I use a Krypto mini most of the time. If I'm going to a movie or something, and the bike will be out of sight for an hour or two, I lock the frame and the back wheel with a u-lock, and put a mini u-lock around the front wheel and frame. That way I don't have to take the front wheel off.

It's called 'tubular climbing webbing', and if you buy large webbing, you can slip the chain through it. This is waht it looks like, and showing the 'hollow tubular' part of the webbing.
http://www.info-central.org/images/cordinfo_fig1.jpg

hey, thanks to climbinrocks and bostonfixed for the suggestions/explanations!

does anyone else use diy locks? sounds like a smart way to go.

New York bike thiefs certainly will find a way to get through anything. I had my bike, a cheap (but beloved) beat-up steel frame road bike, locked up on 125th and Park Ave. with a krypto quad chain and an American lock. The police told me that filing a report was useless because I didn't have insurance. But then I bought an IRO Jamie roy, and I couldn't be happier with it.

Um, maybe the original poster has thought of this, but what about just looping your belt through the lock you already have and letting it hang by your thigh, keyhole end up? It works for me.

after digging through www.americanlocks.com it seems to me that pretty much all their key locks just use a standard 5 pin...
hate to piss on people's parades here but this is the easiest lock to pick, takes seconds, and just looks like someone having to jiggle their key if you're walking by...

at the club i used to work at one of our favorite past-times was to unlock people's bikes and move them to different places on the racks... no one around us ever said anything, and i don't think anyone even noticed while we were doing it...

I woudn't leave ANY decent bike locked up unattended in the city. You never see nice bikes locked up--people intentionally uglify them to discourage theft. Thieves will take anything that is (or is not) nailed down and they become more clever every day.

Actually it doesn't take a "pro" at all. And the right tools can be made in about 2 minutes with some metal street cleaner bristles or other spring steel and a Dremel.

It's not hard at all. It's just that most people who might like to steal your bike don't realize how easy it is to pick most locks.

alright so if you're makin youre own chain lock what padlock should you use? are they all gonna get picked or are there some pretty heavy duty locks you should use?

diy tip: cut the rubber housing off your u-lock and replace with
electrical tape. gives a little more clearance & makes a mini-u fit
better in tight pockets.

does a tight pocket = tight pants?

jeff

what about heavy duty combination padlocks-those cant be picked and it can takes a long time to guess the combo?

http://www.masterlocks.com/item_master.asp?int_id=180 like so

I'm too skinny and the NYC Krypto is too big/heavy for this not too imbalance me while riding. And besides that, I'm fairly certain it'll stretch my belt and pull down my pants! :D

But it'd definitely work with the mini-U-lock.

(I'm thinking I might try one of those. I like the idea of minimizing the clearance for any kind of leverage.)

thost little pocket-sized krypto locks are practically worthless for anything beyond locking your bike up for 2 minutes while you grab a cup of coffee (keeping the bike in view the whole time, of course).

i know so many fixie kids who adopted those things for the cool factor (little lock in the back pocket of your jeans...) only to have them twisted off their bikes in seconds flat.

i typically don't lock my bike outside and far out of sight for very long, but when i need to, i'll lock it with my krypto 3' chain with two padlocks on it (an american padlock and a kryptonite "molly lock").

the chain goes through both wheels and the frame, and one lock goes into the end of each chain, and i try to get the second lock to connect from one end to the middle of the chain somewhere, just to complicate things.

if i'm extra paranoid, i'll throw a krypto nyc u-lock into the equasion somewhere. typically through the rear rim and downtube, locking onto whatever i'm securing the bike to.

i spend a lot of time locking up and it's a real pain in the ass sometimes, but i've never had a bike stolen in nyc.

It's weird. On all of my pants except my carharts, my regular U-lock fits fine. The carharts just have small back pockets..WTF ???

[QUOTE=gally99]after digging through www.americanlocks.com it seems to me that pretty much all their key locks just use a standard 5 pin...
hate to piss on people's parades here but this is the easiest lock to pick, takes seconds, and just looks like someone having to jiggle their key if you're walking by...

so, is the krypto pad lock (the one that comes with the nyc chain) harder to pick than an american lock? what's the consenus on this besides, "if a thief wants your bike your bike, they will get it". or is there no difference in pickability(?) between the two?

I lock my bike up all day in downtown San Francisco with two U-locks - I've got an OnGuard Mini and a Soma Anti-Jack (both with new rectangular keys). I also remove the seat and the front wheel (this causes the cabbies at the taxi stand my preferred bike stand is next to much amusement :) )

i use the diy method- 3ft of the thickest hardware store chain with a huge masterlock. i sleeved the chain in bmx innertube to keep it from dinging up my bike. i wear it around my waist when i ride, but i lock it now. once while riding with it unlocked, the clasp came out of the chain link and the thing fell down across my rear wheel. it was ultra sketchy, i got the bike stopped but came too close to flipping over the bars face first into traffic.
oh yeah i also never lock my bike up for more than an hour!

I have been using a 3/8"s chain from lowe's cut to 3 feet, It's heavy duty galvanized steel chain. Cost me roughly 9 bucks, plus 12 bucks for a master lock "diskus" style padlock (hey, I know it's no abus, but it does have at least 3 mushroom pins if not all 5...I picked it open in 4 minutes today on my first try). Seems pretty cheap for a HEAVY chain and decent lock.

I should point out that I hate masterlocks as much as the next guy. But for a cheap lock it offers some decent pick resistance and all the good features of the diskus design with a stainless steel body, 10mm shackle as well. 4 minutes is pretty long for me to pick open a 5 pin tumbler =P

You couldn't pay me to use a Master Lock, especially after the way I was treated by them.
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=67066

I use an Abus motorcycle chain lock(level 25). The strongest they make. I also leave my bike outside for long periods of time.

http://www.abus.de/us/main.asp?Scree...4003318248481m

I used to use an Abus U lock(level 12) and a different Abus chain (level 12) together. I think this offers more security against the determened thief.

Abus also makes a silly strong U lock(level 25). I went with the chain because of its versatility.

http://www.abus.de/us/main.asp?Scree...4003318201875m

BTW, the Abus Manhattan U lock mentioned earlier in this post is level 10.

I use folding bike and bring it with me every where I go.

No lock will stop a determined professional who is equipped with "state of the art" tools. The ART foundation of Holland certifies bike locks. The highest rating goes to a lock that can stop a well equipped Pro for five minutes, or more. A lock that can stop a well-equipped Pro for three minutes would get a good rating. The purpose of a good lock is NOT to make stealing a bike impossible. Their purpose is to make somebody's else's bike look easier to get.

So, in areas where Pro thieves operate, such as NYC, and large universities, it would simply be foolish to leave a $3,000 bike out of your sight for ten minutes, even with one of the "top" locks. Those are the kinds of places were having a $200 trashmo bike makes sense. (My $200 trashmo bike rides as nice as a $2,000 bike, so riding it involves no sacrifice on my part).

When I lock my Kryptonite "mini" U-lock around a rear tire and sturdy pole, there is very little room to use even a slim prybar, and it is impossible to use the tool Pro's typically use to break U-locks. And, if a thief could open the U-lock, next he would have to deal with the cable lock that I also use. The crook is likely to ignore my $200 bike, and take the $2,000 bike further down the rack that is locked with a five buck chain lock.