I just rode my new Giant FCR4 to the drugstore to buy my wife an anniversary card. I locked the bike up to the bike rack with a Kryptonite mini U-lock (evolution, I think). I went in to the store for 10 minutes max. When I came out, I could not open the lock! I could turn it half way, but not all the way. I walked the 4 miles home, got my car, drove to the office where I had the extra keys.

The extra keys did not work either. Now, I am waiting for a locksmith to arrive, and he says the lock will be destroyed by his drilling, and it will cost me $75 minimum!

Needless to say, I am furious. The u-lock was fairly new (3 weeks), and had worked fine on previous occasions. I checked the inside for tampering and found no evidence.

I will never buy another kryptonite product again. Hopefully they will refund the cost of the lock and the locksmith. I'll let you know how this turns out. At least I got the anniversary card...

My lock by specialized was absolutely horrible about this. I had to move the key side to side til I was sure the key had entered into all the barrels. Otherwise it wouldn't work properly. *shrugs* I doubt kryptonite will cover your costs though.

I wouldn't let a locksmith touch it unless/until you've admitted defeat.
Work at it with graphite lube and the included keys - try all of them.

seconded

the design of the new flat keys allows you to rotate the key when it's inseted only partway. this rotates some of the cylinders, but doesn't unlock the lock. stick the key back in as far as it will go and "lock" it all the way. then see if you can insert the key any further and really unlock it.

this is the issue I encounter

Update:

Thanks for the ideas guys. Unfortunately, neither I nor my locksmith could get them to work... After 1.5 hours the locksmith gave up and cut open the bike rack. He then took my bike to his shop and promises me that he can use some kind of grinding machine to hack the lock off by tomorrow morning.

The frame is already way scratched up. Hope the bike still works OK. I'm not looking forward to seeing his bill or the cost or repairing/replacing the bike rack... I'll let you know what happens.

Something is up with the Kryptonite locks. I had 2 of the heavy ulocks (NY) and within a month, they both would not open. I just got lucky both times- they would not unlock when I went to unlock them and put them on my bike. What a downer.

It's worse what happened to you. I wonder why some of the Kryptonite locks become dead locks within weeks of purchase?

Koffee

The 2005 locks from both OnGuard and Kryptonite with flat keys use rotating plates inside the key way. As the red warning sticker that is on the locks says, you MUST insert the key fully before you begin to turn the key.

What the stickers don't tell you is why. If you turn the key before it passes the last of three, four, or five rotating plates (depending on the lock model) you rotate the plates out of alignment and "freeze" the lock. This is INTENTIONAL as it makes it more difficult to pick the locks. People did not want "round keys" because of their fear of the (absolutely imaginary) risk that someone would pick their lock. So, a "pick resistant" design is replacing the round key design.

The locks can still easily be opened by realigning the plates. Aligning the plates takes about ten seconds after you have practiced the technique for a few minutes. It takes FAR longer to describe the alignment process than it takes to carry it out.

Turn the lock so that you can see down into the key way. You will see an opening for the key. When all of the plates are perfectly aligned, that opening forms a smooth sided rectangle that extends to the bottom of the crossbar. If any of the middle plates are out of alignment, the keyway has jagged sides. If the bottom plate is out of alignment, the keyway does not extend to the bottom of the crossbar.

Just take the tip of your key, and insert it 1/16th of an inch into the key way. Gently turn the top plate until its key way is perfectly aligned with the second plate. Then, insert the key 2/16th of an inch into the key way and align the second plate with the third plate. Go deeper to align the third plate with the fourth, and the fourth with the fifth. When you are finished, the keyway goes smoothly to the bottom of the crossbar.

When the alignment is correct, you gently wiggle the key down until you reach the bottom of the crossbar. The key will turn easily and smoothly, and the lock will open. If there is ANY resistance, do NOT force the key. Resistance means you missed a plate and must realign the keyway.

I now own about ten of the new flat key locks. Two of them "froze up" when I failed to fully insert the key before turning it. After I learned how to align the plates, the realignment process takes ten seconds or less. But, now that I understand the new mechanism, I NEVER have a lock jam up. I've learned to work the key down all the way to the bottom before lightly turning it. This becomes an automatic process that you do without giving it any thought.

Frankly, I LIKED the round key design. Easy to use. Never jammed. There is not a single documented, proven case of a bike being stolen because the lock was picked with a BIC pen. But, because of the BIC pen uproar, we now must learn how to use the new flat key locks. After new owners learn the quirks of the flat key locks, they are easy to use, and have the benefit of being the most theft-resistent design in the history of cycling.

Right. But Kryptonite and whoever else went ahead and replaced all those locks, "Just in case".

Alan, if you are so sure that no bikes have been stolen using a Bic pen, and you like the round key design, then why did you exchange your locks?

BTW, neither wife my I nor have ever had this problem with our flat key Abus locks. This seems to be a Kryptonite related problem, not a flat key problem.

agreed: just get an Abus- they open every time- no problem

Update:

Just got my bike this morning from the locksmith. He charged me $85. I'll talk to the bike rack owner tomorrow. Glad to have my new bike back!

I'll try Abus next time. Thanks everyone.

Did the locksmith tell you what had happened with your lock?

Yeah. I'd keep that lock and send it back to Kryptonite with a copy of the receipt and get an estimate of the damage to your bike and send that bill too. Then talk to the owner of the bike rack and get the bill and send that to Kryptonite too.

It seriously sounds like it was a defective lock. As if we don't know that by now anyway...

