But, how long would it have taken you to do so had it been a "top-of-the-line" U-lock?

Damn. Really? I was getting excited about buying an OnGuard Brute, instead of a Kryptonite New York, U-lock. The two seem comparable in terms of bulk ("strength") and size, but the former is rather cheaper.

I wouldn't have been able to break it with the tools I had.

Hey guys another locksmith here, this one from nyc. I agree with the the first post, the multilock e11 is a beautiful piece of engineering. How much Security is relative to your environment but essentially is a balance of locking devices and convenience. I wont judge what others have or make any suggestions but will gladly tell you guys what i have. I always carry my krypto evolution mini u lock and my krypto cable but at school the i have the nyc krypto chain (which i leave there) i chain through frame and front wheel with the ulock on the rear wheel, rack and seat stays. so i carry my cable at school. no big deal!. at home and at work its my ulock to frame, and cable through both wheels and rack with eyelets through the ulock. saddle has the famous nyc chain through the seat stays approach. the krypto chain is heavy, but i wouldnt feel comfortable with using anything else at school.

Excellent post.

Just an FYI.
I finally got both of my bikes adjusted the way I want them (saddle height, stem adjustment, etc...), so I filled in the allen heads with solder. I let the solder set for about an hour and tried to pry it out with a screwdriver. No go. It seems to be a good solution for securing ones saddle, stem, etc.....
I used the solder gun and some spare wire to wick up the solder for a removal test and it works well if I ever need to swap parts or adjust anything.

So, if your seat loosens on a ride, you're assed out unless you happen to be carrying a soldering gun...?

In 16 years of almost daily riding I've never had my 'seat loosen'. It's not really an issue if it's setup properly.

All right. I suppose, at the very least, I'd worry it would be difficult to make adjustments if necessary. If you're comfortably "set," though, I suppose it isn't a terrible idea.

For those who find the Kryptonite NY Fahgettaboudit U lock too short or narrow for their locking situation Kryptonite also makes the M18WL U lock. It is listed in the Powersports area on their web site.

I just got one from Niagara Cycle Works via Amazon. A real brute of a lock, at least in appearance. 3.9" wide by 10.3" long inside the shackle, which is 18mm in diameter. No carrier for frame attachment is included and it weighs just a hair under 6 pounds

BTW the NY Fahgettaboudit weighs in at 4.25 pounds with the same size shackle and the OnGuard Bulldog Mini weighs just under 2 pounds on the same trigger scale.

This might be a silly question, but: if I leave, say, a D-lock on the bike rack at work while I'm not there, is there any chance a thief would come and tamper with it to make an easier theft once my bike is there with the lock? Has this ever been done, or would it be unlikely?

^
It seems unlikely.
Are you riding a $5000 road bike around? That might change things if high-end bike theft is rampant in your area.
What I mean is, that for the above to be plausible, someone would have to be casing you and your bike. Watch you go to work/school everyday, see that you are using this particular lock, and deem it worth tampering with your 'at work' lock that you leave on the rack. I really don't know of anything that they could do to it that would help them steal your bike more quickly. Not anything that you wouldn't notice anyway, like.....cutting part of the way through it(?).
Again, it seems unlikely to me.

All that said, I don't recommend leaving a lock on a rack to use daily. Why be predictable?

Nah it's worth under the equivalent of $1500 (in UK). Maybe I'll start leaving a lock at work then - it would save a bit off my back!

I got rid of the backpack by installing some racks. I don't mind carrying locks at all.
You could even use a lock mount on your ride if you don't want racks, kryptonite makes the best one I have seen.

https://www.bicyclebuys.com/item/1715370

are the xena alarm locks any good?

Many folks who lock at the same rack five or six days a week just leave a six pound lock attached to the rack to avoid carrying it back home. If the rack is among the 5% or 10% of bike racks that are as strong as a good lock, your lock will be fine. But, you should still carry a second lock so you can stop on the way home, if necessary.

For rack mounting both Abus and Trelock make excellent mounts. Personally I use the Trelock, which works with any brand of lock.

Based on Mythbusters attempted recreations of a number of them I suspect that a good percentage of the Youtube videos are faked via one method or another. Certainly for example the car door lock being opened with a tennis ball one was. I sometimes think that the posters just like to scare the s--t out of a lot of people or in some cases are running down competitive products that they want to sell a "better" replacement for.

If you lock yourself out of your house, a good locksmith can "pick" the lock in under five minutes (with the exception of just one "major" brand). But, when I have shown good locksmiths the Kryptonite New York Lock (with the same key mechanism as the Fahgettaboudit) they have ALL said: "I can't pick this lock...I don't think anybody can".

.
The fact that on U-Tube there may be a video of someone pretending to "pick" a top quality bike lock is meaningless. You can also find videos on u-boob of "Martians" who landed in New Mexico...the videos are equally "real".

Actually there are locksmiths that can pick disk tumbler (or 'tibbe') locks, which are what the current run of kryptonite locks utilize. I have never been able to do it, but I have never really tried for any extended period of time. It can be done though.

It certainly does seem unlikely that a bike thief would actually pick your bike lock, but I wouldn't rule it out as impossible.

A good locksmith can pick a house lock in under a minute; a bad "locksmith" can take over 20 minutes. Once, I lock myself out of my house. Since I didn't want to pay 100 bucks for some guy to open the door, I walked around the block and found a couple pieces of wire. It took me about 20 minutes but I eventually pick the lock at let myself in. It was the first time I've ever picked a lock.

I doubt they are disk tumblers, these can be picked so fast it's ridiculous. I can pick a disc tumbler in seconds. But I used to be a locksmith. I've never seen a Kryptonite lock in person yet but my guess it's similar to a tubular lock but with newer style mushroom type pin(s) in it. Maybe you mean a side bar tumbler lock? These were used on automobiles. Still are I'd imagine. I had a hard time picking those.

No, they use rotating disk tumblers. No spring tension on them at all, no drivers. They rotate to the shear line.
Ever see a 'tibbe' key/lock? Older Jaguars in particular used them, as well as many british safe deposit locks. I'm sure that they have been used on other locks, but those come to mind. Angled cuts to varying depths on the keys correspond to the tumblers. This cylinder/key system was originated in england as far as I know.

Never saw a 'tibbe' key/lock. Similar key cuts to a Medico maybe? Never worked on those either.

It's been a while since I've done locksmithing.....

Not quite like a Medeco, those still use pin tumblers, they are just very advanced pin tumblers (side bars, angled cuts fore and aft, mushroom drivers, etc..). The current keys on Kryptonite locks are based on this system:

https://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://www.keys4classics.com/images2/read_Tibbe_top_DIY.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.keys4classics.com/html/read_Tibbe_DIY.html&usg=__K4d4mgmW7OAxbtGmTeJhQu2XQgI=&h=300&w=400&sz=16&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=P_ NIaTxarkzkjM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtibbe%2Bkey%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-USfficial%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1


https://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1