Originally Posted by SamHouston
After deflating the tire & cutting the tire & tube out of the way I'm sure you could use a good set of bolt cutters to make 3 clips through a rim. One for each wall. You would need to bend it well to get the last one though. Then just snip through a few spokes to detension, bend wheel out of the ulocks grasp and it's yours, but you can't ride it away.
No, the Sheldon method is quite ingenious, what you see as a weak link is a link that requires several steps to break no matter your approach. This runs right against any thieves preferred M.O., smart or studid, equipped or not. Ingenious also as it allows a smaller u-lock to be used in a few more instances than otherwise available and without a drop in security.
Really man, opinions etc but "Sheldon is wrong", that's just stupid and I'd rather be wrong any day. Sheldons method = Different yes, wrong, no.
[QUOTE = Sheldon]Second, cutting the rear rim is much harder than you might think. Since the rim is under substantial compression due to the tension on the spokes, it would pinch a hacksaw blade tight as soon as it cut partway through. Then there are the wire beads of the tire, also difficult to cut.[/QUOTE]
This statement is wrong. He asserts that a rim is hard to cut through because you can't simply do it with a hacksaw. I could say the same thing about a cable lock. It's strong because it takes a while to cut it with a hacksaw. A hacksaw is a poor tool choice for each task and it's unlikely a thief would even have one since there is little a hacksaw is good for when stealing bikes. It is not that difficult if the thief is armed with the correct tool so sheldon's misleading statement is wrong.
I doubt you would have to cut the tire and tube away before attacking the rim just flatten them and unless you have really high profile rims you can probably just crumple the whole thing and cut it with a single snip.
My point still stands that if you are spending extra money for a fancier lock it would be absurd to use this method since it creates a link much weaker then the lock. If you have only a mini lock and can't fit it through the frame and wheel both you should forget the wheel and just lock the frame rather then locking the wheel and sort of the frame.
Wouldn't cutting the rim in a buch of places seriously **** up braking?