So after I typed the a rather longish story, I realized it was entirely not worth wading through - so here is the short version: The other day I had my U-lock, a Pit-bull mini, knocked out of my hand by a kid pushing a 10-foot string of shopping carts like he was trying out for the Jamaican bobsled team. It fell approximately 4-feet to the ground (concrete) and promptly cracked the plastic end-cap in half. for some reason this surprised me, so in hind-sight I decided it might be a good idea to wrap some tape around the plastic to maybe act as a bit of padding...(just trying to rise above the "nice bike" comment").