221–230 of 240 posts
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all you need is a pipe bender, right?
I didn't know pipe benders capable of bending 3" dia steel tubing were accessible to a garage shop. you also need to weld mounting flanges.
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I doubt it, bike thieves will just use a battery angle grinder with a cutting wheel on your bike lock, and everyone will absolutely ignore them doing it in the middle of the day.
What are bystanders going to do? If you call the cops about someone stealing a bike they'll show up three hours later and shrug, if they show up at all.
I live in the kind of city that most of HN would sneer at and make some quip about it being a rusting post-industrial wasteland of poverty. I guess we're not very enlightened but my Amazon packages don't go missing from my doorstep so I don't complain.
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That said, there are also a lot of similar and different designs as recommended by the largest German bicycle lobby organization [1]. I'd be curious to know what designs engineers from the Netherlands or Denmark have come up with. [1] https://www.adfc.de/artikel/adfc-empfohlene-abstellanlagen-g...
These[0] used to be rather common in the Netherlands And are actually pretty much fine on the wheel bending front if there's enough bicycles parked . You'll just stick your bicycle at the end of a group of bicycles and it'll be prevented from falling over by its neighbors. Still sometimes seen in lowish traffic areas where theft is not very likely. These days you'll more often see these[1] which are a bunch more dens…
https://www.falco.nl/assets/image-cache/2235e.1d162e0c.jpg
You hang the bicycle from its handlebars. Advantages:"
- No bent wheels
- You can lock the bike at "working height": minimal bending to the ground
- Bikes do not fall when for example people bump into them
In general, the author is right, and the simple design is by far the best. But the classic Sheffield stand with a circular cross section can be easily cut with a pipe cutter. Contrary to an angle grinder, a pipe cutter doesn't make any noise. Thus, the design has been improved by making it solid instead of hollow and giving it a rectangular cross section, like [1]. I used to hate the improved design because it's obvi…
It... doesn't actually matter much; if a bike thief wants your bike, they'll get it. Most bike locks are to avoid them being picked up quickly. If you have an expensive bike, insure it for theft and lock it up in a way that ensures someone has to break something to get your bike. That should cover your bases. Don't get too attached to a bike either.
Really the thing saving you is that jerks with angle grinders are pretty rare, and a U lock will stop any opportunist.
You'll see these stands [0] at Stanford and UC Davis, and they seem pretty good. (Although I made the mistake of locking up a nice LeMond bicycle at Stanford with a cable lock and it was stolen in broad daylight. [1]) [0] https://www.groundcontrolsystems.com/product/undergrad-wheel... [1] https://bikeindex.org/bikes/49705
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These[0] used to be rather common in the Netherlands And are actually pretty much fine on the wheel bending front if there's enough bicycles parked . You'll just stick your bicycle at the end of a group of bicycles and it'll be prevented from falling over by its neighbors. Still sometimes seen in lowish traffic areas where theft is not very likely. These days you'll more often see these[1] which are a bunch more dens…
My favorite is this one: https://www.falco.nl/assets/image-cache/2235e.1d162e0c.jpg You hang the bicycle from its handlebars. Advantages:" - No bent wheels - You can lock the bike at "working height": minimal bending to the ground - Bikes do not fall when for example people bump into them
For most bike "racks" here in NL it seems like the primary purpose is not security, but just having somewhere to lean bikes against and give people a sensible place to park their bikes (as opposed to "in a huge pile") Most people don't bother physically locking their regular city bikes to anything (only using a ring lock on the bike itself), primarily cheap beater bikes but also there's a guy in my street with a €200…
In the UK you absolutely need security - London especially anything not held down will be stolen quickly. Battery powered jigsaws to go through locks and chains, bikes stripped of components, etc. Its a whole different world from the safety of NL Granted some of this is because of a culture of more expensive bikes but still if you used a beater bike it wouldnt be safe either
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No one locks their bikes in Japan, either. According to Wikipedia this is thanks to "strong policing and general public disregard for stolen items." I can certainly say I've never heard of a US police department doing anything proactive in response to a reported bike theft.
In Japan every bike is officially registered and has a sticker with a number (think of it as a license number that has to be read closely). Foreigners are stopped by the police fairly often in Japan to check their bike licenses according to reports in /r/japanlife.
I like the broad range of this discussion between "I never have to lock my bike" and "Whatever you try, your bike will get stolen or dismantled within minutes". While I'd like to live in a society without theft, I'm at least glad that where I live, I can leave my bike attached to some immovable object with a u-lock for a few hours and have a good chance of returning to it still being there with nothing missing.
In general, the author is right, and the simple design is by far the best. But the classic Sheffield stand with a circular cross section can be easily cut with a pipe cutter. Contrary to an angle grinder, a pipe cutter doesn't make any noise. Thus, the design has been improved by making it solid instead of hollow and giving it a rectangular cross section, like [1]. I used to hate the improved design because it's obvi…
That seems like an entirely theoretical risk. I've never seen a sheffield stand cut, or actually even any easier-to-cut stands cut. I've seen plenty of bike locks cut or attempted to be cut though. I think it's not as easy as you think, and perhaps more importantly passers by are much more likely to challenge you if you're cutting a bike stand in half!
