Best cheap lock option for bike

jds_1981

Putting together a hack bike to leave around town so will need a good lock.
Is it best to splash out on something like an abus, or are their other more economical options like buying a length of chain from somewhere and a good padlock?

SimonAH

An expensive lock

EKE_38BPM

You can have a good lock or a cheap lock, but there is no such thing as a good, cheap lock.

meanredspider

Ditto the above. Only think of getting a cheap lock if you have an incredibly cheap bike (and you just want to avoid some drunk pinching it to get home on...)

veronese68

I bought my wife a cheap bike off Ebay for going to the station. £40 for a 30 or 40 year old Puch ladies framed 3 speed job. First day she used it it was stolen. It had a 10mm thick cable lock and it was just cut with bolt croppers and left.
I've just bought her another one. It will be a £40 bike with 2 locks totalling £100 in value securing it. An Abus U lock and an Abus 22mm armoured cable.

iPete

I've an Abus U-Mini 401, was £50 from Halfords. Add a cable for the wheels and you should be fairly secure [gold standard] and its not that heavy.

mudcow007

i always thought if you put a pricey lock on a nasty bike they tea leaf will see the lock an think "hmm it must be worth something to have a lock like that...i'll take it"

but if the lock is made out of paper clips an its obvious you arnt bothered about it, the bike "must" be worthless?

im just guessing about all of this though.....

jds_1981

Hmm,

Was wondering more along the lines of whether anyone had tried something along the lines of going to a hardware store & getting a length of 10mm chain link & a good padlock?

e.g.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-we ... tAodxDw02Q

mudcow007

jds_1981 wrote:

Hmm,

Was wondering more along the lines of whether anyone had tried something along the lines of going to a hardware store & getting a length of 10mm chain link & a good padlock?

e.g.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-we ... tAodxDw02Q

if your hungry enough you can chew through that kinda chain

if its easy enough to be cut in screwfix whilst you wait its not strong enough for your bike

gabriel959

depends where you leave your bike. I have got a £25 krypro lock (sold secure silver) with chain but I park my bike always at work, cycle parks (with people around all the time), at home or at people's houses. And if I park it outside, it is never for more than 5 minutes.

London might be different mind you - it seems like about 1 out of 3 over there are equipped with angle grinders, hacksaws and 36" bolt croppers!

TheEnglishman

If I had a cheap commuting bike I'd use security as a deterrent. So I recon a screwfix chain and a cheap padlock would more than likely stop your opportunist thief.

Just as long as you make your bike look like shit....

veronese68

Bolt croppers will get through a chain made of cheese just as easily as a cable lock. I thought the same about a visible deterrent.
However as I have now been proved wrong the bike wil lhave 2 locks. Complete overkill, but it saves a load of dicking about.
The police were actually quite interested even though we told them it was a cheap bike. They said people nick cheap bikes to then go and nich expensive bikes. Thieving little scumbags cycle up to a rack, walk about for a second to scope the place go back to the rack, cut a lock and off they go. Leave the shitter and take a decent bike.

jds_1981

Maybe I'll go for one of these
http://www.screwfix.com/p/sterling-1-5m ... hain/52638
3.25kg

and a couple of 1.5 metre lengths of the cheaper http://www.screwfix.com/p/heavy-duty-we ... x-5m/33134

with a couple of padlocks holding it all together.

bails87

I think a bolt cropper will just go straight through that. It's too small. For a chain to be thick enough to be theft resistant it needs to be so chunky that it's difficult to move!

EKE_38BPM

http://www.lfgss.com/thread17938.html

ketsbaia

I got one of these. Feels hefty enough and a bargain at less than £25.

Lock.

SimonAH

The truth is that I have two locks.

A high-end but lightish cable lock for securing the bike to the rails INSIDE the entrance foyer of the supermarket so that a thief would have to have balls of brass to attack it as it's twenty feet from a manned security desk and with a constant stream of people passing it within inches.

An hardened Abus Granit chain and padlock that would take a fairly direct nuclear strike, but weighs about the same as the bicycle for locking anywhere else. And I hate to do that.

Generally speaking my bike is either in my office, in my garage or between my legs. Lightest and most secure form of lock.

For me the problem is as much about the removable stuff on the bike - high end lights, Brooks saddle, Ti bits, computer etc. To be safe I'd have to strip the bike and leave just the frame locked up which seems excessive.

walkingbootweather

Best to be very careful where you leave it and have good locks. Something like Onguard Pitbull is about as cheap as I'd go. The additional cable is useful to secure front wheel and prevent thief using the frame of the bike as a lever.

mrc1

EKE_38BPM wrote:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread17938.html

I was planning to link to this one. Should be a sticky on Google for "What lock" searches 8)

Just to show that there is some hope for humanity I left my best bike outside the house in the Pyrenees (basically on the street) for an entire day a few months ago by accident and it was fine!

jds_1981

Update to this thread. To be used for a slightly different project, but here's my chain



(change of picture for better size perspective)

Kieran_Burns

jds_1981 wrote:

Update to this thread. To be used for a slightly different project, but here's my chain



(change of picture for better size perspective)

You're building a boat?

jds_1981

Kieran_Burns wrote:

You're building a boat?

Kinda close - ground anchor.

submers

I got one of these, primarily to let me fold the handlebars for storage in a small room, but it's intended as an anti-theft deterrent as well. Might not put off anyone with a vehicle to remove the bike but could help prevent ride-off/opportunist thefts:

http://www.nlock.ch/default_en.asp/2-0-92-6-6-1/

mrc1

EKE_38BPM wrote:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread17938.html

YOU ALWAYS POST THIS LINK BEFORE I GET CHANCE!!

Edit - Realised this is an old thread *facepalm*