I went for wall anchors in the garage combined with Kryptonite New York chain, a mere 7 kgs in weight!

Nothing beats physical security, also got a PIR light in the garage and a cheapo alarm from Ebay.

Parking your car right in front of the garage door helps too.

nicko74 – Member

Used to use an Albus Steel-o-flex and Kryptonite New York D lock – surprising how flimsy the braided steel core was once the outer rollers were cropped through – thank God I used the New York too

Ah, slightly concerning given that a Steel-O-Flex is my main lock. Did someone cut yours?

Yes, also got halfway through one of the railings that the D lock was through too 👿 . I’d used the Steel-o-flex for years with confidence but wouldn’t trust a cable lock again. The inner braided core is no thicker than about 8mm.

slowoldgit, thats true, just pointing out that the only ones on the sold secure website are those that have a) passed the relavent test, b) paid the subscription.

Thanks, abductee.

You know why the Dutch are the world’s greatest linguists? Because no-one else can understand their language, they have to learn all kinds of foreign.

None of the testing organisations are of any use except for insurance purposes- none of them tests with large boltcutters, which is the main tool used to break big locks. They say that they test with hacksaws, small croppers, pliars, hammers, lockpicks, and crowbars, and that these tools are used in most thefts. Which is absolutely true, but they’re all ineffective against quality locks- they’re only useful tools for thieves because so few bikes are locked up well. They chuck in a noisy attack usually with a small angle grinder, just because it gives a nice result but again, it’s not meaningful.

So, it’s a bit like saying “Most houses are broken into by chucking a brick through the window, therefore, we test all house security devices by throwing a brick at them. This front door lock proved brickproof, therefore we declare it Sold Secure Gold. What’s that? You opened it in 2 seconds with a screwdriver? Ah but most thieves use bricks so it doesn’t matter!”

It’s all bobbins. Thatcham were still approving locks with round keys even after companies were taking them off the shelves after the BIC-pen crack became well known.

Thats because not all round key locks were affected northwind….

Nope- though it’s a fair point, it could have explained it but Oxford stated at the time that they’d had chain/lock combos gold-approved with a lock that was susceptible to the crack. Course, it wasn’t a secret in the lock industry even before it went public so Oxford were just as guilty.

@ NW – so that’s why in his vid the chap at torc anchors mentions the 42″ Irwin Record bolt croppers, and has them in the background.

Every day’s a learning day, thanks.

Slowoldgit, not sure I follow you?

On the torc anchors website, there’s two or three vids of ‘how to’. In the background is a huge ****-off pair of bolt croppers. They are the ultimate going equipped kit then, which you say the testing houses stop short of using.

I guess it’s a combo of lock+ sense, really. Cable lock (even a big chunky one) – not good enough for a £2k bike sat outside all day, but not so bad for 10 minutes. D-lock, ideal if you know that where you’re going has something suitable for d-locking.

Come to think of it, where I leave my bike locked up it’s easier just to snip the bikestand than the lock….

slowoldgit- got you, thanks- I’d misunderstood your post. Yup, a big cropper will go through most sold-secure/thatcham chains in seconds. Zanx/Captain Cropper’s videos on Youtube make interesting viewing:

Obviously you’ll notice the Almax connection so you could suggest bias… But the tests are good- Almax used to take this show on the road to motorbike trade shows and you could do it yourself. Watching people’s reaction after they spent £100+ on a brand new, top-rated chain then tested it and cut it in seconds, well. Not nice.

Those are massive croppers to be fair, but a lot of chains can be cut with more easily portable ones (I cut my old 10mm sold secure-rated Oxford chain with a pair of 24 inch croppers, after the lock rusted solid, and you could hide those inside a jacket easily.) And irritatingly, the croppers cost me about 1/5th as much as the chain to boot.

While you were looking up the vid and writing that, I was finding this – 42″ croppers in use & bike theft in London…

Here’s another one.
MCN chain test
Chains are OK for the shed or garage as you normally need something long to secure to a ground anchor but chains can be cropped and a 10mm chain and lock weighs significantly more than an 18mm U lock. For a portable lock It’s got to be a U

16mm plus hardened steel is pretty proof against any bolt croppers.

Course, the flipside of all this is that you don’t need to be theftproof- as long as most people chain nice bikes up with useless locks, even an adequate lock is good enough. Just like swimming with sharks 😉

have been locking my bike (kona lava dome, fair condition) outside work in london for about 8 years or so

ive got one of those chunky chain locks from onguard, it weighs a tonne, carrying it anywhere is a pita but i just leave it at the bike rack all the time, i think the padlocks been messed with a few times but its never been opened yet!

also use a chunkyish cablelock for the wheels, thats been almost cut through once

at home i use a ground anchor and several metres of anchor chain my seafaring fatherinlaw got me! with the meatiest padlock i could find plus a cheap alarm for the shed

For the garage i’ve got a 16mm pragmasiss chain thro an anchor in the wall and a squire lock. The chain is off the floor so any would be theiving git can’t brace themselves against the floor to bolt crop the chain, even though that supposd to be hard/impossible with a 16mm chain. But if they come armed with a cutting disc they’ll get through.

