General: kryptonite mini u vs onguard bulldog mini u

i use the ongaurd pitbull mini and it's awesome. small enough for your pocket or hip pouch, and big enough to lock my front wheel to my rear on a pole.

Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit Mini Lock

Can you put a price on your bike?
Skimp on your tires or seat or seatpost or stem or whatever.
There's a reason why they call it Fahgettaboudit.

i own the krypto mini u, and use it along with one of their 7' looped cables to secure the saddle and wheels to the frame. i have a bunch of pry marks on my krypto mini from attempted theft.. which means it works, BUT if someone really wanted my bike, they'd take the time to bust any lock open. IMO the krypto mini u is a better buy then the fahgettaboutit...

The OnGuard mini I have is great, I use it with a Kryptonite 7' looped cable (for the wheels) and the setup has worked fine.

The lock is light and fits in my back pocket and the cable is coiled on my bars when I'm riding

I have both the mini Evolution, as well as the Onguard bulldog and have used them both a lot.

Here are the pro's and con's-

Evo Mini- Fits PERFECT in the pocket and is smaller, lighter and I believe made of better metal. Smaller barrel so it's less bulky.
Bulldog-SLIGHTLY larger so although does not fit in ALL back pockets, it does fit around your seat tube/rear wheel easier.

Evo mini- Never had the lock jam or key not work, but after a year of use it seems to be getting slightly more finicky. This could go for all locks.
Bulldog- Never jammed and works smooth, but I have not used it nearly as much as the Evo. However, it comes with FIVE KEYS! Why does one lock need five keys? I have no clue.

Evo mini-Everything is metal except for a rubber sleeve around the U and a orange sleeve on the barrel.
Bulldog- The whole barrel is metal I'm sure, but it's contained within a large plastic housing. I would like to see what's inside this plastic housing, but cannot get it off and don't want to risk ruining the lock.

So, I personally trust the Evo mini just because it has not failed me and more people use it, however I have been told by many people that they like the bulldog. But Kryptonite has a longer reputation with making locks and seems to have invested more research+development in their products.

I always use a cable for my wheels also.

Terrible one- I know it's long so you may not have gotten through it, but I went over some of that stuff in my post. Just drop some tri-flow in the keyhole of your kryptonite and twist the key around a little, it'll go back to feeling perfect. The plastic stuff comes off fine, it is a pain though, but it's just a metal cylinder like the kryptonite, still a little bigger though. Use any combination of hacksaw, hammer, chisel, and whatever else you have laying around to get it off. It takes a while.

Maverick- I used to have one of those chains and loved it. Only used when occassionally when i felt there was a reason for carrying it. The last time I thought there was a use for it was when my friends stolen mtn bike started being seen around downtown. I checked it out once and it was locked up with the cheapest peice of chain and a little key lock, and was being ridden around by some crackhead. I brought the chain and my mini bolt cutters to work, and had a friend call me when he saw the bike again. I walked over, locked it up with my chain on my break, and planned to come back over lunch to cut off his chain, and return it to it's rightful owner. I later got a phone call from my friend who said he came outside, went back in, complained to security, they watched the security video, and sent maintenance out to cut off my $90 chain! and handed the bike back to the crackhead theif who stole my friends bike. I haven't seen it downtown again. Someday I'd like to have another chain, and if I ever see the crackhead riding that bike again I'm tackling him and throwing him in the river.

hahah lot of good that $90 chain did if security could cut it that fast

The biggest, heaviest Fahgettaboutit -- totally worth it. When I look at a regular Kryptonite now, much less any other U-lock, I shudder.

Posted By: stinky pete

Posted By: greghahah lot of good that $90 chain did if security could cut it that fast

Is there any bike lock or chain that can stand up to an angle grinder with a cutting disk?

rhetorical?

