Equipment to Take Your Bike Security to the Next Level

Bike security should be a serious consideration for any cyclist because a bike is stolen every 30 seconds in the United States.  It is well known that best practices to reduce the risk of theft include utilizing a good lock and employing situational practices such as locking your bike in a well lit area to a sturdy bike rack, bringing it indoors at night and using multiple locks.  Sometimes what is stolen is not the complete bike but important parts such as wheels or saddle. Having the right security equipment for parts and accessories provides another level of protection.

---

We're not going to go into bike locks in depth here, but as a reminder, in an urban area the best style lock to use to secure your bike frame is a ulock with a hardened steel shackle to resist hand tools, bolt cutters, and leverage attacks.  Stay away from cable locks which can easily be cut with wire cutters unless you are using it as a secondary lock in addition to a ulock.  Not all ulocks are created equal so be sure you utilize one from a major brand such as Kryptonite, Abus, Onguard, or Rocky Mounts.  Most companies self-rate locks and a minimum rating of 5 out of 10 is recommended. 
​ 
How to protect your bike wheels
​Even if you utilize a quality ulock on the bike frame, your wheels may be at risk.  The most vulnerable are wheels attached to the bike with a quick release skewer.  This way of attaching wheels to the frame allows a wheel to be removed without any tools. This is helpful if you need to remove a wheel to enable a bike to fit in a car or to repair a flat tire, but this toolless setup makes it easy for a thief to walk up to your bike and quickly steal the wheels.  Wheels that utilize bolts are also at risk since a thief only needs a standard wrench to loosen the bolt and remove the wheels.  To protect them, you need equipment to lock the wheels to the frame.  Here are some options:

Locking skewers by Delta and Pinhead and hex skewers by Delta

​

1. Ulock through one of the wheels – if your ulock shackle is long enough, i.e. the standard or long size, and the rack you are locking to is not too thick, you will be able to lock the frame AND a wheel to the rack. You will only be able to lock one of the two wheels so the rear is usually the best choice because since it has gears mounted on the hub and will be more expensive to replace.  This will leave the front wheel unprotected, but that is a risk you might be willing to take.
2. Cable through both wheels – if you have a 4 foot hardened cable or longer, you can feed it through both wheels and secure it with the ulock.  The advantage is that this protects both the front and back wheel.  The disadvantage is that every time you stop you have to pull out the cable, feed it through the wheels, and lock it with the ulock and reverse this process when it is time to unlock.  This makes it time consuming to make a quick stop on your bike.
3. Locking skewers - this applies only to wheels with quick release skewers and involves removing the skewers and replacing them with a skewer that locks.  The advantage of these is that your wheels are locked all the time until you want to remove them and this makes it quicker to stop and secure your bike.  There are several types of locking skewers:
   1. Hex skewers – these are unlocked with a standard 5mm hex wrench.  Because you need a tool to remove the skewer, albeit a standard one, this will slow a thief down since they have to come prepared with the tool and it will take longer to remove than a quick release lever.  Since it is a standard tool, no special key is needed which might get lost. 
   2. Locking skewers – these replace the standard quick release levers, but require a special key to remove.  Some brands, like the Delta brand, come with a standard key used on all skewers from the manufacturer and others, like the Pinhead brand, have a three notch key uniquely keyed to your set of skewers
   3. Gravity skewers – these replace the standard quick release levers and are unlocked with a standard 5mm hex tool, but they can only unlock when the bike is upside down.  If you need to remove a wheel to fix a flat, you would just turn the bike upside down, no special key is needed.  The idea is that if a bike is locked to a bike rack, it would not be possible to turn it upside down to disengage the gravity skewer, and thus, your wheels will be safe.  An example of this is the Kryptonite Gravity Wheel Boltz. 
4. Locking bolts – these apply only to wheels with solid axles secured by bolts.  You would remove the bolts and replace then with special bolts designed to have a locking mechanism.  You would only need to replace one bolt on each wheel with the locking bolt.  Examples of locking bolts are the Kryptonite Wheel Boltz which work with gravity and Hexlox, a special hex bolt that accepts a locking insert which can only be inserted and removed with a proprietary key.  The advantage of locking bolts is that your wheels are locked all the time so stops are quicker.  Disadvantages are it is more difficult for you to remove them (turning the bike upside down for the gravity bolts or using a key and you need to take care you do not misplace) and if you opt to only replace one wheel bolt and you carry tools to fix a flat, you need to carry two types of tools to remove the wheel.  

Using a ulock through the bike rack, frame, and rear wheel

​How to protect your bike saddle
Theft of bicycle saddles is not common, but it does happen and is a major inconvenience when it does.  If you have an expensive saddle there is a risk it will catch the eye of a thief who might remove both the saddle and the seat post.  This makes it difficult for you to ride your bike home and if it does rain when you are without a seat post, rain will get into your frame inviting rust.  Here are some solutions for securing your saddle

1. Saddle leash – you would run a thin cable designed for this purpose through the rails of your saddle and through your bike frame or a separate lock.  This solution will slow down removal since several hard-to-reach bolts would have to be loosened. 
2. Seat clamps – if your seat post has a quick release, replace it with a new seat clamp secured with a hex bolt or nut and bolt.  Be sure to measure carefully since seat post clamps come in different sizes.  You might also replace the bolt on the new seat clamp with a less common bolt such as a Torx bolt (also known as a star-nut bolt). There are multiple sizes of Torx bolts and unless the thief happens to carry the correct size wrench this would prevent a quick removal.
3. Locking bolt – the same solution available for wheels are available to secure the seat post: locking skewer, gravity skewer, or locking bolt.  

How to be notified of bike tampering
There are now bike alarm systems you can mount on your bike that sounds an alarm and sends an alert to your cell phone if your bike is jostled or moved.  These devices are sometimes integrated into ebikes because the ebike battery mounted on the bike can also be utilized to power the alarm.  Besides helping to deter tampering with your bike by sounding an alarm, it makes it more difficult for a thief to remove accessories such as lights and bike bags.  Some systems employ cellular-enabled GPS to assist in recovery of a stolen bike.  Examples are Galeo and ILockIt.

If you don't have a bike alarm and your accessories are not attached with bolts, just remove them with you when you leave your bike.  For lights, you can usually leave the bracket on the handlebar or seat post and slip the lights off into your pocket and for bags, remove them and take them with you using the carrying handle most have.    

By investing in a few additional pieces of equipment in addition to a quality lock you can increase the likelihood of your bike being available with all its parts and pieces for your next glorious cycling adventure.  ​