Useful links on bike locks and security
meanwhile
Posts: 392
To celebrate the new bargain purchase of my Sirrus Expert (it was listed as sales/repair and collect only - but the most it needs is a new back wheel and it was just down the road from my house) I just checked the current situation on locks. These are the best links I found:
Test of a selection of locks in the Slate - but they didn't use a bottlejack as part of the test, and the big boltcutters were too small and in the hands of a girly-man, so mostly good for comparing with the next link...
http://www.slate.com/id/2140083
Test that DID use a bottlejack, etc. Locks that could have survived the Slate test for an hour give up in less than a minute; big boltcutters and big scary blokes went through 11mm Secure Gold Standard chains in about 40 seconds
http://quickrelease.tv/?p=327
Excellent advice on positioning the bike and lock to make theft harder; a mini-U used this way might well defeat even a bottlejack, because the jack won't be able to get in
www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html
Very worst case scenario: bolt cutters used on frame, bike taken to strip!
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread584.html
Summary:
- The "Sold Secure" Bronze/Silver/Gold standards are meaningless against professional thieves, because their testing doesn't involve bottlejacks and techniques like "trying hard". Trading Standards are currently investigating them.
- Your best bet is probably a decent mini-U. The bigger more expensive U's are overkill for chavs and junkies and useless against pros. If you're willing to pack extra weight then add a cable lock to the mini-U; most pros won't carry two sets of tools.
- Put your mini-U on around the frame, rear wheel, and stationary object so that there's no room to get a jack inside without mangling the bike. If the equipment is good, a pro might still take it to strip, but he'd have to use bolt cutters on the frame, which gets a teensy bit conspicuous.
Test of a selection of locks in the Slate - but they didn't use a bottlejack as part of the test, and the big boltcutters were too small and in the hands of a girly-man, so mostly good for comparing with the next link...
http://www.slate.com/id/2140083
Test that DID use a bottlejack, etc. Locks that could have survived the Slate test for an hour give up in less than a minute; big boltcutters and big scary blokes went through 11mm Secure Gold Standard chains in about 40 seconds
http://quickrelease.tv/?p=327
Excellent advice on positioning the bike and lock to make theft harder; a mini-U used this way might well defeat even a bottlejack, because the jack won't be able to get in
www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html
Very worst case scenario: bolt cutters used on frame, bike taken to strip!
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread584.html
Summary:
- The "Sold Secure" Bronze/Silver/Gold standards are meaningless against professional thieves, because their testing doesn't involve bottlejacks and techniques like "trying hard". Trading Standards are currently investigating them.
- Your best bet is probably a decent mini-U. The bigger more expensive U's are overkill for chavs and junkies and useless against pros. If you're willing to pack extra weight then add a cable lock to the mini-U; most pros won't carry two sets of tools.
- Put your mini-U on around the frame, rear wheel, and stationary object so that there's no room to get a jack inside without mangling the bike. If the equipment is good, a pro might still take it to strip, but he'd have to use bolt cutters on the frame, which gets a teensy bit conspicuous.
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Comments
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Oh, NY Bike Messenger Association advice on locks:
http://www.nybma.com/faq/question3.htm
- They like HUGE chains. But the article seems to be really old, because it refers to the cylindrical key design with mentioning the Notorious Biro Lockpick Exploit of 2004...0
