Motorbike padlock and chain advice

eidolon

eidolon

eidolon

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Joined
31 Oct 2002
Posts
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Location
Newcastle upon Tyne
Ok, two questions here. First one is sensible, second is stupid for forgive me.

1) Can you recommend me a half decent padlock and chain to prevent opportunist thieves. My bike is only a 2006 CBR125 so not top of joyriders list and it's already got a Meta M357-TV2 and Smar****er tags. All I really want is to deter anyone from being able to basically push it away so probably only spend around £50ish. I know that even the best locks can be broken in 15 seconds but I just want to deter the opportunist.

2) Ermm......how am I supposed to fit the chain/lock? Do I feed it through the front/rear wheel and attach to a lamp post or what?
 
Cheap locks IMO are a bit of a false economy if you plan to get something nicer in the future as you can always use it on the next bike.

in any case a disc lock will immobilise the front wheel to prevent opportunists (unless you intend to lock it to something) and will provide a similar level of deterrant as a chain.
(decent quality disc locks are not that expensive compared to decent chains, I've got a Motrax Vishas disc lock which was around £35-40 and is very sturdy).

With regards to a chain, if you aren't locking the bike to anything lock it around the rear wheel and over the seat (try to avoid putting it so it lays on the ground, as that can act as an anvil should someone try to break it).

Try to lock it off tight enough to prevent it laying on the ground, or being slid over the back of the bike.

Cheap chains and locks should be found in a lot of shops, but to anyone who knows quality of locks won't really prove a deterrant.

Almax chains are what i use, the Series 3 chains aren't overly expensive.
Series 3 with lock Just under £100

If you do get a chain, never carry it wrapped around your body when riding, it is seriously dangerous.

ETA: If you can lock the bike to an immovable object do so.
I sometimes lock through the rear wheel and swingarm, around the railing when I stay at my girlfriends place.

Also hats off to you for riding in this, I've tucked my bike away for at least this week, if not longer.
 
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Problem with disc locks is that thiefs don't always see them, I had my RS125's steering lock broken once because they throught they'd be able to push it away. once they realised it was locked they left it.......But at least they didn't get the bike.

I also had a big heavy oxford branded chain, which was a pain to carry around, but didn't once have any problems with that on the big. Also tried to chain the back wheel to a lampost or something (but wasn't always possible) and then a disc lock on the front wheel.

I'd definitely recommend getting a good disc lock, but a chain and padlock is also essential.
 
Wyvern971 said:
(decent quality disc locks are not that expensive compared to decent chains, I've got a Motrax Vishas disc lock which was around £35-40 and is very sturdy).
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I've got this one as well, and for the price it's quite a good lock.

If I'm leaving the bike for long period of time anyway will use both chain and disc lock.
 
Whilst I fully understand that most chains can be reasonably easily defeated I think I just prefer to secure my bike to something immovable. It's only a 125 so it's pretty light and could easily be lifted away. If it was chained to something solid they'd have to bring a set of good bolt cutters and that kinda thing is usually spotted by people.
 
eidolon said:
Whilst I fully understand that most chains can be reasonably easily defeated I think I just prefer to secure my bike to something immovable. It's only a 125 so it's pretty light and could easily be lifted away. If it was chained to something solid they'd have to bring a set of good bolt cutters and that kinda thing is usually spotted by people.
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Actually I think the cheapie oxford one i used to use would probably get done in with some fairly light bold croppers.

My advice would be stump up a little extra and get the Almax Series 3 at a ton
 
Yay for Almax. All my research for a chain took me there. There's youtube videos a-plenty where I believe the Almax people are chopping up inferior stuff. My research was over a year ago though, but meh.
 
I originally bought an “English Chain” when I got the Ninja on 07, it came with a decent lock as well, but after getting the R1 I decided to get something a little more meaty, and folks here recommended Almax.

I went for a series 3 chain only deal, wrongly ordering the 0.7m chain first off, which wouldn’t go around my rear wheel, so I called them up and explained this, top notch service as they shipped the 1.5m out with free postage when I sent the other back.

The chain weighs a ton by comparison to my old chain, about two stone! So I wouldn’t ride anywhere with it, I take the disc lock for that, the lock they advertise with is the one I got with the original chain also, so I didn’t need that.

As for chaining up, at home I have my rear wheel chained with the Almax through a ground anchor point cemented into the patio, I have a disc lock through the front disc, steering lock and alarm of course, then when the cover is on; the old chain goes through the eyelets and through the front wheel – secure enough I bloody hope.

That’s the sort of setup I’d personally recommend if outdoors, especially if people can see the bike (they can’t see mine btw), if you’re going to ride out and chain it up, then a disc lock should suffice, as riding wearing a chain is a no no – mind you, you could have one of those odd bikes with under-seat storage; so could take a chain there :p

P.S. Love how the filter starred out the naughty word in Smart Water :D
 
If I had a Ninja or R1 then I'd definitely spend the cash on a really good, heavy duty lock but my bike sadly is just a little CBR125 so it probably hasn't got enough power to lug a 2 stone chain around ;)

I did a test fit and managed to just say fit a 1.2m Oxford hardcore XL chain under the pillion seat, I don't think anything bigger would fit. I would've got the Oxford but the links looked like they'd been cut with a hacksaw and re-welded, really poor quality.
 
I'm not too worried about home, the bike is garaged which is protected by a good set of locks and I live in a nice enough area so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm only really bothered about when I'm at work as it's not the best part of Bristol and I want to lock my bike to something solid.
 
I'd suggest instead of lugging it around to leave the chain at work.

I don't like carrying chains around, and have a hefty chain at each location I am regularly at.

Other than that I just use a disc lock.

Don't know about Bristol, but in London, parking wardens are a pain and will ticket you for parking on the pavement (whether you are actually blocking anything or not).

You can't beat a decent chain which will last you quite a while. The 0.7 might be a bit short, but at the end of the day even a CBR 125 is a couple of grand and IMO worth investing a few hundred for a chain
 
Felix said:
Is 70cm of chain long enough?
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Not if you want to wrap it round something like a lamp post.

Mine is 1.5m and just long enough to get it round stuff easily but no excess.

Also worth checking the chain will fit through the wheel. The holes in the wheels on my old bike were big enough to get my old 11mm links through but there's no way the 16mm Almax chain would go through.
 
eidolon said:
I'm not too worried about home, the bike is garaged which is protected by a good set of locks and I live in a nice enough area so hopefully it shouldn't be an issue.

I'm only really bothered about when I'm at work as it's not the best part of Bristol and I want to lock my bike to something solid.
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Do you work within earshot of your bike? As you said it's not an R1, so isn't likely to be targetted by professionals but other than a crosser, I can't imagine that there's many other bikes as desirable to kids. For that reason, I'd look at a cheaper lock combined with an alarm. An amateur won't like attention being drawn to them and a cheaper lock is still going to put off most amateurs.
 
My office is less than 10m from where my bike will be parked which is covered by CCTV (which I can watch from my desk). I've already got the Meta alarm/immobiliser so I reckon a reasonable chain/padlock should be fine.
 
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