I enjoy riding bicycles, and I understand the risks of leaving a bicycle unattended pretty much anywhere includes the chance of it getting stolen. Most bicycles are lightweight and don’t have the same sort of protections that personal passenger vehicles do in the US (mainly etched VIN / serial numbers). A bicycle does not have the defense of a locked door and a keyed mechanism to get it moving; most of the time its as simple as picking it up or riding off on it. Therefore, if you ride a bicycle to do any normal activities such as visiting a store or a park or going to school, you need a way to secure that bicycle once you have reached your destination.
Enter the venerable bike lock.
A simple bicycle lock is not much more than a steel cable or steel chain, wrapped around the frame of the bicycle and something else solidly attached to the ground such as a bicycle rack, a parking meter, a fence, what have you. The cable/chain is secured together with a lock. Maybe the lock has a key, or a combination you have to remember. Since all one needs to do to steal a bicycle which is locked up is to remove the cable/chain (breaking it, picking the lock), a key weakness of bicycle locks is that once the lock is broken off you can again just carry or ride the bicycle away. No advanced systems to prevent that bicycle from rolling away!
A thief knows how to break a weak cable/chain. This $12 cutter on Amazon is only 8"; it would fit in some deep jeans pockets. Or, a battery-powered angle grinder could do the job for even less effort. $100 for the tool, plus $10 for a cut wheel to steal a few thousand dollars worth of bicycles in a night? Bargain!
And so the company Kryptonite has built their strongest bicycle lock yet, a real workhorse of a chain and lock combo which is meant to protect your bicycle from the best thieves out there. Is it because the lock is un-pickable or the chain is un-cuttable? No, but it will take you longer than the normal bicycle lock to get through these things. The benefit of this bad-ass lock is that (1) it’s better than the bicycle lock on the bicycle next to yours on the street, so a thief will probably choose the easier one to steal, and (2) this thing comes with a guarantee called ATPO.
Per Kryptonite’s website:
HOW DOES ATPO WORK?
If your bicycle or powersport vehicle is stolen because of the malicious or unintended opening or breaking of the Kryptonite lock by force, we will pay you the lesser of one of the following, subject to a maximum amount based on the type of lock product identified in the claim:
1 the base cost of your bicycle or powersport vehicle excluding tax and accessories;
or
2 any insurance deductible
Now… look at that Kryptonite lock.
Next, look at this video clip of New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Tarik Sheppard waving around the chain from that same Kryptonite lock:
On 2 Feb 2025, replaced the embedded tweet with this screenshot. Link above still points at the tweet.
Here is the quote I’ve transcribed from the video:
Tarik Sheppard: “This is not what students bring to school, ok, –”
An off-camera anchor: “Don’t think so.”
Tarik Sheppard: “– this is what professionals bring to campuses and universities. These are heavy industrial chains which are locked with bike locks, and this is what we encountered on every door inside of Hamilton Hall. And so in order for our Emergency Services group to enter into the building,they had to first cut through these chains, but also get rid of debris and, and, and, uh barricaded doors that were barricaded with refrigerators, vending machines, chairs, you name it they pushed it up against those doors in order to try and stop us from coming in…”
He’s talking about a student protest the NYPD broke up the other night at Columbia University.
Next look at this flyer (archive.org link just in case) from Columbia University where their own Public Safety department would sell you this exact lock, directly on campus.
So… yeah.
UPDATE 17 May 2024: Lock Picking Lawyer on YouTube has also joined in with his take, which pretty much mirrors everyone else in the world with the exception of the NYPD.
To recap: It’s a bike lock. Sold by Columbia University. A good one, with insurance coverage. Students ride their bikes to school, and buy the lock their school sells them, and don’t have a lot of cash so it’s nice to have some insurance coverage for one of the best locks they can get.
This is not what students bring to school?
Fahgettaboudit.