I think there was a discussion or thead regarding this already but I can't find it, so i apologize for the redundancy.
Where is the best place to lock up? and if I have a quick-release on the front and back wheels and the saddle, how should i secure these? Colin suggested taking the wheels and saddle off and u-bar locking them all. I may not be able to keep my hands out of my gloves long enough to do this (I am mechanically challenged with even taking on and off quick release wheels). I was hoping that a u-bar + cable lock would be enough.
Don't take off both wheels, just the front one. Put it beside the back wheel and you should be able to get a U-lock around both wheels, frame, and rack. I never bother with the seat.
Just locking the rear wheel + frame and putting a cable through the front one is probably fine if you don't want to take a wheel off.
There are a bunch of the three rivers racks flanking the entrance on 5th Ave.
Taking off gloves but leaving glove liners on provides pretty good agility, and your hands stay reasonably warm if it's just for a minute or two and it's not extremely cold. Much, much better than bare skin.
There are bike racks in the upper Duquesne parking garage if you want to park under cover. Chatham garage would also be worth a look, but I'm not sure if they have any racks.
fyi i meant just pull the front wheel off (qr with disc brake makes it easy) and maybe run a cable through the saddle.
the bigger question is, has anyone successfully taken a helmet into the consol? or will stef have to lock that to her bike as well?
Thanks for the graphics, Scott.
The u-lock on the front wheel and the cable on the rear is playing on the relative difficulty of someone removing the rear wheel after cutting the cable. Which makes a certain amount of sense.
However, I prefer to put the ulock on the rear wheel, based on the relative value and difficulty of replacing the rear wheel versus the front wheel. If one of them is going to get stolen, I'd rather lose the front (unless it's my Schmidt).
But this is Pittsburgh, not NYC, and in practice either way is fine.
I was gonna say what Lyle said - rear wheel costs more $ than the front, so make it more secure.
Although I don't agree with the "relative difficulty" part - if it takes any longer to remove the back wheel, it's not more than a second or two... and it certainly can be done without touching the chain if the thief is worried about dirty hands.
I don't know about you salty, but I have a hell of a time trying to get the rear wheel of my cross check off while it is sitting on the ground. Horizontal drops, with a fender in the way, plus the chain. It takes me way more than a second or two more than the front.
Hm, good point - on my MTB with vertical drops it certainly doesn't take me any extra time to get the rear wheel off... I also don't remember having any problems with my CC but I don't have fenders on it (and I've only had the rear wheel off a handful of times).
So long as you're not taking a hugely expensive bike a decent locking job should make it secure. There are racks outside of every entrance, however I think I would prefer the racks on Center since they are out of passerby reach. The ones on Fifth are out of the way and right out where anyone can see them as they are walking by.
Here's another famous locking strategy:
Stef, you're screwed, cause as far as I know, you don't even own a lock.
Hahaha I had one with me. Put my fender and helmet in his car. Thanks for the lockup suggestions guys.
