Product warning - bike locks
My brother recently got his bike stolen right in front of the building where he works downtown Calgary. He had it adequately secured but when he got off work, he didn't find his bike, instead he found his Specialized Bike lock cut in half. But the appearance of the cut it didn't even look like any of Specialized anti-theft material and cable did anything to stop the thieves. No only did it not keep his bike secure they don't guarantee their locks against theft. So if you have a nice bike or anything that you want secured for that matter, I'd recommend staying away from Specialize.
There customer service was pretty horrible too. Below is the reply that he received from them. The person that responded went as far as to send my brother a YouTube link of a bike theft video.
Please pass this message around if you know anyone who owns a Specialized lock.
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Andy,
first of all, let me express my deepest sympathies for your loss, I have had bikes of mine stolen as well, and it sucks. It's a horrible feeling.
secondly, I saw an interesting documentary recently about stealing bikes. This guy tried to prove how easy it was to steal a bike. So he locked his bike up in VERY heavily traveled intersections in NYC, walked away for some time. Then came back with various kinds of industrial bolt cutters, grinders, chainsaws, the most conspicuous & ridiculous things you could imagine to cut the lock off. He did this 12 times in a row.
No one said a thing, no matter how ridiculous his efforts were. Well, actually a bike messenger stopped once, and recommended an easier way to cut off the lock. Even police were simply walking by, & ignoring him.
There is no such thing as a cut proof lock, when criminals can use industrial grinders with impunity. All a bike lock really does, is discourage impulse theft. When a pro with powerful equipment wants to steal your bike, they usually succeed.
Those photos you provided, show that someone used an extremely powerful tool on your lock.
again, my deepest sympathies...
-Andrew
p.s. I found the video I was talking about, on YouTube-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TNTq3nhuh0
Specialized Customer Service/Online Store
1137 South 3800 West
Salt Lake City UT 84104
877-808-8154
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