The Chainlink

Proper angle at which to lock one's bike to a rack

I have always been taught that the proper way to lock one's bike to an "upside down U" style bike rack is to park your bike parallel to the rack.

 

Almost no one outside my building at work ever does this. They all park their bikes perpendicular to the racks. Sometimes, my bike is even dislodged from its parallel position by someone jamming their bike in perpendicularly.

 

I get that it could be a different situation for one of those "wave" racks, but these are stand-alone U racks.

 

Is it possible that I'm wrong about the proper way to lock one's bike? I'm curious to know whether there is consensus or debate on this issue.

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Permalink Reply by David P. on July 31, 2013 at 7:35am

No, there is no consensus, and yes, there is debate :) I am not dogmatic on this, but find perpendicular easier overall. I tend to lock mine up sort of in-between, which is how my bike ends up once I fit the shackle through the front wheel, downtube and rack.

Permalink Reply by spencewine on July 31, 2013 at 8:17am
I tend to parallel park on those racks as well.... but it is usually a function of space available and where the rack is. Racks extraordinarily close to curbs get the parallel position because I'm afraid a car/delivery truck would hit my front wheel otherwise. Also on narrow sidewalks/high ped traffic areas, I park parallel. This is where Most U racks seem to be. If there is a ton of space, I'll perpendicular park.
Permalink Reply by BruceBikes on July 31, 2013 at 8:41am

The racks, as I understand it, were designed for parallel parking, so each bike has two contact/lock points.

That said, more bikes can be locked to a single rack when parked perpendicular than parallel, and in high demand parking locations, it may be considered bad etiquette to lock parallel thereby preventing additional bikes from being locked perpendicularly to the rack.

But as David P. pointed out, there is no hard-and-fast rule on this.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on July 31, 2013 at 8:51am

How so?  Assuming access to the staple as okay all around, you can park two perpendicular or two parallel.

BruceBikes said:

That said, more bikes can be locked to a single rack when parked perpendicular than parallel...

Permalink Reply by BruceBikes on July 31, 2013 at 9:15am

In a very extreme case of perpendicular parking, I've seen one bike locked to the outside of each leg, one bike locked to the inside of each leg (backed in and locked to the rear triangle), and one bike locked with the front wheel over the middle of the rack.

I regularly see three bikes locked to a rack in the Loop.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

How so?  Assuming access to the staple as okay all around, you can park two perpendicular or two parallel.

BruceBikes said:

That said, more bikes can be locked to a single rack when parked perpendicular than parallel...

Permalink Reply by Tricolor on July 31, 2013 at 9:37am

After having my shift cables accidentally locked by other bike owners a few times I angled mine perpendicular to the rack for years.

Then this happened.

Now I don't use that rack and lock parallel to a different one nearby.

Permalink Reply by Anne Alt on July 31, 2013 at 9:46am

I see 3-4 bikes per staple rack quite often in high-demand locations like Wabash and South LaSalle.

BruceBikes said:

In a very extreme case of perpendicular parking, I've seen one bike locked to the outside of each leg, one bike locked to the inside of each leg (backed in and locked to the rear triangle), and one bike locked with the front wheel over the middle of the rack.

I regularly see three bikes locked to a rack in the Loop.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on July 31, 2013 at 10:07am

I prefer parallel so my cable goes through one part of the U and my U lock goes through the other.  That being said, I will roll with whatever is available.

Permalink Reply by PFEggs on July 31, 2013 at 10:28am

How did this happen?  Did a car knock your rear wheel and that bent the front wheel and break the chain? 

It feels like bad luck just looking at your picture.

Tricolor said:

After having my shift cables accidentally locked by other bike owners a few times I angled mine perpendicular to the rack for years.

Then this happened.

Now I don't use that rack and lock parallel to a different one nearby.

Permalink Reply by JMinHP on July 31, 2013 at 10:38am

The new Lakeview East racks seem to encourage "parallel locking" due to the plate in the middle of the U.  You could lock perpendicular to the outside of the U, but the plate prevents a second bike from locking to the same side by placing their front wheel in the middle of the U.

*Not my picture. Found it via Google image search.

Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on July 31, 2013 at 10:58am

The "experts" tell me that parallel is technically more correct, due to the ability to lock your bike to the rack at the front AND the back. As a practical matter few parallel parkers use two locks. Parallel parkers at the staple racks bother me less than the parallel parkers at the wave racks. Staples are only adequate to lock two or three bikes anyway. Waves are able to accommodate five or more perpendicularly locked bikes and at areas where racks are few and parking is at a premium, I think it's rude for two bikes to monopolize one wave rack.

Permalink Reply by David Barish on July 31, 2013 at 11:26am

That's a good point. There was a thread about a bike that had paralleled at a wave rack at the bike swap.  I am not linking it as I am too lazy/busy to do so now but its there. Those old fashioned racks are meant for perpendicular parking.

Kevin C said:

 Waves are able to accommodate five or more perpendicularly locked bikes and at areas where racks are few and parking is at a premium, I think it's rude for two bikes to monopolize one wave rack.

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