lockpickgeek

Hehe.. no, I do not work for Kryptonite. If I did I probably wouldn't be suggesting replacing the lock that comes with the NY chain with one from a different maker. I have just been a lock geek and a cyclist long enough to have a not-so-reactionary response to this kind of news, and I've seen the results of people using crappy locks many times. In my experience, and in my city, a case-hardened chain with a good lock is the minimum if you want to keep your bike. The Krypto chain is a great one and readily available. But now someone figured out an easy way to pick the lock. I'm not saying that this is not a problem. I think it's a big enough problem that I'm shopping for a new padlock on the way home from work today. I'm just saying that compared to the flaws in everything else on the market, this isn't particularly surprising or unusual, and I don't think it's going to destroy kryptonite or put them out of business as some have been suggesting. I also don't think it's enough to recommend many of the other locks on the market... e.g., I hear all sorts of people asking about the master lock cuff-style lock. I live in New York, and I remember seeing master lock cuffs three times here... Once locking a bike up, and twice broken on the ground. Pretty bad recommendation. So the bic method of picking a lock only takes a simple tool... bike thieves can and will get whatever tools are necessary, and as long as they can get in and out fast they don't care much if it's obvious theft.

Anyway, calling me names won't improve the security of your bike. I only posted because I've had one stolen myself, at a time when I absolutely couldn't afford it, it was a terrible experience, and I want to encourage people to lock their bikes well and not buy some cheap lock in a panic.

If you want to avoid kryptonite, you can probably find another good case-hardened chain and a decent padlock. Non-case-hardened chains (including most hardware store stuff) mush like butter under the jaws of a bolt cutter. I'm not sure who else makes them for the bike market, but I know I've seen a couple out there. They aren't cheap, but neither is replacing your bike.

Nanojath's post about how this works is pretty much correct, though I don't think the malleability of the pen makes that big a difference, as long as it can grab... it's more about just moving the pins back and forth while providing enough twist that you can get a minute amount of rotation when a pin is in the right place... thus the "twist and wiggle" recipe. Picking "normal" locks isn't really any harder except that getting to pins inside a deep narrow slot takes slightly more advanced tools, e.g., a paperclip, with a sideways press against the bottom of the key slot from a pencil point to provide the rotational bias.

Anyway, flame me all you want, but be realistic about what a lock will and won't do for you. Most of them provide sadly little security, and having to add a big chunk of the krypto lineup to that category is nothing earth-shaking. People used to thing U locks were all unbeatable, until someone figured out that they can almost all be popped off with a little leverage. The info got out fast, and .... people still use them, they still sort of work, and from time to time they get broken and a bike is stolen. I just don't see how this is so different.