In addition to some of the things Jeff and Arthur mentioned about bike
racks, let me explicitly add another consideration or two, not
necessarily inconsistent with what has been mentioned but also not
specified: Be sure that the racks--AND HOW THEY ARE
POSITIONED/INSTALLED--allow a bicyclist to lock the frame and rear
wheel to the rack, not only the front wheel or front wheel and frame,
or to require any odd sort of bicycle position that means putting the
frame OVER the top of the "rack" as we too often see at UW.
I still maintain that the very simple inverted "U" is the best kind of
rack because it allows the flexibility to lock your bike by just about
any method you choose and accommodates different frame styles and
handlebar positions. Look at the ones at MATC downtown. A variation
on this is a rack with four or five parallel "U"s mounted together
across two bottom bars.
But having the right kind of a rack does little good if it is mounted
so close to a wall that it's not possible to *centre* the bike on it.
If it's too close to a wall or other structure, you're back to wheel
only, and what good is that?
When I first started to use a "U" lock, the recommended secure method
was to lock rear wheel and centre post, with "quick release" front
wheel removed and locked to the whole thing. The part about removing
the front wheel, of course, gets old pretty quickly. My compromise is
to lock rear wheel and centre post with the U-lock and run a cable
through the whole thing to take care of the front wheel. Front wheel
advocates say they lock front wheel and part of the frame because the
front wheel would be easier to steal than the rear wheel. Perhaps, but
if someone's going to steal something, having the rear wheel stolen
would be more of a hassle and more expensive.
Face it, if someone really wants to steal your bike and has the
opportunity to do so (isolated location, out of public view, et cetera,
s/he's going to be able to do it just about no matter what you do, so
the other thing about positioning it is not only to make sure that it's
an adequate distance from a wall, but that it is in a location that
discourages theft.
Now go have a beer,
Bob Paolino
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