Mind the Asterisk

More than five years since Outside published Patrick Symmes's "Who Pinched My Ride?," the magazine has circled back to the subject of bike theft.

In "The Ultimate Guide to Ensuring Your Bike Never Gets Stolen Again*," Andrew Tilin talks locks, "locking hygiene," and the danger of letting extended runs of lock luck lull you into a false sense of bike security.

"Bike theft is a huge problem," Tilin writes.

The more often you get away with your poorly secured but beloved bicycle remaining in your possession, the more apathy you have about locking it using the best locks and methods. Then, one day, when it’s gone, you can put some of the blame on the fool who didn’t need much skill or many tools to turn your world upside-down.

And then you can put a heap of the blame on yourself.

Damn.

Much of Tilin's material was familiar to the bike security enthusiast behind BTB, but "The Ultimate Guide" did get me to (1) mull the usefulness of a Knog Frankie as "a minimalist second lock for running errands" and (2) recommit myself to such theft-prevention measures as keeping locks well off the ground to discourage sledgehammering and orienting keyholes downward to make picking trickier.

Tilin's review also made me more excited than I already was to test out the Altor 560G that recently came into my possession. More on that folding titanium beauty in a future post. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, give the Outside piece a read and/or watch the summary below.