I'm concerned about the use of cable locks.

[evilclive]

Are all cable wire locks this easy to get past. It looked to all intents like a bloody sturdy thing and I just assumed that it would be made of hardened steel. As it was it felt like it was made of spaghetti.

My lock experiences :

Plain cable - all crap.

Cable with a sectioned metal outer - surprisingly harder to get through, since the metal sections require different tools to the metal and don't respond to a saw.

D-lock - trolley jack. Not allowing space for this works.

When I had my bike nicked in Cambridge 20 years ago (cable lock), the policeman said he couldn't tell me to go to a named place, but if I went to a largish hardware store not very far from the police station and got one of their heavy chains + a decent padlock, that would do me best. And it has.

Of course nothing is proof against a heavy pair of choppers or an angle grinder (the latter being very easy to get hold of).

 

[summerdays]

But, i leave the locks over night on the bike stand so that i dont have to carry them back and forth on my commute. I have heard tales of theives practicing on these locks over night, so they can nick the bike in the morning, do you think this is just an urban myth? How easy would it be to pick a D lock?

I doubt they pick it... just that they have overnight to tamper with it - leaving you when you turn up with a damaged lock.... or one that you can't use at all - and I guess some might just use the cable lock that they have in their bag? Me - I'd go straight to a bike shop and buy a new lock or get a colleague to come down and lock my bike with theirs.

I leave my son's cable lock at school - it's only there for the quick release wheel or for the time when I forget his D-lock. Means he can go into school leaving the bike lightly locked up (but with teacher standing on the gate nearby), and I nip home to get the D-lock.

 

[Cyclopathic]

I use a cable lock for the wheels and a D lock for the frame.

But, i leave the locks over night on the bike stand so that i dont have to carry them back and forth on my commute. I have heard tales of theives practicing on these locks over night, so they can nick the bike in the morning, do you think this is just an urban myth? How easy would it be to pick a D lock?

I've seen some footage of d-locks being overcome with nothing more than a biro, and I do mean a pen. They simply splayed out the end of the pen and inserted it into the circular key hole that people thought looked so unusual and obviously impervious. They wigled it around for a second and it acted just like the key by pushing in the little tumblers.

This was a while ago and I would hope the manufacturers will have improved the design by now.

 

[Cyclopathic]

Being rubbish with keys as I am I've had to break into a couple of my own bikes. Admitedly they were pretty cheap bikes and had cheapish locks but each time I've done it no one has ever challenged me about it. In broad daylight in a populated city area I've been able to have a go at locks with hacksaws and a hammer and chisle, making as much noise as you like and barely got a second look.
Lock wise I think I just want something thats up at the next level, the one just above being able to breach the thing in under a minute. Definitely leaning towards the hardened square section chain link type thing and hope the lock is capable of withstanding s few hefty blows. (I have found that the quickest method is sometimes just to whack the lock mechanism with the biggest hammer you can find)

 

[tyred]

When I had my bike nicked in Cambridge 20 years ago (cable lock), the policeman said he couldn't tell me to go to a named place, but if I went to a largish hardware store not very far from the police station and got one of their heavy chains + a decent padlock, that would do me best. And it has.

Genrally what I do but I don't live in an area of high bike theft. A tip for anyone going down the chain and padlock route is to put the chain inside a piece of old inner tube to proect the paintwork.