Locks

Most bicycle thefts are opportunist ones. Lock it up, no matter how short a period you intend to be away for.

Police guidelines suggest that you spend about 10% of the value of your bike on a lock to secure it.

There are different types of locks, cable, chain, armoured, shackle and loop locks (immobilisers).

Cable locks are easy to wrap around other objects. The thicker the total cable

diameter, the harder it is to cut. It should be of the multi-wound multi “braided” type of cable with many thin wire strands, making it far more difficult to cut than one with lesser numbers of thicker strands. Look at our Oxford Armoured cable and shackle locks. Armoured locks are basically a cable lock with a sequence of articulated barrels through which passes an invisible cable. The barrels tend to rotate if a thief attempts to saw through one.

They are more secure than a standard cable lock but heavier and not quite as flexible as either chain or cable locks.

Shackle locks consist of two parts, the mechanism housing and a U-shaped round bar, whose ends fasten into the mechanism housing. They should be made of hardened steel to resist cutting.

Chain locks are extremely flexible but tend to come in shorter lengths than cables.

The strength of the chain is determined by the type of steel it is made from and the free space within the links. Better quality chains will have a reduced gap between consecutive links and be of hardened steel. These are more secure than cables for longer periods but are heavier. See the on GuardRevolver range of locks.

Sold Secure grant 3 different levels of award according to how secure a lock is.

Bronze is the lowest award and Gold is the highest.