Lightweight Cycle Lock

Peddle Up!

I'm looking for a lightweight (but reasonably secure) lock for my road bike. Ideally, one that attaches to the frame to avoid the rattles and clunks associated with one that loops around the saddle post. Any tips? Thanks.

Peddle Up!

Anyone?

CrookedCucumber

Well, I use one I bought from Aldi for (as I recall) £1.99 or thereabouts

It's relatively light for a lock (500g or so), and has a frame clip. I imagine you could get through it with a hacksaw or bolt cropper if you really wanted to. But that's almost certainly going to be the case with an lightweight lock.

Stuck on a Giant

Peddle up. I don't think 'secure' and 'lightweight' are particularly compatible for bike locks. I just use a cafe lock (retractable combination lock) on my road bike and don't leave it out of sight for any length of time, just to stop the opportunistic thief. If you have to leave the bike, can you leave a good quality lock where you leave the bike - eg if commuting to work?

Given the price, I'd suspect that CC's lock would succumb to a quick thump with a hammer! Fine for a Halfords special, not what I'd use for a decent bike.

CrookedCucumber

Stuck on a Giant wrote:

Given the price, I'd suspect that CC's lock would succumb to a quick thump with a hammer! Fine for a Halfords special, not what I'd use for a decent bike.

As you suggested, there isn't any lightweight lock that is suitable to protect an expensive bike from a determined villain. It just doesn't exist.

If a villain is prepared to carry and use a hammer, I'm sure he'd be prepared to carry and use a bolt cropper, or even a hacksaw. I don't think that even my cheapo lock will be defeated without tools, and a person with tools will get through even an expensive lightweight lock quite quickly.

I think that if you spend £50, or whatever, on a lightweight lock, all it will do is give you a false sense of security. Better to save your money and spend it on insurance If you're leaving a decent bike in an exposed place, you need a bloody great lock, and that's all there is to it.

dazzawazza

Mini D-Locks are about 1KG, which is reasonably light for the level of security.
I have an Onguard Pitbull mini D-lock, which attaches to the frame and there is always somewhere suitable for locking it to in the city. It cost me £20, but I have seen them as low as £15.
Also, get locking skewers for your wheels to take the hassle out of locking up with cables or removing wheels.

Peddle Up!

Thanks for the tips. I shall go for a lightweight combination, and keep an eye on the bike. It's just to stop some oik jumping on and riding off really. For the rest of the time, the bike is locked in a secure place.

I should, of course, have remembered the old saying,

All cycles weigh 50lb

A 10lb cycle needs a 40 lb lock
A 25lb cycle needs a 25lb lock
A 40lb cycle needs a 10lb lock
A 50lb cycle needs no lock!

CrookedCucumber

The problem is that you can buy an old hack on eBay, or a new hack from Halfords, for less money than all that stuff

I once left a bike locked up outside a boxing gym I used to train at in East London -- I'd locked the frame and both the wheels. When I came out, all that was left was the frame and the wheels. And a few severed cables and bits. Everything else was gone -- saddle, handlebars, pedals, cranks, chain, the works.

My point is that there are some really determined villains out there. You'd have to be pretty determined (and well-equipped) to strip down a bicycle out the front of a boxing club, I would imagine.

My `best' bike lives in my garage except for the times when my arse is on the saddle. I'm just not prepared to risk it to any kind of lock. I've got a hack bike for shopping, and anybody who thinks it's worth sawing through the lock to get at is welcome to it, quite frankly.

feel

Agree with CC. I use a very cheap, small recoil lock which i keep in a pocket for when i dash into a shop. There are NO really secure locks even great big £100+ motorcycle chains can be broken in a minute or two. The only real way to be certain you will not lose out is to have theft insurance, but even that can be a pain with various exemptions.

andy_wrx

The bike magazines regularly have articles where they have a 'tame thief' get past locks and time how long it takes them to do it.
Alarmingly, it's often less than 15 seconds even for locks sold as 'Gold standard' and costing a fortune

Cable locks are useless, easily got through with bolt cutters or even a pair of pliers sometimes
U locks can be burst open easily with mini bottle jacks or smashed with a hammer.
Chains and padlocks can be bolt-cropped or cut with battery-powered grinders

The best advice is to have your bike locked-up with several different types of lock, so a theif needs several tools and it'll take longer, and have it secure where you can keep an eye on it.

But best of all is to have it with other bikes which are easier to steal so that a theif will pinch them rather than yours !

I keep a heavy lock at work to secure my bike when I cycle in, once a week or so.
If I go into town, I only take the cheapest bike and secure it with a U lock and a chain and park it somewhere obvious for the shortest time possible.

For the best bike, I might leave it outside a rural tea shop, but that's all.
I have a very light retractable cable lock which would take only seconds for a thief to cut through with pliers or even a nailfile, but if my bike is with lots of fancy Colnagos and De Rosas which aren't locked-up at all, hopefully this lock is enough !