Hard lesson learnt today - Cube Ltd Team spirited away

[boobles]

WeirdNeville said:

orry, but armoured cables IMO are a con. To be light enough to carry, and stay flexible the cable and armour has to be very thin. Once you crack open the armor you'd be shocked at how thin the cable is. It's often thinner than the cable on a moderately pricey cable lock.

The tools of the bike thieves trade are:
Wire clippers
Junior hacks.
Screwdriver.
Possibly small cheap bolt croppers.

These 3 tools will defeat almost any cable lock, armored cable and many cheap D locks.

Professional thieves may also have a small angle grinder and a larger pair of bolt croppers. Defense against these is a matter of time and shackles hardness.

My advice: Strong reputable D-Lock or else a very well made motorcycle style chain and similarly tough Padlock are the only locks to entrust your bikes security to.

To be fair, mine is way to big & heavy to carry around & I only use it to secure the bikes in the shed which is also locked & alarmed.

[Reardy Mister]

WeirdNeville said:

Mars said:

I have a mid-1990s "Specialized" branded D-lock with one of those security keys (the ones that are a small cylinder). I don't use my bike for other than leisure but occasionally it might be useful to leave it locked somewhere. I have heard that D-locks are easily overcome with a bottle jack. Is this likely and do thieves come *that* prepared? Clearly they do *some* planning or they wouldn't have bolt cutters on them.

I have tried to break both cheap and expensive D-locks with scissor jacks and bottle jacks. The cheap one gave in eventually, but there was no way the expensive one was going to give in. Even the cheap one took 10 minutes of faffing and I have to say I've never found a bike thief carrying a jack about. Not an issue IMO. Like 'freezing spray' its one of those things that sounds good down the pub but doesn't really work practically.

Spend at least £40, I don't personally like the 'circular' key locks, there are a couple of easy exploits for them and those mechanisms tend to be weaker in my experience.

boobles said:

Which lock did you use? I am interested to know because I am currently using an Abus Magnum Plus Armoured Cable.

Sorry, but armoured cables IMO are a con. To be light enough to carry, and stay flexible the cable and armour has to be very thin. Once you crack open the armor you'd be shocked at how thin the cable is. It's often thinner than the cable on a moderately pricey cable lock.

The tools of the bike thieves trade are:
Wire clippers
Junior hacks.
Screwdriver.
Possibly small cheap bolt croppers.

These 3 tools will defeat almost any cable lock, armored cable and many cheap D locks.

Professional thieves may also have a small angle grinder and a larger pair of bolt croppers. Defense against these is a matter of time and shackles hardness.

My advice: Strong reputable D-Lock or else a very well made motorcycle style chain and similarly tough Padlock are the only locks to entrust your bikes security to.

See my bold. They are an absolute con. THey are basically not fit for purpose and Im considering a futile and time consuming letter to Trading Standards, pointing out that if I bike lock doesnt actually secure a bike against its primary threat, they shouldnt be allowed to be sold as such.

The lock I used was this ABUS Blaster 850:



This is mine afterwards:




Again, my thinking was that a lock like this was enough to stop the opportunist because I only leave for short periods in busy places. I now know that this is the exact sort of lock an opportunist looks for when attached to a decent bike and whether its busy or not makes no odds. Lesson learnt.

This is where it got nicked from, at 4pm on a bright busy summers day:



Whilst in the shop, a lad said that one of their CCTV cameras looks out through the front door and can see the bike loop immediately outside. Mine was one loop up the street, so someone may have walked it past the camera shot.

Once in the station, the (very helpful) copper rang the shop and the manager denied that any of the shops cameras could see anything outside the shop. I can sort of see his point but hardly making his shop a safe haven.

Regarding the racks inside, it hadnt occurred to me that I could just walk it into the shop and leave it. Its only the second bike shop in the city Ive been into and I wrongly assumed the lock would keep it safe.

[Reardy Mister]

Many thanks all for your condolences, by the way.

Edited by Reardy Mister on Thursday 21st April 12:07

[boobles]

This is the one I am using. Pretty secure I would have thought.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...

[croyde]

Sorry to hear about this and have suffered similar.

My daughter lost the key to her Abus cable lock and I was surprised that it only took me 5 mins with a very blunt hacksaw to get through the cable.

Useless.

[Bugeyeandy]

They're expensive but i've read time and time again just how good these locks are, I've got a fairly hefty cable lock and didn't realise how crap they were. Fortunately I hardly ever need to leave mine outside and it's not worth that much anyway.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kryptonite-York-3000-Lock-...

