Cycling UK Forum

Yep, muggins here has lost the keys, and is pretty sure all the spares are in deep storage somewhere - if there are any at all. Bike's locked up to a sturdy wooden fence post (4"x4" I would guess) - but it's not my post so I can't attack it that way. :-/

Any handy hints on cutting through the lock? There's a guy on YouTube uses a "Stanley carbide grit rod", whatever one of them is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgHxV2iCcQs

Any help much appreciated. Just have to hope I can spring the lock before some teef does...

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If you have a record of the key number and if you registered it with them (this is, of course hindsight) they do say that the key replacement service is quick, although obviously not quick enough in the circumstances. You also imply that spare keys are there to be found. I'd suggest you beg borrow or buy the right tool to attack the chain or possibly cable. (I'm assuming this is the lock with the QE2 anchor chain?) ie angle grinder for a chain, croppers for a cable. A chain or cable could be replaced more cheaply than the lock and if it's only a link at the end of a chain, you might manage with what's left. This does depend on finding a spare or getting a replacement but as gaz points out, it would be a b...... to wreck the lock then find the key.

tile cutting "blades"....http://www.screwfix.com/p/forge-steel-tile-saw-blade-set-6-2-pc/91629

Similar exist to fit full-size hacksaws, which would be quicker

edit ..."toolstation" may be open Sundays......http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Hand+Tools/Assorted+Blades/Tungsten+Carbide+Grit+Hacksaw+300mm/d10/sd1550/p48146

Google found this under "carbide hacksaw blade", or thereabouts.......

Thanks, guys. Will make screwfix my first port of call, I think..

screwfix reading 2 depots both open 10 to 4pm


good luck

Take proof of ownership when you do the job or else get nicked.

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Valbrona wrote:Take proof of ownership when you do the job or else get nicked.

Really?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooa3NVfFlEU

Thanks for all the help, guys. Last night I finally managed to get me, an angle grinder, and my bike in the same place for long enough to deal with it. Success! Here's what I learned:

- HSS are pretty good but ask them for a spare battery if you can (I had to recharge in a pub mid-way through the job. Hard life.)

- the carbide metal-cutting blades look suspiciously thick, especially compared with the thinner, harder, diamond-edged ones. Don't be fooled - the diamond-edged ones sieze up with the heat of friction.

- the straighter you can make your cut the better: you want everything as steady as humanly possible, so get into a comfortable position that you can hold for 5 mins or so. This is so that just the cutting edge is at work - if you have shaky hands or forget which way you angled the blade, you'll have the sidewalls of the cut rubbing against the flat edge of the disc.

- gently does it: the blade likes best to just tickle the metal - you don't want to put any but the lightest pressure on it.

- I didn't time it, but cutting through the Kryptonite bar about the thickness of my finger must have taken around 5 mins.

- and finally, try to do the last few millimetres by handsaw, or by twisting so as to work-harden and then break it. Otherwise ime the disc prangs itself on the edge of the cut, jamming and breaking itself.

So thanks for the help! Next time I'll be more careful with what I do with the spares...

It's good to hear you got some sort of a result and I found your report made interesting reading. I take it you did not attract the attention of the authorities? As if.

PS Good luck with finding the spare keys. You'll kick yourself if they are somewhere obvious, but it would be better than owning a useless lock.

Yes, well. The less said about the authorities the better. To be fair on them, the man/woman in the street is similarly uninterested - 5-6 people walked past me with the grinder sounding like a banshee and spraying sparks all over Her Maj's fine lawn, and I don't recall anyone even slowing down.

Now I think about it, maybe there could be a career opening here? I've always liked bikes after all, and I'm now a dab hand at cutting them loose with impunity.

As a yoof, I was locked out of our house and I borrowed a ladder from a neighbour to let myself in through an upstairs window. I wasn't half told off by the folks down the road. They were in the process of phoning the police!

That's back in the mid/early '60s, and things were different back then, so I can easily see that nowadays someone with a grinder cutting through a bike lock in full public view in the middle of a town street wouldn't even raise an eyebrow.

Sad, but true.

I'd be interested to know, did anyone bother to ask what you were doing, or did they just walk on by?..

mr mchenry wrote:I'd be interested to know, did anyone bother to ask what you were doing, or did they just walk on by?..

As I posted earlier:
http://youtu.be/Ooa3NVfFlEU