Passable lock?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

KnackeredBike

I do my own stunts
Whenever I have needed a bike lock I just go to a hardware store farmers use and ask for a chain and padlock that will lock an agricultural gate. Reasoning being if it can keep caravan folk out it can probably keep my bike in place. Always sub £20 for a heavy old chain that you would need some industrial duty bolt cutters or an angle grinder to get through.

Though in reality if you have a better lock and/or a less desirable bike than others in the stand you have a pretty good chance of keeping your bike. The videos online showing people cutting through the chain with two metre bolt cutters are a bit silly as petty thieves aren't likely to walk around with something so obvious.
 
Location
London
It doesn't look it - the D-lock is only 13mm thick and the cable is only 10mm, plus if they beat the D then the cable comes free. You can do better for the money at the moment.
Does it really matter though as long as you are using two locks and your bike isn't super expensive looking/the best in the rack? I mean they are going to have to take a power tool to it anyway. And though the more expensive/heavy duty D locks will resist the power tool for longer, it's not a lot longer. In short, if they are going to make themselves conspicuous, however briefly, by using a power tool, aren't they going to go for the best catch? Sorry if I'm being naive, but I have been thinking this way lately and tend to use a scrappy looking (but good) bike around London.
 
Location
London
I'm a little late to this post, but I think the cost of the lock should be relative to the value of the bike it will be locking. That OnGuard lock is fine for a bike that is around $300 in value, but I wouldn't use it on a bike worth $3,000, I would base the price of a lock on roughly 10% of the value of the bike you'll be using it on. Now of course if you live in an extremely low crime area then a low costing lock would be adequate for any priced bike, but in an average crime area and above you need to rethink about how much you should spend on a lock.
mm- but is it wise to lock/leave a $3,000 dollar bike in the street anyway? Granted that if thieves see a bike as a real catch they will lift it anyway. And are you serously suggesting spending $300 on a lock? Surely you'd be better spending $300 on a bike for leaving round town?
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Whenever I have needed a bike lock I just go to a hardware store farmers use and ask for a chain and padlock that will lock an agricultural gate. Reasoning being if it can keep caravan folk out it can probably keep my bike in place. Always sub £20 for a heavy old chain that you would need some industrial duty bolt cutters or an angle grinder to get through.

Though in reality if you have a better lock and/or a less desirable bike than others in the stand you have a pretty good chance of keeping your bike. The videos online showing people cutting through the chain with two metre bolt cutters are a bit silly as petty thieves aren't likely to walk around with something so obvious.
I've taken a pair or four foot bolt cutters to a lock, "securing" a bike in full view of a CCTV system and shops. Cut the lock, then walked off with all three.

So it's not as daft as it sounds/seems. The bike racks have since been removed though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjr

KnackeredBike

I do my own stunts
I've taken a pair or four foot bolt cutters to a lock, "securing" a bike in full view of a CCTV system and shops. Cut the lock, then walked off with all three.

So it's not as daft as it sounds/seems. The bike racks have since been removed though.
Yes but you are not a smackhead who plod will take an interest to if they look like they might be going equipped.

Plus said smackheads are probably going to be happy if they can get £20 quickly so will be more happy to go for the 5 second Poundland lock ten times than one big effort on a decent lock.
 
Last edited:

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Does it really matter though as long as you are using two locks and your bike isn't super expensive looking/the best in the rack?
I feel it does matter because if you use a D lock with add-on cable like that, you are effectively only using one lock - the D. When they break the D, the cable comes off too.

It's only slightly better than just using a D-lock in that they can't steal a wheel as easily - and if you only loop the cable around the parking stand (as I've seen so often) and don't put the D around it, they can cut the cable and wheel the bike (lifting only the D-locked wheel slightly) somewhere to work on the D as noisily and slowly as they like - plus you won't be able to claim the lock's insurance because you won't have the defeated lock. Locking like that is pretty much like using a cable lock that thin, which wouldn't qualify for any security standard.

