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Why do cable locks still exist?

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Old 02-14-21, 03:28 PM
  #101  
themp
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I use a cable lock and this when I go into a restroom, convenience store, fast food, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Anti...3337835&sr=8-1

I keep it in my bag and attach it using Velcro to my seat post when I need to. It looks like a rear light actually, so might not be noticed until it trips...
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Old 02-14-21, 03:49 PM
  #102  
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Originally Posted by themp
I use a cable lock and this when I go into a restroom, convenience store, fast food, etc.

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Anti...3337835&sr=8-1

I keep it in my bag and attach it using Velcro to my seat post when I need to. It looks like a rear light actually, so might not be noticed until it trips...
MY Garmin 530 has a feature like that built in.

When I take long rides... 50+ miles, i'll take a ABUS luggage cable lock. Its just enough to keep honest people, honest. Its not like I ride where people hang around to steal a bike.


Last edited by GlennR; 02-14-21 at 03:52 PM.
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Old 02-14-21, 04:38 PM
  #103  
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Originally Posted by Texboy
So, there so many YouTube videos that can be easily cut a cable lock with a bolt cutter or cable cutter. Many cyclists and even police don’t recommend using a cable lock to lock your bike. Why the local bike shops are still selling cable locks?
Nothing is a sure thing. But probably 99% of stolen bikes are a snatch and grab, spur of the moment thing by teenagers. Even with the smallest cable that doesnt happen. Most people dont walk around with big heavy cable cutters that are more than a foot long, except maybe in huge cities where there are bike stealing gangs.
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Old 02-14-21, 04:44 PM
  #104  
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In huge cities, bike thieves work alone, not in gangs, which are conspicuous and pose escape logistical problems.

And 99% of statics are made up.
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Old 02-14-21, 04:56 PM
  #105  
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We should form a bike gang. We’d be bad-@$$! And there’s a lot of us on here. A lot.
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Old 02-14-21, 05:02 PM
  #106  
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
And 99% of statics are made up.
Yogi: "Ninety percent of the game is half mental."
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Old 02-14-21, 05:59 PM
  #107  
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I used cable locks until I brought home a bike from an auction that had a cable lock on it, and I had to remove it. The other mishap was when I went to lock my bike at -15 degrees F, and the vinyl coating on the cable just shattered into a million jagged pieces.

I've found that a short length of chain wrapped in an innertube is a reasonable compromise. Not too bulky, won't defeat a determined thief, but will at least frustrate a pair of diagonal cutters. For high theft areas such as the college campus, I ride a bike with Anti-Theft Aesthetics (tm).
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Old 02-17-21, 12:38 AM
  #108  
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Back in college the standard defense was a cable lock and many riders opened the brake caliper QRs and the front wheel QR (pre-lawyer lip era).
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Old 02-17-21, 07:05 AM
  #109  
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Originally Posted by Gresp15C
I used cable locks until I brought home a bike from an auction that had a cable lock on it, and I had to remove it. The other mishap was when I went to lock my bike at -15 degrees F, and the vinyl coating on the cable just shattered into a million jagged pieces.

I've found that a short length of chain wrapped in an innertube is a reasonable compromise. Not too bulky, won't defeat a determined thief, but will at least frustrate a pair of diagonal cutters. For high theft areas such as the college campus, I ride a bike with Anti-Theft Aesthetics (tm).
It has to be properly hardened chain. Just normal chains from the Home Despot aren't gonna work well unless the goal is pure allusion. If one is looking for a lower security option the ABUS Tresor and some of the Steel-O-Chains could work. I would use the much easier to carry Bordo lite.
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Old 02-17-21, 12:10 PM
  #110  
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Originally Posted by veganbikes
It has to be properly hardened chain. Just normal chains from the Home Despot aren't gonna work well unless the goal is pure allusion. If one is looking for a lower security option the ABUS Tresor and some of the Steel-O-Chains could work. I would use the much easier to carry Bordo lite.
Indeed, the chain has to reflect how secure you need it to be, with the usual disclaimer that nothing will defeat a determined thief. You can get hardened chain by the foot from McMaster-Carr for not too expensive, though I haven't bothered yet. I still live in a relatively tame area, and my bikes come with Anti-Theft Aesthetics (tm).
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Old 02-17-21, 02:27 PM
  #111  
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Originally Posted by cubewheels
Leaving your bike in the highest gear before you leave it achieves the same thing.

Unless the bike thief has quads the size of your torso.
Or a pickup truck.
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Old 02-18-21, 09:30 PM
  #112  
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Originally Posted by Rage
We should form a bike gang. We’d be bad-@$$! And there’s a lot of us on here. A lot.
Now I can't get this out of my head...I'm picturing West Side Story with the Jets and Sharks in spandex. Thank you for ruining one of my favorite movies.
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Old 02-18-21, 09:34 PM
  #113  
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Or we could put on a musical. Maybe even west side story but I’m leaning more towards grease.
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Old 02-18-21, 09:36 PM
  #114  
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Summer loving had me a blast...
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Old 02-18-21, 09:42 PM
  #115  
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Originally Posted by GlennR
I've been told the weight of the bike is related to the weight of the lock. The heavier the bike, the lighter the lock. The lighter the bike, the heavier the lock.

