How to steal a bike

[mmmmartin]

On an audax i have a cheap thin cable lock to prevent a helpful person moving the bike.
On tour i have a combination cable lock and set the combination to the same as my mate's lock, for simplicity.
In town i have an old unsexy bike with three locks: cable, D lock and something that locks the front wheel. Hoping the nextdoor bike looks more attractive.

[De Sisti]

Deflating your tyres or removing your chain may (or may not) be a good deterrent for your
bike being stolen.

[phantasmagoriana]

Don't know about the UK, but I'll bet that in a few years time no-one will bother to steal a bike unless it's an e-bike or fancy/expensive looking carbon race monster.

Or a Carrera! For some reason, they seem popular with thieves, at least round here.

[ian]

Don't know about the UK, but I'll bet that in a few years time no-one will bother to steal a bike unless it's an e-bike or fancy/expensive looking carbon race monster.

Given the opportunity bored kids will still steal what's available just to ride round the block and chuck it in the canal.  Fortunately, they're likely to be deterred by anything more than a pound-shop cable lock that's vulnerable to a repeated-kicking attack.  Unfortunately, they may opt to vandalise the bike instead.

I locked my bike at a stand in darkest Croydon so I could pop in a shop for five minutes. Came out to find the person who'd locked her bike next to mine had pushed it over and was trying – with a fair amount of bike damaging violence – to yank the handlebar grips off to replace the missing ones on her bike. I may have remonstrated but there wasn't much to be done, it being generally considered a bit off to challenge a young woman (given her language, I'm not going with lady) to fisticuffs. She told me to go fuck myself and cycled off. Welcome to Croydon.