Articles like that keep me paranoid enough to properly lock my bikes and unicycles. I just recently got myself a Kryptonite NY Fahgettaboudit mini U-lock on sale so I can better lock up my bike around Seattle when I get the urge to stop for espresso.
The neat thing about the “Lock it or lose it” article is that it shows the mini bottle jack method of compromising a U-lock. That’s why you use a mini U-lock instead of the big full size U-locks and try to fill as much of the interior space of the U-lock as possible when locking up. The mini U-locks don’t have space for the bottle jack.
The article also shows them using big bolt croppers. What it doesn’t mention is that 36" and larger bolt croppers are very expensive and the jaws need to be regularly replaced after a couple dozen hardcore crops. The jaws aren’t cheap either. So cropping the high end ultra beefy U-locks and chain locks is not as practical as they make it seem. Low end U-locks and chain locks can be cropped.
The article doesn’t show leverage attacks against U-locks. The lesser U-locks can be broken with appropriate leverage using a long pipe or even a long 2x4. Long pipes and long 2x4s are more accessible to common thieves than big expensive bolt croppers.
Here’s another telling video (in Dutch but with subtitles): how to steal a bike. It shows that the low end locks don’t hold up to much and that cable locks, even armored cable locks, are useless. Cheap U-locks can be cropped with mid-sized bolt croppers.
Now I just gotta worry about battery powered angle griders.
I favour coiled cable in an elastic sheeth with a good quality brass internal bolt padlock. Can’t jack it open, can’t lever it, can’t cut it with normal bolt croppers, hacksawing is a nightmare as it’s impossible to keep still, can’t get at the bolt atall to cut it. I would guess drilling the lock would be the quickest way, or cutting throgh the lock body to remove the outer gate. To be honest, in a city where literally thousands of bikes are lying around on the street locked only to themselves, having your bike attached to street furniture with and lock atall is pretty surefire.
And yeah i agree about the croppers, it woud seem carrying 42" bolt croppers is pretty conspicuous, you can’t run with them, you can’t ride the nicked bike with them, and they probably cost more than the bike anyway.
It all depends on the area. In many places though a cable lock (even an armored cable lock) is a surefire way to get your bicycle stolen eventually.
I can check out local stolen bike registries and see that many of the bikes there were locked with a cable lock. A flexible cable-like lock is only a deterrent for an opportunist thief. I sometimes use a cable lock but only in conjunction with a mini U-lock. The cable lock is only to secure the front wheel while the mini U-lock is locked to the bike rack and secures the frame and rear wheel.
My locking strategy now is to use two mini U-locks. One to secure the rear wheel and frame and to lock to the bike rack. The other to secure the front wheel to the frame. The two mini U-locks is actually more convenient (but heavier) than dealing with a U-lock and a cable.
If you put enough heay locks on it someone wouldn’t mess with it more than likely because it’d take too much time. Sometimes it isn’t the ease of breaking in, but how much time I’d take. If it looks like it’d take too long, a potentional theif would pass by it.
you could put the lock round the frame and through the wheel, works for me. and why would someone nick a unicycle, the common bike thief probably cannot ride a unicycle and there arnt many people to sell it on to really, stealing a uni would be quite pointless
its quite easy to open cheap combo locks just by feel. the twisty dials have a bit of play side to side so you can feel it when that particular dial is on the right number.
If you’re in a really high crime area, would it be worth it to give your bike or uni a really crappy paint job? It’s an old skiers’ trick that worked really well. The first time I saw someone do that was when my sister bought a new pair of K2’s and spray painted them so they looked like something the cat threw up… If you didn’t want it to be permanent, you could always wax the frame before painting it so you could clean it off with the high pressure hose at a car wash.
One guy did paint his uni an “ugly” color for that purpose. Everyone said junk to him for it, but I thought it looked cool. If it works, by all means, do it.
it’s an absoloute standard of bike commuters to make their bike look far cheaper or poorer condition than it is to deter thieves. Old frames, dodgey paintjobs, rust and duct tape are often used to make bikes that actually have good components, such as wheel and gear sets, and thus perform well, look like crap.
GK, my unis are included on my parents house insurance when i’m at uni, I have to declare any that are worth more than £300, but as my unis have depreciated this is no longer an issue
you look in the trading forum, find one like yours and see how much it sells for. Or in this case as it’s for insurance you figure out how much it would cost to replace what you have.
I think you would conceal them in your truck. The same truck that takes away the stolen bikes, and might also be used to visually block the thieving activities…
Here’s a story and video of security guards cropping locks of illegally parked bikes at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show that was in Portland Oregon last month. Bolt cutters used to solve bike parking snafu
The security guard wasn’t having too much of a problem cropping those particular U-locks. The comments in the blog have some bragging about a particular ABUS lock that couldn’t be cropped.
One way to deal with big croppers is to cut the arms shorter and pack two lengths of pipe to use as cheater bars. Take the pipe off and the croppers can fit in a messenger bag.
Without them, Frits the former thief had a thick Amsterdam accent. Amsterdam must be the capital of bike thievedom.
