing the battery, and carrying it. Pretty heavy, I'd imagine. Is this viable? Am I adding risk to damaging by battery carrying it around in a back back all day.

What about an alarm? I can't imagine this is workable. I just picture it blasting away in the bike when/if disturbed- even accidentally.

A tracker perhaps? But then this is after the fact.

I need to go to work. No problem there, I can take it inside.

I need to go to school. I'm worried here. My only option would be to lock it up in the bike racks.
 
Lots of discussions about locks, alarms, GPS, trackers, etc; if you poke around the forums. Probably mostly in the General Discussion and Ebike General areas, but a search on those various terms (and "theft" or similar types of terms) will probably find some in other forums.
 
Hi bigriff, welcome to ES. Please update your profile with your location. Then,you can get answers from locale members that might be more helpful. Most commercial E-bike kits have a battery unit that locks onto the rear rack or bottle mount with a key lock. Unless the low life's have a cordless angle grinder in their backpack or can steal the whole bike, you should be OK.
AussieRider.
 
I have a locking battery that's been called the dolphin battery case by some people. I leave it locked it on the bike if it's just for short periods of time, or I lug it with me since it just slides off.

Also got Pinhead locking skewers, headset, seat collar, and seat post so it's going to be difficult to unbolt the wheels, seat post, and the access to the saddle bolt without a key.

Either I put the helmet or my gloves over the LCD display when I park it. I take the lights and air pump off the bike. I also lock it to a secure bike rack using a good lock.

I put reflective tapes all over the bike and it's nothing fancy to look at. Granted I don't leave it outside much, but I think it's going to be a hassle to steal. I'm thinking about Bully alarm lock with pager or the New York Fahgettaboudit chain if I ever have to leave it out sitting.
 
GPS trackers are pretty cheap now - like under $50.

Service is about $36 a year, which I would be more tempted to do if I left my bike locked up outside.

Still, if a stolen bike were in a NYC apartment building, I am not sure how a GPS tracker would locate it.
 
You can't bring it inside at work? As mentioned earlier, fiill in your profile so a local ES member may be able to help more than the uninformed.

I am still at a loss as to why members don't fill them out. It should at least your country. Even that can help a lot of times.

Dan
 
A lot of people talk all sorts of stuff but they never do it.
The easiest of quickest is to get a motorcycle disc alarm like, regular cyclists rarely go for these as its heavy and half the bikes out there have v brakes so its no good but its a great setup for an ebike and I swear its saved me from at minimum bits being taken from the bike.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2057872.m570.l1311.R6.TR12.TRC2.A0.H1.Xalarm+lock.TRS0&_nkw=motorcycle+lock+alarm&_sacat=0

It also takes 2 seconds to place on the bike before u walk away as you just place it over the disc and push the botton to lock it and the alarm auto arms...

Not many people have the balls to spend time angle grinding one away in front of people or walking down the street with a screaming heavy bike that they can't ride.

And I am sick of the what if no ones there argument, EVERY FRICKEN TYPE OF SECURITY IS A DETERRENT not a final solution. I don't understand why geeks have trouble seeing this little fact, I guess there minds are just too square.
 

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Looks interesting and cool.
How do they work? If the bike is moved, sees the caliper move it goes to audio alarm, or are their some with a keychain alert too?

A drill with a alan would still take a minute or two. A hammer to break the pin. A pry bar. Either breaks the pin, or breaks the disc. Its all a deterant though, along with a good U lock.
 
No need to break it. You just lift the 50 lbs bike, which is trivially easy, and place it into your pickup truck, which everyone in America seems to have, and drive away.
 
If I were parking my bike outdoors I would get a GPS tracker.

So far the only place I wanted to go in that refused to let me inside was a Wendy's restaurant. They claimed that "If someone tripped on it they would be liable." This was a totally empty restaurant nowhere near a city.

So I tried going through the drive-through, and they would not serve me there. They said someone could hit me from behind. No Duh. Anytime I stop on the road, I am worried someone will hit me from behind. I have to deal with it all the time.
 
rsilvers said:
So I tried going through the drive-through, and they would not serve me there. They said someone could hit me from behind.

That's funny. I go thru drive thru's all the time with a bike. Probably they just got on your case because you rolled in the door first.

