I stole my bike
As many of you have heard me rant, I locked by bike to a bike rack at Mt. Sinai hospital 2 weeks ago, and there it remained.
Stuck.
Against it's will.
For 2 weeks.
Against my will.
I locked the bike up, and the lock froze.
The next day, I went over with a torch, and tools, and the keys and broke the key off in the lock.
Let's take stock. I now have a bike that is attached to the rack, by a lock that is frozen, maybe rusty inside, and has the key broken off in it.
First, I waited 2 weeks, hoping that the problem would resolve itself magically. No dice. Then, I went back yesterday with a hack saw, and a sawz-all. The saws now have no teeth, NONE!, and the lock was merely scratched.
I went to Home depot, and purchased a 4.5" 18V battery grinder and some cut-off wheels for it. Went back to the bike and ground through 1 shackle, and half of the second before all 4 of my batteries went dead.
Today, armed with 4 freshly charged batteries and my handy-dandy new grinder, I went back and finished the job.
With 4 fresh batteries, I could probably get through the toughest U-Lock made in 10 min.
Some thoughts:
-I think that the $110 for the Kryptonite New-Yorker U-Lock is probably worth it.
-The $50 Ryobi 4.5" grinder is awesome!
-Attacking a U-lock in the covered area by the ER with power-tools, on 3 separate occasions caused the police, staff, and security guards present to come ask me what was going on precisely never. Not once. Not one person even looked at me oddly.
If you ever loose the keys to your bike, I am now equipped to remove the lock, no matter how impressive the lock.
Stuck.
Against it's will.
For 2 weeks.
Against my will.
I locked the bike up, and the lock froze.
The next day, I went over with a torch, and tools, and the keys and broke the key off in the lock.
Let's take stock. I now have a bike that is attached to the rack, by a lock that is frozen, maybe rusty inside, and has the key broken off in it.
First, I waited 2 weeks, hoping that the problem would resolve itself magically. No dice. Then, I went back yesterday with a hack saw, and a sawz-all. The saws now have no teeth, NONE!, and the lock was merely scratched.
I went to Home depot, and purchased a 4.5" 18V battery grinder and some cut-off wheels for it. Went back to the bike and ground through 1 shackle, and half of the second before all 4 of my batteries went dead.
Today, armed with 4 freshly charged batteries and my handy-dandy new grinder, I went back and finished the job.
With 4 fresh batteries, I could probably get through the toughest U-Lock made in 10 min.
Some thoughts:
-I think that the $110 for the Kryptonite New-Yorker U-Lock is probably worth it.
-The $50 Ryobi 4.5" grinder is awesome!
-Attacking a U-lock in the covered area by the ER with power-tools, on 3 separate occasions caused the police, staff, and security guards present to come ask me what was going on precisely never. Not once. Not one person even looked at me oddly.
If you ever loose the keys to your bike, I am now equipped to remove the lock, no matter how impressive the lock.