“And what if the bicycle is parked in a garage, instead of on the street?” Last week we left with this question. The answer is simple: parking a bicycle in the garage is a good idea, providing the door is sufficiently secure. Is yours?

Parking the bicycle inside your garage might at first seem like the best solution to keep it protected. However, this is not always true. In fact, the locks originally installed on garage doors do not usually provide an adequate level of security. Standard locks have a poor resistance to pulling and drilling, and do not adequately protect the door against breakage or lifting with a crowbar. In many cases, however, the main reason for the thefts lies in the weakness of the doors (made of very thin sheet metal e.g. 0.6 mm or 0.8 mm).

The items stored in garages, especially, for example, racing bikes, are often even more valuable than many other items kept in the house and thieves are aware of this.

For this reason, it is always worth taking adequate security precautions, especially to reinforce the garage door. Let’s see what they are.

There are several solutions to replace a standard lock with a more secure locking system. Three possible solutions are described below.

• The first way is to fit an armoured lock, such as the Viro 8217, so that the outer side of the lock is protected (with steel plates of a few millimetres thick) against brute force attacks, whilst the cylinder is protected by a special armour to defend against pulling and drilling.
  
• The second solution is to purchase armoured locks (e.g. Viro series 1.8234 and 1.8252) which provide multiple locking points. This distributes over several points the force caused by an attempted break-in or lifting and it counteracts the action of crowbars on all sides. You can also achieve a good level of security on the cylinder by armouring the lock, for example with the type 806 security escutcheon.
  
  The security escutcheon provides protection against pulling and drilling, whilst the cover plates, supplied with the escutcheon, cover the pre-existing holes (left by removing the outer plastic covers) and also contribute to the defence of the lock.
  
• Finally, a third solution, which makes the presence of an armoured lock even more effective, is to install additional accessories to enhance the overall security of the up-and-over door and the locking system already installed.

Here are the main possibilities:

– Fit a protective plate inside, made of hardened, tempered and galvanized steel, to prevent drilling of the sheet metal of the door. As we saw in the video and in the previous blog, the thieves often gain access through a hole in the sheet metal to hook onto or grip the command for opening from the inside and attempt to release the lock;

– Install a reinforcing bar horizontally at the bottom of the garage door, to contrast forcing with long levers which attempt to bend the sides of the door;

– Use a fastening unit, such as the New Condor and the specific accessory for fitting on up-and-over doors to ensure an additional anchoring to the ground, which prevents the forced lifting of the garage door.

Do you have a garage to protect? Find out how to do it on garage.virosecurityclub.com!