So you're locking your bike to the hilt... You've got a u-lock through the rear triangle and a cable through the front wheel, or better yet, you've hobbled your bike... but did you ever stop to think about how easy it would be for a thief to simply loosen your thread-less headset and take off with the whole front end of your bike? In one quick action, the thief would run off with your front fork, brake, handlebars and levers.
This happens more often than you'd think. It's actually a common occurrence in Chicago. Especially for a commuter who parks his/her bike in the same spot every day for hours a day.
To confound this anticipated method of thievery I like the application of quick setting plastic epoxy in the headset top cap bolt hole. The epoxy makes removing the bolt all but impossible since the would-be thief can't get a wrench into the hole. If they can't remove the top cap, they can't take your front end apart. CAUTION: If you do use plastic epoxy make sure you grease the hole, next push a 5mm wrench into the hole to squeeze out any excess grease. Finally, you can drop in some epoxy and let it set. If you do this right you'll be able to come back later and pop out the epoxy "plug" in one piece. If you do it wrong you'll spend a good long while chipping out plastic epoxy chunks stuck to the little corners of your stem bolt hole. I have heard of people using a BB and beeswax, but I don't personally consider this to be a high enough security method.
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3 comments:
This seems a little extreme to me. At some point doesn't it make sense to just get your bike insured?
Sure... if you can afford insurance. Don't forget, many insurance policies have deductibles. It's also a hassle to make an insurance claim. To me, it's easier to keep theft from occurring in the first place.
Pitlock Cap for threadless forks seems like a suitable, albeit expensive, solution
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