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I wondered what people would advise with regards to keeping multiple bikes locked and safe in garage. At present we have 6 bikes, 5 hang on the wall with rear wheel being about 2 foot from the floor and other bike just leaning against the wall.
The trouble is i live in a sleepy part of Norfolk, where crime is fairly low and people often leave doors open, but surrounding villages have had a number of garage break ins and a garage in my village had MX motorbikes stolen.
I have been pretty slack with a single ground anchor and a large motorbike chain lock around the two bikes that are worth a bit, and then have just parked my car of an evening up against the wooden garage doors so that they would have to move car to get in the doors at night.
Any recommendations or ideas about best way to protect them all, i have just fitted a security light, but want to be able to lock all five bikes hanging on the wall, is it just a case of multiple ground anchors/ chains being best?
I've just fitted an anchor to the wall and will run a chain through as many frames as I sensibly can.
Problem is that my garage contains all the tools you'd need to cut a chain / lock so really it's just there to make someone move on to the next, hopefully easier, garage.
Look for the Shed thread, someone posted a picture in the of what looked like a lockable cage door across the end of their garage where the bikes are.
Hopefully that's a picture of it
Yep that's ours, went to town after we had two taken, busted the garage door and motor to get in during the day. Even the deafening alarm didn't stop them.
Trouble is i have two wooden doors on front of the garage, i access via the LH door and the RH is always locked with the five bikes hung up just behind the RH door, then the "workshop" part of my garage is down the other end full of old kitchen units i adapted. Otherwise being able to lock all the bikes away behind metal cage would be ace.
If they want them they will get them. We were clocked unloading from our Alps trip, unbeknownst to us we were been watched on a daily basis and they came back on the first time my car had been out of the garage in six weeks. Our neighbour had it on CCTV to show it was the same guys. They then came back on a regular basis to try for the other bikes until they were warned off. Hence the extra stuff.
Times like this I'm glad of my Cellar.
All 9 of mine are safely inside..
If they had been locked up in the house it wouldn't have made any difference, just more of a mess.
The same happened to some of our daughters Uni mates, watched for them going out, broke in and emptied the cellar.
Phil - no disrespect but couldn’t someone get through that in seconds with bolt cutters?
Alarms, lots of alarms (if you have other properties around
@FunkyDunc it's not mine, it's Tracey's. See up there ^^^. It's more than I've got in my garage.
Yes they probably could but it would make it a bit harder, which is all I'd be looking to achieve. If they want them they'll get them, and if they do then they're insured.
Times like this I’m glad of my Cellar.
All 9 of mine are safely inside..
Don't want to be a Negative Norman but I live in Sheffield where cellars are very common and it doesn't stop people coming for your bikes if they know you have them. I know of plenty of bikes that have vanished from cellars after a kitchen door has been kicked in.
Ours are in the cellar because it's the safest option but they're also chained to a ground anchor and have D-locks around the chainstays and through the rear wheels.
Plus, you can't actually get them up the stairs and out the door without removing the front wheel and turning the bars. Of course they don't know that until they're trying to wrestle a Geometron in the downstairs toilet.
All you can do is make it as difficult as possible.
Trouble with an alarm is if people ignore it (which they do) then they just mask the really suspicious noises - angle grinders and such. I reckon there is a gap in the market for an alarm that intermittently goes silent so that noise becomes more obvious. It could also be more effective as it's harder to tune something out that comes and goes.
RE: bolt cutters - depends on the chain. Something properly thick would require a more industrial approach but again we come back to angle grinders.
Power used to be a consideration but if someone wants them they will come tooled up with battery power. At the end of the day we can only ever deter, the ones that really want them will always get them.
Keep a slightly underfed Doberman Pincher in the garage. If it's not hangry enough then get it one of those leather studded collars but fit it inside out.
Not sure how your going to get in your own garage but no one else will get you bikes either.
All our neighbours came out when our alarm went off as did our daughter. They couldn't catch them as they ran off. The police were here in minutes as was the helicopter but by then they had disapeared. We now know where.
We went to the security place that fabricated the blind before we ordered one. They demonstrated to us how long it would be to get through with croppers or a grinder and it took longer than we imagined to get it open enough to get through.
No single line of defence is enough so we have multiple before and after the screen including most of the time a Torneo which is also alarmed up and immobilised.
With the van in you can't lift a bike out.
The longer it takes for them to physically get to the bikes the less chance of them going.
Make it difficult and noisy to get the bikes.
Tracey - exactly that. Time and effort, the more the better.
They went through the roof of our garage so don't assume blocking the doors will work.
I got a steel box fabricated, room for at least 4 bikes comfortably, the naff commuters are kept out as something to take if we get broken into again.
Thanks all, gone for 3 ground anchors and sizeable chains, and a lock with a built in alarm for bike no. 1.
Along with a security camera that connects to net via work and a security light with PIR. I will continue to make sure i'll park car right against garage doors, so they have to get past that first.
As above i figured the more noise, light and obstacles i place in the way, the better.
I don't have a ground anchor - they can be prised out if the scrotes are determined enough.
I have a motorbike chain threaded through a 3 section aluminium ladder. They will have to do a lot of cutting to get the chain out, or try and carry two bikes and a ladder at the same time. That won't be easy!
also do not faff around with a bike in the street outside your house. I cover my bike up with a big sheet when it's in the back of my car, so someone in a van cannot see it. Watch out about being followed after a ride too. We got followed once by a van and had to sit in a side street for a while. If you've got a garage you can can buy an anchor to stop a lift up garage door being forced. They are easily broken into to.
I like the bike chain round the ladder idea....
Apart from it being a hell of a lot quicker and easier to cut an aluminium ladder than prise out a decent ground anchor.