Cycling UK Forum

I bought this bike from Ebay last summer, great bike but just went to the bike shop to get it serviced and it has anti-theft nuts all over the place (stem, headset, brakes). I emailed the original owner to see if he has the keys and he no longer does. Can I just take a hack-saw or drill to the nuts to get them off then replace? If I need to take it to a bike shop is it reasonable to ask the original owner to go halves with me for the inconvenience?

https://imgur.com/a/WKg70

If the anti theft bits are hardened steel (take a hacksaw to one gently to see if you can cut it) then it will be very difficult to cut the bits except with a small disc cutter which uses a grinding wheel. You can't drill hardened steel. However, if you can hacksaw a slot across the top of the screw you can then use a flat screwdriver with some sort of wrench (to grip it) to undo it.

As for your consumer rights from the seller, that's the one for the lawyers. But my guess is that firstly it is too long after the original sale from a private individual to make any claim. Ebay won't want to know, probably (but you can ask ebay about this. If it is a company then you may be just within your rights if the bike is not as described.

If it were my bike I'd not bother spending time trying to argue but use the time to find a solution to the mechanical problem at hand.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try this weekend. Good idea to have them on there and it's a shame I have to cut them off as they look handy.

The third pic of stem is easy to get a security bit set from screwfix or the like it will have that 3 or 4 bits like that for 3 - 6 mm or so.

A torx pin bit like this;
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TORX-PIN-6-L ... 0005.m1851
Or cheap 100piece bit set
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100pc-Dril-B ... SwXeJYKtCx

The other two are a bit bespoke, try and ask him if he remembers where he bought them from.

Can you identify who made the security bolts. Outside chance they might be able to help.

There's also a socket with a load of pins like those executive toy pin art frames but I can't remember its proper name. I would give that a try before cutting, as it might be able to shift them.

I'd also look the bike up on www.checkThatBike.co.uk or whatever it's called.

Have just emailed the original owner and will check the frame number, sure its all legit. Great advice again.

They look to be Pitlocks: https://www.pitlock.de/en

I would expect that the chances that Pitlock will assist you are zero.
After all, if a thief could steal a bike, and email saying "I've lost my key, can you send me a new one that matches this photo?", the locks wouldn't be much security.
The original owner would have had a card with a key number on it for ordering replacement keys, and could have registered the code with Pitlock (though I'd suspect that forgetting/losing the resulting password is just as likely as losing the card).

I think that either you've bought a stolen bike, or the owner lost his key, couldn't find the card, and decided to pass the problem on to someone careless enough not to notice the bolts.

The other bolt is pin torx, most easily bought as part of a set of security screwdriver bits

Andrew has beaten me to it, looks like Pitlock after scouring the web.

If it is a Pitlock, my suggestion to hacksaw a slot may not work as it appears there is some mechanism behind the nut that needs to be engaged by the individual Pitlock key. A more destructive technique may be needed. Stainless steel is quite tough to hacksaw and drill but it can be done if you have good workshop skills. I'd be very cautious for your own safety, and destroying the bike to save it.

.

I bought a set of security Allen keys, torx keys, and 5 eared torx like things and others (about50 in all) for a few quid from Leeds Market, I think. I'm sure I've seen them in other markets. Try Ebay too

echolalia wrote: I emailed the original owner to see if he has the keys and he no longer does.

Do you mean the person who sold it to you or the original owner who bought it from new? Or are they the same? I find it hard to believe that someone would go to that much trouble and not pass on the keys - it doesn't stack up. Would you be prepared to say what the make and model of the bike are? Was it expensive?

First I saw on Ebay: eBay item number:112613913766. There are other sets
Some of them may fit something

gxaustin wrote:First I saw on Ebay: eBay item number:112613913766. There are other sets
Some of them may fit something

Those security sets are relatively common. However, the set will only be able to deal with the pin torx bolt (top of the 2 most recent photos).

The problem is the Pitlock fasteners.
The fasteners and the keys are made by the same company and nobody else, and are only sold as matched sets, or replacement keys to match a key number provided by the customer, as listed with the matched set he had bought previously.
I'm sure Pitlock would smell a rat if you tried to buy one each of all the possible keys, and you wouldn't get more than 3 or 4, unless you had a large number of delivery addresses and credit card numbers available.

I feel that brute force (i.e. an angle grinder) is likely to be the only solution.