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Man, once I get a second bike, I'm going to polish the chrome on the nicer of the two until it melts the paint from the glare.

Then I'm going to take the other bike, spray paint it black, tie some binder twine and bungee cords to it, so that it looks like a rat bike, and then drive /that/ to work. My bike is in a high-risk area, while I work.

Telesque wrote:Man, once I get a second bike, I'm going to polish the chrome on the nicer of the two until it melts the paint from the glare.

Then I'm going to take the other bike, spray paint it black, tie some binder twine and bungee cords to it, so that it looks like a rat bike, and then drive /that/ to work. My bike is in a high-risk area, while I work.

thats actouly a pretty good idea. that or by a car you don't care about. but then again who wants to ride in a car thats no fun.

black9 wrote:

Telesque wrote:Man, once I get a second bike, I'm going to polish the chrome on the nicer of the two until it melts the paint from the glare.

Then I'm going to take the other bike, spray paint it black, tie some binder twine and bungee cords to it, so that it looks like a rat bike, and then drive /that/ to work. My bike is in a high-risk area, while I work.

thats actouly a pretty good idea. that or by a car you don't care about. but then again who wants to ride in a car thats no fun.

Exactly! Besides, I do still want to get good fuel economy, and riding a bike is more fun anways.

i was thinking about doing a fuel cut off valve type of thing for my bike. it has a large plastic knob for the fuel petcock valve. it would probally be easy enough to bypass the obvious plastic knob(making it useless) and having another valve that actually switchs it on/off. or even a simple cut off valve hidden some where.

even if someone spends the time to break the disc lock, steering lock, then hot wire it. theyd go to start it and get no thing because theres no fuel feeding through, and the obvious petcock valve is On. the risk of spending any more time is probally enough to cause them to give up. youd just have to close the fuel valve let the bike idle and suck up all the fuel in the line before parking it. of course if they wanted they could push it off or throw it on a truck... but if they plan to ride off at least you delay them and make it another added level of hassle.

sounds like an idea to me at least, anyone else thought of or done this kind of thing before?

Well, you can make your own fuel cut-off, or make another, hidden, engine killswitch.. plus you've got fork locks and all that, which make it hard to ride off on.

That's never been a real big worry for me, though. What I worry about is three guys with a pickup truck or van. That's where the big trouble starts, and where you need to start investing in higher-dollar security solutions like paging systems, audible alarms, or Lo-Jack.

More common is a hidden switch for the electric starters. The basic idea is that when you get off you reach somewhere under the tank or swing arm and kill break the starter circuit, so even if he gets your disc-lock, brake lock and fork lock off he can't get it to turn over. It's exactly like having a dead battery. Just make sure the switch is well hidden.

Another thing to remember is that you can lock your forks at a full left turn, lets see him try and ride off like that!

Sevulturus wrote:More common is a hidden switch for the electric starters. The basic idea is that when you get off you reach somewhere under the tank or swing arm and kill break the starter circuit, so even if he gets your disc-lock, brake lock and fork lock off he can't get it to turn over. It's exactly like having a dead battery. Just make sure the switch is well hidden.

Another thing to remember is that you can lock your forks at a full left turn, lets see him try and ride off like that!

i was thinking of electrical kill switch. but some friends of mine who actually stolen bikes in their time said its very easy to hotwire a bike. so i figured it was futile to defend the electrical system when you can clip right onto the battery and bypass the entire system. so the fuel system is a bit trickier to to find and get around a cut off valve. most people wouldnt even look for it id imagine.

steering locks are good but ive seen what happens to them with a short time and a screw driver, they break fast enough.

Hmmm. Maybe if we all put our tiny, chimplike biker brains together ( ok, so maybe not ) we can come up with the ultimate form of low-budget bike security!

How about.. letting the air out of the tires, and carrying around a battery powered air compressor?

Telesque wrote:Hmmm. Maybe if we all put our tiny, chimplike biker brains together ( ok, so maybe not ) we can come up with the ultimate form of low-budget bike security!

How about.. letting the air out of the tires, and carrying around a battery powered air compressor?

an old timer once told me the best security is strapping a gun holster to your bike. a thief will see it and worry you actually carry a gun and doenst know that the next guy walking by isnt the owner(with gun).

iwannadie wrote:

Telesque wrote:Hmmm. Maybe if we all put our tiny, chimplike biker brains together ( ok, so maybe not ) we can come up with the ultimate form of low-budget bike security!

How about.. letting the air out of the tires, and carrying around a battery powered air compressor?

an old timer once told me the best security is strapping a gun holster to your bike. a thief will see it and worry you actually carry a gun and doenst know that the next guy walking by isnt the owner(with gun).

Hmm. That's an interesting solution. Better than, say, removing the chain every time you leave your bike.

Oooh! How about this: Killswitch for your headlamp?

That way, even if they rode off with your bike, they'd get stopped by the first cop that saw them (in theory). Think a cop would take 'It's a friend's bike?' as an answer? Even then, the theif might already have a criminal record or warrant or something, and get picked up.

Just... don't forget to turn the damn thing on.

Edit: Or, for that matter, just take your license plate with you. It's two bolts, so it's not like an overhaul to do, and a normal plate isn't big enough to struggle walking around with, or ever fit in a pocket for some jeans or jackets.