Gold rated locks for touring

[Groovemachine86]

Hi all!

I'm about to take my shiny new Dawes Ultra Galaxy on tour and need a gold rated lock to take , but ideally one which doesn't weigh a ton like the Kryptonite New York D lock. Any suggestions would be massively appreciated.

Cheers!

James

 

[Brains]

Weight = Security

You balance one against the other.
I think the lightest semi secure option is a 2m Kyriptonite cable and a micro D-Lock
Basically you want to spend about 10% of the replacement cost of the bike on the locks

 

[slowmotion]

I take the fatalistic view. I get insurance and buy the lock that the insurance policy stipulates ( or one a bit better). Best to shop around for the insurance though. Bike specific policies are usually hedged around with criminally sleazy "small print". That's just the insurance industry. Extensions to a household policy however are spectacular value usually. Ours cost an extra £21 pa and covers £1200 of bikes, with no onerous lock or parking rules. I still lock it with a £30 lock but I don't worry about it. The lack of worry is worth a lot.

 

[Bodhbh]

I generally just use a cable lock, but if I were to buy one from scratch would get a folding lock:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Abus-Bordo-...NCXG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1344292446&sr=8-3

It can wrap around trees/fences/etc, yet is boltcropperproof and packs very compact.

 

[rich p]

Where are you touring? I hardly bother locking mine, apart from a token lock, although I rarely, if ever, leave it unattended in cities.

 

[Danny]

I take a relatively light weight cable lock with me when I am touring. I think this is secure enough if you are in rural locations, but like Rich I would think twice about leaving a laden touring bike in the middle of a major city.

 

[arallsopp]

For my recent trip, I took a lightweight cable lock and a couple of ground anchors (robbed from my camping kit). The former stops the opportunist thief from taking the bike whilst I'm getting drinks /food/ disposing of either. The latter are screw thread tent pegs; lightweight enough, but if you put both in the ground then cable lock through them you can secure your bike in an open field. I tended to avoid stopping in cities. If it was a multi day tour, I'd have checked the bike into my accommodation for each night on arrival. Instead (this time around) I merely checked into the bike, and stayed with it until I arrived

 

[Groovemachine86]

Thanks guys! Some good advice there. Ive had to get a chunky gold rated lock for the sake of insurance, not sure if I can use a lighter one on the road anyway ;-) Hopefully I won't notice the extra 2kg on the bike!

 

[sabian92]

If you're doing fully loaded touring, 2kg is nothing. The price of piece of mind is worth carrying the 2kg alone.

 

[P.H]

Weight = Security

You balance one against the other.

No, I have two SS Gold rated locks, one weighs over twice as much as the other which cost over twice the price.

When I was looking a few years ago the Squire Paramount Urban was the lightest I could find at 970g. The design has changed since then and I understand it's now heavier. My LBS say one of the Abus they stock is less than a kilo, I don't know the model.

 

[Crankarm]

Don't use any cycle cable locks unless they are of the motorcycle variety which weigh a tonne, as they are as good as cheese. I see the remains of so many Kryptonite cable locks lying amongst Sheffield stands in Cambridge. They are NO defence against bolt cutters. Use a decent D-lock such as an Abus Granit X Plus. As some one said above a little bit of extra weight for a better lock means more piece of mind that your bike will still be in the place you left it when you return.

 

[Davidc]

It's worth supplementing any lock with a motion detecting alarm. Effective and reliable ones are available on ebay, but they do cost a few quid. The alarm padlocks now available work well too. As a supplement to a Gold standard D lock you can lock one around one of the bike's tubes. Thieves tend to run off when one sounds.

Crankarm's wise words about cable locks are spot on.

Bike thieves should be sent to Saudi Arabia for sentencing!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

We toured with 2 Squire Urban Paramount D Locks new design which weighs in at 1.7kg now.
1 for each of the bikes, which allowed us to lock front wheel to rear & frame and rear & frame to front when the bikes were side by side, so you had to get through 2 bike locks to get the bikes. In theory each lock is meant to stand up to 5 mins of attack but the best option appears to be to leave your bike where someone's elses is less well locked and more 'interesting' to the resale market. Tourers I don't think rate that highly on resale - especially steel ones that are bright yellow... If we needed to leave them they were either in a building out of sight, (worked well for us) or covered with our tarp, so none of the reflective patches (tyres and spoke reflectors) drew attention to them, but the truth was if we were not happy with leaving them, they were not left and we would move on.

Both the Abus Granit X Plus & the Squire Urban Paramount D Lock are Sold Secure Gold and and on the security rating, both are 15 out of 15, and both seem to weigh around the same mark, so I guess either one would do. What you do for the 2nd lock is another matter when there is only 1 of you (there may not be, but nothing in your post gives any indication of another tourer).