TiGr: Titanium Lock
 

I really hope this gets made.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1392732/TiGrLockedDS.jpg

Looks very cool and a could be good option. Of course, nothing is theft-proof, and an abrasive cutoff wheel will make quick work of it.

Subscribed to hear about later results from third-party testing.

Looigi, you'll want to check out our attack videos.

the stick of metal gets spit out from the jaws of the bolt cutters, but what happens when it's held in place as it would be when locked to a bike and post? Vice attack looks good. Have any attacks been focused on grinding or cutting away at the lock where it closes around the Ti bar?

I like it.

You'll be there awhile cutting it with a regular radiac wheel.Bring your torch or diamonds.
Can't be jacked.
Titanium gets harder down to about -200* so freezing won't be easy.

If I was going to attack this,I would trying freezing,but it's going to have to get REAL cold.Like liquid nitrogen cold,but titanium and pure nitrogen don't play well together...AT ALL.


I like it!

It is a great idea
I would buy one!

It depends on the exact alloy. Some titanium can be cut with a hacksaw. But it is a lot more work to get it done. In general titanium is very difficult to grind even with a power grinder. I have worked with it before. I had a huge 1 hp Knife makers grinder. I had to give up on the piece I had, I could not grind it.

When you're applying that much force, wedging against the frame of the bike/post isn't anything like being in a vice. You're applying a tremendous amount of force to twist, and once it twists even a little, it wants to twist more.

Why does it make a difference where you cut on the bar? You mean, like, try to cut both ends at once? I'm not the engineer on this team, but I give you my assurance that, if you managed to get a bolt cutter around both of them, you're not going to be able to cut through twice as much material more easily than cutting through one side.

Another good feature of that lock is that it's extremely hard to bend when it is that thick. A U lock only needs one cut and the locking U bar pivots around in the lock bar. The ti bar will probably be impossible to bend open without some help with more tools, if you only make one cut.
That would be a reason to cut the lock near the narrow end. But I agree that it will be extremely hard to cut.

The samples that were cut with the boltcutters were not held in place by anything, so once they had bent a bit from the pressure and angle of the boltcutter blade, they jumped out of the blades. After seeing that, I would try boltcutters against the U-bend of the Ti while it's locked to something. The shape of the Ti should prevent it from twisting much at that position. BUT, looking again at the thing locked up and actually in use, that's probably a difficult area to access with a large boltcutter. You could also add some extra material at that point to add strength?

The design is good, it seems that any potential weak spots are tucked close to the bike and might even move around a bit if you apply force. So you'd need a third or fourth hand to steady the lock while you tried to attack it.

That's a good summary, actually.

And speaking of which! The TiGr Kickstarter ends this Friday! Just three days left! It's very exciting. Whether or not you (or anyone else reading this) can back the project, please tweet, blog, and post about it! We're amazed and humbled by the extraordinary encouragement our backers have given us and want to make sure anyone who might be excited about it knows about it.