Advice - bike security at campsites

[51mon]

In a couple of weeks a group of us are off up to the lakes for the weekend, and I'm planning on getting a days riding in at one of the trail centre's on the Friday on the way up there. I'm a little worried about what to do with my bike for the rest of the weekend though.......

We're staying in 'pods', and planning on doing some other stuff during the days for the rest of the weekend, and I'm not dead happy about having a few £K's worth of bike with me without having anywhere proper to store / secure it.

I guess my options are to either leave it in the back of my car all weekend (which also means leaving it there when we're out and about doing the other stuff), try to lock it up in our 'pod' (or to something else that looks pretty sturdy), or to leave the bike at home. Would seem a bit of a shame to miss out on a days riding up there though just because I'm paranoid of some tw@t nicking my bike!!

What do other people do with their bikes when they're away camping....?

[blugnu]

I presume you've contacted the pod owners to ask? They may have a garage or bike shed you can use?

[RichB]

It's a problem. I once went with my wife to a camp site in Poole area and padlocked my Orange her Saracen to the trailer for safety with a huge lock. Got woken one night about 2am. when the thieves tripped on one of the guy ropes. I shot out of the tent to see they'd cut the lock with bolt cutters and were about to load up their Toyota Hi-Lux flat truck. I tried to get the reg number but they drove off without lights. p.s. What's a pod? Is it something you can lock up?

[Eddh]

Can you hire a bike there?

[51mon]

I'm going to give the site a ring tomorrow, that would of course be the sensible first step...!

I probably could hire a bike for the day at whichever trail centre I choose, but after shelling out a shed load of money on a new bike I'm looking to use it whenever I can! Could be a back up though

[51mon]

RichB said:

It's a problem. I once went with my wife to a camp site in Poole area and padlocked my Orange her Saracen to the trailer for safety with a huge lock. Got woken one night about 2am. when the thieves tripped on one of the guy ropes. I shot out of the tent to see they'd cut the lock with bolt cutters and were about to load up their Toyota Hi-Lux flat truck. I tried to get the reg number but they drove off without lights. p.s. What's a pod? Is it something you can lock up?

This is the exact situation I'm worried about!

Pods are basically small wooden 'sheds', a bit like a permanent tent if you like! They are definitely lock-able, but I wouldn't be too confident in them being very secure....

[CoolC]

RichB said:

It's a problem. I once went with my wife to a camp site in Poole area and padlocked my Orange her Saracen to the trailer for safety with a huge lock. Got woken one night about 2am. when the thieves tripped on one of the guy ropes. I shot out of the tent to see they'd cut the lock with bolt cutters and were about to load up their Toyota Hi-Lux flat truck. I tried to get the reg number but they drove off without lights. p.s. What's a pod? Is it something you can lock up?

We were camping at Clumber park earlier this summer, and had the bikes locked on the roof of the car overnight.

I wasn't sleeping very well (never do in a tent) and was paranoid about the bikes (well just mine really ) getting stolen. I was alerted when I heard what I thought was someone tampering with the car and quickly jumped out of the tent to find nothing gone and no one around.

The next morning there were police on the site as 7 people on another site nearby had had bikes stolen over night. It wasn't until a couple of days after we got home I noticed one of the bolts holding the bike rack to the roof bars was missing. I presume there was someone out there and was trying to take the bike and rack together rather than make a noise breaking the lock. I had probably disturbed them with the big zzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiip of opening the tent to get out.

[RichB]

51mon said:

Pods are basically small wooden 'sheds', a bit like a permanent tent if you like! They are definitely lock-able, but I wouldn't be too confident in them being very secure...

Well that certainly looks more secure than a tent. I think the issue with tents is that the bike are left out on display all day so the thieves can suss out what's worth nicking then come back at night to do the deed. If your bike is inside one of those it should be ok but perhaps chuck a sleeping bag over it by day when you're not there so no one can see it?

[anonymous-user]

For tents, I'd use an alarm like this though its only really feasible if you are sleeping close to the bike and can reset it quickly if its tampered with, 140db is LOUD!!!

As for the pod, a cable lock around one of those bricks underneath and a d-lock should suffice!

Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 10th September 20:23

[blugnu]

The trail centre will presumably have bike storage? If you don't need it after that, I'm sure they will store it if you pay them for their trouble? Then pick it up on the way back.

[RichB]

pablo said:

As for the pod, a cable lock around one of those bricks underneath and a d-lock should suffice!

That means leaving it outside, I'd put it in the pod.

[anonymous-user]

didnt realise that was an option!! shouldnt be a problem if you can leave it locked up in the pod?

[BalhamBadger]

If you can, use a variety of locks to secure the bike. That way you're likely to seriously impede thieves who will be most likely kitted out to handle one type of lock. Different locks require different approaches to beak open. Halfords had a three for two on so I bought the most expensive (best??) d-lock, chain and padlock and cable locks they had. I use all three and a lesser cable lock to secure my bikes together and to the garage wall.

[LordLamb]

Take the bikes into the 'Pod' with you.

We recently had a weekend away in Glentress and Innerleithen. We booked a small/medium sized pod/wigwam that sleeps up to 4 and we were pessimistic that we could take the bikes inside with us overnight but they fitted a treat.

4 guys, 4 expensive, fairly large downhill bikes and all of our kit fitted inside the pod no problem. They are much bigger than they look and you get the good nights sleep of knowing that your pride and joy is safe and secure.

[51mon]

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I'm going to give the site a call tomorrow and check out how big the pods are. There's 3 of us in each pod, but only me with a bike (I'll be riding on my own on the Friday, the rest of the group aren't into it), so hopefully there will be room for my bike in there with us at night.

I'll just have to decide whether to leave the bike in there during the day, or stick it in the car with me while we're out and about, I'll weigh up how sturdy the locks look when I get there.

Probably just being paranoid, as it's a caravan club site which looks to be in the middle of nowhere, but from the stories above it sounds as though you can't be too carful unfortunately...

[Digga]

Might not be the answer you're looking for, but I had a similar connundrum during lunch break at Antur Stiniog recently.

Didn't need to lock the bike, just attached my legal representatives to it.

[51mon]

Haha, brilliant! It's amazing how effective a pair of bad ass, mean looking dogs can be....!

[Fluffsri]

As above take the bike inside with you. I made sure the last tent I bought was big enough for me and my bike

[blugnu]

Fluffsri said:

As above take the bike inside with you. I made sure the last tent I bought was big enough for me and my bike

Tents aren't massively secure if you go out for the day though. This is another reason the Multipla is brilliant, and why I want to swap the Picasso for an FR-V - we can all have a seat in the car and the bikes can live in the back on holiday when we're not using them.

[DMN]

I've got one of these on each shed door after having £5K of bikes taken:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alarming-vibration-securit...

They can easily be attached to the bike frame and make a hell of a racket once set off.