Stroll down the street of any city, and you'll see them: skeletons, shattered pieces of once-glorious creatures strewn about. Some are tethered to lampposts; others chained to mailboxes. Worse are the ones you never see: those that disappeared long, long ago.

Kryptonite U lock and cable

These creatures aren't dinosaurs, or some other ancestor of life on this planet. These are bicycles — victims of careless owners who failed to lock them properly and, as a result, returned to find the bikes disassembled, or stolen.

The Lock of the Draw

The FBI reports that bikes are stolen at the rate of one every 1.2 minutes in the United States. That amounts to 430,000 a year. Sadly, the majority of bike thefts could be prevented with the proper locks, if used the right way. There are no urban and very few suburban areas where bike theft doesn't occur.

There is absolutely no way to completely prevent bicycle theft — given enough time, a professional crook can defeat any system — but there are ways to make the act of stealing a bike so difficult and unappealing that a crook simply moves on to an easier target. Theft deterrence breaks down into two basic issues: resistance to attack, and visibility. A quality locking system will not only tell a crook"this just isn't worth your time" but will prove it as well. A poor-quality lock broadcasts that the bicycle isn't well protected and makes it an easy target. Basically there are two types of locks: U locks and cable locks. Generally, U locks provide better protection, but can be heavier, more awkward, or more difficult to attach. Cable locks offer less protection, but are easier to wrap around components. Systems can be secured via keys or combinations. The most trusted name in bicycle protection is Kryptonite. This is for a good reason. Kryptonite has a history of making quality locks, at a variety of price points. Many accessory manufacturers, such as Schwinn, Specialized, and Nashbar, also make quality locks, but Kryptonite dominates the market.

Considerations

It's important to select a lock that suits your environment. There's little use lugging around a five pound Kryptonite New York Noose when stopping to get some groceries in a safe suburban environment. On the other hand, a chain from a hardware store coupled with a cheap combination lock only deters the most lackluster of urban thieves.

A good locking system can be expensive, but compared with the cost of a bike and the hassle of replacing it once it's stolen, it is a bargain. The best locks come with a lifetime warranty and a guarantee against theft, so using them becomes not only a deterrent, but an insurance policy as well.

However, even the best lock will fail if not used properly. In this case, the "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link" adage could not be more accurate. Applying leverage to the hardware breaks most locks, so it's important to select a lock long enough to secure the bike, but not so long as to provide gaps into which a crowbar or any other object can be inserted.

Move on to U Locks

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David Schloss founded and was editor in chief of GearHead.com, the award-winning bicycle Web site that blazed trails online and off. Schloss, a full-time sport and technology journalist, writes for more than a dozen magazines and Web sites, and spends as much time on his bike and in his kayak as possible. He his written for GORP about bike racks for cars, bike helmets, bike clothes, and cycling computers.

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