Cargo Bikes

You can cut through anything. It's about making it the most annoying and time consuming to steal.
If you have some small subtle brake locks that aren't immediately obvious, thieves are going to spend their time cutting through your main lock only to find they still can't ride anywhere and have to then get rid of the disc locks or discs altogether which again, make it less rideable.

Tiny update:

Police have closed the case. No CCTV and drive round last night didn't find anything.

Police passed on my details to the hero passerby and I've been able to thank him properly and send him a gift voucher which I hope he spends on beers.

Be careful out there folks!

I keep thinking I could get one of these angle grinder eating locks but given they are so narrow they only fit around standard street bike parks and not lamp posts, thieves are just going to start slicing through those instead and ride off with lock still intact and remove later??? Presumably your average bike park is just a bit of cheap galvanized steel pipe?

You could put it through a wheel and the frame though. Second lock to attach bike to bike stand/lamp post

How long does a fahgedaboutit take with a diamond disc?

And second what Amey said, if your Cargo bike is gone you might have a few very annoying weeks.
Our neighbour had his stolen from the courtyard in Berlin. He was, apart from the Bullit now being 30% more expensive than his insurance will pay, mostly wondering how he would do school run plus work.

Edit, @ by mistake, sorry.

Yeah, good point, rear wheel is pretty inaccessible on a Tern GSD with Panniers though but I guess almost as effective on the front wheel.

Would be interesting to know how many end up in the back of a transit vs. how many are ridden away tough.

Nightmare fuel. Glad passers by were extremely good humans and the kids weren't stupid enough to threaten violence (they often do).

Multiple smaller cheaper locks is better than one very good one. Have a Milwaukee brushless angle grinder + some thin discs, have experimented on various old duff locks and been paid to free customers who have lost their keys or lock is seized. No lock will last more than a minute (some are <5 seconds, a single cut and its off, some take two cuts of 20s+ per cut).

Your best defense is multiple smaller locks that are harder to get to, a wheel /cafe /dutch lock is always a good thing, as even if all other locks are cut, with a cargo it becomes an absolute mother to move without a van. Remove battery and /or display. Small MC disc locks also a good deterrent.
Then the good old trackers (just put 2x air tags on each of my cargo's, some of them have German brand tracker inside the frame as well), as they will likely find one, but not suspect there will be another air tag, and then another proper tracker inside frame as well. They aren't infallible, but gives you an approx area of city to search in, sometimes this info is enough for Police or other information resources to narrow down the likely culprit.

As removing it only gives the PowUnity GPS tracker ~14hours until it will die. With battery it will be 8 days.

Ah I only meant when you lock it temporarily outside shops etc

Come at me, grinder

https://altorlocks.com/products/saf-lock

Lucky escape last night.

Parked outside guys hospital, right in front of the main entrance.

Came back to find no Benno, and two bits of broken chain on the ground.

Initially I had thought security had take......

this is sad and unfathomable to me. must be hard to go through the day constantly worried about theft... ugh.

Blimey! Glad to hear that had a happy ending. I occasionally have to cut through locks for work (I work for a bike hire company and occasionally a lock will seize/ a rider will stop paying their subscription and we have to recover the bike etc) and nobody has ever batted an eyelid at me taking an angle grinder to a lock in a busy street, let alone confronted me. Great work by the passer by!

I’m not sure this is the best way to stop bike thiefs, but a tip from an old customer. When you lock your bike loosen the stem bolts a bit, not enough so that the bars move around without pressure, but just enough that when you turn the bars to ride away they slip. Fuck it makes it a pain to move it. Bike theifs tend not to have tools so will leave the bike where it falls. Luckily I’ve never come back to find my bike gone or laying on the ground, but a quick crank on an Allen key and away. So far I’ve not forgotten to retighten.

I am sure you already do this but ALWAYS take off the display (if its removable) and battery so its pretty much unassisted till they get a new display, new firmware, new battery.

I have e8000 with Di2 drivetrain. i pull the computer and put it in 1st gear. You'd be hard pressed to move faster than a walk.

How did he manage to scare the thieves off, do you know?

I'm always thinking about what my reaction would be if I interrupted someone going at my bike.

ye, but that's when is most likely to get nicked. so I meant for me I think I'd rather have battery in knowing that if it does get nicked it'll keep tracking for as long as possible

not sure he said something about asking them if they were really stealing a bike with a baby seat on it. I think he caused enough of a fuss the other people got involved too

good tips cheers. we've got the powunity tracker installed which is very good but thinking of an additional airtag. agreed on multiple smaller locks, going to get one of those Oxford alarmed disc locks.

I hadn't seen these...kinda tempted as I would be truly fucked if my Omnom got nicked. Especially as you can no longer get a Ti one off the peg.

It's not just the loss of the bike, it's being unable to work either of my jobs in my case.

No CCTV at the front of a major hospital. Classic

Would say IME and many folk I know and talk to experience, police often know the top 10 bike criminals, and many folk in the bike community will know where these folk live and operate and exactly what they look like and their tactics. Police may know who it is, but getting warrants, executing them, having enough staff, and then trying to refer it all up to the courts who only seem to ever slap a cool ankle bracelet on them becomes futile after a while.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839120346193935/permalink/5208815515891051/?sale_post_id=5208815515891051

Snapped a couple spokes on our new (to us) Bullett. Any recommendations for a wheel builder in SW London? I'll also post in the wheel building thread.

More lock chat, decided to go with a Litelock X1, and an alarmed motorcycle disc lock in addition to what we've already got.

So setup will be:

Kryptonite faghedabout chain (which is a bit shorter now).
Abus frame lock for front wheel
Alarmed motorcycle disc lock for front or rear
Litelock X1 around rear wheel or stand if it fits
Abus Alarmbox

So in theory to ride off you have to make 4 cuts, 1 of which is the angle grinder resistant X1. Seems overkill but don't want to go through last week again.

I was hoping to find a motorcycle diamond chain, but they're all mega mega heavy (at least 15kg+), so it's not really workable.

Also thinking of sticking a few Airtags in the bike somewhere to compliment the powunity we've got already fitted.

go south east and get the best - @broken_777