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ABUS offers tips to save your bike from theft

  • Ron 

With the trend of urban commuting by bike, theft has been on the rise. According to the National Bike Registry and FBI, $350 million in bicycles are stolen in the United States each year. Beyond the financial cost of the crime, finding out someone stole your bike is heartbreaking. The blame for theft, however, is put on cyclists claiming they make it too easy.

How can you prevent yourself from becoming a statistic? The best approach in protecting your bike is to combine two or more of the best options in bike security listed below.

Hardware

The first step is to get a heavy duty lock which makes it impossible for a thief to break through. The thicker and tougher your bike lock, the better. 92 year old German lock manufacturer ABUS, is family owned and designs all products out of their own production facility.

ABUS’ Bordo Granit X-Plus 6500 offers maximum security, rating a 15/15 on security level.

The Bordo Granit X-Plus 6500 is their top-of-the-line folding lock for protection from theft in high-risk areas. The 6500 features six 5.5mm hardened steel bars, rounded hardened steel link pins designed to resist drilling and brute force attacks, and ABUS’s X-Plus lock cylinder with more than 1.4 million key variations for superior protection. Links and lock body are covered in soft-touch silicone to protect frame finishes. The entire lock and internals is made from special temper hardened steel for added security and durability. The Bordo Granit X-Plus 6500 was also awarded the top honor “gold” status form the UK testing firm Sold Secure. Comes with a flexible holder for rattle-free mounting to bottle cage mounts, two Velcro straps, two keys – one with a light – and an ID card for easy key replacement. MSRP $169.99

Features Include:

  • 5.5mm steel bars
  • Bars, links, and lock body are made of special hardened steel
  • Soft-touch coating on the bars and matching silicone lock body cover protects bike’s paint job
  • ABUS X-Plus Cylinder offers extremely high protection against picking
  • Two keys supplies with the lock, one LED lighted
  • ABUS Code Card for ordering additional or replacement keys
  • Compact, versatile folding technology offers greater range of locking options

A game plan – Perpetrator Techniques

Offenders use a number of techniques to steal bicycles. When a bike is unlocked or poorly secured – it takes minimal skill. Some common techniques are listed below.

  • Lifting – Thieves can lift the bike and lock over the top of the post to which the bike is secured. With signposts, thieves can remove the top of the sign and remove the lock from there.
  • Unbolting – If the bike is locked by the wheel alone, that may be the only thing left when the cyclist returns.
  • Cutting – Small trees a bike lock can fit around can be cut down.

Protect yourself

  1. Report your bike theft, and register your bike.
  2. Write down the bike serial number so you can confidently identify the bike from police if they recover it.

By incorporating these tips, the risk of bike theft diminishes and the bike is left with its rightful owner.

“Security needs quality” was the maxim under which August Bremicker started the lock business in 1924 in Wetter an der Ruhr in Germany. 92 years later ABUS is still determined by that credo.

When quality should be maintained on a high level it is crucial to have complete control of all development and production processes. Since the very beginning ABUS KG manufacture two-wheel security products in Germany in their own production facilities which provides them to keep track of every single step in the material flow.

Quality starts with the material purchase at ABUS. High quality steel of secret composure is bought from long term related supplier. Permanent quality checks are part of a unique and complete quality management where nothing is left to chance. When the substance of production is verified as perfect, the real production starts with an incredible high depth. Tooling, quality check instruments and production machinery are developed and produced in Rehe Westerwald (Germany) almost without exception. All this helps to keep up with high internal standards regarding quality.

The production system itself is design according to the “one-piece-flow” concept which allows small lot sizes and even single piece manufacturing when it is required. This is the case for individual orders e.g. keyed-alike locks. That means consumers can order a single lock which matches the key code of their already existing one e.g. for the family.

A further important installation is the company own test lab where quality management is applied on ready produced products. Sawing, pulling, torsion, freezing and impact tests are frequently done in order to ensure a continues quality throughout the production lots. Part of the frequent testing is also the “salt chamber”, where locks and their parts are treated with permanent saltwater steam and a “rattle plate” where bracket systems are tested on endurance.

As the production and the test lab are gathered in one single place ABUS was able to build a significant knowledge pool about locks and security during the passed decades.

All this is used today to maintain the promise Made in Germany and has even relevance for those parts of the portfolio which are not produced in Germany, because the experiences are transferred and applied to other production plants.

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1 thought on “ABUS offers tips to save your bike from theft”

  1. Tim Paynter

    Theft is a major issue for me as I plan to take a major cross country trip this year, with some luck, from Canada to Mexico. You can’t be on the bike 24/7 though it may seem like that at times. Here is a video of my application to #beablackburnranger2016. It kind of gives you an idea of the scope of the project and where I want it to go. https://youtu.be/ha1_CkCPd9g These tips will come in handy, I am sure!

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