Looking for the best bike lock to buy in 2019? We’ve tested 24 locks to destruction to reveal which is the best bike lock on the market. Tested were a selection of U-locks, foldable locks and chain locks for cyclists.access control system using rfid
Before we begin, the first thing to realise is that no single lock is unbreakable — armed with the right tools and knowledge, a person who really wants to steal your bike will be able to, no matter what you lock it up with.
What you can do is deter the bike thief looking for an easy steal, or give the more determined a much harder time.
With that in mind, one of the best bits of advice we can give you, after many years of busting and picking locks in our tests, is to use two locks of different types and brands.
If a thief is adept at picking a certain type of lock, and has the tools to do so, it’s unlikely that they will also have the tools or the knowledge to pick a completely different type. Two budget locks that are wildly different in style and key/lock-cylinder types are sometimes better than just one expensive lock.Over the two decades that we’ve been putting together our intensive and independent lock tests, we’ve always used a combination of manual and power tools, and force and finesse to try and break locks.
This time we’ve upped our game, significantly, by using the facilities of Germany’s biggest security manufacturer, Abus, and more importantly its state-of-the-art test labs, and training on how to use the machines on offer.
We devised a full-on torture chamber of tests that fully simulate each and every way a lock can be attacked and broken. For this we needed multiple models from each manufacturer, so thank you to those who took up the challenge and supplied test samples willingly.
With nine tests on a total of 29 different models (24 are shown here with seven reviews below), that’s 261 separate tests, and a total of in excess of £11,000 worth of locks tested to destruction…