Originally Posted by Lunigma
just thought id point out that kryptonite minis are way better, a friend of mine had her bike stole near USC and she was using a bulldog
The Bulldog "Mini" has a design that is superior to the Kryptonite Evolution "Mini" because the Bulldog locks both ends of the shackle. The Evolution locks just one end of the shackle. That makes it possible to "leverage" the shackle out of the lock, and means a crook needs to cut only one "leg" of the shackle instead of two.
About 99% of the times that a bike gets stolen while using a "first rank" lock such as an OnGuard or a Kryptonite, the owner failed to properly attach the lock. The owner thought it was locked when it wasn't. Locked it to a flimsy rack where a lock can be slipped off by removing one bolt on the rack. Locked to a pole five feet high...the crook lifted the lock over the pole. Etc., Etc., Etc. Or, most amazing...lock only the front wheel, which has a quick release hub.
In the past ten years, I have only seen one or two credible reports of a bike that were properly locked with a "quality" U-lock, and a crook succeeded in breaking the lock. Locks CAN be broken, but most crooks are lazy. They go for the bikes with cable locks, five buck chain locks, Wal-Mart U-locks...locks that last thirty seconds instead of the five or ten minutes of a first rate lock.
Two "problems" some folks have with Bulldogs disappear when the locking mechanism is understood:
- on many OnGuard locks, the crossbar must be aligned in ONE specific direction with the shackle. On mine, that means I must align the side of the shackle that has "logos" on it with the side of the crossbar that has "logos" on it. To remind myself, I used a "magic marker" to draw an arrow along one leg of the shackle and down across the proper side of the crossbar. But, sometimes I forget to align the shackle and crossbar (such as when I'm leaving a bar...go figure...)
- the key must go all the way past several rotating "anti-pick" plates to the bottom of the crossbar before you begin to turn the key...otherwise the key will jam. If the rotating plates are out of alignment inside the mechanism, you need to "wiggle" the tip of the key, plate by plate to the bottom, getting all of the plates back in alignment. That is NOT a defect. The purpose of the rotating plates is to make "picking" the locks MUCH more difficult.