The meets are Borough Market on Wednesday, Usually the Ace cafe (bring your own coffee) on Friday and there is a new members night every month.
People put chains in tail packs usually or the ultra cool fit top boxes to pillion seats.
Of course it’s a deterrent, all security measures are. Bank vaults are a deterrent. The idea is to create enough deterrent to make the thieves leave your bike alone, right? 
Problem is I still have a car which I use more than my motorbike, and the motorbike is mostly when I need to travel into central london which can take over 3 hours by car in rush hour and costs congestion and expensive parking, or 40 minutes by motorbike 
Currently my insurance is £220 third party only with a £100 excess. However third party and theft is £698.28 with a £500 excess. That’s as much as my fully comp car insurance for a car worth 7 grand and the excess is 5 times as much! (54 plate Audi A4 diesel) 
My insurance is a grand a year but sh*t happens if you want a hot bike when you’ve just passed your test. It’s annoying but I def would pay the extra 500 for fire and theft - you’ll spend that on chains and disclocks etc.
Have you checked price comparison sites? Surely if the bikes stolen, you would be around 3-4k out of pocket? £400 extra is little to pay, considering all the thefts in London.
Yeah couldn’t agree more. I’d have pushed for fully comp if it wasn’t 1500! TPTT was enough as it is
Well I bought an Oxford Hardcore XL and I’m really glad I bought the 2m one instead of the 1.5m. I live in angel so we have bays with those bars on the pavement. If I got a ‘normal’ space, a 1.5 would be fine, but sometimes I have to park it on the outer edge of the parking bay and then to be able to reach the bar would be impossible with a 1.5.
In terms of carrying it, I first had my bike in Cheltenham and tried to bring it back to london (crazy crazy idea). That thing is unbelievably heavy. Even to carry it whilst going from one bay to another (distance of 200m is a pain. If you do plan on carrying it around get a top box or a tailbag and stick it there. Not sure how stable the tailbag would be tbh though (I wouldn’t stick it in my kriega tailbag).
Basically I’ve admitted to myself that if someone wants to nick my bike, they will… At night I put a cover on, chain it up and disclock it (locking the cover in place through the chain and disclock) plus its locked awayt from the road and a van cannot get near to be lifted - they would have to lift it quite a distance to get it into a van after they have cut the chain. I think all of the above would be way too much hassle when they can nick something from a bay when its not chained up to anything :P.
When I go to work, I just carry the disc lock but on my insurance I haven’t declared anything. Because if you do and you forget to put it on (even for menial things) they could refuse a payment if it gets nicked in that time (rare I know) - just a caveat: this is what I’ve been told rather than personal experience!
Hmm, I see, at home fine, but I want a chain I can bring with me in my Kriega US10 bag, for when I park in London. Do you think a 1.5m will fit OK and be relatively stable?
Is there maybe a lighter chain than the Almax Series3 that’s maybe croppable, but still takes a a while to do? - Even the 1.5m Almax is 7.5kg with the chain and lock, not that portable really
I don’t feel safe enough leaving the bike with just a disc lock.
hello there…before you read any more on this i know what i’m talking about.
What you need is to get the Almax…phone them up and tell em your an LB member and you’ll get a discount…
then…buy yourself a £30.00 tail pack from any good bike shop…keep the tail pack on your bike while your roaming about into the city so you can throw the almax in werever you go…DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BIKE ANYWERE UNLOCKED!!!
and for christ sake please…please…walk that extra few yards to secure your bike to something solid…its worth it…
if you heed my advice you and your bike will grow to love each other…dont take my advice and it’ll be in a container bound for werever in a matter of a few hours…
ohh and welcome to LB mate:D.
smiled:).
Spoke to Almax for like 2 hours, absolutely fantastic company - true experts in the field!
Gave me advise on all fronts from gear to security to motorcycle break in - ordered a Series 3 1.5m and Squire lock and will order a ground anchor soon. Was told 1.5m is enough 90% of the time even in London where you can’t park on the pavement and 2m is quite a chore to carry around.
Another product they said looks interesting and would definitely scare the crap out of a potential thief: http://www.henrykrank.com/alarm_mine.html
From the conversation, my conclusions are disc locks and the like are pointless as all the thief needs to do is put the wheel on a skateboard. Also, 2-3 big guys can jog while carrying a bike so main point is to attach the bike to something, even if it’s another bike and maybe a cheap alarm to keep the chavs from sitting on your bike but pointless to get anything fancy.
These guys are awesome