Locks
A bicycle lock is a security device that when fitted correctly stops someone from easily stealing your bike. If you ride a bike and leave it unattended when you are out and about, you need to use a lock. Bike locks are made from a variety of materials, come in different shapes and lengths and use key or combination locking mechanisms. There are cable locks which fold up into easy to carry sizes or shackle locks that are big, bulky and down right scary to look at. Most key locks come with multiple keys in case you happen to loose one of them (never carry them all on the same key chain).
Most bicycle thefts occur through opportunity, they are rarely planned events. Your garage door is open and someone walking past sees your bike sitting there; you drop into the newsagent to grab the morning paper; you are out for a ride and stop to have a coffee and admire the scenery; you ride to work and park your bike in a non secure area; your kids ride to school and park their bikes in the lockup area. All of these situations are easy opportunities for an opportunistic thief but by simply taking the time to lock your bike you can save yourself a lot of unnecessary grief.
Locks are first and foremost a visual deterrent. The more obvious the place you are leaving it and the longer you are likely to be away from it should dictate how hard the lock both appears to be and is to get through before the thief can steal your bike. This probably sounds a bit odd but think about it. Most people steal because they don’t want to work hard enough to earn the money to buy what they want; so if the lock on your bike looks like hard work, then there is less chance someone will go to the effort of attempting to cut through it and steal your bike.
All this being said; it is never a great idea to buy a big heavy looking lock that can easily be picked of cut through. When choosing a lock you should use this general rule of thumb. If your bike is worth less than $1000, you should spend approximately 10% of the value of your bike on a lock. This means that if your bike is worth $500, you should spend around $50 on a security lock. If you own a bike worth more than $1000 talk to someone in the store about the lock that will be best suited and consider whether you should be insuring your bike against theft.
Tioga, Basta and On Guard are manufacturers that produce affordable, quality bicycle locks.