[Beyond Rational]

Another thing to check when locking up, is how secure the bike hoop is in relation to the ground it is set in.

[jodypress]

Best advice I was given when I'd had a bike stolen years ago was two different type of locks. Makes it harder to steal.

[jayfish]

Sorry to hear of your loss chap
I'd be keeping a close eye on Gumtree etc over the next few weeks.

[Harry Flashman]

Bugeyeandy said:

They're expensive but i've read time and time again just how good these locks are, I've got a fairly hefty cable lock and didn't realise how crap they were. Fortunately I hardly ever need to leave mine outside and it's not worth that much anyway.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kryptonite-York-3000-Lock-...

I have this. No-one has even made an attempt on any of my bikes (to my knowledge) when locked up in London in one of these.

[DrMekon]

Get the word out - it can work

http://velopoly.com/2011/03/03/burglary-result-all...

Hit all the forums, twitter, etc. Do what she did.

[Uriel]

Sorry to hear of your loss

For anyone parking in London or similar, this should be required reading: http://www.lfgss.com/thread17938.html

Long, but worth it.

[Jesus TF Christ]

Sorry to hear that bud, must be heart breaking.

I use a cable lock that is about an inch and a half thick and won't fit between the jaws of most cutters.

[Mr Will]

Also sorry to hear of your loss

There are a couple of bits of advice I think it is useful to pass on though, firstly don't assume that day time in a busy place means it is safe. If you were a bike thief looking to steal an expensive bike (rather than and opportunist), would you rather wait with your tools near a decent bike shop when it is busy, or wander round the streets at night hoping to stumble across something worth having?

Secondly, you don't need to make your bike unstealable. It comes back to the old adage about two people running away from a bear; "I don't need to be faster than a bear, I just need to be faster than you". If they are professionals and want your bike, they will have it. All you need to do is make sure that your bike is not worth the hassle compared to those around it. For most bikes in most places, this means a decent D-lock is enough.

[clonmult]

Reardy Mister said:

See my bold. They are an absolute con. THey are basically not fit for purpose and Im considering a futile and time consuming letter to Trading Standards, pointing out that if I bike lock doesnt actually secure a bike against its primary threat, they shouldnt be allowed to be sold as such.

The lock I used was this ABUS Blaster 850:



This is mine afterwards:

Totally agreed.

I had a problem with my older (and previously viewed as being solid) cable lock. The mechanism siezed solid. Couldn't get it unlocked.

So grabbed one of the bigger hacksaws that we had in the house, put a fresh blade on it, and I think it took me less than a minute to get through.

They really are not advisable, way too easily cut.

[shalmaneser]

Mars said:

I have a mid-1990s "Specialized" branded D-lock with one of those security keys (the ones that are a small cylinder). I don't use my bike for other than leisure but occasionally it might be useful to leave it locked somewhere. I have heard that D-locks are easily overcome with a bottle jack. Is this likely and do thieves come *that* prepared? Clearly they do *some* planning or they wouldn't have bolt cutters on them.

Good luck with that D-lock. Buy a new one now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-LWGJzglho

[Mars]

shalmaneser said:

Good luck with that D-lock. Buy a new one now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-LWGJzglho

Jeez... That's exceptionally poor show. I'm ordering a Kryptonite lock immediately. Thanks for the warning.

[Beyond Rational]

Something else I do, although others may hate the idea, is put electrical tape (if you have a frame that matches the colours of said tape) over the obvious brand markings in the hope that the £150 Halfords special locked up next to me, appears to be more "look at me" than my own bike. Especially with the rear tyre on the Cube, I'd imagine most with a knowledge of MTBs would know it was worth something from quite a distance.

[coupeboy]

Very sorry to hear about your bike.

Regarding security the only thing to use is a chain and padlock, any cable lock can be snipped with a small cutters and if you hit a 'D' lock in the right place with a hammer it'll pop off.

[WeirdNeville]

coupeboy said:

Very sorry to hear about your bike.

Regarding security the only thing to use is a chain and padlock, any cable lock can be snipped with a small cutters and if you hit a 'D' lock in the right place with a hammer it'll pop off.

In my experience that's simply not true, except with cheap D-Locks.

The problems with chains are that really strong ones are simply too heavy to carry, and you also need a very expensive padlock to stop that being the weak link in the chain. Cheap chains are a doddle to break, and pick up a proper forged 16mm chain and see if you'd like to carry it 10 miles! Chains also tend to damage/dent expensive alloy frames more readily then a D-lock when they fall/draped across them.

I'm not saying don't use a chain, but IMO a D-lock is better value for most people.