Originally Posted by
canklecat
The OP appeared to use the term skookum appropriately to mean the lock appeared durable, but wasn't.
Practical bicycle locks only deter people who are marginally honest but easily tempted. I rely on public peer pressure as much as the lock and cable. Perhaps living in Texas helps - I don't carry weapons, but you never know who does, so perhaps it's an overall deterrent. When shopping I look for stores with security guards out front, and lots of activity such as employees retrieving shopping buggies. I park as close as possible to the front of the store. And my bike doesn't look particularly worth stealing to a knowledgeable thief who wouldn't be deterred by any lock.
I use a disc padlock but the cable, no matter how thick, is the weak link. It would take less than a minute with heavy duty bolt cutters to snip the cable and toss the bike in the back of a truck. I suppose I could add another lock and cable, but I'm not sure it's worth the extra hassles and weight.
I was pretty amazed when traveling back to Missouri from a vacation with my wife. We wanted to stop at "In N Out Burger" in FW/Dallas. I can't remember the exact location we stopped at but the whole area was pretty much upscale with some high end shops. It had a Gander Mountain also. It may have been Arlington. All of the construction in the area looked fairly new.
Anyway, I noticed many of the parking lots in this area had the portable, police "eye in the sky" trailer lifts that look as though they may or may not be occupied by a live person, kind of hard to tell with the tinted glass. The only other place I have ever noticed there are in New Orleans around the French Quarter and Denver. I made real sure we parked our truck (with a campershell on it with two touring bikes + gear in the back) as close to the burger place a possible.
If I had wound up there on my bike by myself, I certainly would have just moved on. I would have skipped the burger place. When I see security guards and these eye in the sky things it's just a bad sign. I can't imagine how much theft must happen to go to the expense of all this extra security. Were not talking kids stealing candy bars at this level. I think it just plain sucks when you have to leave your bike unattended but 95% of the time I am with my wife so the bikes always have eyeballs on them.