Word of warning!!!!!!

cougie

There was a great story on here about someone having his fixed wheel nicked. He came out of the shop and shouted after the thief - the thief turned to look, stopped pedalling and came a cropper.

Then the owner simply walked to collect his bike and left the guy lying in a heap on the road. :-)

MrChuck

pyebibby4 wrote:

true! the problem with u-locks as sturdy as they can be... all a 'decent' theif needs is a can of plumber freeze... the just crack under impact... thats a bloody clique i think aswell!

Is this actually true? I always thought this was an urban myth.

nozzac

It's not true of a well made lock these days.

Northwind

The question is always, at which point does security outweigh convenience? You can get locks which offer serious protection, but they're mahoosive. Is it worth carrying one of these beasts all the time? Probably not. Good quality u-locks offer a good tradeoff IMO. Cable locks don't. Lightweight chains neither, they're the worst of all worlds, hassly and not very effective.

Tank-slapper wrote:

There are some interesting vids on Youtube about hacking u-locks. All that is needed to open the tubular key type is a Bic pen. The ones that use a small 'front door' type key seem best, but even they can be opened in seconds with a couple of hairgrips.

One of the chains in the link posted above lasted more than a minute - the Squire MC4. If this chain is wrapped tightly around the upper part of the bike, making it more difficult to get the croppers in and too high to get leverage on the floor, it may last a while longer than that.

In those videos, they're using pretty major croppers- you don't need to worry that all chains are useless because most bike thieves use lighter kit, most of the time- they just don't need to bother with bigger tools or proper cable cutters because most people don't use locks that are good enough to defend their bikes! A thief won't bother to carry a large, visible tool when he knows he'll find hundreds of pounds worth of bike secured with £10 Tesco cable locks that he could chew through. Weirdly, I think that if more people get wise, and the overall quality of locks improves, we might find that good locks become less effective as thieves will tool up to defeat them- at the moment it's not worth their time.

But still, a thief that knows his stuff and targets higher value bikes will have a big set of izumis or similiar, and they'll mince most chains. There are gigantic ones, from Almax and English Chain Co among others, which are effectively cropper-proof but they're pretty impractical. Do you want to carry a 16mm chain with you? I don't! Not even on my motorbike. So, u-lock is the best alternative. And of course, the bike's still the weak spot, big cutters will go through a bike frame with ease.

The round key lock thing is a thing of the past, if you see a lock with a round key now just walk away, replace it immediately if you have one, they're a joke. They show neatly just how corrupt the security industry can be- the lock manufacturers were aware of the vulnerability of these locks long before they replaced them. Kryptonite in particular turned down claims under their "theft guarantee" in the US in any case where the lock hadn't been cut or broken, even though they knew that the locks were so weak- they told customers "you can't have locked it properly"

Thatcham and Sold Secure both continued to award locks with round keys their top security awards even after the vulnerability was totally public! Oxford were pulling their locks from the shelves, but simultaneously got a lock with these keys accredited as Sold Secure Gold. So, bear that in mind next time you buy a "sold secure" lock...

The "bumping" thing was rarer, and actually easily prevented with a full-length first tooth... Rectangular keys (as used by most bike locks) and half-moon keys (as used by many motorbike locks) have few real vulnerabilities, they can sometimes be picked by a skilled locksmith but it's very hard and not always possible. Most bike thieves are NOT skilled locksmiths The locks in question were designed with this weakness in mind but over time some manufacturers started using the same concept but without the in-built protection, which is how the weakness crept in.

pyebibby4 wrote:

true! the problem with u-locks as sturdy as they can be... all a 'decent' theif needs is a can of plumber freeze... the just crack under impact...

Not true, overhardened steel locks can be shattered if chilled enough, but not a good quality chain or u-lock. Trouble is, cheaper or less well designed locks are often very overhardened, since it makes them harder to crop. It just trades one vulnerability for another. But it's not that hard to counter. Oh, but remember this works for locks as well- good quality locks are designed to break locked, rather than breaking unlocked (ie when the tumbler breaks, it does so in a way that disables the padlock completely rather than opening it), but it's still not always the case.

Daz555

canada16 wrote:

I ride a 1500 full suss to work, and to be honest I got full insurance and pics.

I'd rather not put the miles on my mice mountain bike to be honest. Besides a nice cheap road bike for say 50 notes max will ride quicker to work anyway.