You’ve invested in a great bike lock, but what should you lock it to? Bike racks and stands rated

We’ve spent a fair bit of time testing locks recently, with the road.cc angle grinder kept busy as we put just shy of 20 bike locks from across the price spectrum through their paces. 

You can check the results of that testing out here, but one very valid point that came out of the comments section was that while lock resistance is the most important aspect, what you lock your bike to is also worth considering. 

Much like locks, racks and stands come in all shapes and sizes, and with a wide range of effectiveness and qualities. In short, some are good, many aren’t. Here are some of the best… and of course also some of the worst.

Sheffield Stands

The classic Sheffield Stand. This feature could end right after this, the old faithful of bike racks. Any big cheeses reading this, provide enough of these in handy locations and you’ll get no complaints from anyone on two wheels. Sturdy and practical, you can’t really go wrong.

Well, as long as they’re installed properly that is. Try to avoid the embarrassment these “middle-aisle bike stands” that a newly opened branch of Aldi had to fix quick after opening in Leamington Spa. Likewise, these stands in Edinburgh had the same issue.

You can’t blame the stand for the person installing it doing a poor job, so no slight on the Sheffield Stand for that, although it can be worth checking (especially when at a new location) that everything’s bolted down, can’t easily be unscrewed and has been put in correctly before locking your bike.

Check for cuts and faults too, some bike thieves have got quite sneaky with cutting through some less durable designs, but on the whole if we see a Sheffield Stand, we’re happy.

Pros: 

• Does the job, without faff
• Fairly common
• Practical locking for pretty much any type of bike

Cons: 

• Can sometimes be vandalised by thieves to still steal bikes
• Occasional installation issues, but can’t knock the stand for human incompetence…

The station-style double decker

These double-deckers are often seen in the UK at train stations and are quite common in the Netherlands too. While in the UK they’ve occasionally received criticism for being “overly complicated” and “ableist” due to the impossibility for some people to use the top level, they seem to work fine on the continent. Then again, they’re often seen in giant superparking facilities, like the one below in Maastricht, where there’s no issue finding a space.

Pros:

• Often come in large quantities
• If it’s good enough for the Dutch

Cons:

• Don’t dare try using the top bunk unless you’ve had your Weetabix and ride a lighter, skinnier bike
• Can be hard to lock the frame sometimes, depending on the exact design
• Anecdotally feels like you see lots of missing wheels, stolen parts, but maybe that’s just because train stations are notoriously bad for bike theft in the UK

The wheel bender

We’re firmly into ‘not ideal’ territory now. Bike parking provided by people who’ve clearly never locked a bike. Really hard to lock a frame if they’re like the one above. Still really hard to lock the frame if they’re ground-based too, plus they’re often part of a whole moveable unit which somewhat undermines the point of giving someone somewhere to lock a bike. Oh, and as the name suggests, your poor wheel probably won’t thank you for using them.

Pros: 

• Really struggling for anything other than ‘better than nothing’… maybe

Cons:

• Make the sole purpose of locking a bike really difficult
• You’ll struggle to lock the frame, especially with a decent D-lock
• Often part of a whole unit that can be moved
• Bend your wheels… (hence the name)

Upright train bike parking

Another one that has us waking up in the middle of the night in cold sweats, the infamous upright bike parking suffered on many trains. It’s narrow, unsuitable for many types of bike with wider handlebars, requires plenty of strength to use and just generally makes you feel like you’re being punished for the horrendous crime of bringing a bike on a train.

Pros:

• We tried to think of one, we really did… the best I’ve got is that train companies still haven’t charged us extra for it, but that’s an incredibly low bar

Cons:

• What do you mean more than two people might want to bring a bike on this 500-person train?
• Has to be pre-booked
• Nightmare for wide bars, heavier bikes, mountain bikes, bikepackers… basically anyone whose bike isn’t a sub-10kg road bike with 40cm bars or narrower

Less of that, more of these ScotRail bike-friendly carriages please…

The ramp

We’ve seen these appear in a couple of places, such as outside a London station and at a Sainsbury’s in Dorset. The latter, in September, saw one local councillor take to social media to ask: “Hey Sainsbury’s, what kind of hell is this? Difficult to move the bike into, impossible to secure the bike to it safely. The only good thing is the shelter. Please replace with Sheffield Stands as soon as possible.”

Pros:

• Marginally less impossible to use for riders of heavy bikes than the double-decker and train racks, but still… really?
• Danny MacAskill could probably ride straight in without dismounting

Cons:

• Can we please not just have a Sheffield Stand?

