Last week my lodger had his motorbike nicked from our front drive.
Fortunately it's now been recovered (tracking device) but he's obviously
keen to secure it more firmly now. We've just spend the morning creating
a hardpoint in the drive to bolt a new attachment plate to.

We dug a hole about 500x500mm, and 300mm deep, and filled it with B & Q
idiot-grade ready-mix concrete (neither of us have done much of this
sort of thing before). The steel plate is to be bolted onto this with
expanding bolts.

How long does the panel think it might be befo

1. It's OK to roll the bike over the concrete so that it can be parked
in its normal spot

and

2. we can drill the concrete and fix the bolts?

I've assumed that 1. will be ok by tomorrow, but maybe 2. will be a few
days?

Any further suggestions for motorbike theft protection considered, too :-)

Cheers,

Pete

"Pete Verdon" d wrote in
message ...
Last week my lodger had his motorbike nicked from our front drive.
Fortunately it's now been recovered (tracking device) but he's obviously
keen to secure it more firmly now. We've just spend the morning creating a
hardpoint in the drive to bolt a new attachment plate to.

We dug a hole about 500x500mm, and 300mm deep, and filled it with B & Q
idiot-grade ready-mix concrete (neither of us have done much of this sort
of thing before). The steel plate is to be bolted onto this with expanding
bolts.

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I wouldn't
exactly call it bulletproof. That's about 350lbs of concrete, so not even as
heavy as the bike, which a couple of blokes will lift out of the earth
fairly easily. I'd have been tempted to drive a steel fence post or two into
the bottom of the hole to a depth of a further couple of feet and then lay
the concrete around those. Maybe even have a couple of bolts sticking out of
the posts for the concrete to set round. That would anchor everything pretty
immoveably.
--
Dave Baker
Puma Race Engines

Dave Baker wrote:
"Pete Verdon" d wrote

We dug a hole about 500x500mm, and 300mm deep, and filled it with B & Q
idiot-grade ready-mix concrete (neither of us have done much of this sort
of thing before). The steel plate is to be bolted onto this with expanding
bolts.

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I wouldn't
exactly call it bulletproof.

Neither would I. But the only way to be certain that the bike won't be
stolen from the drive is not to have it there in the first place. At
this point I would expect the lock or chain to be the weak link rather
than the concrete. The bike will be directly on top of the block, and
it's between a pair of parked cars, so it's not going to be easy to work on.

He did look at something like this: http://www.secure-a-bike.com/ but
didn't want to pay quite that much, plus we don't really have the space.

Pete

In message , Pete Verdon
d writes

Any further suggestions for motorbike theft protection considered, too :-)

Http://www.bikesecure.co.uk/pages/alarm_mine.html




Cheers,

Pete

--
Bill

Dave Baker wrote:
"Pete Verdon" d
wrote in message ...
Last week my lodger had his motorbike nicked from our front drive.
Fortunately it's now been recovered (tracking device) but he's
obviously keen to secure it more firmly now. We've just spend the
morning creating a hardpoint in the drive to bolt a new attachment
plate to. We dug a hole about 500x500mm, and 300mm deep, and filled it
with B
& Q idiot-grade ready-mix concrete (neither of us have done much of
this sort of thing before). The steel plate is to be bolted onto
this with expanding bolts.

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I
wouldn't exactly call it bulletproof. That's about 350lbs of
concrete, so not even as heavy as the bike, which a couple of blokes
will lift out of the earth fairly easily. I'd have been tempted to
drive a steel fence post or two into the bottom of the hole to a
depth of a further couple of feet and then lay the concrete around
those. Maybe even have a couple of bolts sticking out of the posts
for the concrete to set round. That would anchor everything pretty
immoveably. --

Indeed - if you drive a few lengths of scrap iron downwards/outwards (like
roots) and then cover them with the concrete it's practically impossible to
remove without breaking up a large area.

Hindsight advice is rarely helpful, but while we're here I'll suggest that
it would also have been better to cast the fixing point in the new patch of
concrete, rather than drill it (which will loosen it, and maybe even crack
it). A short length of heavy chain or a closed loop of steel cable, for
example.

Steve Walker wrote:

Hindsight advice is rarely helpful, but while we're here I'll suggest that
it would also have been better to cast the fixing point in the new patch of
concrete,

Yup, we thought of that just as we were finishing off :-)

On the other hand, we would have needed more than just some random bit
of scrap steel - that would have been too easy to cut with a hacksaw or
bolt-cutters.

