On DIY security, there’s an old budget motorcyclist trick that might be adapted.
The standard motorcycle seat is vinyl covering foam, with a base of hard plastic. There’s also usually a small amount of space just below the seat.
Here’s the trick: get a block of wood, sized to fit snugly in the gap beneath the seat. Drill a hole in the plastic base, directly beneath the rider.
Put a nail through the block of wood, sized so that when you put it under the seat (with the nail through the newly-drilled hole), it stops just short of penetrating the vinyl seat cover.
Guaranteed perforated perineum for anyone who sits on the bike. Disarm by removing the spike block; some sort of visual armed/disarmed reminder cue (loop of bright wool on the handlebars, etc) is advisable if you want to avoid self-inflicted embarassment,
This whole thread is making me want to hop onto my Cannondale that’s currently crying to be ridden. I just need to swap out the pedals. They are hybrid flat standard/clip pedals. I have no desire to wear the shoes around town, and I need to get some good toe clips.
I’ve hear that “ugly” is a decent security feature in addition to any lock. Stickers do the job nicely, but people don’t like ugly.
Craigslist! I paid $100 for it and it was a terrific bike for many years, until the wheels and gears started to have problems, and the price they quoted me to get the bike in working order was almost three times what I paid for it.
There’s a bike store in my neighborhood whose specialty is making brand-new bikes look incredibly shitty. They have paint techniques that make the frame look rusted to hell and wrap electrical & duct tape around various joints; when they’re done, you have a fantastic bike that rides beautifully but looks like it’s about to fall apart.
Let’s try the scary labeling, redundant transmitter, alarm and dye pack first. We don’t want to hurt anyone desperate and sad enough to steal our shiny bikes.
Unless it’s road warrior times. Then maybe, but it’s still probably not worth it.
Not where I live. Children’s bikes are stolen regularly, and any adult bikes. Doesn’t matter what they look like (and in my neighborhood, they aren’t the trendy ones, ever).
Look good, yes; difficult to ride with, given that they were designed for the riding cleats of the day, which are much more low-profile footwear than most modern shoes.
For my commuter/fixed gear (to be ridden with street shoes, in this case) I picked up a pair of these: http://www.amazon.com/Origin8-Double-Steel-Clips-Black/dp/B002MKFOZW?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00 and found them to be both roomy and reasonably well made. I’m running them with double straps (since they were both made for it, as well as them being more comfortable and secure feeling with regular shoes).
Depends on condition and grade; they go from RX100 (Sora/Tiagra) level or so to Dura-Ace. I paid $80 for NOS 600 ones, with no toeclips (and $100 for Dura-Ace clips).
As for fitting shoes, I haven’t had much trouble with most runners, but yeah, you’ll struggle with steelcaps or something like that… Standard toeclips can be modified to fit, and you can go one further by trimming off the vertical bits from the steel triangle and the upper few mm of the vertical bit on the back of the pedal, although that makes the pedal a bit slippier (but it reduces rocking torque).
Thanks! Today is not the day I’m going to go find them to check, but I will soon. I didn’t use them much before taking them off, because I really hated them.
Here’s a thought - bikes are definitely the coolest invention in the universe (given how fundamental locomotion is), and as such, it’s a total certainty that pretty much every intelligent land-based extraterrestrial civilisation has developed them.
