Best Bike Lock ?

"john" wrote:

John, if I were to turn to a life of crime, boosting bikes, I wouldn't
use levers or bolt cutters. It wouldn't matter how tight the chain or
cable was. In fact the tighter, the better. The down side of my methods
is that they both make some noise or attract attention.
I do wonder how long of a bolt cutter it would take to cut a 1/2"
Krypto lock, and if one set of jaws could hold their sharpness long
enough to do the job?
Best wishes, John

I many places, it matters not how noisy the thief is:
http://neistat.com/pages/video_holdi...ef_holding.htm

--
Ted Bennett

On 26 Jan 2006 19:27:19 -0800, "john" wrote:

Werehatrack wrote:

One other observation: Although a cable lock will do the job in many
locales, they're amazingly easy to cut. I frequently get used bikes
brought to me that have cable locks on them for which no key is
available or the combination has been lost. None has resisted my
cable cutter even slightly; one slice, and they're history.

What is the thickest cable you have easily cut through?

10mm in one hack is common. That's 10mm of wire, not a 10mm diameter
plastic tube with 7mm of cable inside. It wasn't even hard to cut it.
Most bike lock cables of my experience are readily severed with one
squeeze of the handles on my Park der and brake cable cutter. For
larger cables, I haul out the old blacksmith's shear, though some
heavy-looking cables can be cut with much more mundane implements.

I'm under the
impression that the really thick cables are fairly hard to cut through,
or at least slow a thief down significantly. If this isn't true I would
like to know about it.

Unless the cable is made of something incredibly tough (which tends to
also make it rather inconveniently stiff), it's not going to be hard
to cut in my experience. Some of the thicker, more flexible ones can
be hacked with garden pruning loppers. Some of the less flexible,
tougher cables will resist a bolt cutter to a significant extent, but
few can stand up to a cable shear for more than a second. Many thick
cables can still be defeated with the pocket-size Park cutters by just
taking several nips.

Bike thieves are aware of the fragility of cables. A recent surge in
thefts of bikes on a local university campus was stopped when the
campus cops caught the thief red-handed after a tipoff by an alert
student. Among the tools in the thief's pockets were a cable cutter
and a collection of ball-point pens with mangled ends on the tubes.
The tools of the bike theft trade are neither exotic nor costly. A
cable lock deters only the casual thief, not the experienced one.

--
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john wrote:

Are you sure? I'd rather cut a Krypto. chain & /or small lock than
their better U-locks. (The Evo & NY)

U-locks don't have to be cut. They can be broken with a scissors jack
or sometimes even a long piece of pipe. You can't usually pry or jack
a chain open.

The cycle messengers around here (Seattle) use Kryptonite New York
Chains or similar arrangements to protect their bikes.

Chalo Colina

Ted Bennett wrote in news:tedbennett-
:


I many places, it matters not how noisy the thief is:
http://neistat.com/pages/video_holdi...ef_holding.htm

That's gotta be the funniest/saddest thing I've ever seen. Thank God I
don't ride in NYC.

Chalo wrote:
john wrote:

Are you sure? I'd rather cut a Krypto. chain & /or small lock than
their better U-locks. (The Evo & NY)


U-locks don't have to be cut. They can be broken with a scissors jack
or sometimes even a long piece of pipe. You can't usually pry or jack
a chain open.

The cycle messengers around here (Seattle) use Kryptonite New York
Chains or similar arrangements to protect their bikes.

I remember standing in line in a tool rental shop here in Boston while a
couple of young kids (12-14?) in front of me rented a compound
chain/bolt cutter for the day. Maybe the NY chains would withstand them,
I don't know. Friend's motorcycle chains haven't been lucky.

What's the old joke about all city bikes weighing 40 lb -- the lighter
(more expensive) the bike, the heavier the chain.

I have on of the very original Kryptonite U-locks (circa 1969) made from
welded flat stainless bar stock, vending machine lock. Weighs a ton, but
I don't think anybody remembers how to beat it anymore.

"rs" wrote in message
...
Perhaps off the subject from pure technical issues but what brand/type of
bike
lock is the most effective against (scum-bag) bike theives? I assume a
U-lock
of a cable lock? And Kryptonite is a big name brand but there were the
problems several years ago with them so I wonder if they're solved all
that.
REI locally in Berkeley carries a brand called BullDog (I think).

This is for my around town commuter/cruiser.


Doberman wearing a spiked collar.

"Vee" wrote in message
oups.com...

rs wrote:

This is for my around town commuter/cruiser.

Unless the bike is worth a lot of money, you probably don't need much
of a lock. Cable locks are light, easy to carry, and usually enough of
a deterrent to protect a commuter bike... unless bike theft is terrible
where you are?

-Vee

What constitutes "a lot of money"? :-)

rs wrote:
Perhaps off the subject from pure technical issues but what brand/type of bike
lock is the most effective against (scum-bag) bike theives? I assume a U-lock
of a cable lock? And Kryptonite is a big name brand but there were the
problems several years ago with them so I wonder if they're solved all that.
REI locally in Berkeley carries a brand called BullDog (I think).

This is for my around town commuter/cruiser.

Could this be adapted for bicycle use:
http://www.lojack.com/products-services/auto-security-system/lojack-for-motorcycles.cfm?

--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

rs wrote:
Perhaps off the subject from pure technical issues but what brand/type of bike
lock is the most effective against (scum-bag) bike theives? I assume a U-lock
of a cable lock? And Kryptonite is a big name brand but there were the
problems several years ago with them so I wonder if they're solved all that.
REI locally in Berkeley carries a brand called BullDog (I think).

This is for my around town commuter/cruiser.

You could always ride a bike like this:
http://www.outsideconnection.com/gallant/hpv/joe/MVC-004S.JPG.

--
Tom Sherman - Fox River Valley

I live in a nice part of Oakland but commonly ride in Berkeley and
thereabouts. This all came about because I go by REI in Berkeley fairly often
and I was locking my bike with a thick cable right in front of the store.
Bless her heart but the front-door employee came out and said they've been
having trouble with bikes locked right in front of the store using cables and
getting ripped off so she told me to bring it inside. She said they hadn't
heard of u-locked bikes getting ripped off. So I asked the group about this.


In article ,
says...

Perhaps off the subject from pure technical issues but what brand/type of
bike
lock is the most effective against (scum-bag) bike theives? I assume a
U-lock
of a cable lock? And Kryptonite is a big name brand but there were the
problems several years ago with them so I wonder if they're solved all that.

REI locally in Berkeley carries a brand called BullDog (I think).

This is for my around town commuter/cruiser.