Originally Posted by
thegnome
By this logic, no one should own nice things because someone may steal them. While yes, you can cut *any* lock off eventually with an angle grinder the average bike thief is not going around with an expensive tool stealing bikes with difficult to break locks. They're breaking Walmart U-Locks with a pipe and taking low-hanging fruit. According to tests from multiple sources, it takes about 3 minutes per shackle side to cut through the fahgettaboutit with a cut-off wheel. That's 6 minutes worth of cutting for the lock (since it's a double-lock shackle and not a single and rotating the ubolt is very difficult with stuff in the way).
You don't know a lot about tools do you? The two best locks for bicycles can be defeated within two minutes with the cheapest battery powered angle grinder.
http://gizmodo.com/5922074/the-best-bike-lock More expensive battery powered angle grinders cut a lot faster.
And then there's picking, something that happens quite a bit in Europe but is slowly catching on here in America, and a good picker will have the best lock undone in 30 seconds. And the whole time he's doing that it just looks like he's having trouble with his key.
And yes there are other tools bike thieves have used for years but modern technology is changing what is used in the game.
And bike theft is a $200,000,000 dollar a YEAR crime!
So if someone has a $4,000 bike and needs to use it for commuting and parking outside why do that? When you could find a nice used bike or decent Walmart bike for under $250 and still have a decent bike to commute on and a really nice bike for the weekend without fretting if the $4,000 bike will be there when you're finished with work. Thus my logic is you still have the nice bike, which is what I said that you freaked over because you failed to read, but you're using a lessor quality bike for high risk parking and leaving unattended. Keep another thing in mind too, thieves are also stealing bike components, those you can't lock up unless you buy special bolts. Again why spend $250 for a lock, couple hundred more for locking bolts and skewers then have to hassle with all that crap to fix something on the bike? I think it's nuts, sorry. But if I had to park a bike outside my place of employment I would take my least valued bike that I didn't care a whole lot about if it got stolen, or buy a low value bike.