Dumbest bike locking mistakes...

WithCheesePlease

Seeing as Friday...

This thread inspired me to ask - what's the dumbest thing you've done when attempting to "secure" your bike? Or that you've seen.

I'll start the ball rolling with this one. Was late for training one night and put my U-Lock through a railing to lock my bike. Turns out I missed the frame though and just had the lock dangling off the railing. Luckily my bike was still there when I returned to it after training. Could have been a lot worse.

blorg

Left the keys in the lock. They were good enough to leave the keys.

The Oggmonster

In Temple Bar I once seen a bike with a chain attaching it a bollard. The chain was loose enough to easily lift it over the bollard.

Dr.Millah

Have seen a few bikes locked to poles under 4foot that have no obstruction on them. An easy lift the bike up and walk away situation.

Also see loads of bikes now locked at all with someone elses lock that is locked to a railing placed over them. (to make it look like its locked)

StudentC

Like the OP - managed to not actually put the lock around the bike, just around the railing.*

Left it 'locked' like that while I went away on holidays for a week. Came back, parked the car beside the bike (so I know the bike was definitely still there after the week), went into the flat. An hour later, went to the shops for maybe 30 minutes in the car, came back and bike was gone.

Grrrrr! So so stupid! Nobody to blame but myself. And i'd only had the bike a couple of weeks

*Well I think that's what happened - lock and railing were completely undamaged so I can't see what else happened.

07Lapierre

Most common mistake people make is locking ONE wheel to the railings/bike rack or whatever. How many times have you passed by a railings and seen a single wheel still locked and the rest of the bike missing? :rolleyes:

IM0

StudentC wrote: »

Left it 'locked' like that while I went away on holidays for a week. Came back, parked the car beside the bike (so I know the bike was definitely still there after the week), went into the flat. An hour later, went to the shops for maybe 30 minutes in the car, came back and bike was gone.

*Well I think that's what happened - lock and railing were completely undamaged so I can't see what else happened.

^this one! wow just wow...

what did you say to yourself after you discovered it was still there 'unlocked' after the week away? "oh well if it lasted a week here then I will just leave it like this!"

there was probably some guy sitting outside in a van thinking "right! thats it!! (bazil faulty style) "I gave you a chance..but you took the piss when you drove off (again)!"

Blowfish

Had a few friends over and one of them locked his bike to a railing outside my house, but only put the lock around the saddle. I spotted it when heading out to the shop, so lifted the lock over the saddle, moved the bike into the shed and locked it to mine. I completely forgot I had moved it so never actually told him, resulting in him having one of those 'oh crap!' moments when about to head home. Still, leason learned, he always locked it properly after that

StudentC

me@ucd wrote: »

^this one! wow just wow...

what did you say to yourself after you discovered it was still there 'unlocked' after the week away? "oh well if it lasted a week here then I will just leave it like this!"

there was probably some guy sitting outside in a van thinking "right! thats it!! (bazil faulty style) "I gave you a chance..but you took the piss when you drove off (again)!"

No no, of course not! I'm just presuming that it was like that for the week - it disappeared in the half hour without me having chnaged anything.

I lived in a very quiet, reasonably secure (I thought) place - lots of easygoing neighbours and a generally relaxed place. I just got complacent and didn't pay too mush attention to locking it well...although I obviosuly didn't intend to not lock it at all! Stupid, and very ashamed obviously. It has taken alot to publicly admit my stupidity

Silver lining though - after that a friend lent me her bike so I didn't need o buy a new one, it was a decent road bike and that was when I learnt how much better road bikes are than hybrids

Bunnyhopper

Locked it very carefully to a set of solid looking railings, except the cross parts of the railings were just sitting on the uprights without actually being attached to them and the uprights were just sitting in slots in the ground. It was outside a supermarket, so I came out to see no bike, no railings, no nothing.

Thankfully, it had just been moved by a guy who had a newspaper stand there and who had kindly shifted it before someone actually nicked it after the supermarket staff removed the railings for some reason.

Another episode wasn't so much a locking mistake (though there was that) but a comedy of errors.

Went to the pub (Angler's Rest) on Christmas Eve, set off to walk home towards Blanch shortly before closing time. Walked a couple of miles and was most of the way home when I realized I didn't have my wallet. High tailed it home, got the bike, raced back to Angler's hoping I'd find the wallet before they closed. Got there just before closing, locked the bike to itself (yeah, I know...), dashed inside, searched the floor where I'd been sitting and found the wallet. Hurrah and yuletide jubilations.

Back outside. No bike....

Start asking around to see did anyone see it go. They're all hammered and it's like questioning a pack of toddlers about where the sweeties went.

As I'm wandering around looking lost and not looking forward to another long walk a member of staff approaches and asks am I looking for a bike. Turned out someone else had claimed it was their bike, that they were too drunk to ride it home and could they leave it in the pub until they'd collect it in a couple of days, so the staff member had stuck it in the store room.

Got the bike back and headed home not knowing whether I'd just been pranked, or subject to a stupidly elaborate attempt to steal a bike. I haven't locked a bike to itself (aka not really locked it at all) since.