Originally Posted by jasonguard
Blue Order,
Sorry I disappeared on you. I appreciate your input and your questions. You seem to have summed up why I think I'm right. The lock should not be sold. It should not be on the market. I had no idea when I first purchased and used it that this model of lock was widely known to be faulty.
How did I lock up my bike?
I put my bike over the top of a stationary bike rack with the front wheel resting between the slats. I put the cable through both wheels and the bars of the bike rack and locked the ends together with the Trimax Max 40 mini U-lock. After 2 hours and 40 minutes of class, the bike rack was bare. No bike. No marks on the rack. No pieces of metal fibers on the ground from a the cable being cut. When the cops came, they looked at my key and said that even school kids know how to use a Bic to open these things.
OK, that's what I thought, but I wanted to be sure. Here's the problem: You didn't use the U-Lock properly. You locked two ends of a cable together with the u-lock, and anybody with a bolt cutter could cut through the cable and take the bike. Now maybe the lock doesn't meet its implied warranty of merchantability because a bic pen can open it, and therefore it shouldn't be on the market, but the basic problem you're personally facing is that you used the lock improperly, and therefore, it's extremely possible that the thief just cut the cable and took the bike.
Here's what you need to do in the future:
1) Use the best u-lock you can find to secure your bike frame (probably the Kryptonite New York or Kryptonite Fuggedaboutit), and possibly the rear wheel, to the bike rack or whatever you're locking up to. Be careful that the object you're locking to can't be or hasn't been unbolted.
2) Use a cable lock to secure your wheels to the bike frame. Use a separate lock to secure the cable lock (in other words, don't lock the cable with the U-lock).
3) For real security, use the Abus lock and kryptonite chain combo that Alanbikehouston mentioned in a post above.