Secure parking

[xtine]

We will be going to DLP in August en route to the Dordogne - this means the car will be fully laden with camping kit and have 4 bikes on the back!

We will stay off-site somewhere and are looking for suggestions as to what is the best thing to do with the bikes - a bit loathe to leave them attached on the back of the car in DLP car park as they would be fairly easy to nick even if locked to the bike carrier and when we were there last year it seemed fairly open.

Any suggestions? Anyone know of secure luggage facilities at DLP that would allow us to leave bikes, or of nearby cheap hotels that would have secure parking facilities.


Christine

 

[Architect]

We've left the car with a fully laden boot without any problems for a day, but (obviously) making sure that nothing valuable was on show. Your best bet, though, is to arrive early and park nearer the walkways as this ensures passive supervision.

Bikes are trickier but I've seen them on cars in the main car park; lockable roof rack is usually the best bet, failing which get a big lock and chain 'em to your (hopefully lockable) roof bars once you park.

 

[xtine]

Thats the problem... we have a roof box on top that locks, although the bars don't lock to the car it would have to be opened before it could be removed and I can't see anyone being able to have it away without someone getting suspicious.

The bike rack is new and we haven't tried it yet, but we can't see anyway of locking it to the car or towbar, we can lock the bikes to it and it would be a helluva a weight to lift all 4 bikes and the carrier but a decent cutter would easily cut through locks I would think.

My thought is if there are bike racks somewhere we could chain each bike individually and that way even if 1 gets stolen we probably wouldn't lose them all, and without the bikes on the back it won't be so obvious that the car is packed to the gunwhales.

Maybe there are bike racks at the train station?


Christine