Originally Posted by
calstar
How good is your bike lock? Not very!
My take as a cyclist on lockpickinglawyer videos:
The good:
- He identifies some bike locks that are easily defeated by common tools. Some of these locks are relatively expensive and some are marketed with what upon evaluation can only be called misleading or erroneous claims.
- He identifies correctable weaknesses in some locks.
- He identifies some ways that a particular lock might provide better security than others on the market at the same cost and/or weight.
- He (inadvertently) shows that picking some locks requires specialized, sometimes expensive and occasionally custom tools in addition to significant skill. A lock-picking bike thief would need to specialize in stealing only bikes locked with a style of lock or even a particular brand and model of lock. This isn’t impossible, but it seems like a needlessly restrictive business plan vs. taking on any and all low hanging fruit with 18" bolt cutters.
- He’s put out ~900 videos and seems to thrive on ‘make it look easy’ success, yet there are some well known, commonly available bike locks he has never featured. Hmm.
The bad:
- He regularly violates the old lockpickers/DEFCON guideline of approaching a lock manufacturer first and offering them an opportunity to improve their product based on his findings (or at least change their marketing!) before going public.
- He regularly violates the old lockpickers/DEFCON guideline of only showing the general public/great unwashed that a lock can be defeated but not offering a step-by-step tutorial on how to defeat it including the tools required and where to get them.