Avoid all cable locks they may look thick but once you get thro the plastic they’re usually woefully thin.

I’ve heard a few bit of advice on the matter over the years – they sound sensible.

1) Use 2 types of locks, this requires any would-be thief to carry two tools + make them highly suspicious if stopped by Police.

2) Lock the bike low down, make it awkward for a thief

3) If you’re using a D-lock, route it through the bike rack / back wheel / frame. If you can ‘fill’ the D with bits of your bike then a thief won’t be able to get their tool into position.

4) Compared with mountain bikes, road bikes are far less desirable to casual thieves looking to sell on quickly for £40.

As above really – just make sure that your bike’s security is better than the bike parked next to it.

Why low down ? Low down lets them get the croppers levered against the floor ?

I got my chain from here:

http://www.pjbsecurity.co.uk/chains-and-padlocks-for-motorcycles/

dobo – Member
onguard make some decent d locks. but make sure you get the new models.
mini d locks are lighter but also much harder to secure to an object,, good for front rear wheels though

What the issue with Onguard ‘old’ style? Just interested, not faulting you claim, as a new design should be better, but whats so wrong with the old un’s?
London cyclist seem to like them…

Also Sainsburys have an exact clone they sell regularly for a £10, got to be better than a cable lock..

but when your website(london cyclist) shows such great locking techniques such as that above its hard to take them seriously !

trail rat what am i missing, looks fine to me?

quicker to cut the item its locked to than the lock – bike in the van and away.

best lock in the world is only as strong as the item its locked too

Funniest thing about that picture is it is not even the strongest bit of railing in the picute!! They could have even put the lock round two of the thinner bits.

Yeah the picture isn’t very clever considering there’s a thicker bit of railing merely centimetres away, but I can’t imagine even the thinner bit of railing would be particularly breakable. And because of the low down positioning and lack of space ‘inside’ the D, there’s no easy way to get a jack-type tool in there.

I tend to try and get a large pole, seat tube, rear wheel and a crank into the D lock so it is completely filled and they can’t even turn the cranks. Then a cable lock around the front wheel, pole and frame, and no QR parts.

How ever the lock held against grinder for 1.5 minutes . That bar – briefly touching it with grinder would that bike in the back o van . Might as well be a 9.99 lock

I guess by the time people are willing to use power tools on your bike it’s gone anyway, regardless of what lock(s) you use. You can’t just cut through a wrong iron fence with an angle grinder without someone noticing though.

Funniest thing about that picture is it is not even the strongest bit of railing in the picute!! They could have even put the lock round two of the thinner bits.

see that so often though.. locked to the thinnest part of the railings

ffs, I’ve no idea where the lock photo comes from on that site, but shirely the point of it is to show the frame & wheel being locked to a secure object. The fact that it isn’t the most secure piece of street furniture in the world is irrelevent.
Just get back to the OP’s question rather than tie this up due to your pedant-ism.

I use a heavy chain through the bike frames and between the fork arch and crown when locking them at home (through ground anchors sunk into concrete, in a shed with an alarm, PIR, painfully loud siren, hinge bolts etc.

I’ve heard about thieves angle grinding through frames as the weak point, to get hold of the components. On the basis that the forks are the most expensive component, it makes sense to me to lock them separately as an extra deterent.

I dont use a D Lock, but am thinking about a New Yorker after reading this thread (and being the victim of 3 burglaries in 3 years or so).

Just get back to the OP’s question rather than tie this up due to your pedant-ism

I think you probably mean ‘pedantry’ 😉

I’ve heard about thieves angle grinding through frames as the weak point, to get hold of the components. On the basis that the forks are the most expensive component, it makes sense to me to lock them separately as an extra deterent.

How do you lock forks up? With a set of allen keys you could always steal forks in a few minutes.

Go between the brace and arch…. To steal the, youll have to split them .

I guess. I never really thought about it, but with 5 minutes and a couple of allen keys, I reckon I could steal anyone’s forks?

pit locks for wheels & stem cap boltt hen a abus granite plus normal size so you have to pay attention to how you lock it and where.
Cost £100 for d lock
£60ish for pit locks
And if you want more secruity a coil lock.
Lock the d lock through the seat post tube and back wheel and the coil lock though the front wheel and frame to a decent post or bike rack .