New to the DC area, formally rode all country roads, no Charbucks in sight. Please advise on a good lock, weight a moderate concern, those waist chains are MASSIVE HEAVY. U-Locks or cables better???
Thanks
Write down your serial number and keep it safe. Take photos of the bike, document all modifications. Call your homeowners or renters insurance company and verify your policy covers your bike and negotiate a nice deductible.
If the thief wants it, it is a low bar for them to take it.
Besides what others suggested, insurance by lock manufacturers is useless for the following reasons:
It doesn’t cover the use of power tools(including portable ones), hydraulic tools, or torches to break the lock.
It requires that you send the broken lock back to them, so if the thief took it, or threw it away, you don’t collect the insurance.
The U-Lock could rust if you leave your bike outside at home or at work, particularly if the U-Lock keyhole doesn’t have a cover to protect it from rain and dirt. So if you are paying for several years of insurance, your U-Lock may not last that long. My OnGuard U-Lock; which didn’t have a keyhole cover, lasted 4 months. It started taking 5 minutes just trying to unlock the bike, so I replaced it before it locks my bike for good. Grease/WD40 at this stage helps to unlock the bike, but it won’t make it fully operational again. My current U-Lock with a keyhole cover lasted a year with applying Park Tool grease every now and then.
So look for another type of insurance rather than relying on lock manufacturer insurance.
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