How do I lock my bike? It’s a great question. U-lock it or lose it. No lock is 100% secure, but locking correctly offers the greatest protection against theft.
There are many ways to lock securely, but this is our preferred method. We recommend using, at minimum, a primary and secondary lock. Primary is usually a u-lock and the secondary is an accessory cable (or cable lock). Please understand that cable locks are not secure locks, they offer very minimal security and can be cut with a hand tool in seconds. IF you do use a cable lock, it should only be used to secure a wheel, at most. Most thieves will not cut a cable to just steal a single wheel, but it has happened on rare occasion.
When using a u-lock and accessory cable, we recommend locking as pictured below. In this photo you will see that the U part of the lock (A) goes around the bike rack, through the rear wheel, around the frame (at the seat stays specifically, encompassing BOTH seat stays, the metal tubes of the frame that angle downward from the seat post area) and then the accessory cable (B) gets passed through the front wheel before one end is looped back through the other end and then placed onto the U part of the lock before the u-lock locking bar is secured. We have more photos at the bottom of this page for added clarity, including one that shows using a mini u-lock to achieve the same locking method.
How can I increase security?
Also an excellent question. Instead of using an accessory cable to secure the front wheel to the u-lock (as pictured above), you can use an additional primary lock. We recommend a different type of lock for your additional primary lock. This can be a chain lock, folding lock (we call them plate locks) or other type of high security lock. You would use this second primary lock to then lock the front wheel (and bike frame, if it fits in the lock) to the bike rack again. In this manner you’ve double locked the frame and each wheel to the bike rack using two different primary locks. Two different locks means a thief may need additional tools or knowledge to defeat two different types of locks. It would also increase the time it takes to defeat the locks.
We also recommend you read through our Bike Theft Guide (link opens in a new tab) which details steps to take before a theft, and after a theft, should one occur.
If you are renting a bicycle from us, note that we do not offer rental insurance, so it is your responsibility to lock correctly each time to minimize the chance of loss.
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