Don’t trust cable locks/ tell me your stories of recovering stollen bikes

I took my wee one to the local library this morning and thought we would go by bike instead of car. 20 min library time later the cable lock had been cut and the bike was gone.

I’ve not had a bike stolen in 8 years and my previous all consuming paranoia about where and how I lock bikes up had faded.

The bike was insured and the insurance company paid out immediately- quite a surprise after a month of extended faffing last time I had a bike stolen.

Tell me your tales of recovering stolen bikes to cheer me and my wee one up!

I’d love a recommendation for a lock to deter bike thieves. It was a kryptonite curled cable lock. While I have a u lock, which I didn’t use for convience, it’s old and I suspect a battery angle grinder would go straight through it.

If you spot the bike for sale I’d love to hear about it.

Orange clockwork 120
Marazzochi bomber z1 anniversary
Xt m8000 brakes and gears
Gravity dropper post and brooks b17 saddle
Hope pro 2 hubs/ Stan’s flow rims/ maxxis minion tyres.

Kids ride shotgun seat and bars

Oof. Sorry the bike’s gone !

New York Fagh Mini is about as bomb proof as you can get, but it’s tricky to secure to some stuff due to it’s size (the standard one is easier) – This is my high risk lock. I use an Oxford d Lock and an Abus Bordo to secure my bike at work.

It’s very distinctive so it’ll turn up somewhere.

Log it on stolen-bikes.co.uk with photos and details, and also sign yourself up for an automatic update from find-that-bike, think smartly about the search terms you use (ie what might a scrote write on their Facebook marketplace post).

Print some details and photos off and hand them out to your local bike shops too with your phone number on. Back in my shop days we reunited multiple owners with their bikes that way.

The only time I’ve had a bike stolen was my own fault. I had two U locks, one large one that locked the rear wheel to the frame (BB area), another U lock that locked the frame to the bike stand and a cable going between all of them. One early morning, proper hangover, probably still a little tipsy, I didn’t lock the bike up. Just put it in the bike stand and walked away!! I didn’t claim for it….. That was an expensive nights drinking!! Trek Superfly, decent spec. Trek we’re really good and let me have a replacement one at cost to the local shop.

From bitter experience, i’d never use a cable lock, I used to hate selling them to customers who wouldn’t run to the extra few quid for a basic D-lock for the same reason. Recovery tales are few and far between, but Flatback saw his being ridden, stopped the guy who’d unsuspectingly bought it from his mate, and had it given back to him (he contacted his insurance co. to ask what to do as they’d paid for a replacement already, they said they’d never had it happen before, and to keep it ). Had another customer have her new bike stolen, spotted it in a bike rack in town, and called the police, who nicked the guy when he unlocked it (I identified the bike for prosecution, by a random chip of paint that happened when I ran a tap through the rack mounts). Also had a neon pink P7 recovered as the scrote unbelievably gave it to his son to ride in the area near where it was stolen, they also found quite a few others in his house.

From bitter experience, i’d never use a cable lock, I used to hate selling them to customers who wouldn’t run to the extra few quid for a basic D-lock for the same reason.

Does a D-Lock actually dissuade thieves though with all the videos of them defeated in seconds? There really does not seem to be any secure form of lock for bikes!

oh thats crappy.
have to agree there is never going to be a solution, just a balance of how attractive it is and how difficult it is

Nicking bikes these days is a piece of cake.

Bitd my wife’s £500 marin Eldridge was stolen from our unlocked bike store, friend of a work colleague identified it because it had a flexstem & pointed me to where it was kept, police weren’t interested so I knocked on the door & offered the scrote the £50 he said he’d paid for it, word got back to parents of kid who nicked it & they have me £60 for the trouble 🤔. Before I’d had a chance to thank the friend of work colleague he was killed in a horrific car crash (3 of 4 car occupants died). Must be 30 years ago now…

Does a D-Lock actually dissuade thieves though with all the videos of them defeated in seconds?

Depends on the d lock.   I removed one for a friend using a mains powered disk cutter and diamond blade and it took over a minute.  That requires quite a determined thief although of course they will be and they are holding a disk cutter.  A decent one won’t take seconds though so it does dissuade and having two (as above) is even better

xora
Full Member

Does a D-Lock actually dissuade thieves though with all the videos of them defeated in seconds? There really does not seem to be any secure form of lock for bikes!

You can’t defeat a good d-lock in seconds except with hydraulics or a big grinder. It’s just that there’s a lot of crap d-locks. Pragmasis do a good one, Onguard’s Brute is cheap and excellent,there’ll be others that I can’t remember just now. Basically they just do it with brute force and have a crapload of good metal in ’em (though the Brute doesn’t do great with weather, which is mostly why it’s cheap) Increasing the radius of the shackle is a big multiplier, a 16mm shackle isn’t 2mm bigger than a 14mm shackle, it’s a cut section of 200mm2 vs 150mm2.