Pete

Pete

Bill wrote:
Pete Verdon writes

Any further suggestions for motorbike theft protection considered, too

Http://www.bikesecure.co.uk/pages/alarm_mine.html

Heh. Unfortunately our drive is a bit too cramped to mark off an area as
a minefield :-)

Pete

Steve Walker wrote:
Dave Baker wrote:
"Pete Verdon" d
wrote in message ...
Last week my lodger had his motorbike nicked from our front drive.
Fortunately it's now been recovered (tracking device) but he's
obviously keen to secure it more firmly now. We've just spend the
morning creating a hardpoint in the drive to bolt a new attachment
plate to. We dug a hole about 500x500mm, and 300mm deep, and filled it
with B
& Q idiot-grade ready-mix concrete (neither of us have done much of
this sort of thing before). The steel plate is to be bolted onto
this with expanding bolts.
I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I
wouldn't exactly call it bulletproof. That's about 350lbs of
concrete, so not even as heavy as the bike, which a couple of blokes
will lift out of the earth fairly easily. I'd have been tempted to
drive a steel fence post or two into the bottom of the hole to a
depth of a further couple of feet and then lay the concrete around
those. Maybe even have a couple of bolts sticking out of the posts
for the concrete to set round. That would anchor everything pretty
immoveably. --

Indeed - if you drive a few lengths of scrap iron downwards/outwards (like
roots) and then cover them with the concrete it's practically impossible to
remove without breaking up a large area.

Hindsight advice is rarely helpful, but while we're here I'll suggest that
it would also have been better to cast the fixing point in the new patch of
concrete, rather than drill it (which will loosen it, and maybe even crack
it). A short length of heavy chain or a closed loop of steel cable, for
example.


what's to stop people unscrewing the bolts?

I'd have cast some stainless U-bolts into the concrete

On 08/03/2008 18:03, Dave Baker wrote:

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I wouldn't
exactly call it bulletproof.

Indeed, a chap down the road had a large bike, with a large chain
through a large anchor on the garage floor, and nobody heard a peep the
night it was nicked.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Steve Walker wrote:
Indeed - if you drive a few lengths of scrap iron downwards/outwards
(like roots) and then cover them with the concrete it's practically
impossible to remove without breaking up a large area.

Hindsight advice is rarely helpful, but while we're here I'll
suggest that it would also have been better to cast the fixing point
in the new patch of concrete, rather than drill it (which will
loosen it, and maybe even crack it). A short length of heavy chain
or a closed loop of steel cable, for example.


what's to stop people unscrewing the bolts?

What bolts?

I'd have cast some stainless U-bolts into the concrete

Yeah, that would be good with big washers or a bit of scrap steel to resist
pullout.

Andy Burns wrote:
On 08/03/2008 18:03, Dave Baker wrote:

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I
wouldn't exactly call it bulletproof.

Indeed, a chap down the road had a large bike, with a large chain
through a large anchor on the garage floor, and nobody heard a peep the
night it was nicked.

OK, let's agree that it's not perfect, but still an improvement over a
bike chained to nothing at all.

Can anyone actually answer the questions about the concrete?

Pete

Pete Verdon wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
On 08/03/2008 18:03, Dave Baker wrote:

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I
wouldn't exactly call it bulletproof.

Indeed, a chap down the road had a large bike, with a large chain
through a large anchor on the garage floor, and nobody heard a peep the
night it was nicked.

OK, let's agree that it's not perfect, but still an improvement over a
bike chained to nothing at all.

Can anyone actually answer the questions about the concrete?

Pete

Give it 2 days and you can do what you want. Until then its going to
be very soft.


NT

wrote:
Pete Verdon wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
On 08/03/2008 18:03, Dave Baker wrote:

I'm sure it will be a big help having the bike bolted to that but I
wouldn't exactly call it bulletproof.

Indeed, a chap down the road had a large bike, with a large chain
through a large anchor on the garage floor, and nobody heard a peep
the night it was nicked.

OK, let's agree that it's not perfect, but still an improvement over
a bike chained to nothing at all.

Can anyone actually answer the questions about the concrete?

Pete

Give it 2 days and you can do what you want. Until then its going to
be very soft.

Yup. If you want to avoid stressing it, use resin to fix the anchor
instead of expansion bolts.

On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:59:14 +0000, Pete Verdon
d wrote:

Bill wrote:
Pete Verdon writes

Any further suggestions for motorbike theft protection considered, too

Http://www.bikesecure.co.uk/pages/alarm_mine.html

Heh. Unfortunately our drive is a bit too cramped to mark off an area as
a minefield :-)

Pete

Tell him to paint it pink.

Get some CCTV.
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