Category: Cycling

I am currently looking for bicycle locks to my new bike

What I am looking for

1. Two locks. One U-lock as primary/main lock for locking the back-wheel, frame and a solid fixed object together. The secondary is for locking front-wheel with frame.
2. I must secure my wheels to the frame and frame.
3. I’d like to secure the saddle to frame.
4. I prefer mounting the locks onto the bike while riding.
5. At least one lock must very look good and be mounted on bike while riding.

After I had read that I couldn’t believe what I saw when looking at “locked up” bikes in my neighborhood. One thing hit me thought. With a lot of loosely locked bikes thieves might target other bikes before trying to steal my properly locked bike. But hey! – Let’s make their business a little tougher and lock all of our bikes securely!

Locks of interest

Here’s possibly the best independent summary on different secure locks available.

This is a list of Sold Secure’s highest rating, “Bicycles Gold”-approved locks.

Of course you should always check any terms with your insurance company.
In my case for Swedish TryggHansa they use recommendations from http://www.stoldskyddsforeningen.se/ that in turn use certifications from this database http://www.sbsc.se/certificate/searchcertificate.aspx. And since many of the locks I am interested is nowhere to be found in there, I will have to contact them and investigate further. I believe however, in the worst case, I will be able to buy a secondary lock that is tested of the SSF/SBSC and still stick with the Kryptonite “NY Fahg.” as a primary lock. This lock isn’t really represented in the Swedish market and I guess thats why it’s left out.
Edit:
I have recieved answer from SSF. They say that since noone have applied for the mentioned Kryptonite locks to be certified, they aren’t certified. Normally it’s either the manufacturer or the importer that starts and funds the process. Naturally it seems quite expensive to do the certification. So unless someone are set on making some money of selling theese locks in Sweden, they won’t be approved by insurance companies. 🙁

Primary locks

Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Mini

As said many times. The best. I will use it for primary lock.It’s small. It’s heavy. It’s not beutiful but it has a brilliant name. It’s quite hard to come by. At least in Sweden. I will probably order it online. 

Xena Bullet XUL

I have looked closely at the Xena Bullett XUL 102, but found it was about 1cm to small to secure my front wheel to the frame (102mm < 112mm). Thats too bad, since it’s a good lock and also features an alarm! There are however disc-locks and other types of alarmed locks from Xena that still might be of interest. But that would mean I need to bring three locks with me. The next size of models in Xena Bullet XUL series is the 210, with 210mm opening. But using that as a secondary lock seems overkill for me, when I only need 112mm to lock my front wheel. At the same time they are so well designed that it might be worth the extra weight. But will this extra space open up for larger tools to be used in an attack? Does anyone care these days about alarms going off or even a thief in action?

Abus Bordo Granit X-Plus 6500

It’s MASSIVE, SOLID, LARGE and has a SMALL FOOTPRINT at the same time! This is it! That is if you can live with the bulky look. It just doesn’t look OK on my bike and I don’t carry a backpack on every ride.

Secondary locks

Kryptonite Evolution Mini 5

These are very popular amongst bike messengers and other riders that have the need for a highly portable yet quite solid U-lock. It actually fits in your back pocket. It is rated by Kryptonite them selfs as a 7 out of 15 on their security level scale. And they can be fitted with replacement skins of different colors.
Edit: I actually bought this lock and a white skin. Still looking though as this lock is not approved in Sweden.

Knog Strongman

Knog makes highly designed, awesome looking, soft rubbery touch, solid U-locks and more. However I’m not entirely sold on the looks of their bikemounts.

Xena Bullett XUL 102 (very very small)

I so wished this beauty would fit as my frontwheel-to-frame lock. But this lock is unfortunately too small for my bike. It packs a motion and tampering triggered, 110dB alarm system!! Check out all of the XUL models before settling for anything else.

Knog Bouncer (very small)

This lock is very small and could be a 3rd alternative for extra locking. I’m not sure if it is solid enough to be used as  a secondary lock. But I haven’t done any deep research on that.    

Axle / Skewer Locks

ATOMIC 22, PINHEAD, PITLOCK

A good set of locking skewers are said to be an excellent complement to your already properly secured wheels. I’ll consider them a deterrent tool for now until I get my hands on some. Although they are interesting when it comes to locking handlebars, saddle and other parts.

Reflections

This task was harder than I expected. I will continue to look for a good sollution for my explicit needs. There will be no conclusion in this post. But I will update (and I already have regarding the Evo Mini 5), when and why I decide to buy a product.

Got any suggestions? Please leave a comment!