Hello,
I will soon be moving into an apartment complex and I am curious to find out about effective ways to secure my GS500F. I remember reading about how easy it was to dismantle some locks using nothing more than a bic pen...are all locking devices for motorcycles so easily compromised? Any comments/advice will be appreciated!
Thanks!
I used to live in a pretty sketchy apt complex in college. I locked my bike to a steel bicycle rack with a chain and padlock. I used a length of very heavy galvanized and a big master lock. I just left it on the rack when I went to campus.
Many smaller bikes are stolen by picking them up and placing them on trailers or in pickups. Fork locks are worthless in that scenario
get a bottom floor apartment and park it in the living room.
in my apt complex a townhouse w/ garage was $200ish more a month. WELL worth having the garage imo
I live in a highrise complex and had someone try and steal my bike one nite.
First, I park it in the lights on the side with everyones balcony and windows...its an apt complex..so chances are there is always someone up at all hours and will hear anything that is going on.
Get a bike cover...out of sight out of mind...at least it reduces people from looking at it.
At the time when someone tried to steal er... I lock the steering lock, front disc brake lock and I have a 15 foot steel braided cable that I loop through the frame right below the front of the seat, through the front wheel and lock it to the front coil spring on my car. Then I throw my cover on it.
The braided cable are very tough for people to cut even more so than a chain i would say, they squash onto itself and makes it even harder to cut through....anyways....they cut about half way through that...someone had heard something going on outside and called the cops. They were gone before the cops arrived.
So as added discouragement now...i also chain it to my car as well as the cable and put a cable and lock on my cover so they cant lift it up and see whats under it. Its a pain in ass taking all the stuff off....but if its a pain in ass for me...it will be a pain in the ass for any would be thief....so chances are they will pass on it.
Of course you could always invest in a motorcycle alarm as well.
My Windshield got stolen from my bike one night. It was parked directly under my apartment stairs. However, it was an aftermarket "Spitfire," which could pretty much be removed by hand. Lesson is that unless you want to worry about some kids stealing parts from your bike for their dirtbike, then it is probably a good idea to get a cover that you can lock.
My bike is secured by a Kryptonite "new york" brak disc lock, which is additionally secured to a post by a strong bike cable. I remembered when the movie "torque" came out and there were a lot of compaints about bike thefts at the theaters, even ones with disc locks and alarms. The case being that most sportbikes can be stolen by a few guys just throwing it in the back of a truck and driving it away, to really be secure you should use a security chain (like the one from Kryptonite) or at least the strongest cable you can find. By the way, my bike has been towed with the disc lock on it alone, but not when it had the cable rapped aroud a tree (and all the other vehicles on the street were towed). That's right, your bike can be towed and Lincoln towing in chicago (who can kiss my culo) charges 225 dollars to get it back (but only 125 for cars). So, I can say that a good chain and disc lock combo soon pays for itself.
For about the last 3 years i have kept my bike locked in the street...or rather the sidewalk outside my apartment window chained to a "No Parking" sign using a "New York" disc lock and chain http://www.kryptonitelock.com/inetisscripts/abtinetis.exe/PublicArticleDetails@public?artid=2745&atf=products_item&pgrp=20
So far so good. And of course i cover it ya sillies.... :P
When I resurfaced I put in a ground anchor at the front of my house, if you can't do that, chaining to a piece of street furniture like Juggernaught's "No Parking sign is good. If all else fails try and find the oldest grottiest tatty old bike cover you can find, get some laquer and paint slug trails on it, stick on some plastic novelty slugs/roaches/spiders or whatever, the only other thing I can think of is to park next to a Fireblade.
I revolve where I chose to live around purchasing a motorcycle/car and working on them (townhouse w/ garage)