OK, you just identified two of the many factors I was talking about: lock's ability to protect and "functional portability". There are more, and the two you mentioned might benefit from more detailed definition. Even so, you now have to decide which of the two is more important to find out "the best" lock. How much portability are you willing to sacrifice to gain more protection, or vice versa?

Once you come up with an answer to that, you will hopefully realize someone else might have a different, yet equally correct answer. Again, there are many good lock makers out there. In the end it boils down to personal preferences and opinions rather than objective facts. You said it earlier yourself: you're looking for opinions in this thread (which is why I find the title somewhat ambitious and misleading).

--J

Locks purpose: to secure and protect.

The better a lock can do this the better a lock is, it doesn’t matter what a person thinks about a lock, it matters how precisely a lock can achieve its objective- to secure an object from people that wish to take it by force.

My personal preference will not change, or alter in any way a locks ability to protect. No, this is not a subjective matter. However, which lock I decide to choose is.

Further, if it “boils down to personal opinion” then I am right because this is my personal opinion, and according to your position, “someone else might have a different, yet equally correct answer.” Therefore, my answer is “different” from yours, and at the same time, “equally correct.” Your words not mine. On your view there is no reason to disagree with me because I am just as equally correct as you are. In this same way, the man who thinks that cable locks are superior to U-locks is also correct. The point is that… it sounds like you really don’t think there is such a thing as a good lock; and if you don’t think there is such a thing as a good lock, then there is also no such thing as a bad lock. This is something I don’t believe.

Fact: there is such a thing as a good lock as well as a bad lock, and my personal preference is not the deciding factor.

As for stating opinion, this is what we all do, but what gives our opinion authority is our ability to defend what we believe. Yes, I love to hear from other people such as yourself, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t challenge your opinion, just like you should challenge mine. The test is whether or not you can answer the challenge and defend what you believe. Hence, “Bike Locks The Facts” will not be a thread composed of assertions, but of well defended positions so that in the end the reader can make a more informed choice as to what buy.

From your view it would seem that you want a thread with many assertions- all of which you take to be “equally correct” facts? This just isn’t so, a Walmart Huffy is inferior to a professionally assembled Trek and a Kryptonite lock is superior to a cheap Bell lock. Indeed, what is the point of talking locks if there is no such thing as good and bad locks? For in that case any lock will do.

Respectfully
Jack

I once saw a professional bike theif scoping out my ride when I was locking it up. I flashed my Kryptonite NYFU and said "You can't break this baby". He gave me a look and then drove off in his pro theif van.

The next week he showed up again during lunch while I was inside, but I was unaware. When I packed up to go back home I saw the same theif collapsed by my bike with a shatterd angle grinder and a slew of broken hacksaws next to him. He had been out there for hours before the grinder blew up, and he was hacksawing at the lock until he passed out from exhaustion. Just goes to show you that if a theif tries to break through your NYFU he's likely to die.

In fact, I'd say that if there were 2,000 thieves in the world, and 13 million people drive vans, that at least 73.8% of pro theives will not attempt to steal a bike with a strong Kyrptonite lock. The ones that do attempt will either go to jail or die, so the real number is more like 110%.

Kryptonite, the name that is always on top!

Krptonite!

I'm going to name my second child NYFU (pronounced Nie-foo) so that they too may be unbreakable.


Truthfully, Respectfully, Humbly
somedood

My gut tells me this is a joke-post, but my instinct tells me it might be sincere... Oh, the agony of the Internet!

To respond to the claim a lock can be evaluated based solely on how well it secures an item, there are a couple of problems with this: Discussing bike-locks, specifically, we must take into consideration, in addition to ability to safeguard, at least cost and weight. The former lends to value: if something is almost certainly impregnable, but costs $2,000, I imagine almost every bicyclist would look to something else, as few persons (and few bikes) can justify such a price. The latter is, of course, important to anyone who has to bear the lock on his or her commute. Get a large enough chain (perhaps with an anchor attached to an end...and a lion to the other), and it's dubious your bike will go anywhere — of course, it's dubious you'll take it anywhere, also.

Security is, of course, an extremely important aspect of a lock, but, alone, it's rather meaningless.

The greatest bike lock in the world- A Purple Crayon

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/ima...ple-crayon.png

So he put a frightening dragon under the tree to guard the bike.


Respectfully
Jack

fa·ce·tious: meant to be humorous or funny : not serious

By that definition and along the lines of the Mighty Purple Crayon, I hereby submit the perfect lock design: a wooden box with your bike inside, filled with concrete, maybe sunk in the sea for a good measure. Far more secure than anything Kryptonite (or Abus or any other lock company for that matter) has to offer.

In order to come up with the "best" lock, you'd first have to have a commonly agreed set of criteria for the various candidates to meet. Not everyone's criteria will be the same, no matter how much you would like it to be.

--J

I have used a Cobralink motocycle lock for about 20 years. How do these locks today compare? The Cobralink was considered practically unbreakable and uncuttable. I remember readng an article where they could only break it by putting it around a try and pulling with a pickup to get it to break.

Shill? :p

That's not very strong; ever heard of tow rope?

I know those locks. In 1990, if I remember right, a guy at the local motorcycle dealership showed me how to get through one of those in about 60 seconds.

Certainly not facts. Facts can be sought out from informed sources such as lock manufacturers, or security professionals. Hell, even some bike shop folks know quite a bit about them.

Should change the title: "Bike locks. One man's opinion."

sorry, wrong thread.

Hey, a cable-lock's a cable-lock, right? That is, if two are of equal diameter, there's not much else, in terms of "quality," to look at, correct?

Thanks.

Look at some of these videos. The cheap locks and cheap U-Locks are easy to defeat. The NY Faggetaboutit is not a practicle target and they won't bother with it. I use that on a $750 bike in a risky area for months now without any problems. I also have a thick cable go through that plus both rims and post.
http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...rch_type=&aq=f

no, you don't remember right. 60 seconds? not according to every motocycle magazine that reviewed them at the time.

Fact: I have used OnGuard Bulldog locks for almost 4 years. I have had two of them so far.

Fact: I've never had a bike stolen.

Conclude what you will.

Pure fabricated BULLSCHIT!!!! My friend and I took a angle grinder to a NY Forgettaboutit after he lost his keys and it cut through it like butter. And no thief (did you notice the correct spelling of thief and not theif?) would be lying exhausted with a slew of saws and whatnots lying by his side next to a bike he's attempted to steal.

The above is intended to be funny and not serious.

It wasn't. If you hadn't qualified your comment, everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) would have thought you were really ****ing stupid! :p

I've probably cut thru more case-hardened security chain than most folks. We buy it in bulk from Austria, made by PEWAG, their 3/8" chain and cut into 1 meter sections for bike chains. Can tell you that stuff is damn hard! We used to "thin" the end links such that they would fit into a medium sized monobloc lock. This thinning operation was taking 20 minutes per chain on an industrial grinding machine. TOO much time, we now use a bigger ABUS monobloc lock. NO more thinning operation, it was a time killer!

One benefit of a chain versus U lock is that a thief must cut a chain TWICE, each side of the link, to break the chain. With a U-lock he only has to make one cut. With a cable, one easy cut.

We cut our 1 meter chain segments using a big oxy-acetylene torch, even w/ the gas flowing at a maximum, it takes 30 seconds per chain to cut. There are some links to a U-tube video showing us cutting w/ oxy on: BikeRegistry link

A thief MAY cut thru a case-hardened security chain using an angle grinder, but it will wipe out his cutting disk for sure and take several minutes, using an industrial grade grinder.

The good U-locks have to be cut twice. The times they are a changin. :)