Posted By: upthemaidenThe last time I thought there was a use for it was when my friends stolen mtn bike started being seen around downtown. I checked it out once and it was locked up with the cheapest peice of chain and a little key lock, and was being ridden around by some crackhead. I brought the chain and my mini bolt cutters to work, and had a friend call me when he saw the bike again. I walked over, locked it up with my chain on my break, and planned to come back over lunch to cut off his chain, and return it to it's rightful owner. I later got a phone call from my friend who said he came outside, went back in, complained to security, they watched the security video, and sent maintenance out to cut off my $90 chain! and handed the bike back to the crackhead theif who stole my friends bike.

First of all, to clarify: In the second-to-last sentence, when you say "he came outside", you mean "the crackhead came outside/went back in/complained to security", not "my friend came outside/went back in/complained to security", right?

This may be the most important reason to file a report with the police. When you take vigilante action like this, you're a lot more likely to get law enforcement (or quasi-law enforcement, like these building security rent-a-cops) to either back you up or let your vigilante act play out if you've informed them that you've taken this step, and that the law is already involved in the matter. Let's look at a few scenarios:

1) Crackhead locks up bike. upthemaiden locks up bike in vigilante move. upthemaiden informs building security that he believes bike to be his friend's stolen bike, reported to Pittsburgh PD in Case Number #123456. Crackhead returns, finds bike locked with strange second lock. Crackhead hollers bloody murder to building security, who now have a problem to deal with: Who actually owns this stupid bike? The fastest way to dump responsibility on someone else is to get the police involved, since building security has been informed of a valid case number, which proves that someone outside the room might check up on what they do. Building security probably doesn't get as far as viewing security tape at all, until the police show up.

2) Crackhead locks up bike. upthemaiden locks up bike in vigilante move. upthemaiden leaves without informing anyone of what he's done. Crackhead returns, finds bike locked with strange second lock. Crackhead hollers bloody murder to building security, who now have a problem to deal with: How to shut the yelling guy up? There are two locks on the bike, and building security has no reason to assume that the person who originally locked it up isn't the legal owner. So they look at the tape, which shows Crackhead locking up the bike. Later on the video, upthemaiden comes around and tosses a second lock/chain on the bike, to prevent Crackhead from unlocking the bike and spiriting off. But building security doesn't know that Crackhead stole the bike, because nobody's told them that. Even if someone had said "that bike was locked up by a thief, so I've tossed a second lock on it so it stays there until we can get this sorted out", it's just he said/she said. In those situations, it's a "possession is 90% of the law" issue, unless there's some convincing point of evidence on Locker #2's side - like a stolen bike report with a case number. From the video, it looks like upthemaiden is the thief, and he's preventing the presumed-by-building-security rightful owner from taking his bike, so that upthemaiden can come and crack the original lock/do a little thievin' at his leisure. This version is only heightened by the fact that upthemaiden, if frisked, would have had a bolt cutter on his person.

Yeeesh!

In this scenario, the fastest way for building security to dump responsibility on someone else is to presume that the perspective of the video is the only relevant perspective: To cut off the second chain, and allow the person who locked the bike up in the first place to unlock it, and be on his merry way.

maiden, let me assure you that I think your perception was almost certainly right: Crackhead stole your friend's bike, and imagined he had a get out of jail free card in his pocket, so that his ill-gotten gains should remain his forever.

Posted By: the rabbi

Posted By: stinky pete

Posted By: greghahah lot of good that $90 chain did if security could cut it that fast

Is there any bike lock or chain that can stand up to an angle grinder with a cutting disk?

rhetorical?

Not at all; I simply have not found anything that I couldn’t cut through with an angle grinder with a thin cutting disk on it. I don’t steel bikes, but if I did it seems to me that a portable angle cutter would work on just about anything that I have seen a bike locked up with...

Posted By: stinky pete

Posted By: the rabbi

Posted By: stinky pete

Posted By: greghahah lot of good that $90 chain did if security could cut it that fast

Is there any bike lock or chain that can stand up to an angle grinder with a cutting disk?

rhetorical?

Not at all; I simply have not found anything that I couldn’t cut through with an angle grinder with a thin cutting disk on it. I don’t steel bikes, but if I did it seems to me that a portable angle cutter would work on just about anything that I have seen a bike locked up with...

i don't think anything would stand up to an angle grinder. anything.