Best bike lock for stopping opportunist thieves and slowing down the premeditated ones?

All are easily defeated with a car jack, welder, and some angle-iron. Even the most expensive Kyryptonite can be popped in 60 seconds. so I have heard

For fun I took some pictures of the bike rack right outside my front door.

These have been here since I moved in over 8 months ago.

Bike theft is rampant where I live. I just go with having a shitty bike nobody wants to steal.

I am not sure how this would work but, taking lessons from the NSA, our local University PD puts out “Bait Bikes” with GPS trackers on/in them. They then trace ‘em, bust ‘em and lock ‘em up. I don’t have recent stats but a recent article stated that from Sept ‘12 to Aug ‘13 they recovered 60% of the bikes reported stolen and locked up 37 thieves. I also understand that many of the thieves are repeat offenders so locking up one of them eliminates several future thefts.

I don’t know, but I suggest you ask at your local bike shop. It will most likely be fairly expensive.

I learned this from a redneck friend of mine. You wrap up the bike with copper wire and attach it to a car battery. When you hear screaming you can catch them in the act!

Maybe it’s just because I have stupid, illiterate thieves in my area, but my bike has never been touched, and it has a word lock.

Best part is I don’t have to remember a bunch of numbers or risk losing a key.

http://wordlock.com/bike_locks/

A 12 volt car battery will not work. The voltage is not high enough. Go ahead, touch the terminals on your car battery. See? Nothing.
You need to hook it to a 12 ignition system connected to a car battery. Or install a gas grill ignition system (~$25 at Lowe’s) that is connected to the handlebars. Ground one end to a metal foil tape strip on the bicycle seat. That will get their attention. Yikes!

It will also discourage their reproduction.

The standard advice they give you in London is 2 locks – 1 front wheel and frame, 1 back wheel and frame. You want to look for something solid, made from hardened steel. A lot of cheaper, flexible bike locks are pretty much just air and can be cut in seconds. However even the best lock can be defeated, so its a good idea leave your bike in an area with a lot of passers by. A bike thief is less likely to want to spend a few minutes working on a lock with a pair of bolt cutters if he has an audience.

@LuckyGuy Maybe that was the thing he did…

@DWW25921 With a coil and gel cell battery it is possible to make a system with a shock so hot it will leave the perp’s skin on the handlebars.
“Officer, I have his fingerprints right here.”

You have to come up with a method so only the bad guys get hit. A bit tricky.

@LuckyGuy I’m going to have to research this. Mua ha ha ha

Not that I would have any knowledge about this sort of thing because that might be considered assault in some locales and I would never do anything like that.

I have read that a mechanical piezoelectric gas grill ignitor can fit into the seat mount with the ground wire attached to the frame and handlebars and the spark end attached (with the handy high voltage wire that is included in the package) to a racing stripe of metal foil tape on the seat . A pin is engaged to prevent the seat from pushing down and firing off the spark when the owner wants to use it. The pin is removed allowing the seat to move up about 2 cm to cock the button. When the seat is depressed – the spark fires, once , 30,000 volts. If one were to install an electronic gas grill igniter with its own batteries the device can deliver 4 pulses per second continuously. One could even web-enable it and control the device from an Android phone if desired.

Maybe. Because I would NEVER use such a device for anything other than its intended purpose – to send a 30,000 volt spark to a gas grill for ignition. I would never use it as a device to discourage deer or other critters from places they should not be or any other use not listed by the manufacturer or seller, Channel Products Inc. / Lowe’s Home Improvement.