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[caption id="attachment_2542" align="alignnone" width="497"] The bike racks outside MEC on West Broadway, today. Click the image to enlarge it.[/caption]

I earn money by binning. I use a bicycle, with a bike trailer, to collect beverage containers to recover the deposit -- keeping my ride is a matter of being able to support myself,  so naturally I take bike security seriously.

Some basic suggestions:

• Make your bike less attractive to steal than someone else’s.


• Choose a security routine you can follow like a second nature.


• Lock both wheels -- Use a long, 11-inch U-lock and a chain, or two short U-locks. Whatever.


• Ask at a decent bike store about locking bike skewers, which can make it that much harder for thieves to take your wheels.


• If you lock your bike up outside overnight, get six feet of transport chain and a mini U-lock, which always stays locked to the railing or pole where you lock the bike.


• Don't leave easily removable do-dads on your bike, like lights, unless you are in a gift-giving mood.

Everyone should have disk brakes, but I don't. My bike uses a rim brake system: Linear pull brakes, otherwise called V-brakes, which are easier to change than the older cantilever system, but still annoying. Switching to a cartridge brake system in December has made my V-brakes, more-or-less, hassle-free. Every bike store should sell cartridge brake shoes and pads; lots of different companies make them. I've read they are available for cantilever brakes also, though I've only seen them for V-brakes.