I hate U-locks, every time someone goes on about "a good U-lock" I wanna scream. Every U-lock sucks. Because it comes apart in 3 peices, the U, the bar and the key, and you have to fiddle around getting it thru the spokes, thru a helmet strap, thru a pannier strap, around a parking meter pole which it won't fit, with the bike rolling around bumping your legs & threatening to fall over, and rain trickling down the back of your rain jacket and into your bum crack, with people laughing at you bent over and worrying about my back hurting. F. U-locks.

On a car, nothing 'comes apart" in peices, you just put the key in and go, turn back, pull out the key and you're locked. No good reason it can't be the same way with bikes. Bikes used to come with built in locks. But now they're sold in the "sporting goods department", or in very oh-so special sporty bike stores where everything is about being super-sporty and weight-weenie, or urban-stylie, all about hipster appearance, and no-one can figure out that to be really useable everything should not come apart in a zillion little pieces.
 
Hehe... U-Locks... Chains... so cute. `Round here "they" just cut through `em with battery powered cutters. Today watched a guy move a "scooter"-style ebike - parked where a lady wanted to park her food truck - and the things alarm whined and whined... Whooped, beeps, etc. Which shortly did stop, but nobody around had bothered to investigate (this at edge of parking lot at the beach).
 
Goes without saying with the disc brake lock that you also have your standard bike lock.
The main point around is its easy to pop on and off on top of your regular bicycle lock. And it makes an loud alarm sound if someone starts fiddling with your bike as its vibration sensitive..
It will help protect a LCD display or battery etc on your bike which is just as annoying problem to have.
 
TheBeastie said:
Goes without saying with the disc brake lock that you also have your standard bike lock.
The main point around is its easy to pop on and off on top of your regular bicycle lock. And it makes an loud alarm sound if someone starts fiddling with your bike as its vibration sensitive..
It will help protect a LCD display or battery etc on your bike which is just as annoying problem to have.

Well yes, I guess adding a vibration alarm and second thing to cut is an improvement. Having the battery or the bike stolen is quite a bit more than "annoying" if you're using it as a vehicle multiple times every day, parking in public everywhere. Fiddling with multiple locks and keys is preferable, but very annoying when you're on and off a dozen times a day.

My next bike will BE a lock. It will only have one key. It will have only two modes;
1) On (key in, trunk open-able, anchor in, bike drive-able)
2) Off (key out, trunk locked, anchor deployed, bike not drive-able)
 
LockH said:
Just going on theory not to deter a thief, better to catch `em. :wink:

I kinda like the GPS idea as a back up, but my idea of fun is really just finding the bike right where I parked it, not chasing down "them". I've known a lot of "them". They're not spawn of mordor, they're just kids that never grew up for various reasons. Confronting a 6 foot tall angry kid who doesn't share the same concept of "mine" isn't fun. Involving cops is even less fun. I'd prefer just to prevent the confusion about "mine" in the first place by preventing "sharing".
 
OT:

1JohnFoster said:
rsilvers said:
So I tried going through the drive-through, and they would not serve me there. They said someone could hit me from behind.

That's funny. I go thru drive thru's all the time with a bike. Probably they just got on your case because you rolled in the door first.
Here in Phoenix, it depends on the place, but most won't serve "walkups" at the drive thru, and consider anyone not in a car-sized or larger vehicle to be a walkup. Most also won't let bikes inside, though some do. I've seen BMX bikes inside Wendy's up at Metrocenter, but the Burger King near there is very agressive about not allowing htem--if someone starts to walk in with one they actually come around the coutner and get in their way and tell them to get out.

These days I don't typically have the money/time for it, but when I used to go a fair bit, my bikes would usually trigger the sensors at the order-spot, but I have had places refuse to take my money/give me my order when I get up to that window, because I am not in a car. Sometimes they'll say to come in, but I don't see why I should have to when others don't, so I just leave and try to find somewhere else that will let me, or just go home (or wherever I was headed) and get something there, or do without.


Some of them the order-spot doesn't detect anything but large car-sized vehicles (not even big touring motorcycles), so you coudln't make an order anyway. Most won't detect bicycles (mine are a lot larger and more steel mass low to the ground).


Some say on their signage to that effect that it's to prevent robberies, (not sure how being in a car would stop someone from robbing them and driving away even faster than a cyclist or pedestrian could go, but...that's what the signs say). Some don't have signs, and some just have signs saying no walkups or no pedestrians. I think I remember one with an actual "no bicycles" sign, and there was at least one place that also won't serve motorcyclists, or anyone in an "open" vehicle (convertible-top cars included) which made no sense to me at all.

