Sarah, a customer of ours, recently tweeted "@Litelok Thank you! Found a thief cutting my lock yesterday. Apparently he'd been working c. 10 minutes - but still didn't get through it." We are so happy her bike is safe! We got in touch with Sarah to find out what happened. Below is the story in her own words, as well as some general thoughts about the Litelok bike lock.
Now I understand why locks are rated according to how long they withstand attack
By Sarah Teasley
When I was on maternity leave a few years ago, I bought a cyclocross bike. The new bicycle was an incentive for getting out and about with my daughter - I bought a child’s bike seat and helmet the same week - and also the only expensive bike I’ve ever bought, so I wanted it to be safe. I found an 11 mm hardened steel chain for locking up my bike at home, and another one to leave at work, once I’d gone back to work.
The chains made me feel safe, but they were too heavy to carry. Then Litelok appeared. I saw one on a bike at work, and ordered them for the family that same day. What caught my attention was the Sold Secure Gold security rating and the weight: it was rated as highly as my steel chains, but a fraction of the weight, so I could feel safe locking up my bike when I was out. I could also carry the lock and my daughter - now much heavier - together.
I didn’t understand what makes Litelok so impressive, though, until my bike was nearly nicked. I’d cycled to a meeting in an area of London I don’t know well, and locked my bike to a railing on the pavement. I always assess how safe my bike will be when I lock it, and had heard the area had a reputation for bike theft. In this instance, the railing was solid and well-anchored into the cement, just outside a building entrance, so I thought my bike would be safe.
I left my meeting around 4.30 pm to find two men standing over my bicycle, one of whom was snipping away at the strap with cable cutters. I’ll skip what happened next because it wasn’t very pleasant, but at the end of the altercation, I was shaken but unhurt, the men were gone and my bike was still there.
According to a security guard who’d seen the thieves and thought they were just chatting, the thieves had been standing at my bike for at least ten minutes. How long they’d been snipping the strap I don’t know; from the state of my Litelok they’d clearly been at it for a while. With more time, they’d have made it through. But the strength of the strap deterred them long enough that I could intervene.
Obviously, if I’d come out much later, my bike could have been gone. But if it hadn’t been me, the security guard or a passer-by might have discovered them.
From now on, I’ll be even less naive about bike security. But I also understand, now, why the measure of a lock is how long it withstands attack. On that measure, I’m thankful to Litelok.
