morecrayons

hey everyone,

I recently laid down a fair amount of cash for a 2010 Gutterball and seem to be prone to theft so am wondering if anyone has any advice for a quality lock?

I will be locking my bike in the city during the day and am looking for the strongest lock to lightest weight ratio.

Anyone have any advice? Any opinions appreciated.

Cheers

turtlemilk

tie a pit bull to the bike........

this site says use a Ulock... https://bicycleuniverse.info/eqp/theft.html

most key locks fail, i dunno about number locks.. or Ulocks.. all you can do is make it hard and make the bastard spend a lot of time on it.

lock the frame and rear wheel to something solid and take the front wheel with you... you can't stop theft but you can make it hard as hell... If i had a $$$$ bike i would use a chain and a Ulock... but if i Had a expensive bike... i would not be going to the store on it... i ride junk bikes to the store.

If your riding a junk bike to the store, slap some mud on it... make it look beat up or un-wanted... most thrives will skip it if it looks like a pile of ****.

Arcanum

I'll add to the list on the site "lock it in a well lit, visible, well-trafficked location". Thieves are less likely to try to figure out how to work around your lock if there are a lot of people around who can see what's happening.

morecrayons

Cheers turtlemilk, that is a useful link you sent.

Sounds like the Ulock is the way to go.. perhaps with a pitbull chained to it as well.

Cyclist0383

My advice would be forget about looking for a light lock and go with a secure one. Light and secure generally don't go together. There are some mini-U locks that are light and secure, but you are severely limited in what you can lock up to. Below are links to two sites that independently test locks for European insurance companies.

https://www.stichtingart.nl/sloten_resultaat.asp - Check the box that says 'Foto's tonen' for pictures of the locks.

https://www.soldsecure.com/search?pro...mpany=&action=

morecrayons

Thanks Ziemas, they are really useful links

Sixty Fiver

Put yourself in the thief's shoes... you want to steal a bike because you a: need a ride or b: you want to sell the stolen bike / parts.

You come across a nice shiny Gutterball but it has a Kryponite New York pinning it and it's back wheel to a rack, there are no quick releases on anything, and the front wheel is also shackled to the frame.

Nice score but it would take you all day to cut through those locks... it would be easier to cut through the rack of you had the tools and time.

You are gonna walk away and find something easier to steal.

If you lock up in the same place on a regular basis, just leave the monstrously heavy bad ass lock at the rack you use and use the lesser lock for quick stops.

My strategy looks like this when I have to lock up for extended periods... there are no quick releases on my bike and if this was not taken for demo purposes I would have removed my bags and take them with me.

turtlemilk

does anyone make there own lock? use a thick heavy duty bar shaped into a U and a big pad lock? it will have to be THICK around the holes where the pad lock attaches

turtlemilk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6xnkEkP2WY

there are lots of videos on youtube, but don't think that the bike is safe in pubic, no one is going to stop the thief.. little girls have been kidnapped in pubic,,, no one did anything to stop them.

turtlemilk

there are also youtube videos showing how to break a lock in just a few seconds.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-LWGJzglho

I had locked my key in a SAFE, i found a video show how to pick the safe with a very thin piece of wire... no skills what so ever..

morecrayons

Do you make these locks turtlemilk? I'd be keen to see one if you have a photo, sounds hardcore

Sixty Fiver

It has been a long time since major lock makers have offered this type of key / lock since they are so easily bypassed.

Kryptonite recalled thousands of locks and now uses a flat key system.

The easist way to break a u lock is to use a small scissor jack... if you don;t leave any space to insert the jack the thief cannot use this method.

Stats show that if a bike is locked with a quality u-lock the odds of it being stolen are very low... I can get through any cable lock in seconds no matter how good it is reputed to be.

This experience comes from working at a bike co-op where we have to remove keyless locks from donated bikes... u-locks get a taste of the cutoff wheel and even then, a good lock takes some work and time and the tool makes a lot of noise and creates a lot of sparks.

wunderkind

I think that "area" should be safe.

morecrayons

hahahaha

Arcanum

Your bike is not safe, period. Perfect security is a fiction, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either ignorant or trying to sell you something. The best you can do is minimize risk. One way to minimize risk is to make things difficult for the criminal. Another way is to make the criminal think he is less likely to get away with his crime. Making sure the crime would have to occur in full view of lots of other people helps satisfy the latter. Most crimes in general are less likely to be committed in full view of lots of people because someone might do something about it. That's why the advice for meeting strangers for any reason is to do it in a busy, public place.

Is it a sure source of protection? Absolutely not, but nothing is. It's just one more thing to make the crime (stealing your bike in this case) less appealing.

09box

I know it's probably not the end all be all but i've had pretty good luck with Kryptonite products..