🚀 go-pugleaf

kag@cruzio.com wrote:

: A strategically placed car
: jack can be used to expand the U-shaped lock until it breaks.  Bike shops 
: sell Kryptonite lock reinforcing gadgets to circumvent this, but I have no 
: idea whether they work or not.  

Regarding the car jack, it apparently has to be from a certain European 
car (Saab?, Volvo?) to be exactly the right size.  Bike thieves are 
reported to break into that particular make of car just to get the jack.

However, Kryptonite now sells a superior U-lock with a narrower shank (a
little over 3 inches internal spacing) which is too narrow for one of the
above-mentioned car jacks to fit into.  It's called the Evolution 2000,
and I plan to buy one just as soon as I can afford the $45 purchase. 
Personnel at my usual bike shop tell me they are much better than a
regular-sized Kryptonite lock used with those Bad Bones U-lock spacers. 

They tell me there's also a superior Kryptonite "New York" model, but my 
store doesn't carry them, so I don't know about them.  (Notice that it's 
named after the only city where Kryptonite doesn't provide their usual 
bike-theft insurance, so they must be very good locks.)  Stay away from 
cheap locks from Taiwan. 

All that said, there is a very quick and easy way to break just about any
lock, even expensive Kryptonite locks, that I heard about here on USENET,
but I don't want to spread knowledge of it around until I've heard of some
way to protect against it.  (I'm not like Herb Caen, who publicized the
car jack method, nor am I like that asshole television reporter who
publicized an easy way to circumvent The Club steering-wheel locks.)

Hope this helps someone.

David Jordan
littlcat@netcom.com