Another review from me as I like to hear other peoples opinions of products before buying them myself.
With the completion of my DAS imminent my bike at the dealer waiting for me and everything else in line I was in need to some decent security. After reading another members thread here who had his bike recently stolen a link to Almax chains was posted so I had a browse and watched their videos on youtube.
To my surprise and horror most 'respectable' chains in the region of £50-100 that were supposedly '5 minute attack tested' were cropped off in less than a minute for the most part. Which to me makes them pointless as I might as well tie it up with a rope or a chain of daisys, it's a deterrent none the less but if it's not doing the job properly then it's not worth the money in my opinion.
After watching 2 chaps struggle to crop the Almax immobiliser for several minutes, getting through two sets of jaws and also bending the jaw header plates on the croppers I was more or less sold on a 19mm case hardened chain as it seems to be the only thing capable of stopping croppers due to be so bloody big it doesn't fit in. There are a few companies selling 19mm case hardened chains though Almax offer £300 towards an insurance excess should a chain cropped off by hand. Of course power tools will get through these and most chains however the excessive noise and also if you position your bike cleverly when it's tied up it will make getting croppers or power tools on to the chain difficult/impossible.
Various chains chopped,
Almax 'Cropper destroyer'
Speaks for itself really! This won't be my only line of defense. I do plan to have the bike alarmed with an immobiliser either a Datatool or Meta, not sure which yet. An alarmed disc lock too and it will also be covered and parked behind my car in quite a tight spot. When I move in October it will also be in an alarmed garage with additional security on the doors. Whoever wants to pinch my bike will have their work cut out for them by which time I'll have probably come out swinging my lid at them.
Anyway on to some photographs!
I was initially a bit confused as I wasn't able to fit two links into the squire padlock and get it to close
it then occurred to me one link is slipped through the other and the lock applied to one link giving a 'slip knot' effect.
What's in the box:
Something to scale it by:
The chain itself due to being so bloody big has to go through the anchor at a slight angle, so slightly diagonally.
Each link is about the size of an iPhone.
Zero room to get croppers on to the lock.
I'll be installing the ground anchor most likely on Sunday so will comment on how easy this is. It's a case of 2x8mm pilot holes (a template is supplied). Widen these to 22mm and then using a cartridge gun and the adhesive applied and the plastic mixing nozzles fill the holes and the other bare area and push the ground anchor in. With a cure time of about 6 hours. There are some cyclindrical sleeves inside the anchor covering the main rod that runs through, should a grinder be used then these will just spin when in contact with the blade, the courners are still exposed but difficult and dangerous to grind.
It doesn't come cheap, £262 delivered, very promptly at that. Depending on which lock & ground anchor you had in mind it isn't a great deal more than any self made package however it definitely isn't cheap. It occurred to me that 1.5M depending on where on the wall your ground anchor is and how the bike is parked in relation to the wall, might be a bit too short to go through the wheel, round the swing arm and round the rear shock (if it fits round the back of it). You could just buy another lock & chain and 'daisy chain' them together.
It ain't light, indicated 10KG on the scales (over my initial body weight).
That's it not much else really to say other than it all feels very solid and hopefully will deter any potential thieves.
BennyC
With the completion of my DAS imminent my bike at the dealer waiting for me and everything else in line I was in need to some decent security. After reading another members thread here who had his bike recently stolen a link to Almax chains was posted so I had a browse and watched their videos on youtube.
To my surprise and horror most 'respectable' chains in the region of £50-100 that were supposedly '5 minute attack tested' were cropped off in less than a minute for the most part. Which to me makes them pointless as I might as well tie it up with a rope or a chain of daisys, it's a deterrent none the less but if it's not doing the job properly then it's not worth the money in my opinion.
After watching 2 chaps struggle to crop the Almax immobiliser for several minutes, getting through two sets of jaws and also bending the jaw header plates on the croppers I was more or less sold on a 19mm case hardened chain as it seems to be the only thing capable of stopping croppers due to be so bloody big it doesn't fit in. There are a few companies selling 19mm case hardened chains though Almax offer £300 towards an insurance excess should a chain cropped off by hand. Of course power tools will get through these and most chains however the excessive noise and also if you position your bike cleverly when it's tied up it will make getting croppers or power tools on to the chain difficult/impossible.
Various chains chopped,
Almax 'Cropper destroyer'
Speaks for itself really! This won't be my only line of defense. I do plan to have the bike alarmed with an immobiliser either a Datatool or Meta, not sure which yet. An alarmed disc lock too and it will also be covered and parked behind my car in quite a tight spot. When I move in October it will also be in an alarmed garage with additional security on the doors. Whoever wants to pinch my bike will have their work cut out for them by which time I'll have probably come out swinging my lid at them.
Anyway on to some photographs!
I was initially a bit confused as I wasn't able to fit two links into the squire padlock and get it to close
it then occurred to me one link is slipped through the other and the lock applied to one link giving a 'slip knot' effect.What's in the box:
Something to scale it by:
The chain itself due to being so bloody big has to go through the anchor at a slight angle, so slightly diagonally.
Each link is about the size of an iPhone.
Zero room to get croppers on to the lock.
I'll be installing the ground anchor most likely on Sunday so will comment on how easy this is. It's a case of 2x8mm pilot holes (a template is supplied). Widen these to 22mm and then using a cartridge gun and the adhesive applied and the plastic mixing nozzles fill the holes and the other bare area and push the ground anchor in. With a cure time of about 6 hours. There are some cyclindrical sleeves inside the anchor covering the main rod that runs through, should a grinder be used then these will just spin when in contact with the blade, the courners are still exposed but difficult and dangerous to grind.
It doesn't come cheap, £262 delivered, very promptly at that. Depending on which lock & ground anchor you had in mind it isn't a great deal more than any self made package however it definitely isn't cheap. It occurred to me that 1.5M depending on where on the wall your ground anchor is and how the bike is parked in relation to the wall, might be a bit too short to go through the wheel, round the swing arm and round the rear shock (if it fits round the back of it). You could just buy another lock & chain and 'daisy chain' them together.
It ain't light, indicated 10KG on the scales (over my initial body weight).
That's it not much else really to say other than it all feels very solid and hopefully will deter any potential thieves.
BennyC
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