There’s some products advertising increased grinder resistance now which I’ve no experience of, but having cut one of my brutes with a cordless grinder it took a reassuringly long time and needed 2 cuts. Of course, it’s only as safe as whatever it’s locked to.

Nicking bikes these days is a piece of cake.

*tips hat*

One early morning, proper hangover, probably still a little tipsy, I didn’t lock the bike up. Just put it in the bike stand and walked away!!

After an evenings light refreshments in a local(ish) pub I stopped for sustenance in the form of a Kebab. Locked my bike to the railings outside, with just a Squire DLock on the cross bar.
I exited the shop, saw the correct bus arrive to get me home and jumped on it.

The following day I was supposed to be going for cycle with the landlord. Open shed, no bike.

Was amazed when I returned to the kebab shop and it was all still there. Was expecting at least the qr wheels to be gone. Wasn’t the nicest bit of Reading.

i use a cable only when in a cafe whilst bikes are in full sight.
when touring we use a kryptonite new york d lock. grinder or bottle jack is needed to bust one.

My now wife had hers and her housemate’s bikes nicked from their garden shed (they removed the door by unscrewing the hinges). Her housemate’s bike was found by the police some weeks later in the home of a local scrote, but my wife’s bike was never recovered. Insurance said to pick something from the Wheelies website, however the then-current model year offerings were nowhere near as nice as the bike she had pinched (…why do bike manufacturers think women want girly graphics and paint colours on their bikes?)

There’s really only one way of stopping thieves from nicking a nice bike if you park it in public. Don’t leave it parked in public. I have an old Kona that looks ratty as hell for shop and pub duties, and that get’s locked up with a Kryptonite D lock for the frame and a separate Kryptonite cable lock for the wheels.

Aren’t folding bolt cutters now the tool of choice? Much quicker than an angle grinder. My understanding is the smaller than D-lock the better as it makes very difficult if not impossible to get the jaws of a bolt cutter in the right position to cut.

There really does not seem to be any secure form of lock for bikes!

Its the bloke putting his trainers on when his group sees a tiger joke.
Someone suitably motivated without anyone intervening is going to be able to steal it regardless of the lock.

The harder it is to break the more time for a)someone to spot it and b)once that someone walks on someone else to also spot it and bother saying something.
If something easy is next to it which looks like it costs as much or more then you are probably okay (unless they fancy their chances of nicking all of them).
Nothings perfect but you can tilt the odds slightly in your favour.

I’ve taken in a stray Trek Marlin at mine. Unattended in the local park for 48 hours. Posted on in local FB group, shared with LBS and my WhatsApp riding groups. Police and bike register say it’s not been reported stolen.

I spoke to my nearest Trek dealer, Beyond Bikes, who said the frame no. wasn’t one of theirs but they’d checked with Trek UK and told me it was sold to a shop in Kent, and have me their number.

To be continued.,. !

Does a D-Lock actually dissuade thieves though with all the videos of them defeated in seconds? There really does not seem to be any secure form of lock for bikes!

My good d lock has saved my bike 3 times.   Its a kryotonite m18 and weighs over 2 kilos.

This guy has a very interesting website and IMHO, worth a look. His channel is “The Lock Picking Lawyer”. His comments about a chan causing grinder wheels to slip and possible shatter is interesting.

Cotic soul, Spesh FSR and an Ex Atherton Team Remedy all stolen from my garage. All locked to the floor or wall and to each other with large chains and DLocks. At the same time my neighbours garage was broken into and two more very nice bikes taken. This was just before the pandemic.
Fast forward to this spring and up pops the Cotic on FB market place! Arranged a meet up, police failed to turn up, so carried on with the meeting. Young trainee solicitor, pretended he didn’t know it was stolen, argued with him for a while, whilst waiting for police to show up. In the end I just told him he didn’t have title, the person he bought it off didn’t have title and I did have title so was going to take it home. Given his career choice, I don’t think he wanted to cause any more problems.
Police still haven’t ever got in touch despite knowing where he bought the bike from.

Three weeks after the break in and after the garage door was replaced, they came back and tried to get in through the tiled roof!

Afraid no good recovery stories (though I did manage to stop someone nicking a bike in broad daylight about a week after ours got stollen so I felt a little better). We have an Abus Granite X-Plus which I use when in town in etc, where apparently the square shackles make it harder to get bolt croppers round it. We did end up getting one of the new Hiplok D1000 angle-grinder resistant locks yesterday for the new ecargo bike. It’s flipping heavy (and expensive!) but in this case seemed worth it (and the power of the bike means the weight doesn’t matter).

My Gary fisher rig was stolen from my house 15 years ago.

We got it back because a keen-eyed cop thought that a child in Northfield riding an XL frame with the saddle mounted on the top tube looked a bit dodgy.

It then took a further 6 weeks of chasing it round various police stations to get it back in my possession

As above I only use the thinnest of cable locks when in cafes and bikes in view. If I’m leaving the bike out of view it’s new York and faggeeddabout it locks (not the bic pen generation)

It’s interesting that people think thieves would use a noisy, potentially snagging angle grinder, my assumption has long been that a bolt cutter or better yet hydraulic rebar cutter would be their default tool.

