Advice on which locks to use from experience?

[vickster]

In my experience, this is not true. Standalone bike insurance is incredibly overpriced and most people don't bother for that reason, unless they can get it as a cheaper add-on to their home policy.

The OP just needs to check his home policy covers bikes to the required value and check the Ts & C’s including security. Cover isn’t a given on home policies esp away from home
I certainly wouldn’t bother with bike specific insurance

 

[steveindenmark]

In my experience, this is not true. Standalone bike insurance is incredibly overpriced and most people don't bother for that reason, unless they can get it as a cheaper add-on to their home policy.

That is exactly what I do.

 

[JRTemple]

And don't forget to value it as new, not the secondhand value.

 

[mjr]

If the lock is for use at a workplace, that's fine. You leave the lock there.

That's very kind to give thieves time to practise picking it.

 

[rogerzilla]

I don't think thieves bother picking locks much these days, especially J. Random Smackhead. Brute force rules.

 

[mjr]

I don't think thieves bother picking locks much these days, especially J. Random Smackhead. Brute force rules.

Most don't but if the bike's tasty enough or the lock easy enough, there's plenty of pick tutorials online.

 

[SO8]

Most don't but if the bike's tasty enough or the lock easy enough, there's plenty of pick tutorials online.

My feeling is that they go for the quick result thus croppers or a battery angle grinder. Picking a lock may be silent but unless very much up on their knowledge they will be there a good deal of time and thieves get twitchy after a minute or so ...

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

My feeling is that they go for the quick result thus croppers or a battery angle grinder. Picking a lock may be silent but unless very much up on their knowledge they will be there a good deal of time and thieves get twitchy after a minute or so ...

Most thieving scumbags are essentially pond life, and to credit them with the skill to open locks non-destructively is to pay them a compliment they don't deserve.
Picking a lock in-situ is a different ball game from doing it in YouTube conditions on a well lit workbench, and not needing to keep looking over your shoulder for the owner or the police.
I mislaid a lever padlock key not long ago, and ended up having to unbolt what it was attached to, before opening it with improvised tools made from an old filed down key and a bit of spring steel. It took me about five minutes seated at a workbench, but would have been much slower in situ due to awkward access. The missing key turned up a few days later, so I'm glad I didn't resort to the grinder.

 

[classic33]

Most thieving scumbags are essentially pond life, and to credit them with the skill to open locks non-destructively is to pay them a compliment they don't deserve.
Picking a lock in-situ is a different ball game from doing it in YouTube conditions on a well lit workbench, and not needing to keep looking over your shoulder for the owner or the police.
I mislaid a lever padlock key not long ago, and ended up having to unbolt what it was attached to, before opening it with improvised tools made from an old filed down key and a bit of spring steel. It took me about five minutes seated at a workbench, but would have been much slower in situ due to awkward access. The missing key turned up a few days later, so I'm glad I didn't resort to the grinder.

You didn't use the lock, or one of the same type, securing your bike again I hope. "Raking" with a blank opened it.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

You didn't use the lock, or one of the same type, securing your bike again I hope. "Raking" with a blank opened it.

The lock was on a shed door, not a bike. It wasn't raked, due to it's design. it was picked a lever at a time with a tension tool against the bolt. Easy enough at a bench, not so easy fixed to a hasp & staple on a door. My approach to security is simple; don't leave any bike worth nicking unattended where you can't see it. I always lock bikes, but mainly as a deterrent to impulsive ride-away theft. The security feature I deploy is the fact no bike of mine that I leave parked on the street is worth more than about £20. The better ones I own are ridden from door to door, and never left anywhere I'm not with them.

 

[MarkF]

Last summer I locked my bike to the railings right outside the bar below, I then went on the piss and lost my keys, so I walked back to Wilkos in Leeds centre and bought a saw and some pliers. I didn't know what I was doing and it took maybe 15 mins of hacking, cutting & swearing before my bike was free, in front of 100's of people and not one of them approached me. I only use U locks now but am aware than if a professional thief wants my bike, he'll have it in seconds.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Anything but wire or strap locks. Preferably a beefy, quality D lock... Your goal is to slow a potential thief down as to make it not worth the risk to the thief...

Take a look here https://stolen-bikes.co.uk/stolen-bikes/ Look at the magnitude of the issue... Many use crap locks and in many instances the bikes themselves have no real value. Having a shed of a bike is not necessarily a deterrent....

 

[MarkF]

Anything but wire or strap locks. Preferably a beefy, quality D lock... Your goal is to slow a potential thief down as to make it not worth the risk to the thief...

Take a look here https://stolen-bikes.co.uk/stolen-bikes/ Look at the magnitude of the issue... Many use crap locks and in many instances the bikes themselves have no real value. Having a shed of a bike is not necessarily a deterrent....

Amir who I work with has lost 10 bikes in the 2 years that I've known him. He lives in Harehills (Leeds) and works in BD9, both high crime areas. I told him to get an old bike and not clean it. I think that old GT MTB lasted about a month.

 

[HMS_Dave]

Amir who I work with has lost 10 bikes in the 2 years that I've known him. He lives in Harehills (Leeds) and works in BD9, both high crime areas. I told him to get an old bike and not clean it. I think that old GT MTB lasted about a month.

More power to the fella, i'd have given up long before 10...

 

[MarkF]

More power to the fella, i'd have given up long before 10...

But he has to cycle to work.