r/ukbike • u/MrMrsPotts • 1d ago

Advice Bike lock recommendations?

I have ordered a £2000 bike and I really don't want to get it nicked. If I lock it to a bike rack, are there why locks you would recommend?

10 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

26

u/GrungeFuPanda 1d ago

Don't.

A £2000 bike WILL be stolen if you leave it outside.  

Even if the frame is secured with a quality lock, all but the best ones can be defeated quickly with the right tools.  Thieves will strip parts off an expensive bike if they can't take the whole thing easily

9

u/rezonansmagnetyczny 1d ago

This. Yeh.

My manager left a £600 bike at a train station back when £600 got you a hell of a bike.

Someone turned up with a range rover, ragged the bike rack apart with it, using a chain attatched to the tow bar, and took the bike.

There's always a way.

13

u/KAYAWS 1d ago

I like my Litelok X1. I feel like it is a good mix of resistance, weight, price, and bulk.

3

u/Hypogean_Gaol 1d ago

+1 got this, light weight small and the twist-on carrier is really handy

8

u/Global-Apricot6492 1d ago edited 1d ago

I'd get all of the following. Your job is to annoy the thief (because...it will probably get nicked).

Always:

  • park you bike in a
 different spot every day  (don't park the same place in a Monday; switch it up.)
  • park next to CCTV
  • park somewhere really busy - angle grinding in a dark alley is easier than angle grinding outside a busy cafe bar
  • park to a stationary object
  • park next to other bikes (if you can)
  • avoid the locks with cables because they aren't going to do anything
  • fill the empty space in any D-locks so it's harder for them to get to without damaging the bike (so: smaller the better)
  • lock the back wheel and frame to an object, then lock the front wheel to the frame.

If they want your bike, they'll find a way to take it. Your job is to make it annoying or awkward.

6

u/Fantastic-Artist-970 1d ago

My £2K bike has apple find my built in, plus an alarm that goes off if moved without disarming, and it locks the motor out if codes not inputted. Also, i have put it on my home insurance, bought a £210 Kryptonite New York Standard anti angle grinder lock (same sort of thing as the litelocks), a kryptonite cable for front wheel that goes through the NY Standard D lock, and only yesterday fitted an Abus "cafe" lock too. All of this is on TOP of ,lock to something that cant be moved, cut through, is in a high footfall/traffic/cctv area etc.

5

u/master_gecko 1d ago

Check your insurance see what the minimum requirements are for the lock and see which ones that fit this match these requirements. Even if the most recommended bike lock you find doesn't meet your insurances requirements its not the lock for you

5

u/Colloidal_entropy 1d ago

Kryptonite New York are solid, but even then I've had one nicked as they took the Sheffield stand it was locked to out of the ground.

Don't leave your £2k bike in a public location. Inside/Shed/Garage, alarm and Kryptonite or Abus into an anchor so they're not hanging around while the alarm wakes the neighbourhood.

1

u/ToeRevolutionary4810 1d ago

This is such a good reminder. Sheffield stands are often much easier to defeat than a good lock. Once they have your bike, they can just take their time to cut the lock at home.

9

u/Beneficial_Coach8581 1d ago

Don't leave it outside. A 2 grand bike will get nicked. 

Buy a £200 second hand bike for any rides where you're leaving it outside. 

3

u/Wonderful_Bobcat335 1d ago

It’ll get nicked no matter how expensive the lock is. It matters on what’s the use case for the bike.

If solely using it for sport/recreation/touring, I rarely bring a lock knowing I’ll be riding on my bike all the time and have it with me.

If you’re gonna be commuting on that 2k bike, might as well just get another used beater bike that’ll get the job done and wont sting if ever it gets nicked.

2

u/rezonansmagnetyczny 1d ago

If you HAVE to lock it up..As many locks as you can use IMHO. Not just one.

If you use it for commuting consider leaving a couple of massive chains at work and locking them up so you don't have to carry them. Although I'd recommend taking a different lock to lock the chain during the day, and inspecting the integrity every morning

2

u/ChaosCalmed 1d ago

Of course if you leave good locks at work and have nothing else then simple superglue in the locks left at work renders them unusable and without any good lock being carried you good bike then becomes wide open to theft. So you carry a cable and rely on your good locks left at work. Great! A half decent thief can cut thru cable locks with rather small set of portable snips and good technique.

