I"m trying to figure out ways to secure my motorcycle down when I park it in less-than-perfect locales.

So far i've got a Masterlock made disc lock, a Kryptonite made U-lock, and 4 feet of 3900 pound test steel chain that I want to somehow turn into an anchor to use when i'm at school.

I can't figure out how to secure it down when i'm in public though. The chain is way too bulky to keep with me at all times, the U-lock is generally too short to be useful, and i'm assuming that cable locks are easy to pop in half with a set of bolt cutters.

Any ideas?

that's the problem with bikes...
maybe take it apart and stuff in to a backpack before you enter school? (joking)
From what I reckon even if you park it by chaining it to a building anyone can come by, spit on it, scratch some words on it...
been there done that...
Secured parking lots are the way it's done

Bottomline, if someone wants to nick your bike, they will.
There is little more you can do than use a disc lock, an alarm/immobilser, and a chain.
Best thing to do is not leave it in undesirable places

What i'm thinking, is i'll use the chain to lock it into my parking spot when i'm at school, since that's when i'm away from her the longest, then keep a cable lock wrapped around the rear fender carrying rack for when I park in shadier spots that require more finesse than just a disc and column lock, or when I go to work.

Thoughts?

Since i'm not 17, and jobless I dont have a bike (yet)

However my dad uses some sort of alarm, not sure which one, its got the full kit, tilt sensors etc. He uses a couple of hefty disklocks, front and rear and a big chain and a chunky ground anchor. If there are bicycle racks, you will look like a beurk, but buy/take youself a good chunky chain, chain it up there, using the bike rack as some sort of anchor. You could always tie it up round a lampost or something

Quote from S14 DRIFT :

Since i'm not 17, and jobless I dont have a bike (yet)

However my dad uses some sort of alarm, not sure which one, its got the full kit, tilt sensors etc. He uses a couple of hefty disklocks, front and rear and a big chain and a chunky ground anchor. If there are bicycle racks, you will look like a beurk, but buy/take youself a good chunky chain, chain it up there, using the bike rack as some sort of anchor. You could always tie it up round a lampost or something

I have a chain, but the problem is that it weighs a tonne, and my only way of taking it with me is via my backpack, and having all that weight sitting on my back is far from safe.

Imagine getting into an accident with 20 lbs of locks, 10 lbs of books, and 5 lbs of other odd belongings, all strapped to your spinal column...

I actually park my bike in a family members garage that's only a five minute walk away from campus, so I figure that leaving the chain there should work well enough.

What cable locks can you recommend though? Weight is a HUGE factor for me.

I'll be parking in some safe spots, but Honolulu happens to be the city where your chances of having your bike stolen are highest.

Couple of minutes quick searching

Oxford Cable Locks
Alot of locks from a variety of manufacturers

Hope this helped somewhat

Almax is generally regarded the best chain locks you can buy . http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/

maybe a police tracker may help?

Quote from danowat :

Almax is generally regarded the best chain locks you can buy . http://www.almax-security-chains.co.uk/

What about cables though?

Cables are crap, you can cut through one like a hot knife through butter

What Dan says is true, your only chance is to try and deter them by making stealing your bike seem like an awful lot of trouble. That means you also have to go to a lot of trouble securing it. Cable locks are no deterrent to anyone who's out to steal a bike. If you want the bike to be about as secure as it can be, you have to carry a serious chain around with you and attach it to something equally solid, or not park it anywhere risky.

I keep mine safe at home by parking it in the garage and then parking my Golf right in front of the garage door too. They will have to break into the Golf first before they can even get at the garage door.

And it's only an old gsx600r so I can't imagine anyone would bother. Ofcourse when your parking it out and about then best bet is to put it somewhere in full view of passers by with as many antitheft devices as possible. Make your bike harder to steal then the one next to you and you should be OK

Alternatively ride around on an old nail that nobody wants.

Man, that's a good question. I'm getting a new bike in about 2 weeks.
And that's a minor concern of mine but a concern nonetheless.
Mostly it's Harleys and crotch rockets that get stolen here, so maybe I'll be OK. A guy down the street had a harley and they stole it out of his garage

As a side note, I think most alarms are pretty much useless as everyone ignores them. This includes car and house alarms, peoples first thought is false alarm.
A better idea is an alarm that sends you a text when triggered, but they're not too common.

Quote from P1lot :

As a side note, I think most alarms are pretty much useless as everyone ignores them. This includes car and house alarms, peoples first thought is false alarm.
A better idea is an alarm that sends you a text when triggered, but they're not too common.

This is of course true for most cases, however, I have an alarm on my bike, although it's in the garage, if anyone moves it, I WILL hear the alarm, and as such I'll run out of my house in my pants and beat the silly sod who tried to steal it to death with his own sock...........

Quote from Racer Y :

A guy down the street had a harley and they stole it out of his garage

He stole his own bike? Who's they?

Going on topic though, are there any security cameras where you park your bike? You could be sure to park in the view of a camera, so that atleast if something were to happen to your bike it would be recorded.

Doesnt work.

Dads freinds Shiney Yam R1 got lifted from thier work car park [its a bus depot, camera's everwhere]

They saw it being loaded on, driven off.

18 Months later it was recovered when someone attempted to register it.

Rely on primary security, not on cameras.

My mate used to carry his front wheel round with him...terribly impractical though...

...That was a push bike though.

http://www.datatool.co.uk/snitcher/

This alarm will text you

Quote :

Datatool Locate: Incredible, using The GSM Mobile Phone Network We Can Now Give An Area Location For Your Bike.

You can locate your bike, via the Internet using the on-screen mapping facility.

This will give you a location and a radius of the bike location.

and locate it

Overkill I think.

The locales I park in really aren't that dangerous at all, it's just the fact that Honolulu is the number one statistic in terms of motorcycle theft rates.

I'm going to bet that carrying around a 20 pound chain on my back is ultra dangerous too. I can imagine that thing snapping my spine clean when I crash.

Are you sure that there aren't any cables that are actually good? I could have sworn that I saw one in which the cable itself was surrounded by 1 inch diameter steel tubes.

Any other ideas then?

I always figured if you are really afraid of getting the bike stolen and wanted to be extremely safe you could remove a wheel and chain the bike up using the other wheel. They could easily take it still, but i don't think they'd bother unless they had the same wheel as the original laying around.