Not looking the best in the rack is always helpful, but you can't rely on someone parking their Dogma where you're going. Also, I feel using one of those add-on cables identifies you as a bit confused about security, so the more habitual thieves'll look more closely to see if you made a more basic mistake.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
Do you have a link for one of these alarmed cable locks? But, thinking, can't the alarm be very swiftly disabled with a quick smash?
My alarmed cable (I think it's a clone of the Yale JE90) is not currently in stock. Yale occasionally make some (but I can't find any in stock in the UK in a few searches), or combining one of the Krabus or clone padlocks from the LFGSS list with a decent cable will do a similar job, although I prefer an integrated lock.

The alarm can probably disabled with a sufficiently heavy smash, but I have run mine over with a small car (don't ask :blush: ) and dropped it several times and it still works (I occasionally set it off briefly through cack-handed unlocking). Also, club/sledge hammers aren't popular bike thief tools and most of the locks aren't that obviously alarmed (Yale often are, sadly), so would a thief realise they need to smash it quickly before the alarm sounds?

Remember an alarm isn't good primary security. It's to serve a similar purpose to the sounding bit of a car alarm: to deter the casual/cackhanded thief who won't want to suffer the loud sound long enough to defeat the lock, to make people look and hopefully remember the thief, and to tell me to come running if I'm in earshot (and unlike a car, due to my height and unusual bike controls, they may well not be able to ride away from me even if they've got my bike free before I get to them).
 
Location
London
I feel it does matter because if you use a D lock with add-on cable like that, you are effectively only using one lock - the D. When they break the D, the cable comes off too.

It's only slightly better than just using a D-lock in that they can't steal a wheel as easily - and if you only loop the cable around the parking stand (as I've seen so often) and don't put the D around it, they can cut the cable and wheel the bike (lifting only the D-locked wheel slightly) somewhere to work on the D as noisily and slowly as they like - plus you won't be able to claim the lock's insurance because you won't have the defeated lock. Locking like that is pretty much like using a cable lock that thin, which wouldn't qualify for any security standard.

Not looking the best in the rack is always helpful, but you can't rely on someone parking their Dogma where you're going. Also, I feel using one of those add-on cables identifies you as a bit confused about security, so the more habitual thieves'll look more closely to see if you made a more basic mistake.
I meant using two D locks mjr (not a lock and a cavle) - but both not top-notch not top-heavy. On the principle that they are going to have to take a power tool to them anyway. Yes, like you I've quite often (in fact just the other day) seen someone use the D lock as a link between the two ends of the cable! What are they thinking?
 
Have you asked the Police / local Council?

Seems silly, but I know that in Gosport there are promotion days where safety equipment including locks is sold at subsidised prices

We got a couple of "Sold Secure" Blocks at less than a 1/3 of the high street price, they may be of limited availability, but they may also have some available. It is worth asking

This is the next Gosport event
 
  • Like
Reactions: mjr

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I meant using two D locks mjr (not a lock and a cavle) - but both not top-notch not top-heavy. On the principle that they are going to have to take a power tool to them anyway.
Apologies for my confusion - you did quote me commenting on one of those lock+add-on bundles, though. I bow to your experience of what's needed to break D locks - I tend to assume no-one will bat an eyelid at someone taking a power tool to a bike lock these days. There's quite a few videos on youtube of it in the USA and I doubt it would be much different in London or Cambridge.
 

classic33

Leg End Member
Did you have a magic cloak of hi-vis invisibility on? Ain't social compliance wonderful: act as if you are meant to be there and people assume you're meant to be there.
No Hi-Vis on at the time. Simply wandered up to where the bike was "securely" locked against the bike rack, bolt cutters in hand. Cut the lock and wandered off carrying all three.

Hi-Vis, I'll go elsewhere with a 15 mm spanner or socket on a t-bar.
 

Similar threads

Top Bottom