Anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive bike lock? This is for a $500 bike so the lock has to be proportional to my bike's value. I'm not going to lie after watching lockpickinglawyer videos on youtube I expect every lock to be picked in 5 seconds or less.
The Following User Says Thank You to Komskies For This Useful Post:
Anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive bike lock? This is for a $500 bike so the lock has to be proportional to my bike's value. I'm not going to lie after watching lockpickinglawyer videos on youtube I expect every lock to be picked in 5 seconds or less.
I have a couple of Blackburn u-locks I use. They're pretty beefy, one I have is the San Quentin which is an 18mm shackle. It's pickable, but it'll be pretty hard to pick it without being noticed.
__________________
Who is in charge of this product and why haven't they been fired yet?
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to kermitology For This Useful Post:
to me the problem with your situation is that your bike is not really that expensive. if you buy a cheap lock, the bike will likely be stolen quickly and easily, but is it worth buying a lock that is a couple of hundred to proctect a bike that is worth a little more?
Cheapest option is to be able to lock it in a spot where you can see it, so you don't have to buy a really expensive lock, but that is likely not possible all of the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Komskies
Anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive bike lock? This is for a $500 bike so the lock has to be proportional to my bike's value. I'm not going to lie after watching lockpickinglawyer videos on youtube I expect every lock to be picked in 5 seconds or less.
__________________
If I do not come back avenge my death
The Following User Says Thank You to Northendzone For This Useful Post:
My partner and I bike everywhere downtown, we use one of those Abus folding locks. Mine even has a scratch in it from where someone tried to cut it and failed.
Technically I believe you can pry the pins off, and anything can be cut with an angle grinder, so they're not perfect but I find them to be a little more convenient than a u-lock and still a good deterrent.
Please don't buy a cable lock as they are worthless.
Last edited by Flames0910; 04-03-2019 at 11:30 AM.
The Following User Says Thank You to Flames0910 For This Useful Post:
Anyone have a recommendation for an inexpensive bike lock? This is for a $500 bike so the lock has to be proportional to my bike's value. I'm not going to lie after watching lockpickinglawyer videos on youtube I expect every lock to be picked in 5 seconds or less.
I think the lesson to take from the lockpicking videos is that a cheap lock is scarcely better than a zip-tie, and that if you're going to buy a lock at all you should invest in a decent one. Even if your bike is cheap, it really sucks to have it stolen and then have to spend even more buying another bike.
I'd also suggest uglifying your bike (it it isn't already ugly) with a combination of tape, paint, and reflector strips. Then just take your seat-post with you (or buy the Pinhead version that locks your seat-post too), and make sure you leave your bike locked up in an area that's visible or has a lot of people around.
I had a $230 Canadian Tire special bike a few years back that I had tricked out with a bunch of accessories, so it looked like a better bike than it was. Someone ripped through my thick cable lock in no time and made off with it. All told, the bike plus accessories wouldn't have been worth more than $400, but that's still money that would have been better spent on decent security than on another new bike.
The counter-argument to that, of course, is that it's just as easy to pick the lock on the front door of your house or apartment, and that's got much more expensive stuff in it than your bike. Why do those standards not apply there?
In reality, it's almost impossible to get a security option that's reasonably priced and convenient to carry around, and the point of a cheap lock is to provide some deterrence, as most thieves will move on to look for unlocked bikes rather than risking the time it would take to cut through or otherwise disable a cheap lock.
But everyone's priorities are different.
__________________ "The great promise of the Internet was that more information would automatically yield better decisions. The great disappointment is that more information actually yields more possibilities to confirm what you already believed anyway." - Brian Eno
In reality, it's almost impossible to get a security option that's reasonably priced and convenient to carry around, and the point of a cheap lock is to provide some deterrence, as most thieves will move on to look for unlocked bikes rather than risking the time it would take to cut through or otherwise disable a cheap lock.
Most thieves will have a pair of wirecutters or something. It only takes a second to snip a cable lock so really it's not much of a deterrent.
Most thieves will have a pair of wirecutters or something. It only takes a second to snip a cable lock so really it's not much of a deterrent.
Yes, that's the issue exactly. A cable lock is literally nothing to someone who set out to steal a bike, who will definitely have a set of snips on them. I only use a lock like that for coffee-shop stops: low crime areas where I'll only be away from my bike for 3 minutes and it'll likely be within sight most of that time anyway.
The U-locks really are the way to go. The advantage of pairing them with a wheel-locking system is you can do away with a separate cable for the wheels, and can even lock just the wheel to a bike rack if it's jammed with other bikes (since the wheel is locked to the frame).
i have this same, or very similar looking lock.
i keep it on my commuter for those days when I stop on the way home for a haircut or to do a quick errand.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Flames0910
My partner and I bike everywhere downtown, we use one of those Abus folding locks. Mine even has a scratch in it from where someone tried to cut it and failed.
Technically I believe you can pry the pins off, and anything can be cut with an angle grinder, so they're not perfect but I find them to be a little more convenient than a u-lock and still a good deterrent.
Please don't buy a cable lock as they are worthless.
__________________
If I do not come back avenge my death
Is bike theft that big an issue that you have a very good chance of losing your bike if it is not locked with a mega lock or kept in a vault or within your sight at all times? Honest question. It almost sounds like it's an epidemic and you're assured to lose your bike. I don't ride so I have zero exposure to this.