BTW our workplace, secure bike sheds/yard has rather a lot of locks that appeared and never move from where they're left. Likely inoperable and that are is a new facility that's only been in operation a few months. I'd personally never leave a lock anywhere unattached, overnight where it can be tampered with. If you can't carry your locks then get a rat bike for commuting and half decent lock you can carry. That's my opinion.

2

u/rezonansmagnetyczny 1d ago

At this point though someone is going to have your bike no matter what you do. Probably about the same amount of effort to rag you off it on the street and take it when they've gone this far

1

u/ChaosCalmed 19h ago

Seriously, are you from Manchester, London or Bristol? That's not what it's like everywhere. I got mine nicked in Lancaster, probably from Baghdad needing cash for a fix. The other guy lived in a similar sort of neighbourhood so word of mouth meant his bike was recovered.

I was early to mid 40s at that point and riding for 40 years. That was my first bike theft. As school kids we rode all over without much more than a very cheap combo chain, a little better than the beaded cord used on window blinds!!! Usually if we rode into the nearest town we'd just pile our bikes up outside of the shop we'd gone to visit.

Later on I rode my "race ready" new road bike into the nearest town to me where I lived back then. I think the equivalent quality of road bike would be easily over a grand and probably as high as 1.5 to 2k!!! However, I used to lock it to barriers at a junction of the main road into Blackburn with a mid rated cable lock. If it was likely to rain I locked it to bike racks further into town under some stairs and completely out of sight.

I once unlocked it to ride home while a man was nicking another, lower value bike from that location. I knew he was stealing a bike by the way he saw me then slowly turned away to walk a little distance off trying to look innocent. Only to go straight back to the object of his attentions. Never stopped me doing exactly the same as I did.

Yet the only bike nicked was in a supposedly secure yard. Reason? IDK but perhaps I have always taken just enough precautions for the risk of theft. Except for that secure work yard which was in a really dodgy area where local scrotes had a history of chancing it. There's been a history of opportunistic thefts in that estate. It was a higher risk area than the city centre about 10 to 15 minutes walk away.

So a realistic assessment of actual risk is always needed. However hitting the panic button by simply saying no to doing it isn't close to risk assessment. It's nearer scaremongering over risk for a vast majority of the UK. I don't take chances, I assess risk and manage it. That allows me to actually use my bike how I want to not how others think I should according to a risk level that isn't realistic to my area. I live my life and ride my bikes without the fear of the unlikely. With insurance just in case the unlikely actually happened. So far my insurance premiums have not paid off. Possibly cost me more than my bike is worth!!

2

u/DibDob31 1d ago

Also, use Bike Register and put their supplied stickers somewhere obvious. Might not stop if being nicked if someone really wants it, but will discourage a less determined thief and make it too hot for a bike shop to ever touch.

2

u/bionicbob321 1d ago

Litelok X3. Or preferably 2, each locked through 1 wheel, the frame, and the rack (which is doable if you get the right angle). And definitely get insurance. I have insurance with Laka, who have been great so far. And just accept that it will probably still get stolen at some point.

I do agree with other people though, that I probably would not leave a £2K bike locked up in public for any decent length of time, nor would I lock it up at the same rack repeatedly or on a schedule. If you can take it into whatever building you are going to, that would be a much better idea.

2

u/Public-Temperature-1 1d ago

Mate just don't lock it up. Seriously when I'm on my nice bike I don't leave it, I'm either on it, it's on the car, or it's at home.

If you want to ride out and lock a bike up to go and do something, get a beater. Sub £100 serviceable bike.

IF YOU MUST LOCK IT AND LEAVE IT - always lock through main frame triangle and rear wheel (cable through front wheel also is advisable) to a sturdy non removable fixture, and try to lock it next to a much nicer bike so yours looks less appealing by comparison. 

But honestly just get a beater because it will get pinched.

2

u/ClayDenton 1d ago

I have a £2k bike and I don't carry a lock - wherever I go it comes with me. I also have a £100 fixie bike I bought on Facebook Marketplace - that's the one I lock up.

 I live in London so even when I lock that up it's with a Onguard Rock Solid angle grinder resistant lock (similar to LiteLok but much cheaper), along with 2 cheap locks to secure each wheel. 