Something quiet that can be hidden in a baggy coat or rucksack and still chew it’s way through steel cable and probably some hardened steel chains…

it’s new York and faggeeddabout it locks

An almost completely cut through faggeddaboutit lock appeared on my facebook feed yesterday.  It wasn’t clear why but the thieves had stopped before getting all the way through.  The interesting thing though is with this better locks (and like the Abus Granit I cut through) you have to but both sides of the lock to release it, just one arm isn’t enough.  If you can place the lock in a way that makes it difficult to get a disk cutter on both sides then that will help a lot too.   A shorter lock is of course better as you can’t pull it out to easily to make both cuts from the same side of the bike.

One of my chains weigh’s about 5kg – I used t use that with a d-lock when I had to park the bike outside at work. The chain had to stay on-site due to the weight – I even took it there in the car before I started work. The NY FAGH Mini is very difficult to attack due to it’s size. I could just get it to go through the rear triangle, near the brakes bridge on a road bike and through the sheffield stand. It was a tight fit. I’d struggle with my commuter MTB.

An almost completely cut through faggeddaboutit lock appeared on my facebook feed yesterday. It wasn’t clear why but the thieves had stopped before getting all the way through

If they come that tooled up they can have it. Insurance covers the rest.

Remembering of course that if they really want it they will remove the components or just cut the frame or what ever you locked it too if it’s easier than the lock.

His comments about a chan causing grinder wheels to slip and possible shatter is interesting.

Possibly.  I cut my next door neighbour’s Abus chain one morning when his key would no longer work and it was much easier that a D lock as it was thinner.  I solved the holding the chain issue by using a quick clamp and a piece of wood.  It was quite easy really.  The chain wasn’t as big as the Kryptonite one in the video though

I was lucky the planets were aligned when my bike was stolen
I had a call at work from police I think we have recovered your bike.
I did not even know it was gone!
Garage had been broken into bike taken
While riding away bike got a puncture.
They stashed the bike away some one saw them and called police.
Officer who attended was friends with someone I rode with he asked if he knew anyone with trance x

Very lucky!

As long as you got a d lock with a shackle over 16mm you’re not getting through it with bolt cutters or hydraulic cutters. Will need a grinder. Generally shackles that big are too stiff to get away with one cut and bend round – will need 2 cuts – 1 to each side of the shackle.

I did notice there is a new lock out (mega expensive mind) that seems to have some material in it to shatter angle grinder blades – forget what make it is now but maybe that’s an option for very expensive bikes?

I did notice there is a new lock out (mega expensive mind) that seems to have some material in it to shatter angle grinder blades – forget what make it is now but maybe that’s an option for very expensive bikes?

Thats the hiplok D1000 we’ve just bought. Videos online showing it taking 2.5-5 discs to eventually get through.

I did notice there is a new lock out (mega expensive mind) that seems to have some material in it to shatter angle grinder blades – forget what make it is now but maybe that’s an option for very expensive bikes?

What’s the point? Expensive bikes have expensive components so thieves can just cut through the frame in seconds.

@gribbs I think sometimes it’s opportune and some of the garage thefts obviously not, but if a big lock simply moves the scrote on to something else then that’s got to be a positive…. not all scrotes know the component value and just want a soft target.

the ease that the bloke picked the kryptonite lock in that video is shocking.

and on that note i have just ordered a new Pragmasis 16mm DIB d lock.

I went to the shed to get my bike the other day and noticed the frame was much heavier than usual. On investigation I found it had been stuffed with marzipan! Needless to say I managed to recover most of it to bake into a tasty fruit bread.

Well you did say

tell me your stories of recovering stollen bikes

Not a recovery story but I did once have to cut through me and madame’s lock after the lock mechanism broke. It was in broad daylight in the middle of Edinburgh on a very busy street. I went home and returned with my battery grinder, cut the lock in a shower of sparks and noise. Absolutely nobody batted an eyelid or even asked what was going on, they just stepped round and carried on walking.

Thanks @j-r that has cheered me right up :⁠-⁠)

Thank you all for your tales of recovery, perhaps I’ll be reunited with it in the future.

I’ve gone for one of the Kryptonite new york d locks. As several people have said if they are that tooled up they can just cut the frame.

How do you go about securing a bike to a roof rack on long journey stop offs? That’s what the cable lock was originally bought for a visual detergent while at the loo at a service station.

It’s a Thule roof rack, the look looks good for 10 seconds, hence the cable lock. Will a d lock go from a roof rack to a bike?

@J-R 👏

I’ll need to get myself a better lock for commute to new office where I’ll no longer be allowed to bring my bike inside – I had it good for so many years. Need to de-bling the bike also, but not sure how I can make a raw ti frame (a cheap one) look shit.

As for bikes on car roof, you don’t leave them out of sight at all – one of you stays behind.