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Securing bikes in the garage
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
We are getting a garage built at the moment, and the Mrs has basically said once it's done, the bikes are out of the house!
So with all these stories of bikes being pinched from Garages, I'm looking for some method of securing the bikes inside the garage.
Can anyone recommend a product? I'm thinking some sort of steel rail or hoop which can be dynabolted or concreted to the floor. I would then attach the bikes to this with a couple of D locks.
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just make sure they are insured as well
hey i have seen a pretty cool system. where you use a pully system on the roof (if your roof is high enough) they cost about 20 bucks. if not im sorry for the waste of time. lol if you do fine a system that work plz share!!
As mentioned above. If someone wants your bikes badly enough, they will get them. I recently had my bikes ripped off for the second time in 2 years from a unit storage cage. It's obvoiusly a different scenario than a home garage I know. NRMA were great, they paid replacement value fairly quickly. [I don't work for them!!] If you're keen to get a solid lock, I've heard good reports on Kryptonite locks. Dyna bolting a fixture to the floor and running a good chain or lock through would be the best option.
Actually, go to a good locksmith and if they can't help a motorcycle shop for the lock. I have a pretty heavy duty one I use to use for my motorbike and I now use it on my bike rack if I have to leave them.
I bolted a couple of u type bolts to the concrete floor (get them from bunnings) i thread a u lock through that and then chain the bikes together with a heavy duty chain. I'll take a photo when i get home, that has kept my bikes safe for years (knock on wood)
This isnt quite what you are looking for, but I have always been extremely careful about who knows what is in my garage, and also what can be seen from the street. I ensure that the door is up and down as quickly as possible, I never leave it open so passing traffic can see in, and at my place in London fitted what was essentially a false front to the garage, so that when the door was up, there was still a door to go through. Nothing could be seen from the road.
But - as has been said - if they want it, they can get it. Rather like your house. You can alarm it, bars on windows, whatever - it'll still be taken.
Get some insurance. NRMA are good, but why not support the guys that support the sport?
Real Insurance / Velosure - they have been the first company in years to put real $$ into the sport with their support of the marathons and national series - I think we should try to look after them in return...
Yep - got the insurance side covered, but would rather it not come to that.
I've done some googling and found these things, that they normally sell to councils etc.
http://cora.com.au/bikeracks/bikeparkingrails/
They can be concreted into the floor. I realise that nothing will stop a determined thief, but I can certainly make it as hard as possible.
If it's going to take 10 minutes with a two-stroke angle grinder, that makes things difficult for the thief, and dramatically increases the chances of being caught.
I use some wall hooks from Bunnings designed for bikes. They have a thick plastic coated steel rope which runs through the wall bracket and around your frame. Plus they get the bikes up out of the way.
A few tips I've been told over time that seem to work, shed was once broken into but the bikes remained.
- use a couple of locks, mixed styles. U-bolts and cable/chains require different tools and techniques to cut/break.
- store the bikes off the ground and place locks up high. Makes it tougher to break if the lock is dangling and moving.
- if you are locking bikes together, place them "backwards and forwards" with the lock through the frame and wheel, so it's tough to just wheel them out.
- have a think about the "helpful" tools that you keep in the shed that may assist the thief.
I've got my bikes hanging on wall mounted bike hooks. Then I installed one of these to anchor my locks to. http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?M...
The dynabolts are huge so you need a big masonry drill bit to install it. And you need to be careful when tightening these bolts as they could shatter old or weak bricks. CRC have a few options of wall and floor anchors designed for running burly bike locks through.
Tip: Dont use dynabolts.
They are far too easy to remove by simply undoing them and pulling them out. They are very good at doing what they are supposed to do, but poor for security measures.
Some chemset anchors are far more secure, you probably only need the 8mm ones (80mm embedment, any more and you'll drill right through your new slab.)
As Bergrad said, have a think about the other things in your garage, FWIW, I dont think my neighbour would be alarmed if he heard a demo saw going off in my shed
.
Finally, put a proper door on your shed. I had a couple of nice bikes stolen a few years ago because the rented house we were living in didn't have a proper back door. Result: what was there was kicked in, and my bike was disappeared (for a couple of months
).
I have used Dynabolts but taken the easy route and just tack welded the nut to the bolt before grinding the bolt edges until they are round. The fixing point is now near impossible to remove without breaking the concrete and with 2 x 10mm Dyanabolts holding the 12mm hardened steel hawser at each end pretty secure.
The weak point though in most security is with the humans in the link - does my wife lock her bike back up properly when she gets back?
http://www.kryptonitelock.com/Products/ProductDe...
That's effective but not easy to reverse. Most of the proper floor anchors (motorcycle providers make the best ones) are design so when you put in the chain/lock that the bolts are protected so you can use removable dynabolts but a tea-leaf can't get to them
The wall anchor that I posted above comes with 2 ball bearings that you tap into the dynabolt hex slot, thus making it impossible to remove the dynabolt by hand. Of course this does make the anchor rather non reversable and it could still be susceptable to attack with the right tools.
Does home contents insurance cover bikes automatically or do you have to specify them as additional items? What proof do you need in the event of a claim (photos of the bike, original receipt)? If the bike was in a locked garage but not secured to any wall or bike lock does this void the claim??
I should probably call our insurance company, eh?
With my policy if the bike is in a garage it needs to be chained to be covered for theft.
Chains, bolts & U brackets in the floor are all good but a simple deterrent is to remove some of the main parts & put them somewhere else out of sight.
A frame with no wheels/wheel & seat post is not nearly as appealing.
Btw, my garage contains canoes & an old bike. The real art (bike variety)is in the house...
Yeah I get what you're saying about disassembling the bike, but one of my bikes is a daily commuter, and I couldn't be arsed doing that every day!
I reckon security cameras with a digital recorder is the way to go. At least then you have some idea of who the thief is. You can get them reasonably cheap on eBay. It's a waste of time going to the police unless you can give them something to go on, and often the thief will be a repeat offender. The police are thrilled when they get some clear video of the thief, it vastly improves the result of an investigation. You can also post the video of the thief on Youtube so everyone else knows who it is.
What people often call a "garage" when they get their bikes stolen (if you read the Rotorburn lost/found often) is often actually just a cage in a shared underground carpark in a block of units. Often the bike can be seen through the mesh cage.
Reduce exposure to risk:
-Out of sight
-Locked behind doucle key deadlock
-Not in view to the street when you open the roller door (cover them with a sheet or something)
-Not in view through a window (cover with sheet)
-No show ponying around the front yard with them after you wash it
-Not leaving them on the back of the car when you get home
-Insurance with NRMA is pretty flexible now
Yeah and then when they dislike it you know its them.
Lol nah only joking
hbf covered my old kona when i had my house ransacked.
new for old , so the $700 kona coiler was replaced with 3.5k credit at a bike shop ..
nice to get the new push bike , but lost out on some uninsured jewelery
and lost 16k worth of yamaha yz450f , which wasnt covered under home n contents ..
but i did get my mx gearbag covered under sporting goods , and that was about 4k worth on its own. best to check what insurance covers what , read the pdf of your insurance company.
i now have roller shutters, home alarm , cctv cameras all over my property , a dog with big teeth. i still dont lock my push bikes up .. just the MX bike.
no matter what we do if they seriously want it they will get it .. cordless battery angle grinders are cheap and will cut throu almost any chains within a few seconds
I had a dodgy car with loosers in it follow me one day when I had my $5,000 bike on the back, so when I turned off a main road and they followed me I didn't go home.
I kept driving and and when I started driving around the block in an area away from my home they stopped following me. I think they were trying to suss out where I lived so as to come back later.