Originally Posted by
Sy Reene
If you were a bike thief by trade, why would you ever go out on the job with a 2ft long pair of bolt cutters? An angle grinder is much easier to carry and conceal (ie. small backpack), and has an obviously more guaranteed success rate. So I'm not sure what you mean by prevalent? You can probably buy either just as easily at the local Home Depot or on Amazon.
Professional thieves don't want to be noticed and will often go back to the same location.
I was reading an interview with a professional thief who said that he only targets Universities and Colleges and he didn't use an angle grinder as he doesn't want to be noticed.
Similarly when you see Youtube videos where it is a Police sting, none of the thieves there ever have an angle grinder on them, so yes I will stand by my notion that theft by angle grinder makes up a very small minority of bikes stolen.
Originally Posted by
jefnvk
Couple years old, dunno if it has been strengthened since then, but the Fahgeddaboutit took all of 11 seconds to defeat with proper bolt cutters (like locks, they come in everything from Harbor Freight to much more quality variants). Apparently they went through 500# of locks in a cumulative 99 seconds of effort. Video also shows how little an average person going about their day care about bike thieves.
That is a great video, so thank you for posting that.
What I would say is that a distinction should be made between the New York Fagheddaboutit U-Lock and their chain offerings, as the chain is "only" 14mm thick, whereas the U-Lock shackle is 18mm.
Also a 42inch bolt cropper probably doesn't get used that often in bike thefts and the chain was also on the ground.
Nonetheless it still shows me that I would not go with that particular chain and would look to something tougher.