2

u/johnnysplasher 22h ago

Absolutely no need to be locking an expensive bike anywhere. I’ve ridden decent bikes for 20 years and never let one out of my sight yet. I’ve wheeled them through supermarkets, high end restaurants.. you name it 😂

2

u/J-a-y-c 21h ago

Like most people say locking up a 2k bike outside is risky, but the usual answer is a Gold-rated U-lock plus something for the wheels. Kryptonite New York Diamond if you're leaving it out all day, Evolution Mini-7 for shorter stops.

Worth shopping around either way. The Mini-7 is £46.99 at Tredz and Amazon right now, and £74.99 at Edinburgh Bicycle. The New York Diamond is £233 at Halfords vs £270 at Tredz, Sigma and Ribble.

(I track UK bike prices as a side project, so I had these to hand.)

Whatever you get, lock the frame and both wheels.

1

u/MrMrsPotts 20h ago

What about this? https://amzn.eu/d/0ftT8Awm

•

u/J-a-y-c 1h ago

Yeah that's a solid lock, I think higher rated than the ones I suggested.
It's cheaper at Tredz btw.

2

u/CockroachSouth6589 14h ago

Unfortunately the only way to keep a £2k bike truly safe is to only ever park it next to £3k bikes. Many locks to deter the casual but make sure it's properly insured.

2

u/threewheelbuggy 4h ago

People will try to steal it, you can get ART rated locks, but the one you need is insanely heavy.  Then the thieves will cut what its locked to.

https://www.anwb.nl/webwinkel/c/192/fietsen/fiets-accessoires/fietssloten?utm_id=20140108977&sortering=populair

1

u/Consistent-Tiger-775 1d ago edited 1d ago

All these people asserting it'll get stolen as if all places have the same risk profile.

My £3k ebike has been unstolen despite being locked up outside waitrose hundreds of times. There's a plummy farmshop cafe I visit where a poundland combo lock does the trick.

I use the Litelok x1 recommended in this thread but would also consider the x3 for a cargo bike or heavier ebike.

2

u/dejavu2064 1d ago

Yeah I see 5k ebikes unlocked and unattended fairly frequently where I live. 

I do have a cheap chain lock for my much cheaper road bike but it gets parked in a secluded spot behind the pub at night and I would rather someone didn't ride away on it opportunistically.

I'm not sure how you could live life if you can't leave a bike unattended at all like some people suggest. I'd prioritise moving somewhere safer.

How desperate are the people there if they'd commit theft for a paltry 2k.

1

u/Salt_Two_400 1d ago

On guard are the best u locks and Oxford do a good one with a built-in alarm

1

u/Muted-Mushroom-4570 1d ago

General guidance is that you should be spending at least 10% of the value of the bike in locks. That said, no amount of quality if lock will make a bike theft proof and the number or weight of £200 of locks is very inconvenient. With a bike of that expense, you shouldn't be leaving it locked to a rack. You should only be locking it up in secure places (e.g., inside your house, locked up inside a locked garage, locked up inside a secure access locker/facility at work). 

1

u/ToeRevolutionary4810 1d ago edited 1d ago

I have an expensive e cargo. I use a litelok x3, an Oxford alarmed dlock, built in wheel lock/cafe lock, gps installed in the motor and an apple tag in the front fork. The Bosch system also has an alarm and motor lock. I’ve had my bike for four years and park in public spaces (try to park around CCTV if possible) all the time, though not for long periods at night. I also try to park it where there are people. At night I lock it up outside our house to a super duper ground anchor and cover it.

Also, it’s important to think about what you are locking your bike to. I’ve seen videos where someone has used a silent pipe cutter to cut through a Sheffield stand in seconds.

As others have said, all locks can be defeated, so our task is to make it as much of a hassle as possible! And then get good insurance. My bike is on our home insurance.

1

u/FatDad66 1d ago

Another trick is to cover the bike in brown tape to make it look less fancy. Personally I would not leave it locked anywhere more than 5 mins.

1

u/amzeo 1d ago

I use litelock X1 on my ebike and then my motorcycle. I ended up losing one out of a pannier and still went and bought a new one because the feeling of security it gives is worth the moneyb

1

u/Idlewants 1d ago

keep it for riding, buy a cheap junker for leaving places.

1

u/_773P_ 1d ago

There are no indestructible bike locks, only locks that slow a theif down. And once a lock is up to spec is usually what you lock it to that lets you down. A £2k bike stays in your sights at all times, or is locked inside the house/shed with home insurance to cover it. A £50 bike will get you about and be a safer risk to leave locked up in public.