I was chatting to one of the biking guests at Motobreaks a few years back and he told me a story about the theft of a bike. Apparently the owner regularly chained the rear wheel of his Fireblade (through the rim only) to a cycle-rack bar and left the bike on the pavement near his work. When he returned one day all that was left was the rear wheel, still chained to the bar. Police enquiries led to some CCTV showing a white van with a false number plate pulled up next to the bike and one of the thieves took out a Fireblade rear wheel (with tyre, brake disc and sprocket) from the back of the van. They then carefully removed the rear wheel of the fireblade, slotted in their own spare wheel and wheeled the whole bike into the back of the van. The police reckoned that they had noticed the same bike parked in the same place in the same way, and just got hold of wheel of the right kind and made it look like they were fixing a punctured tyre.Richard Simpson Mark II wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 10:29 am Take a small, but high-quality, padlock and put it through the rear-wheel sprocket and chain. Much better than a disc lock, as discs can be shattered with a hammer.
So I suppose that goes to show the lengths some bike thieves will go to, and that you should always chain through the frame or frame and wheel if possible.