Most expensive bike you would lock up on the streets of London

We all see amazing bikes all over London in your daily travels. I've always ridden 80s or 90s frames with fairly low spec group sets or single speed in the 9 years I've been riding around London. I have finally built up a carbon bike with record components for my summer ride and have enjoyed riding it on my commute from hackney to putney everyday. I still can't bring myself to locking it on e streets but have seen carbon pinarellos and colnagos locked up in soho and hackney. Makes me wonder are they braver, richer or more nonchalant than I?

What is the most expensive bike you'd be happy locking up anywhere in London in your daily travels?

Depends for how long, I've locked my road bike up outside Saino's for ~ 5 minutes, but I'd not leave it for longer.

I am aware that this may be slightly illogical.

You don't.

In the end it's just a bicycle.

Unless it's a custom, then you're fucked.

Anything as long as its insured

It also depends where. And how many locks.

Proper locks, used correctly.

I'd not lock a plastic bike up on a public rack due to them being too fragile.

Anything over £500-£600 I think you've got to be prepared that at some point that it might get half inched.

I'm still a bit wary of locking up my pub bike, to be honest

Proper locks, used correctly.

I'd not lock a plastic bike up on a public rack due to them being too fragile.

Plastic... heh...

I just try and avoid locking up for long periods any where that I feel too shady about.

Locked this up all over London from brand new, and kept doing so for twelve years. Cost me £2k to build.

One lock, an Abus Granit Steel-O-Flex 1000.
Still have the lock, nobody ever messed with it. Still have the frameset too.
It was never locked up in stupid (ie secluded or quiet) locations, and never left outdoors overnight, but I would regularly leave it locked up on the streets of Soho, Covent Garden and Clerkenwell for entire afternoons. Outside the pubs of Stokey too.

There was one time (about a year after I built the bike, when Cannondale was still perhaps the most thief-magnetic bicycle brand in London) that I was chased by knife-wielding yoof down Caledonian Road, them screaming "'E's got a facking Cannondaaaale, fackin' 'ave it!"
Thankfully they were on foot, and never caught me.

Take care when and where you lock your bike, and you should hopefully hang onto it. I wouldn't put a limit on the value of a bike I'd lock up, but there's a limit to where I'd lock a decent bike.

i dont lock, i lean

depends what it looks like and where it is, I've recently taken to riding my 1.5k mtb with street tires on while my fixed gear gets a new frame. it looks like crap though muddy and no flash at all, I leave it locked up all day in the nicer parts of bristol (sorry not london) but worry about it if it out of my sight at all in other parts. I use two D locks.

If the bike isn't mine, I don't care how expensive it is.

Seriously though, I do often wonder what most thieves are looking for or if they even know what a valuable bike/bike parts are. I suspect the most important thing is the ease with which they can steal it.

And of course, some areas of London are statistically 'safer' to lock bikes up in than others.

while my fixed gear gets a new frame

"Ship of Theseus"

I saw an unfolded Brompton locked up next to Condor today. I really hope it wasn't stolen.

A friend of mine left her Condor outside a pub in Stoke Newington, locked through both wheels and frame with two good d-locks.

Came out to find someone had cut the brake and gear cables and stolen her stem and handlebars.

Shortly afterwards found that campag shifters are fucking expensive.

beater, end of

I have always thought the best way to stop your bike getting nicked (after locks and somewhere visible) is to park it next to a more expensive looking bike.

How long is a piece of string? £50 beater but it was my prized possession - wouldn't. £10,000 insured Pina that someone had given me to use as a bait bike - no probs. How many locks? How long for? Where? Inside or outside? Can I pay a security guard to watch it? merges with 100 other lock threads

i lean
Come on...

I lock a fixed gear bike worth around £750 with Kryptonite D lock and cable all over hackney, bethnal green, broaday market, the square mile, covent garden, soho, picadilly. I do it day and night, but never overnight. I always lock it properly through both wheels and frame in a well lit and populated area, and touch wood, havent had a problem.

d lock is all well and good but when they remove seat / seatpost bars / brakes etc
it's much more difficult to lock those

Just avoid leaving it in an "E" postcode and you've got a much better chance of it being there when you get back.

Eastist