Taking Bikes and Locking Them Up

Some bikes, of coarse, like Trek are very pricy and have "steal me" written all over them. I'm planning on a cheapo Walmart bike. If taken not too big a loss. I've seen many of the cheapo bikes at RV parks and no apparent problems when locked up.

We carry 2 bikes on a rack on the rear. The lock has a cable that I run thru the frames and around the rear bumper. AFAIK, no one has ever tried to steal the bikes.

and take off the seats which renders the bikes useless to the amateur.

Back when we first starting camping I bought one of these Lock Alarms I've used it to lock up our bike, when we got into ATVing I bought anther and used one to lock up the gas gans and the ATV. I always use this and a heavy duty cable and lock. The lock alarm was good insurance, the blinking red light gave off a good visual warning at night.

There are a number of locks and chains available now that are, for all practical purposes, uncuttable. The basic design concept common to all is layers of different materials -- hard and soft metals, ceramics, synthetics, and plastics. Any cutting blade that slices through one layer will have difficulty with the next layer of a dissimilar material. With enough time you could eventually cut it, but thieves will move on if it takes more than a few minutes.

Time is the thief's enemy. Slow him down even a small amount and he loses interest in that particular target.

Besides -- anyone walking around a campground carrying a cutting tool automatically raises red flags, just as anyone driving slow through a campground eyeing every site.

We just run a chain thru all the bike frames, and around a picnic table seat.

During our many years of motorhome vacations, and with 8 children, we always traveled with a bunch of bikes. I can gladly say, we never had a problem with theft, although we did lock the bikes at night. Remember, chains and locks protect you from honest people who have a sudden lose of conscience. A thief will have a lock cutter or a battery cutoff tool and will be gone in moments. Therefore, in my mind, running a simple chain through all the bikes with a lock is the basic night time security. Individual locks and chains can be added for daytime bike rides where the bikes will be left parked during activities.
JMHO

We carry 4 bikes on the back of our Motorhome on a 4 Bike, Bike Rack. The Bike Rack doesn't offer any way to lock the bikes. I usually use a bike lock on a chain and make it as tight as possible around all 4 bikes while wrapping it around the bike rack a time or two. With the chain on tight, it makes it difficult to just remove 1 bike at a time. With the bikes on the back of the motorhome, I can hear and feel if someone is messing with the bikes since I'm sleeping just a few feet away from the bikes.

Never had a problem with our bikes, granted we don't travel through places or stay in places where we need to worry about them being stolen.

-Michael