Or just don't leave it anywhere.
Or be one of those whackjobs that brings their bike into the bathroom with them
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Old 02-18-21, 10:11 PM
  #116  
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Originally Posted by Texboy
So, there so many YouTube videos that can be easily cut a cable lock with a bolt cutter or cable cutter. Many cyclists and even police don’t recommend using a cable lock to lock your bike. Why the local bike shops are still selling cable locks?
Easy and appropriate for it's use. It's meant to keep the casual bike thief from walking off with your bike. Kinda locks meant for you to be in front of the coffee shops in view of your bike.
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Old 02-19-21, 05:15 AM
  #117  
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Originally Posted by Rage
Or we could put on a musical. Maybe even west side story but I’m leaning more towards grease.
Leave the question of which grease is the best for another thread.
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Old 02-19-21, 07:33 AM
  #118  
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Grease is the word is the word is the word that you heard...
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Old 02-19-21, 01:20 PM
  #119  
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This thread has groove and feeling.

Originally Posted by indyfabz
In huge cities, bike thieves work alone, not in gangs, which are conspicuous and pose escape logistical problems.

And 99% of statics are made up.
I had a bike stolen from my apartment's basement car park while living in a capital city. The thieves came in, presumably with a van or truck, and cut the locks on probably about 20 bikes.

Sometimes bike theft is a crime of opportunity, and those are the times you'll be glad you had a cable. Except you'll never know about it.
Other times, bike theft is a planned operation by an organized gang. In my above situation, I would've had to have a pretty industrial strength lock to stop them.
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Old 02-19-21, 07:46 PM
  #120  
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Originally Posted by Miele Man
I remember years ago about reading about a fellow who was a trapper. He had finished for the season and had his traps spread out around his basement after he had oiled the traps. The traps were open and set to allow the thick protective oil to penetrate into all the nooks and crannies on those traps. Some burglar broke into the trapper's basement via a basement window. When the burglar dropped to the floor from the window he landed on a trap and it snapped shut badly damaging the burglar's leg. The burglar sued the trapper and the burglar won. Even thous the trapper said if he had known the burglar was coming he'd have unset the traps. Yet another example of where the victim has fewer rights/protections than a would be thief.

Cheers
Whether this is an urban myth or not, I don't know but even if true, I've never heard of this trapper case likely because it was in Canada.

There was a case in the United States that is on point. Katlo v. Briney was decided in 1967 by the Iowa Supreme Court. Briney owned a barn that had been broken into a number of times and finally set up a shotgun booby trap. Despite numerous "NO TRESPASSING" signs, Katlo broke in and was injured in both legs when the shotgun went off. Katlo sued and was awarded $20,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages. Many states subsequently passed various laws regarding protection of person and property. When asked after the trial if he would have done anything differently, Briney replied that he wished he had aimed the shotgun higher.
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Old 02-20-21, 08:55 AM
  #121  
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Originally Posted by Leinster
This thread has groove and feeling.


I had a bike stolen from my apartment's basement car park while living in a capital city. The thieves came in, presumably with a van or truck, and cut the locks on probably about 20 bikes.

Sometimes bike theft is a crime of opportunity, and those are the times you'll be glad you had a cable. Except you'll never know about it.
Other times, bike theft is a planned operation by an organized gang. In my above situation, I would've had to have a pretty industrial strength lock to stop them.
How many thieves were in this "gang." How do we know it was even a gang. And how "huge" was this capital? Bismarck, the capital of ND, has about 75,000 people. I would not call that "huge" by U.S. standards.
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Old 02-20-21, 11:14 AM
  #122  
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Originally Posted by indyfabz
How many thieves were in this "gang." How do we know it was even a gang. And how "huge" was this capital? Bismarck, the capital of ND, has about 75,000 people. I would not call that "huge" by U.S. standards.
I don’t know how many were in the gang, but if it was one or two lads on their own who snipped 20 bike locks and loaded them all into a van quickly enough that nobody coming through the garage saw them and stopped them, well more power to them.

The city was Dublin, population 1.1M, which would qualify it as 10th largest city in the US (just ahead of San Jose CA, according to Wiki).

My bike was stolen in the mid-2000s, but this sort of thing is still going on in Dublin;
https://www.thesun.ie/news/4928264/t...ust-container/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/c...-40052504.html

https://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...len-in-dublin/
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Old 02-20-21, 11:52 AM
  #123  
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Originally Posted by Leinster
I don’t know how many were in the gang, but if it was one or two lads on their own who snipped 20 bike locks and loaded them all into a van quickly enough that nobody coming through the garage saw them and stopped them, well more power to them.

The city was Dublin, population 1.1M, which would qualify it as 10th largest city in the US (just ahead of San Jose CA, according to Wiki).

My bike was stolen in the mid-2000s, but this sort of thing is still going on in Dublin;
https://www.thesun.ie/news/4928264/t...ust-container/

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/c...-40052504.html

https://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...len-in-dublin/
Guessing you don’t realize that the person my earlier response was directed to is a who allegedly lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. And I would not call Dublin huge by any standard. I live in a city with about 1.5 million Some place like New Delhi is huge.

Last edited by indyfabz; 02-20-21 at 11:57 AM.
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Old 02-21-21, 11:56 AM
  #124  
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What does everyone think. It looks to me like the pro-cable riders far out number the no cable riders.
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Old 02-21-21, 06:54 PM
  #125  
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Why do cable locks exist?

The same reason house locks exist.

To keep honest people honest.
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