Originally Posted by mike

It would be interesting to know if the big heavy locks actually do deter thieves. I guess we would have to hear it from a thief and hopefully there aren't any among us.

Last week while on a shopping expedition, my combination lock went haywire on me, I couldn't get it to open with love cooing or swearing or anything else. I wound up walking next door to the hardware store and buying a $4.95 hacksaw. I sat down by my bike and simply started sawing the lock off and people walked by me constantly right in front of Sam's Club in the middle of the day.

One old lady said, "hey is that your bike?" I said, "why, yes, it is". She said, "OK" and kept walking. Other than that, nobody stopped to ask or see what was going on - no security guards, no police, nobody. I could take all the time I wanted sawing at the lock.

So, in my opinion, a bike thief doesn't need to get the job done within 3 minutes even if he has tools. Heck, a dude with a hand-drill and a $3.00 disk cutter will go through ANY lock in less than a minute, no matter how hard or how thick or how heavy or how expensive it is.

So, it is ironic that people pay extra for very nice lightweight bikes and then add a 3lb to 6.5 lb bike lock to it. You make a 19 lb bike a 25 lb bike by doing that. You might as well buy an old 1970's steel framed 10 speed and use a cheap lock because the weight and performance will be nearly the same, but you will not have to worry so much about theft.