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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on August 17, 2014 at 8:14am

Interesting that Jason endorses  the Sheldon Brown method that just locks the rear wheel. The lock  does not go around the frame.   The thinking is that this would require a thief to saw through your wheel,  which few  thieves have the interest or  tools to do.

I remember there was an interesting debate about this approach last year on this very web site. Several  posters wrote wrote it saying that with a hacksaw a thief could get through the wheel in a few minutes.

Seems like Active Trans endorses this method though.

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Permalink Reply by Thunder Snow on August 17, 2014 at 9:46am

jolondon30 said:

Several  posters wrote saying that with a hacksaw a thief could get through the wheel in a few minutes.

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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on August 17, 2014 at 12:33pm

ha! Anybody ever heard of this technique being used? 

Did not realize it was that easy :)

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Permalink Reply by Matt M. 18.5KM on August 17, 2014 at 1:04pm

http://www.thechainlink.org/forum/topics/sheldon-brown-locking-tech...

Thunder Snow said:

jolondon30 said:

Several  posters wrote saying that with a hacksaw a thief could get through the wheel in a few minutes.

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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on August 17, 2014 at 3:11pm

Interesting thread. I suspect the poster is right that cutting through the wheel is just uneconomical for thieves  given the cost and hassle of the parts they have to replace. Not to mention that the bike needs to be driven by car  now that the wheel is toast.  I still go through the frame because the marginal time of doing this (10 secs) is worth the piece of mind. But when I am locking next to another bike on a city rack, and going through my frame is difficult, I use the Sheldon method.

To the poster's point, I've never heard of anyone seeing a wheel cut through.  Despite what a few have written, bike thieves are fairly rational.  They steal bikes that aren't locked, that are locked with a cable lock, or are locked with a U lock if it's outside the loop and a nicer bike.  That's what the stolen bike registry data  says.

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