Question About U Locks and Bike Theft

I will occasionally read through the Stolen Bike reports to see what are the latest trends. As  was shown by a statistical report  posted on this site last  year,  the majority of thefts are with bikes locked by cable  or without a lock at all.

But I do se a disturbing number of bikes stolen that had been secured with a flat key type U Lock.  I went  through about 10 pages of the report yesterday and with one exception in all those cases of stolen bikes with ulocks  the  owner found the lock missing as well.

My operative assumption is that if somebody just cuts a lock they sure as well don't want to be caught/seen with a broken lock. And of course such lock has no value. This would explain my observation that   the reports of cut cable locks normally include mention of the cut cable left at the scene.

So this brings up a number of questions:

1) If these locks aren't being cut is there some easy way to pick them?  I assumed these locks for the last five years have required a cut to be removed.

2)  Even if the locks are compromised, why would a thief take the lock with him? Is there some way to get  replacement keys so the lock can be use?  I know with kryptonite you need  the original key number to get a replacement.

Just trying to understand what seems like strange behavior to me (writing as a non thief).

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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on June 3, 2014 at 11:41am

No I don't know.  Just as an observation I would say 65% of the u locks I see are Kryptonite.  As far as I can tell I am the only person on earth to have bought a Bell U lock and it cost me a bike as it froze during Winter 2012, I had to use a chain lock the next day (to avoid a frozen lock), and as a a result  my bike got stolen the one day all year (ten below zero no less) I didn't use a U Lock.  

But I digress.

Here's an idea. What if there was a locking mechanism on the bike that rendered the bike useless if stolen?  So for example whatever you call that component that the pedal arms attach to..what if that had a key lock and in locked  position the pedals couldn't turn? That would effectively render the bike useless...kind of like the cell phone locks they are working on.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on June 3, 2014 at 1:50pm

That's a brilliant idea outside of the fact you can carry a bike off rather easily.

So brilliant in fact it has been done, several times over, in the past.

jolondon30 said:

No I don't know.  Just as an observation I would say 65% of the u locks I see are Kryptonite.  As far as I can tell I am the only person on earth to have bought a Bell U lock and it cost me a bike as it froze during Winter 2012, I had to use a chain lock the next day (to avoid a frozen lock), and as a a result  my bike got stolen the one day all year (ten below zero no less) I didn't use a U Lock.  

But I digress.

Here's an idea. What if there was a locking mechanism on the bike that rendered the bike useless if stolen?  So for example whatever you call that component that the pedal arms attach to..what if that had a key lock and in locked  position the pedals couldn't turn? That would effectively render the bike useless...kind of like the cell phone locks they are working on.

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on June 3, 2014 at 3:06pm

If it was understood that the lock rendered the bike useless, why would anybody steal it?  Your comment does not compute.
notoriousDUG said:

That's a brilliant idea outside of the fact you can carry a bike off rather easily.

So brilliant in fact it has been done, several times over, in the past.

jolondon30 said:

No I don't know.  Just as an observation I would say 65% of the u locks I see are Kryptonite.  As far as I can tell I am the only person on earth to have bought a Bell U lock and it cost me a bike as it froze during Winter 2012, I had to use a chain lock the next day (to avoid a frozen lock), and as a a result  my bike got stolen the one day all year (ten below zero no less) I didn't use a U Lock.  

But I digress.

Here's an idea. What if there was a locking mechanism on the bike that rendered the bike useless if stolen?  So for example whatever you call that component that the pedal arms attach to..what if that had a key lock and in locked  position the pedals couldn't turn? That would effectively render the bike useless...kind of like the cell phone locks they are working on.

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on June 3, 2014 at 3:10pm

I am not thinking from some Batman like device.

It is a lock that would go into that "area" that the crankset attaches to.  As long as the mechanism was locked (by key) there would be no way for the pedals to turn.  It would have to be built in by the frame manufacturer I guess.

Spontaneous combustion, as experienced by  the drummer in Spinal Tap, is also so a good idea but raises all kinds of legal implications.


Jeff Schneider said:

The "locking mechanism that renders a bike useless" is pretty common in Europe.  It's the frame-mounted rear wheel lock (also sometimes called the latte lock here, I think).  If you have a heavy bike that will be within your sight (e.g., parked outside the coffee shop window while you are sipping your latte), this kind of lock  is adequate.  It can prevent someone from simply jumping on the bike and riding off.  But clearly it wouldn't stop someone from loading the bike in a truck and driving off.

I think if an inventor somehow thought up a way for a bicycle to self-destruct when stolen (is that what you are imagining?), there might be legal implications (just like there are if you set a booby trap on your property to injure burglars).

jolondon30 said: 

No I don't know.  Just as an observation I would say 65% of the u locks I see are Kryptonite.  As far as I can tell I am the only person on earth to have bought a Bell U lock and it cost me a bike as it froze during Winter 2012, I had to use a chain lock the next day (to avoid a frozen lock), and as a a result  my bike got stolen the one day all year (ten below zero no less) I didn't use a U Lock.  

But I digress.

Here's an idea. What if there was a locking mechanism on the bike that rendered the bike useless if stolen?  So for example whatever you call that component that the pedal arms attach to..what if that had a key lock and in locked  position the pedals couldn't turn? That would effectively render the bike useless...kind of like the cell phone locks they are working on.

Permalink Reply by S on June 3, 2014 at 5:31pm



Jeff Schneider said:

What we need is a lock that goes to 11...

This lock looks interesting.  It's a regular chain lock with kevlar fibers woven around the chain.  From the video, it looks like the kevlar fibers get drawn into cutting or grinding wheels and end up binding the wheel.  If this actually pans out, it looks like an innovative way of defeating angle grinders.  Sure, you could get around the lock by picking out the kevlar fibers but doing that would turn a 30 second task into something that takes a bunch of minutes to do, even more if you tried cutting the cable first and got the fibers into the angle grinder.

Permalink Reply by Josh L. on June 4, 2014 at 2:05pm


Looks to me like the Masterlock is a rebranded Bell. Very similar design. If true, I found it freezes up in cold weather.
James Bellefeuille said:

So my brand new bike was stolen recently. I bought a Masterlock U-Lock with Flat key. The whole lock was missing. Lost at Halsted and 15th pl in UIC/Pilsen area.

jolondon30 said:

It would be interesting to see the results of a question regarding brand of lock that was removed (cut,l picked, etc.). Any reason you can;t do that?  The data  might highlight a vulnerability.

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