AltheCyclist

Hey all, wondering if others have had similar problem to what I experienced with my Knog Strongman lock. I dropped it (from about top tube height, so a few feet) and as seen in photo, the plastic casing cracked. No biggie, or so I thought. I reinserted the key to open it and the mech. no longer turns. It appears the tumbler mech. was contained by the plastic cover and now the lock is now a worthless paperweight.
Seems like a poor design - a thin plastic shell shouldn't be integral to lock mechanism. And, seems like it would be easier to defeat (as in, if a thief cracked most of the shell, it would be easier to jimmy the lock).
I'm not a locksmith so I don't know for sure but wondering if anyone had similar situation? Or had one's bike stolen due to this?
Kinda disappointed in this $100 lock.

* Notes:
*I was going to return it to mfg. claiming a defect but the warranty is 2 years and even if I'm under two years, I don't have receipt anymore
*I posted this in "commuting", thinking more likely audience to have had a lock broken or bike stolen.

Broken Gnog lock - disappointment
of lock users browse here

srestrepo

Disclaimer, I literally know nothing of the function of locks other than to secure things to -hopefully- another score thing so as to prevent theft.

that being said, I have a hard time believing that the mechanism the key slides into wasnt affixed to metal internals of the lock.

maybe the plastic shroud limits how deep you can slide the key in and in that way, the ramps or bumps on the key dont line up correctly with the lines or tumblers inside the lock preventing it from working as intended?

CliffordK

I have to agree... that crack you're seeing is a red herring. You could probably remove that entire shroud, and the lock would still function fine.

A few things to make a lock not work right:

• Key not inserted properly. All the way in?
• Pressure on the bolt part of the lock preventing from turning the tumbler. Make sure that has at least a little play.
• Something jammed with the lock mechanism. Was the key in the lock when it was dropped?

I'd probably pull the key out, squirt some WD40 inside the tumblers, as well as around the bolt part of the locki, and wiggle everything around a bit.

AltheCyclist

You guys are right! The mech isn't part of the cover, there's a couple of metal inserts under the bezel assembly. They shifted out of place and were blocking the key from turning. I smacked it a few times and the metal parts fell out thus exposing the key insert and now it works just fine.
Still seems like a little bit of design improvement could be made. I suspect their engineers recessed the tumbler to make it harder to access with locksmith tools (slowing down any professional thief that might have such tools).
And, the plastic covering probably made to just keep out rain and dirt and possibly even made with breakage in mind (as in, owner returns to a bike, notices the plastic is damaged by a thief who was thwarted, leaving the only cosmetically-damaged lock and of course, the bike).
I had purchased the lock because PopSci (or PopMech, I forget which magazine) rated it well in their theft tests so I was grumpy when I thought it was ruined by a simple drop. Now that it's working again, I'm not crabby anymore.
Thanks!
Al