Bicycle Austin forum

MichaelBluejay

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From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

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How to lock a bicycle to a wood fence?

I'd like to provide a way for my tenants to lock their bicycles to the wood fence around the property, which has numerous strong 4x4 posts embedded in concrete which would seem to be ideal.  I was looking for something like a thick metal U (too thick for bolt cutters) but couldn't find anything besides an actual bike rack.  I found this $53 rack on Amazon that I could mount on the fence instead of building a permanent concrete pad which I might not want in the yard in the future.  I'm worried that the rack itself is easily cut with bolt cutters.

https://www.amazon.com/CyclingDeal-Bicy … 08161HXPS/

Commercial racks cost substantially more ($181+), but could be worth the cost.

What does the collective brainpower of this forum think?

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: How to lock a bicycle to a wood fence?

I see that inexpensive 5/8" U-bolts are readily available, with 5/8" being the magic number that's impervious to bolt cutters.  But it could be easily unbolted on the other side of the fence with a simple wrench, unless I encased the nuts in concrete.

Chain link poles are $38 each, and only 6' high when buried, so potentially a thief could lift the bike up.  I could add a top rail to slow them down, but 3 poles + a top rail starts being so pricey that a true back rack like the 2nd one pictured above starts looking like a better option.