Secure it?

[lorcan]

So the bike got stolen last night in London. I was at the cinema, 2.5 hrs and when I came out it was gone. Opportunistic I would say, they saw me going in and reckoned they ad time.. they did...

Steering lock only. I had an air tag on it and immediately knew where it was, called 999 told them, they acknowledged but apolgised that they were too busy and could not "Attend", suggested I go myself... nearly midnight.. Isle of dogs London.

I jumped in a Zip car and headed to the address, there it was casually parked in a parking spot, Steerring lock fooked and not driveable safely. Called recovery and broght it home.

Anyway, all hail Apple Air Tag i say....

So.. secuirty.. waht you all using? I am thinking BIG chain and lock... any recomendations?

 

[Minister of Etc]

Xena disc lock for around NYC, with the bright orange tether from the lock to the throttle prominently displayed.

Glad to hear the damage was minor.

 

[rongrimes]

Monimoto 7. I think it may serve better than an Apple Air Tag because the air tag relies on proximity of other people's mobile phones. So, it if gets taken out of public areas, you may never find it. The Monimoto 7 doesn't have that limitation.

 

[DrCohen]

So the bike got stolen last night in London. I was at the cinema, 2.5 hrs and when I came out it was gone. Opportunistic I would say, they saw me going in and reckoned they ad time.. they did...

Steering lock only. I had an air tag on it and immediately knew where it was, called 999 told them, they acknowledged but apolgised that they were too busy and could not "Attend", suggested I go myself... nearly midnight.. Isle of dogs London.

I jumped in a Zip car and headed to the address, there it was casually parked in a parking spot, Steerring lock fooked and not driveable safely. Called recovery and broght it home.

Anyway, all hail Apple Air Tag i say....

So.. secuirty.. waht you all using? I am thinking BIG chain and lock... any recomendations?

Check out LockPickingLawyer on YouTube. No lock is invulnerable, but he’ll help you avoid the worst ones.

 

[rongrimes]

Thankfully, the Monimoto 7 doesn't have a lock or key.

 

[DrCohen]

Thankfully, the Monimoto 7 doesn't have a lock or key.

Based on a quick web search, I think the Monimoto 7 is a good product. It would be interesting to see stats on false alarms, failures due to poor LTE coverage, and police response times. It would also be interesting to test with the stolen bike loaded inside an enclosed metal trailer.
But assuming it works perfectly, it is still a very different value proposition from a locking device. When a locking device works perfectly, my bike is unmoved and intact. When a GPS tracker/alarm works perfectly, I must rely on the police to find and physically confront the thief(s), or else risk injury or death by confronting them myself. And suppose the bike is not in plain sight? Suppose it is under a tarp in a pickup, or in a van, or a trailer? I am reasonably certain that GPS will not give a good enough fix to pick out the thief's vehicle among others driving or parked nearby, or to distinguish among adjacent storage units or garages. And getting authorization to search inside private property is not trivial.
In the best case with a GPS tracker/alarm, I will have to find a way to travel to where my bike was taken, hope that it is not locked behind a fence or in a building or in a vehicle or with a chain, and hope it is still rideable.
So, if I were seriously concerned about theft, I would use both a GPS tracker/alarm and a lock. And I would certainly consult the LockPickingLawyer about the lock.

 

[rongrimes]

A locking device assumes you have something to lock it to, which is very often not the case. If you can't lock to some fixed object, it can still be lifted onto the bed of a truck and hauled off. And that again makes the tracker the best device for the job.

 

[DrCohen]

A locking device assumes you have something to lock it to, which is very often not the case. If you can't lock to some fixed object, it can still be lifted onto the bed of a truck and hauled off. And that again makes the tracker the best device for the job.

Because lifting a C650GT is just as easy as pushing it up a ramp?
Immobilizing and tracking are not "the job"; they are two distinct jobs. I would not claim that a lock makes a tracker useless or that a tracker makes a lock useless.

 

[mjnorris]

I had a 3/4” braided steel security cable securing bike to tongue of utility trailer. It was cut with a hacksaw or sawsall.

 

[DrCohen]

I had a 3/4” braided steel security cable securing bike to tongue of utility trailer. It was cut with a hacksaw or sawsall.

Which is why, at the very start of this discussion, I recommended consulting the YouTube videos of the Lockpicking Lawyer to determine which locking devices are most difficult to defeat.