shishi

I just pulled an old Panasonic out of the grabage this week. Just got done stripping it down and almost ready to make it a fixie.

One problem. The bike has a chain and viro lock still on it. THe chain is good so I want to keep that. Any suggestions on how to break the lock.

Hack saw did no damage.

Thanks.

pitboss

You could cut/break the closest links to the lock, or tale two prybars and try and wedge them in the lock and pop the hasp. That's how we opened locked MilVans when our supply NCO lost the keys in Panama (what a moron).
Just a guess as I have never seen a Viro lock.

shrimpx

you "found" it in "the garbage," eh?

pitboss

I hope no one ever find my bike in the garbage

shishi

YES. In "the garbage". I don't need to steal bikes. Unfortunately people who don't want to deal with ****ty old bike just toss them.

But you can believe what you want.

shrimpx

i was just kidding.
i know quite a few people who have pulled good rides/frames from the trash.

good luck fixing it up.

Kev

What does a viro lock look like? A simple solution would be go down to your local hardware store see if they have a pair of bolt cutters you can rent/borrow, or possibly use a haxsaw.

shishi

The lock is square. It has two pins that hold the chain in on both sides. Key lock in the center of one side. I am going to try and break the pins when I get a chance. The damn chain won't break. took a saw to it and did no damage.

Kev

Sounds like easiest method is just to remove the chain, push pins out right next to it good chance the chain will still be long enough afterwards, especialy if making it into a fix you would have to shorten the chain anyways

SD Fixed

Easy Silver..

Anywho, if you have an electric drill, and a bottle of "canned air" that you use to clean a computer with.. You can get it off.

By the "cheap" cutting disk and attachement at home depot/lowes/ets that you can put on your drill. Set your drill to HIGH speed (as high as it goes). Turn air can upside down, spray on lock, and begin to cut. Wear saftey googles.

This works on hardned steel locks like master locks: and not the housing, but the actualy cylendar.

shishi

Thanks. I will give it a go this weekend.

exchef

Yeah, it should work, though it can be tough. My landlord cleaned out the basement a while back and there were several abandoned bikes. I put up a sign asking if they belonged to anyone, waited a week and change and went to work. Everything by the Kryptonites was easy. Those I tried a tire jack, a drill, the works on. In the end it took mucho elbow grease, lots of hard sweat, and a hacksaw w/a carbide blade (rod saw). I feel good about saving the stuff from a landfill, but it ain't an experience I'll be repeating anytime soon.

Magic

shishi

Thanks EXCHEF and everyone else. I just got a Carbide blade for the hacksaw. Will cut that damn chain off soon.

shishi

I know this is late, but I wanted to thank everyone for the advice.
A carbide blade on a hack saw did the trick.

I wanted to warn everyone else that sawing throught the chain was easier than I thought it would be. So if you leave your bike outside for a long time, especially overnight, take extra precautions.

Matt

shrimpx

if you leave your bike out overnight, say goodbye to it.
people do that all the time around here and in the morning i see front wheels nicely locked by themselves (rest of the bike gone), or nice stripped frames.

locks are good for daytime protection for short periods of time. and even then bikes get stripped/stolen.

exchef

Probably true, if a bit overstated. If you've gotta leave it out at night lock everything down good and tight, like at least w/an Evolution 2000 or New York or a Quadrachain, and lock it under a light. Still, bikes definitely get ripped off of lightposts. There's been a wave of wheel thefts around here lately.

Yeah, I don't really understand. I mean, Chicago is sposta be real bad, and college areas especially, but there are once OK bikes all around campus rotting in the weather, like just the other day I saw three w/chains rusted through. Plus I'm pretty sure I've only seen two cut through Kryptonites on the street. But stuff does get grabbed, pretty much irrespective of quality. Back in grad school somebody tore out a fence post to steal my $10 beater.
Says something about the mind of a drug adict, I guess.

Bill

Da Tinker

Another easy lock solution: liquid nitrogen. Should be available locally, just take a cheap insulated jug along to carry it in. Break out your eye protection, pour liquid nitrogen over lock to freeze it, and render the metal brittle, whack with hammer, watch lock shatter.

exchef

That'll work in theory, but it ain't real practical. You can't just carry liquid nitro in a thermos after all. The -70 fridge in my wife's lab broke a while back and the whole gang was running around like crazy to scrounge up dry ice before the DNA went bad.

I mean, think about freshman physics (and right now I can't get out of my head this goofy deal that everyone who had freshman physics at Chicago for thirty years must've hear) where you piss off the LA pouring the stuff over your partner's head or making pens shatter or whatever. It boils in like five or ten seconds. To actually get case hardened steel brittle enough to shatter you'd hafta imerse the spot in question longer than that. Seems kinda unlikely, plus nobody can point to an actual case of this happening, which is a sure sign of an urban legend.

Not like it matters,

Bill

rsilvers

Was it a Viro brand chain or some ordinary chain?

TejanoTrackie 

14 year old zombie thread and last post by OP over 9 years ago.