I've been told by a few people that they think it's because someone in a car can't easily get out of their seat and reach in to grab the person inside the serving window, but from what I can see it would be *easier* for many of them to do that, just by pulling up their tall SUV or truck real close to the side of the building, leaving their seatbelt undone, and reaching straight across the gap.

So, the reasons given or assumed vary, but it is (or was) common here to not serve anyone not in an enclosed car-sized or larger vehicle.
 
I have never heard of a drive-through that would refuse to serve someone on a motorcycle.
 
What can I say--businesses around here are strange (and messed up). And it depends not only on the "official" policy of a business, but the individuals working there and the time of day (or night). Places around here tend to take seriously the whole "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" thing. :/
 
amberwolf said:
What can I say--businesses around here are strange (and messed up). And it depends not only on the "official" policy of a business, but the individuals working there and the time of day (or night). Places around here tend to take seriously the whole "we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone" thing. :/

So as an economically poor but rich in eco-effort guy you are profiled by your fellow low wage workers as not the embodiment of their American Dream, and potentially dangerously crazy? No golden crispy sodium laced polysaturated bio-engineered pseudo chicken McGreasies for you non-suit-n-tie guy!

When I lived in Quebec 20 years ago cops would target me for riding a bike. I was stopped several times just for taking a shortcut through an alley or a parking lot. When they found out I was english speaking my "I'm just a nice respectable white middle class guy, officer" act didn't work; I was not only at the bottom of the heap like them, I was "the other" at the bottom, hence stompable-onable.
 
...Thats Quebec 1JohnFoster, nice to visit and pass through, but to live especially in rural areas. They got some strange laws there.
Best to assimulate and blend in with the rest of Canada.
 
amberwolf said:
OT:

1JohnFoster said:
rsilvers said:
So I tried going through the drive-through, and they would not serve me there. They said someone could hit me from behind.

That's funny. I go thru drive thru's all the time with a bike. Probably they just got on your case because you rolled in the door first.
Here in Phoenix, it depends on the place, but most won't serve "walkups" at the drive thru, and consider anyone not in a car-sized or larger vehicle to be a walkup. Most also won't let bikes inside, though some do. I've seen BMX bikes inside Wendy's up at Metrocenter, but the Burger King near there is very agressive about not allowing htem--if someone starts to walk in with one they actually come around the coutner and get in their way and tell them to get out.

These days I don't typically have the money/time for it, but when I used to go a fair bit, my bikes would usually trigger the sensors at the order-spot, but I have had places refuse to take my money/give me my order when I get up to that window, because I am not in a car. Sometimes they'll say to come in, but I don't see why I should have to when others don't, so I just leave and try to find somewhere else that will let me, or just go home (or wherever I was headed) and get something there, or do without.


Some of them the order-spot doesn't detect anything but large car-sized vehicles (not even big touring motorcycles), so you coudln't make an order anyway. Most won't detect bicycles (mine are a lot larger and more steel mass low to the ground).


Some say on their signage to that effect that it's to prevent robberies, (not sure how being in a car would stop someone from robbing them and driving away even faster than a cyclist or pedestrian could go, but...that's what the signs say). Some don't have signs, and some just have signs saying no walkups or no pedestrians. I think I remember one with an actual "no bicycles" sign, and there was at least one place that also won't serve motorcyclists, or anyone in an "open" vehicle (convertible-top cars included) which made no sense to me at all.

I've been told by a few people that they think it's because someone in a car can't easily get out of their seat and reach in to grab the person inside the serving window, but from what I can see it would be *easier* for many of them to do that, just by pulling up their tall SUV or truck real close to the side of the building, leaving their seatbelt undone, and reaching straight across the gap.

So, the reasons given or assumed vary, but it is (or was) common here to not serve anyone not in an enclosed car-sized or larger vehicle.
I don't know how this topic got veered into this area but I do know the feeling of cyclist rejection...
It was about 12am and I was merely trying to ride through for a quick beer and these guys totally rejected me from entering...
[youtube]jufiE312mto[/youtube]
 
When I get my bike together, I will install this alarm thing. Best thing I have seen since now :)

spy 5000m alarm: http://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Remote-Engine-Proximity-universal/dp/B005NDODAW

-Elias
 
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