If you’ve got a nice bike – and we’ve got every reason to suspect that you might – you want to make sure you look after it. And on the basis that you can’t sit looking over it day and night, cradling a baseball bat, something that stops someone from wheeling it away is a very good start. Such a thing would be a ground anchor and they come in many shapes and sizes, and prices, ranging from something to deter an opportunist thief up to something like the Maginot line.
A ground anchor is only as good as the inability of a ne’er-do-well to shift or break it, followed by being easy enough to use that you do use it, and then by the lock itself.
This new device, designed by an engineer to protect his own machine over ten years ago, has only just come to market and is brilliant in its simplicity. A length of Marine Grade Stainless steel box section that will take a high quality chain and padlock up to a maximum of 54mm wide – as good as you can justify – which when inserted will prevent access to the robust fixing bolts: a pair of supplied high grade Allen bolts with a ball-bearing knocked into the socket-head of each for additional security.
Being a permanent fixture, it’s worth mentioning that it’s best being fitted away from any natural passages through the space, to prevent anyone kicking it while you’re out on your bike, and that you can secure almost anything to it.
Simple but effective, it has already received four separate security ratings from Sold Secure: Motorcycle Diamond, Ground Anchor Gold, Bicycle Diamond and Motor Scooter Gold.