Cyclist0383

Have you had a bike stolen in the last two years while using a high end lock which was compromised? What lock was it, and do you know if the lock was Art Foundation Four Star or Sold Secure Gold rated?

If your bicycle was stolen and you were using such a lock please provide details of the theft, such as what the bike was locked to and how you think the lock was defeated (bolt cutters, angle grinder, etc).

The purpose of this poll is to settle claims made by the makers of ***** chains that ART Foundation and Sold Secure locks are being defeated in the real world with regularity by bicycle thieves. I think that claim is rubbish, and this poll sets out to prove it.

Here is the thread that started the debate. https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=314001

Here are the Sold Secure and ART Foundation Websites:

https://www.soldsecure.com/Leisure.htm
https://www.stichtingart.nl/sloten_resultaat.asp

Almax9633

Many thanks for that Ziemas.

geo8rge

Post on craigslist NYC for tales of woa. The locks can be cut with a hack saw (titanium blade).

Cyclist0383

Any lock can be compromised, but I'd like to hear some first hand accounts by people on this forum to just how often it happens. Not very, taking into account the number of locks out there, I'd venture to say.

What kind of lock do you use, geo8rge?

donnamb 

No. I use a Kryptonite New York U-lock. As far as I can tell, there's not even been an attempt to tamper with it. I believe this lock has a Sold Secure gold rating.

chephy

I use a NY Kryptonite and still have my bike, but I rely more on avoiding leaving the bike out of sight in high-crime areas for too long than on a lock.

georgiaboy

Onguard Bulldog Mini.

group105

https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=314001

KnhoJ

Me too! Although mine's seen a little more action... In the form of a claw hammer. Last week I found one claw freshly broken off on the ground, and a matching dent in the plastic cover of the lock. And last year I did find a muddy tweaker bashing away at my $12 chain lock with a digital slr camera. That didn't work, either. I don't think Vancouver's any better for bike theft than Portland, just dumber.

I'm happy with my big heavy yellow lock. The only thing a stronger lock would protect is the lock itself; plenty of thieves would happily cut my frame and make off with the full load of components. Best case scenario; if you built a 20 pound, $1000 inconel u-lock, crammed two chain stays, the chain, a crank arm, and the rear wheel inside, locked to a solid steel rack anchored two feet into the ground, any teenager with a $5 hacksaw could leave the rear wheel locked to the rack next to a broken chain in under 60 seconds. Such is life.

donnamb 

So where was your bike parked?

donnamb 

I'm sorry, I don't understand the message you're trying to communicate to me by posting the link to that thread.

Doug5150

Where do you get titanium hacksaw blades? I have never seen or heard of such a thing, and can't find any on Google.

Bi-metal, tool steel, high-speed and carbide is all I've seen..... Carbide will cut most metals but it's dreadfully slow in a handsaw. I've heard of diamond-coated blades also but they're even slower than carbide.
~

Blue Order

I've heard that small thermonuclear weapons can also break a high end lock. Is that what bike thieves are using these days?

donnamb 

Well, you know what happens when the Reedies get glazed and break into the Reed College reactor, Blue Order... Goodness knows where that stuff goes after they make off with it.

operator

Take a introductory class on statisitics, then come back and tell the class why this thread is as useless as your poll.

Cyclist0383

It's an informal poll. I'm not under the guise that it is scientific.

KnhoJ

In front of the Sportsman's Warehouse in Orchards, Washington, home of stoned salespeople. Long story short, I'll be buying a tent somewhere else; and when you get a funny feeling about those two kids across the parking lot checking out your bike as you lock up, don't hang out inside and try to help the baked dude comprehend the idea of riding somewhere on a bicycle and spending the night there in a tent.
On the bright side, if I hadn't made this trip, I wouldn't have stopped to eat a sandwich in Orchards Park in just the right spot to sit and watch an active communal bushtit nest only ten feet away.

Nicodemus

They went into my apartment building and ripped the railing out from the stairwell to get to my bike. What do you do, eh?

Bloody french.

Those ***** clowns can spew whatever garbage they like, I'll always love my Abus.

Cyclist0383

But it sounds like the lock held......

Nicodemus

he he, I just read the other thread Ziemas ***** and CapnCool - what a pair of tools!!

Nicodemus

Supposedly. The lock disappeared with the bike, of course. All that was left was iron railings hanging out from their previously anchored-to stairwell.

Cyclist0383

I'm sure it held. If they could have broken the lock easier than the railing they would have.....seems the lock was stronger.....probably cut it off with power tools elsewhere....

geo8rge

1) If you want tales of whoa, look over the postings on NYC craigslist, and contact the posters I used to do that until it got redundant. Not only that but they are current in terms of theft techniques. As to expensive locks the largest category of failure was the lock was not used correctly. Bike locked to itself, bike not locked to anything, the thing the bike was locked to was not secure, key left in lock (only the chain was stolen in that case).

2) The blade I use may be carbide, back when I bought it I think it said titanium on it. It takes about 15-20 min to cut through a hardened shackle.

My blade looks like this: https://www.golfsmith.com/ppage.php?s...&tcode=fr_home
I like it because it is thin.

Cyclist0383

It seems that user error is the cause of the vast majority of cases you are referring too. Thanks for clearing that up.

Nicodemus

Funny thing is, it was only a mid-level Abus chain lock as well. So even that bizarre theft can't skew the "No" statistics you've garnered so far...