Speaker: Bikes are brilliant, they're a fun, clean, and efficient way to travel around urban
areas and commute as well. As an added bonus, they make you fitter. As many of you will know,
they can be a very attractive target to thieves or, as I like to call them [beep].
To try and stop your pride and joy becoming a victim of thieves, we've teamed up with
Kryptonite. In this video, we're going to go through the dos and don'ts of bike security.
Whether you're commuting to work or just popping to the shop or visiting friends,
we're going to go through how and where best to lock up your bike.
How best to use locks to secure your bike, and also the different types of
locks so that you can determine what's best for your needs. [background noise]
Bike locks come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. The different types have relative
advantages and disadvantages. Also, bigger isn't always necessarily better. Now, before we go into
the specifics of how and where to lock up your bike, I'm going to go through the different types
of locks that are available. Bike locks are often graded in terms of their unbreakability. That's
a word I just made up, but you get the point. For example, Kryptonite grades its locks between
1 and 10, 1 being the least secure kind of secure lock they make and 10 being the best of the best.
The absolute gold standard in bike lock security. Now, all the locks we have here
start at 5 but you can see on the packaging, the security rating is labeled on there. Something
that's less than 5 would typically be used as just as a slight countermeasure if you were stopping at
a cafe in a rural location, or perhaps just to secure your bike if you were travelling on say
a train or something like that. [music]
The first type of lock to be aware of is the D-lock. They range from something like this,
a basic D-lock designed for use in a rural area, to this, an absolute beast of a D-lock,
designed to stop the most notorious thieves in a major metropolitan area. Think of Gotham City,
after Bane has taken over and you've got the right idea. Also, we've got a few in-between
as well. Anyway, D-locks are regarded as the strongest and most secure bike locks you can use.
They vary in strength and well, durability and solidness of weight, and a few other features
as well. This is reflected in the price. Something like this is more expensive than
something that's lighter and less durable, this. D-locks also vary in size. You get small ones like
this and bigger ones like this. They're designed to either lock your bike to an immovable object
or to lock, say, your frame to another part of the bike such as wheels or panniers. A
common tactic and it's a good tactic is to use a D-lock in combination with another lock such as
a cable lock to secure other parts of the bike such as wheels and, well, whatever you've got
on your bike. [music]
Speaking of which, cable locks are another popular type of bike lock. They are generally lighter than
a D-lock, meaning they can be a bit more appealing for travelling around and lugging in a backpack,
but they're less secure. Now, they come with different locking mechanisms. You get them
with combination locks on them or key locks or ones with loops on like this, that is designed
to be used with another lock, usually a D-lock. Cable locks can stop an opportunist thief but
they're much less secure than a D-lock, and bolt cutters will make quick work of a cable lock.
They usually are steel cable such as this, with a plastic coating on the outside to help prevent
corrosion. [music]
Next, we have chain locks. Guess what they're made from? Well, again, they have different
locking mechanisms. This one has a combination lock on it, but there's also ones with keys
as well. They come in a range of different shapes, sizes, and strengths. They're generally
more secure than a cable lock but less strong than a D-lock. They do, however, have the added
advantage over a D-lock, that they can be a bit more maneuverable because it's a chain wrapping
round and securing different parts of your bike, whereas because the D-lock is static and rigid,
that can sometimes be a bit more difficult. [music]
Another type of lock we have which is less common than the others we've shown you is a folding lock.
We've got one here. Now, folding locks can be pretty useful because they can take up less space
in your bag when you're transporting them than a D-lock because they fold down. Again,
this can be really useful depending on where you're locking your bike up and what kind of bike
you're locking up. They're regarded as being more secure than a cable, but once again, less secure
than the trusty D-lock. This is because while they can resist bolt cutters very well,
a tungsten tipped saw or angle grinder can make short work of them.
At the higher end of locks, you'll see features like thicker, hardened steel shackles,
double deadlocks and higher pick-resistant lock barrels, as well as smaller openings in the locks
themselves. All these things make it harder for someone to break the lock using brute force or to
lever it open. At the lower, end these features are pared-down slightly. That's not to say the
locks don't work, but they are less resistant to a skilled thief or higher brute force, using
narrower gauge steel and smaller lock barrels. [music]
The lock or locks you use depends on a number of factors. The type of bike that you have,
where it is that you're going to be locking it up, the time of day or night, and also how long you're
planning to leave it for. All these factors contribute to the amount of risk associated
with how likely your bike is to be stolen. Location is really important. Certain areas can be
bike theft hotspots such as train stations. We'd also recommend that you'd avoid, if possible,
putting your bike in a quiet side street such as this. In a quieter area with less people around,
it can often give the thief, potentially more time to work on the bike.
Consider other things too such as; is there CCTV where you're locking up your bike? This can often
act as a deterrent to thieves. Areas where there's lots of footfall and people either sat
at cafes or walking around that are busier, can also be a deterrent. Think about unconventional
locations to lock your bike. These railings are a good example. I'm going to lock my bike then,
not on this side but on the other side overhanging onto where there's a road. This kind of location
is going to make the bike much more difficult to work on for a thief and makes it a much less
appealing target. There's also, in this location, a security guard that's placed over there.
