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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.

For those of you who've never visited Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, I provide a story by way of illustration. Stix told me this.

Early one morning Stix' friend, Lloyd heard noises coming from the street. He had a bike locked up down there so he got out of bed, and poked his head out the window of of his bed-sit hotel room, to have a look. He saw a guy in a motorized, electric wheelchair. The guy was beside the locked-up bike. He had a big-honkin' pair of bolt cutters. Lloyd watched as the guy used the bolt cutters to snip through the lock; heft the bike up onto his lap, and begin his motorized getaway -- whirrrr. Stix says the bike was worth $1000, so, no surprise that Lloyd, had, by this time, dashed out of his room, down the stairs and into the street, wearing only his underwear, and was chasing the guy. Sadly, the guy in the wheelchair left him in the dust!