 The Turkey Twizzler

Aldi got a mention earlier on so it’s only fair we give Lidl a visit too, this coiled ‘turkey twizzler’ rack spotted outside one of the budget supermarket’s Dublin stores. All a bit strange, even if it at least looks usable by one person at either end at a time and doesn’t involve hoisting your bike upright. 

Pros:

• More civic infrastructure should pay tribute to nostalgic school dinners

Cons:

• Almost completely useless
• Gives Jamie Oliver flashbacks… suppose that could be a pro

There are plenty more artsy designs out there and they’re very hit and miss, but mainly miss. In almost all cases, the best just replicate the Sheffield stand… so why not just use them? In no particular order.

The hoop. A rack that’s like if we gave a Sheffield Stand to bike brands’ marketing departments: more aero and lighter.

These three were all submitted by readers under our ‘Worst bike racks’ feature, so no surprises they ain’t particularly good. To Scotland for the next contender, outside Holyrood on the wonderfully named Horse Wynd.

For the final boss of artsy bike racks we’re heading down under…

In 2013 this was installed as part of the Adelaide City Bike Art Trail. Brace yourselves for the tourist board’s description, no laughing: “This artwork seeks to express playfulness and movement, both embodied within the Festival Centre and with cycling.

“The work seeks to embrace the cycling narrative within the bike racks and interplays with the spiral forms. The double red loops also seek to engage with bicycles wheels. The work uses the form and shape of the circular bike stand in proximity and repetition providing an inviting pathway for the twist and playfully guides itself through the created tubular/spiral form.”

New build flats/offices

Another from the comments is the new-build office/flats favourite, usually in some basement by the bins and often involving a wheel bender, such as this interesting design.

Pros:

• Inside

Cons:

• Wheel-bender on steroids
• Only as secure as your neighbours and colleagues, might be off the street but how many people could still get to it?

Bike hangars

We quite like bike hangars. They offer about as secure a place to leave your bike as you can find outside your own home. Now, the caveats are that these are of course very much residential parking, so great for parking your bike outside your house, but you’re not going to find any outside the supermarket or on the high street.

They also cost about £60 per year, depending on where you live, so there’s that too, but if you’re short on space at home and need a secure option, bike hangars are a strong option that will almost certainly trump any on-street option. Just don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a culture war…

> NIMBY locals “concerned and distressed” by “giant ugly” bike hangar

Pros:

• Secure
• Easy to use
• Weatherproof

Cons:

• Comes at a cost
• Only outside your house
• Might get called ‘woke’ by The Sun for using one

The car-shaped one

Talking of bike parking that caused outrage in local Facebook groups. It’s almost a Sheffield Stand that makes a point about how much road space respective modes of transport take up. If only we could make that car a bit more realistic in size, then there might be enough room between the racks for easy use and wider bikes.

Definitely not as bad as ‘the toast rack’ and better than many on this list. Oh, you want to know what the toast rack is? 

Pros:

• Will almost certainly cause a meltdown in the local residents’ Facebook group
• Makes a decent point about space in urban areas
• Imitates everyone’s favourite Sheffield Stands almost perfectly

Cons:

• Doesn’t quite hit the Sheffield Stand level… and there’s a big drop off in usability once you miss that point
• May leave you listening to a NIMBY about ‘the bloody council stealing our car parking spaces’ when all you really want to do is park your bike and get on with your day

Railings

There’s a bit of a theme with this feature — if it replicates a Sheffield Stand, it’s a decent option. That’s something that your humble urban railing is likely to do. Many people won’t want a bike locked to their front gate or building, and there’s often a sign threatening some sort of action if you do, so it perhaps requires some care, especially as you won’t want to block a pavement either.

Pros:

• Handy access to your destination (assuming it’s your building’s railing you’ve locked it to)
• Useful for locking the frame

Cons:

• There’s probably already a sign telling you not to lock it there
• Want to avoid blocking a footway

Poles and lampposts

See above about not wanting to block any pavements. It’s also worth remembering that if your bike can be lifted above the height of the pole then locking it isn’t going to make much difference, someone could still get it over the top.

Pros:

• Lots of them
• Less likely to piss off residents than building railings

Cons:

• Might block a footway
• Needs to be tall enough not to be lifted

Trees

The natural choice, just don’t be surprised if you have to clean bird mess off your bike at some point. The thicker the tree the safer your bike will be, but at some point you might not be able to get your lock round. The thinner the tree the easier it’ll be to lock, but it also becomes an easier theft. It’s a bit of a pickle. Maybe just find something better to lock your bike to…

Pros:

• Photographic

Cons:

• Saws exist, it probably won’t be there when you get back
• Don’t want to be damaging trees