He's there most of the day. There's a chance that if a thief were working on the bike,
he might notice it as well. All things like these make your bike a less attractive target.
This is going to be quite an unattractive location for someone to try and work on this bike. Also,
a subtle detail, I've put the actual lock where the key goes on the this side and not on this
side. A subtle detail, but it makes it that little bit more difficult to work on a lock if you were
going to try and pick it. Always lock your bike to an object that can't be cut. It sounds obvious,
but a wooden post might look nice and secure, but a saw will make short work of it.
Around here, we've got a number of options, you've got a drain pipe. Some people sometimes
lock their bikes to drain pipes, but again, they can be cut quite easily. If they're plastic,
you can just simply rip them away from the wall if you really want to. We've got a lamppost here.
Lamppost can actually be really solid and a decent thing to lock your bike to, but it can be at risk
from being damaged by people just walking past it and knocking into it. There's also some classic
Georgian railings over here, which are made from cast iron. These are okay, but again, an angle
grinder or a saw will make short work of these. This is much easier to cut through than the
hardened steel that you'll get on a good quality D-lock. I'm now going to show you how best to lock
your bike up and the technique that I would use. There's a few tips that will make it more secure.
Firstly, this is a good area. It's a nice street. There's not many signs of criminal activity, also
lots of footfall. It's well-lit and lots of people around. We've got dedicated bike railings here
which are really nice and secure. No one's going to able to just lift the bike of this like it was
a bollard or a tree stump that they could cut or something like that.
I'm going to lock the bike in order of its value of the respective parts, the frame being the most
valuable part followed by the rear wheel, and then the front wheel. You want to secure in this order
if possible. Now, I'm going to use a D-lock to secure both the frame and the rear wheel,
with the D-lock placed through the rear wheel and the frame. I'm also going to use a cable lock as a
secondary measure to help secure the front wheel as well. Simply passing that through the D-lock
shackle, through the frame, and then through the front wheel,
and then back into the D-lock like so. Next, I'm going to put the end of the D-lock back on.
Ideally, if you can, you position the locking mechanism of the D-lock pointing down because
that will make it harder to work on. Also, this is where I talk about big's not always better. If
you have a massive D-lock that was then going to be quite loose on where you're locking your bike,
that can allow space for people or thieves to get tools in so that they can prise the D-lock open.
You want minimal space between where you're locking your bike and the bike itself. That's
why smaller, more compact D-locks, such as this one, can come in handy in those situations.
It sounds obvious, and to many of you it will be obvious, but I have seen
people lock their bikes in this way. They attach it to what appears to be a
really solid object that's just immovable, it's not going anywhere, but they lock it in a way
that makes the bike not secure at all. Classic example is something like this bollard that's
sticking up. You can just locking it like this; you're just going to lift it straight off. All
right, I'm away with the bike now. See you later. [chuckles] In addition to using a cable
or perhaps instead of using a cable, you could use another type of lock to secure the front
wheel to the frame. This could be a D-lock, or a chain lock, or whatever you like, but
again, don't put it through this way with the lock facing upwards. That makes it easier to work on.
Instead, put it downwards, like that. [music]
Generally speaking, the more locks the better and it makes your bike less appealing to thieves. If
you're going to be locking your bike up in the same place every day such as at a work location,
then you can actually leave locks like this. Just simply lock to the bike racking down the bottom,
that way you don't have to lug them when you commute every time because locks like this
are very secure, but they are quite heavy. They do have special covers on them that
you can slide across to stop water ingress and damage to the lock from weather as well,
which makes them ideal for this purpose. You may notice that some locks come with
a second rating in addition to the manufacturer's own strength rating, and this is Sold Secure. Sold
Secure is a third-party testing and certification body that rates locks based on its own standards.
Because of this, it's often the only rating that's recognized by insurers. In summary, it's all about
weighing up, how you want to lock your bike, what locks you're prepared to carry with you,
how secure you want it to be, and where you're going to be leaving it. If you weigh up all the
points that we've discussed in this video, you should be well on your way to properly securing
your bike. That said, no amount of locks is going to stop a really determined thief.
With that in mind, if your bike is super, super valuable, I'd think twice before locking it up
in a public space. For example, if you've got really expensive components on your bike,
it doesn't matter if the wheels and frame are secured because the thieves might just strip
off the components off your bike and leave you with the wheels and frame left behind.
The aim of the game is to try and make your bike as unappealing to thieves as possible.
Think of it a bit like lions chasing antelope, you don't need to be invincible to lions,
you just need to not be the weakest antelope. Another tip. If you are going to be picking
a bike that you're going to be using in an urban environment and locking up, it's a good
idea to have a bike that is less valuable. It's just a tool for getting from A to B.
Sticking with the antelope analogy; you don't want your bike to be the plumpest, tastiest-looking
antelope, nothing too flash. I hope you enjoyed this video and found it informative. Armed with
these tips, you'll hopefully be able to make your bike more secure and less vulnerable to thieves.
If you haven't, please give it a thumbs up and let us know in the comments what
videos you'd like to see in the future and your own bike locking security tips.
I'll see you in the next one. Cheers. Off of. [00:14:26] [END OF AUDIO]