The uglify your bike comment has some merit. One of my buddies in university drove a piece of crap 10 speed. He rode if two years and never locked it. It was never stolen and at the end of our degree he actually tried leaving it in vulnerable places to encourage theft as he didn't want to take it with him when he left. In the end he just left it on campus, abandoned.
Lots of bike theft in Calgary. I make a point of riding my old cruiser around the inner-city if I am locking it up somewhere. Old six speed with rusty fenders and paint peeling off. Still lock it up with my kryptonite lock.
Is bike theft that big an issue that you have a very good chance of losing your bike if it is not locked with a mega lock or kept in a vault or within your sight at all times? Honest question. It almost sounds like it's an epidemic and you're assured to lose your bike. I don't ride so I have zero exposure to this.
The uglify your bike comment has some merit. One of my buddies in university drove a piece of crap 10 speed. He rode if two years and never locked it. It was never stolen and at the end of our degree he actually tried leaving it in vulnerable places to encourage theft as he didn't want to take it with him when he left. In the end he just left it on campus, abandoned.
I won't leave any of my bikes out of sight anywhere. We moved to a new building a year ago, they told me to use the bike rack outside. I told them I needed inside parking or I was going to park it right beside my desk. They found me a spot in the warehouse.
Anything parked outside downtown that's any good will disappear quickly if it has a crappy lock.
Is bike theft that big an issue that you have a very good chance of losing your bike if it is not locked with a mega lock or kept in a vault or within your sight at all times? Honest question. It almost sounds like it's an epidemic and you're assured to lose your bike. I don't ride so I have zero exposure to this.
Depends. In my experience you don't need a "mega lock", but you do need to spend about ~100-150. And that's with a pretty nice road bike. Not the nicest out there, but one that's worth just north of of a grand.
Like I said earlier in the thread, I bike just about everywhere downtown and leave my bike locked outside on Stephen ave, bars, the Saddledome, coffee shops, you name it. I do bring it into the office for work and store it in the underground parkade of my building at home.
I've had three bikes stolen in the last 5 years — the first with a cheap cable lock on Stephen Ave (my fault), and two from my building's parkade when the bike wasn't locked up (so half my fault but there were some extenuating circumstances that allowed the thieves to get into the building).
None in the last year, so I think I'm getting smarter about it. I still leave my bike locked up outside, and it might get stolen eventually (which will suck). But the risk can be mitigated, and it still beats driving. Realistically, I don't think the fear of having your bike stolen should stop anyone who wants to ride downtown from doing so. That's just letting the bad guys win
Last edited by Flames0910; 04-03-2019 at 03:06 PM.
I'm currently building out a gravel bike frameset that I bought last fall (https://road.cc/content/review/24800...t-cycles-secan), and I'm looking for some 700cc wheel recommendations in the $500-800 range. I kind of blew my budget on the frameset so can't get too crazy pricey with wheels (but then again, I'll probably have this bike for 10+ years, so I may be able to be convinced to go higher if it truly makes a difference).
I'll be mostly using it for general city riding/commuting on pathways/roads, but want it to be able to handle the occasional trail as well. I'm thinking I'll probably have around 32-35 width tires on it.
Any thoughts/recommendations? The fully built bike is optioned with with Mavic Allroad or Hope 20Five RSR wheels.
I'm currently building out a gravel bike frameset that I bought last fall (https://road.cc/content/review/24800...t-cycles-secan), and I'm looking for some 700cc wheel recommendations in the $500-800 range. I kind of blew my budget on the frameset so can't get too crazy pricey with wheels (but then again, I'll probably have this bike for 10+ years, so I may be able to be convinced to go higher if it truly makes a difference).
I'll be mostly using it for general city riding/commuting on pathways/roads, but want it to be able to handle the occasional trail as well. I'm thinking I'll probably have around 32-35 width tires on it.
Any thoughts/recommendations? The fully built bike is optioned with with Mavic Allroad or Hope 20Five RSR wheels.
If you can swing the couple hundred extra dollars, a set of DT Swiss wheels with a star-ratchet hub is what I'd recommend. Something like the CR 1600 is usually available right around $1000 for a set. Bomb-proof hubs that are super easy to rebuild and rims are fairly durable. Also if you're commuting in the winter star-ratchet hubs won't freeze up which is a nice bonus. But even the CR 1800 is an okay wheelset at around $550ish if you wanna stay in that budget (just a pawled hub vs ratchet).
Source: I'm a bicycle mechanic. Also if anyone has any odd questions ask 'em and I'll try and answer if I can (keeping in mind diagnosing an issue is pretty hard to do sight unseen)
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Pooty For This Useful Post:
OK, question for ya...I've got mechanical disc brakes on my commuter and they kinda suck. But I'm a little concerned going hydraulic in -30. Any issues with brakes not working on extreme cold days?
I know that everything stops working at -30, I just want to know that brakes are one thing that will continue to work! A cable, I mostly trust. Have you had it out on really cold days, or just -15ish?
I've used my fatbike in -20. Brakes (Avid Guides) were fine. I have never used them in -30. In cold weather go with Avid or Sram. Dot fluid is supposedly better in the cold than mineral oil (Shimano). Mechanical is most reliable in the cold.
Does anybody need any internal routing tubes? I have a ton of them and am going to just toss them. They come in handy if you are changing out your cabling on your bike.
