What are the bike theft coverage conditions?
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Your bike is covered for theft whenever it is away from home and left unattended and locked to an immovable object. A bike rack qualifies, a tree qualifies, a car bike rack qualifies, and so does the bike rack outside your office: lock the bike to any of them and a theft is a covered loss.
The principle behind the list is simple: an unattended bike needs to be secured to something a thief cannot carry away along with the bike. A defeated lock then does double duty of proving the bike was secured, and force was used to cut the lock, and this triggers the theft coverage.
What counts as an "immovable object"?
Anything solidly anchored into the ground that the bike can be locked to. A bike rack is the everyday case; securing the bike to a tree is considered an immovable object, and a car bike rack that is locked to the car counts as well, so bikes locked to the rack on your car are covered for theft. The lock matters as much as the anchor: use a high-quality U-lock or sleeved chain rather than a cable lock, which is easily defeated. Our choices are in the lock we recommend.
Do the same conditions apply at home or in the car?
Indoor storage follows an easier rule. Behind a closed garage door, the policy does not require the bike to be locked to an immovable object, although it should be considered, and inside a locked car, coverage is conditional on evidence of forced entry: the police report must show forcible entry. The specifics are in locking a bike inside a closed garage and theft from inside a locked car.
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