Locks are only good for keeping honest people honest.
Over a quarter century of bicycle commuting I've had 7 bikes stolen, and it cost me about $20k less than if I had been relying on public transport, the next cheapest option.
For me, my bike is mainly used for exercise, not transportation. I'll lock it to the bike rack at the local food cart pod when I'm getting a bite to eat, and that's about it.
And yet I still spend nearly $100 on a Kryptonite Evolution lock with an absolutely monstrous chain. The lock + chain weighs I think 15 lbs, IIRC. It's absolutely overkill. But it means an angle grinder and several very noisy minutes would be required to steal my bike while my back was turned, rather than a quick snip with bolt cutters.
On the other hand, the bike parked next to mine, with the cheap Masterlock that can be raked open, connected to a $5 cable that can be snipped with Harbor Freight Chineseum wire cutters...that bike could probably be stolen without anybody around even noticing.
I live and bike in NYC and often carry two locks, one which cost me $80-90 and another that cost me $40-50. My commuter bike is more expensive than my locks, but not by that much.
I usually spend more on my lock and chains than I do on my bicycle. The bicycle may only cost $100-300 but I don’t have to buy it 4+ times if it’s never stolen.
Had 2 stolen so far, cut the bike lock off. I buy my bikes around $50 each or fix up side of the road ones. Basically disposable, given that I enjoy the process of fixing.
This article reminds me of the time I went for a ride with a friend down by the coast. I hadn't bothered to bring my lock - I hadn't planned on stopping - and he wanted to grab chips.
He offered his lock for both our bikes and pulled out his "decent lock" he got for £8. Needless to say I volunteered to wait outside and guard the bikes.
It's pretty telling that he regularly eviscerates bike locks, but then he once showed his own bike lock was rather cheap. And his reasoning was that he doesn't take his nice bike out, and he would rather they destroy a cheap lock than an expensive one.
I rent, so I'm mainly concerned that if someone were to ransack the place, and it came out that I hadn't locked the door, then I'd get the blame for the damage and the landlord would try to get me to pay for repairs.
As for bikes, I have a fairly nice one ($900 new). I lock it all the time but only to stop crimes of opportunity -- some teenager seeing it undefended and riding off with it. I know (from experience) that bike locks don't stop determined thieves, so I try not to leave it unattended for long periods of time.
It's interesting, I suppose, to know that his production cost is $9-12, but that's really pointless, isn't it? The important figure to know is what it's going to cost me to get my hands on one. That's the $60-90 figure. Which makes bizarre the later paragraph about it being pointless to lock up a cheap bike like this, because the lock is going to cost more than the bicycle it purports to secure.
Excuse me? I'm sure bike locks exist that cost a Century or more, but I've never bought one. The locks I buy cost $10-20, which is still well below the purchase price of one of these cycles. And even if I could somehow buy one for the $12 production cost, I'd still lock it up. Because in addition to the annoyance of having lost my $12 possession, now I also have the inconvenience of having to call someone for a ride, or pay for cab fare.
The answer is to have a shitty bike with a good lock, been using a $200 beater for 4 years and it still got everything except the saddle got stolen once
I've managed to keep my bike locked up outside OVERNIGHT in San Francisco (Washington & Polk St.) for a year now. How I did it? The short version: one very good lock (Viro Euromonolith + Peewag security chain, $175), a second good lock (kryptonite, $90), and an okay lock (Abus, to keep them from stealing the basket, $60).
I've also had 3 bikes stolen, the rear wheel stolen, the basket stolen, the front brake stolen, the seat stolen, but now with all the locks there is much less stealing.
I'd go further than that -- riding a cheap bike with a heavy U lock makes theft so rare in most places that it's not worth wasting any further time/money on the problem.
I still leave my bicycle unlocked even though I've had one stolen.
The bike cost $30. If I get one stolen every 10 years, I figure I'm paying $3 / year for the convenience of not having to bother with locking or carrying a key.
reply