I like my bike, and I want to keep it, and keep it clean.

April 10, 2009 9:11 AM

How can I secure my bicycle from weather and thieves with the least amount of work and hardware?

My new home has only one solid anchored object in the back yard: a wash line post. No garage, no shed (although the latter is coming soon). I want to be able to park my bike in the yard with a minimum of concern for both the condition of the bicycle -- weather, etc... -- and its continued presence in my yard.

Although we're getting a shed soon, I'm not confident that the shed will provide enough security for the bikes, since from what I've seen sheds of that kind are very flimsy, at least at the price point we can justify. Still, parking the bike in there is one option.

Another problem is that I'm frankly incompetent as a handyman. I can assemble furniture, but that's nearly the limit of my skills with tools.

In short, how can I go about making a clean and secure space to park my bike? I'm open to specific recommendations for sheds (it has to fit yard work gear, too, so nothing too small) or even recommendations that are bike specific, as long as they're not too expensive.

posted by ChrisR to home & garden (17 comments total)

Do you have a deck or porch? Basement?
posted by amtho at 9:16 AM on April 10

The least-amount-of-work-and-hardware approach? Just put it inside the house.
posted by box at 9:17 AM on April 10 [1 favorite]

3rding inside.
posted by The Michael The at 9:22 AM on April 10

I never leave my bikes outside. The only defense against weather and thieves is a bike you can afford to have stolen or destroyed by rust - a $10 special from the flea market. That's a perfectly appropriate approach, don't get me wrong..
posted by kcm at 9:26 AM on April 10

If you have room in your house, look for some kind of bike storage solution that keeps it off the ground and out of your way if you're worried about clutter.

If you do get a shed, can you build it around a sturdy post sunk into the ground? (You'd have to remove part of the shed floor, of course). The classic Toronto post-and-ring set has some vulnerabilities, but the odds are against a clued-in thief in Edmonton being aware of them. And I would think someone who breaks into an insecure shed Would Never Expect to find another layer of security. You can by a post and ring set from places like this. Just don't tell your neighbours it's from you-know-where.

You may also be able to find something like this, although you would need a pretty sturdy shed to handle it.
posted by maudlin at 9:27 AM on April 10

What recommendations could you offer for storage in-house? I have a side door that leads to basement stairs, but both the stairs and the basement are fully carpeted, and sometimes the bike is just dirty. Additionally, I know for a fact my wife won't want to carry her bike up and down the stairs, so although I'm willing to do this inside, she won't be.

Still, I'm interested in interior clean-keeping solutions as well, since I'd be happy to park my bike inside.
posted by ChrisR at 9:33 AM on April 10

Shed: Definitely lock it to something sturdy inside the shed, besides keeping the shed itself locked.

Inside: There are hooks you can put into walls and/or ceilings for hanging bikes and also stands designed for holding the bike alongside a wall or the like, that take a minimum of room.

Outside: An option, though a pricey one, is to buy a bike locker. Cheaper: Make a similar bike locker yourself out of some plywood, 2x4s, etc. For the homemade locker as with the shed, you'd likely want something solid to lock the bike to within the locker itself.
posted by flug at 9:48 AM on April 10

We keep ours in a Rubbermaid Slide-Lid shed. There's plenty of room in there for garden tools and such, and the door locks. We then add another layer of security by locking the bikes together, and to a Black & Decker Workmate. And all this is behind a 6-foot-tall wooden fence. No problems so far (knock on wood?).
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:56 AM on April 10

Your bike is a member of the family - let it inside the house! If it's dirty, clean it.
posted by nomad at 10:02 AM on April 10

Mine is stuffed into a corner of my kitchen, it doesn't really seem to get in the way. The cat's petrified of it though.

Bring it inside. It'll protect it from thievery and prolong the life of the bike
posted by orville sash at 10:09 AM on April 10

Might it be a possibility to put bike hooks on the walls in the staircase to the basement? Or put some sort of indoors bike rack in the basement?
posted by Zed at 10:09 AM on April 10

They make hooks that you can drill into your ceiling to hang bikes from. They keep the bikes out of the way and, importantly, off the carpet.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 10:10 AM on April 10

There are all sorts of hooks and racks that make hanging a bicycle on the ceiling or wall very easy -- your local bike shop can probably make some recommendations.

Leaving a bike out in weather is terrible for it, so if it's anything other than a craigslist junker or department store bike, you should bring it inside.

As far as thieves go, I swear by OnGuard U-locks. Cable locks are easier to cut through.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 10:58 AM on April 10

If the shed isn't TOO flimsy, I highly recommend this motion sensor alarm, which I use in my toolshed. It's super loud, and both it and the remote control work well.
posted by coolguymichael at 12:09 PM on April 10

My bikes come inside. One hangs on the wall with a Rubbermaid bike hook drilled into the wall (I don't have the fast track pictured there--I just drilled it into the wall). The other sits directly below it on a cheap hallway runner I got at Lowe's or Home Depot to keep the carpet clean.
posted by BlooPen at 12:28 PM on April 10

Dig a fairly deep hole under where the side of the floor of your shed will be. Fill it with concrete and bury some kind of hefty metal loop in it that you can lock the bike to. Now put the shed over the top, and lock the bike to the loop inside the shed.
posted by emilyw at 12:33 PM on April 10

If money isn't an issue, a Cyloc is pretty stylin'.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 4:27 PM on April 10