Koffee

No, the locksmith didn't have any explanation for what happened. It would have been hard for him to tell since he tried to drill right into the keyslot and mangled all of the machinery. He ended up slicing through the "U" part of the bar.

I'm debating about whether it's worth the time and hassle to try to collect from Kryptonite, especially since my wife is past her due date with our second child. Things are going to get pretty hectic. I'll probably take a deep breath, let this one go, and go for a ride!

The 2005 OnGuard and 2005 Kryptonite locks use the same rotating plate "anti-pick" design. This design is NOT defective. New OnGuard and Kryptonite locks that refuse to open are NOT defective.

There have been numerous complaints posted in the Forums over the past six months by folks who had problems opening a new "flat key" lock. Not ONE of those people said that they had taken a few seconds to aligned the plates before trying to open the locks. None of these folks seemed to have read the instructions that came with their lock, warning to FULLY insert the key before turning it.

Owners need to simply READ the instructions. Then, read them again, and spend a few minutes practicing the proper technique for using this type of lock design: fully seat the key firmly against the bottom of the key way BEFORE beginning to turn the key. The key then turns easily, and the lock opens.

If you "bump" a plate with the key, just use the tip of the key to realign each plate with the plate below it. After you do this once or twice, you can do it in under ten seconds.

Why did OnGuard and Kryptonite select the rotating plate design? Because of the hysterical, irrational panic caused by the "BIC pen" stories. That caused a loss of consumer confidence in the round key design. So, both companies have "cured" the imaginary problem of bikes being stolen with BIC pens with a highly pick resistant design. So, now we need to learn how to CORRECTLY open our "new and improved" locks.

It's been my experience that even well designed products are sometimes defective.

You want documented proof of a bike stolen with a BIC pen? Show me the bike thief who leaves a little calling card with video attached how he did it with a BIC pen, and I'll show you Santa Clause. Absence of evidence is not the same as proof of the opposite, you know.

How about some proof of your allegations?

Dunno about OnGuard changing their lock design any time recently. Their web site seems to advertise that their key system is not the dodgy barrel key design but the "legendary" M-key. Older locks I have seen also had the M-key.

Ask yourself what is more likely: That Kryptonite is recalling all locks because they found for themselves their lock is pickable with a BIC, or that they simply capitulated to a "false hype" and are throwing money away? If it was really false, why wouldn't they simply advertise the fact, also here on this forum where the news spread in the first place, and offer to replace someone's bike if it got stolen if locked with a registered U-lock (just like they do, in fact, with the new design)? No, I reckon they saw the writing on the wall about bike thefts causing heavy losses and decided to go with the recall.

The bic pen method has been confirmed by many posters here in the sticky about the U-locks. The video was originally prompted by a reformed thief IIRC.

This is a great piece of information. Thanks!
Erling.

And I have already benefited from it: Yesterday, as I was about to unlock my Abus Cetero after having had the bike parked downtown all day, I noticed that the cover for the keyhole was pushed aside. Hm. Looking into the keyhole, all the plates were disarranged. Somebody had obviously been tampering with the lock. Wriggeling the key as per alanbikehouston's instructions enabled me to unlock the Abus in seconds.

Again, thanks.

Erling.

Erling,

I use the very same model of Abus lock and like it a lot. Where do you keep it while riding? I used to affix it to a rare rack, now that I use a different style rack, I keep my lock wound in a backpack. The lock is pretty heavy though.

I also noticed it is getting tough to wind/unwind the cable when the temperatures drop well below freezing...

Thanks.
Gintaras

I beg to differ.

In October of last year London Metropolitan Police witnessed, via CCTV, a person stealing a bicycle from a bike rack. A nearby officer was sent to deal with the situation and was able to apprehend the thief about 3 blocks from the scene.

When searched the thief had an empty BIC biro casing on him and admitted that he had used this to pick the Kryptonite lock which was retrieved from the scene of the crime. The thief said that he had learnt about this method from the internet.

My source, the arresting officer who came to my cycle group to talk about bike registration and security.

One proven case for you.

Hi Gintaras,
Like you, I keep it in my backpack. I'm commuting by bike and need the backpack (raingear, groceries), so it's easier to just drop it in there rather than strapping it to the frame. I never really wind/unwind mine, I simply let it keep its "natural" O-shape.
Take care,
Erling.

Though I'm happy with my NY3000 from Kryptonite I'd to see their response on this forum before ordering a fistfull of matched locks. Also, is this perhaps a lube issue? First I do with any new lock is hose it with tri-flow.

The rotating plate lock mechanisms are identical on my 2005 OnGuard Brute and on my Kryptonite New York 3000. They share a "pick resistant" design that makes opening the locks with any sort of picking tool much more difficult.

The rotating plate design works perfectly IF, but only if, owners follow the instructions provided by OnGuard and Kryptonite: insert the key fully so it is seated at the bottom of the key mechanism before beginning to turn the key. If an owner ignores the instructions, and turns the key before it is seated, the lock will not open. That is the "trick" that makes picking these locks so difficult.

If someone accidently rotates the plates and the lock jams, it takes only a few seconds to use the tip of the key to realign the plates, fully seat the key, and open the lock.

The problem here is not with the locks. It is a "defective owner" problem. Most guys consider it unmanly to read the directions that come with a product, just as it is unmanly to read a roadmap when lost out on the road. If a fella can't figure out how these new "flat key" locks work, he can have his wife read the instruction sheet and then explain it to him.