Seriously, I never leave my bike unattended.
In Marocco there is a whole "guard industry"
For pennies your bike is guarded honestly.
The real problem are the items people can grab while passing.
so the first thing for me is not to give any offer to steal.
No cups, tools or anything attached openly to my bike.
Klaus warned us about some buggars near Olgi, they where stealing what was easily accesible, Leatherman from the side pocket of the tankbag i.e. would be a nogo for me to stash valuable things I still need.

My ride is over 30 years old, I don´t clean iton travels if not necessary.
When having a break for dinner my bike is in sight.

I ride softbags (Enduristan saddle bags, packroll, and tankbag.
In my opinion you would need more time to cut and fuddle for the content.
In those bags there are only things which aren´t that important. If my 800$ tent will be stolen, I´ll sleep in a cheap one from then on.
But I have a big top case-like Peli case. It´s attached by thick steel wire and padlocks (keyless). The PeliCase itself is locked with padlocks too.
Everything valuable is in there and well locked (i.e. electronic equipement, Carnet de Passage, some 300 €, spare keys, data storage with pichtures of all my documents. Sensitive data such as PINs, Passwords etc are coded (just a reminder what was the Password or PIN as ajpg pichture, so it can´t be picked by trojans and even if stolen, noone can understand whats meant.

And the bike ist locked with a 2m steel cable and massive padlock with number code.

There are 3 rules for me:

- don´t give any motivition to steal by showing fancy stuff on yur bike. The bike and equipement is as dirty as it comes...

-all valuables in the locked Top Case

-never leave the packed and `ready for ride bike` unattended. and lock it to something well fixed to the ground.

Never had any issues.

Some guides/comments

If you cannot afford to loose it, don't take it.

If you put a packsafe mesh on the outside - it says .. here is where my valuables are. A packsafe on the inside of the soft bags?

If there are 3 or less pubs in a town .. fairly safe as everyone knows everyone.

A dirty old bike cover is good ... anyone getting it off will get dirty.

Put your name and licence number on things .. if the cops find them and spot that, they can find you.

The pacsafe 90l goes nicely around a big roll bag, most effective way of securing one in my book. If you are concerned about the mesh bag being a big 'my contents are valuable' flag then throw a bike cover over - best of both worlds.

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[ Tim | History - NW Italy/French Rivera, Swiss Alps, Morocco | 2016 - Greece > Albania > Macedonia > Kosovo > Montenegro > Bosnia > Slovenia > Austria ]