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@eeehhhh
Now, undoubtedly many of you here will have a Kryptonite Evolution Mini already, but before I bought mine I couldn't find a single review online. Also, there hasn't been a "proper" review on here yet so I thought I'll write one! The pictures aren't that great I'm afraid - they were taken on my Sony Ericsson phone.
Why did I buy the Kryptonite Evolution Mini? Well, I've recently got a new summer job and my employer won't let me put my bike out the back of the shop (even thought there is plenty of space to do so safely!). This means I've got to leave it in the town centre's bike racks... I've already got a Kryptonite New York 3000, but I wanted something extra so that they couldn't twist my bike, or nick my front wheel. Plus two locks are always better than one.
Why not a chain? Chains are rubbish, I think. Admittedly they have the advantage over u-locks of being able to lock to larger objects. But, they weigh loads, and with a decent enough pair of bolt croppers you can get through them. A decent chain was £80 upwards, whereas the Mini was only £34.99 including postage from Wiggle.
So, here's the lock straight out of the box...
And inside the little cardboard box thing, you'll find the mounting bracket, one lighted key, two normal keys and an allen key attach the bracket to your bike. There's also the manual, bracket mounting instructions and anti-theft offer paperwork for upto £900.
The end of the shackle, here. One thing I did notice is that the keyhole is relatively shallow, compared to my New York 3000. Whether or not that means it'll be easier to pick, I don't know. But as I said, I'm only using this as a secondary lock so even if they do pick this they've still got to break the other one.
The black plastic thing rotates round to cover the keyhole. Nice and simple.
What surprised me was the way the lock has a curved bit that goes into the shackle, as I had never seen anything like that before. Perhaps it makes it more difficult to break open? I don't know.
It is really quite small, in comparison to the NY 3000. It's loads lighter too. There's no way you would want the NY 3000 in your back pocket but the Mini would be absolutely fine. The Mini is a lot thinner, as you can see in the photo.
Another size comparison picture.
So my first impressions? It's definitely a nice size for securing your front wheel when you're leaving your bike for a long time, or for locking up your bike outside the cafe whilst you have a quick drink, go to the toilet and so on. I definitely wouldn't use it alone for locking up my bike all day though. It does seem, to me anyway, to be no where near as tough as the NY 3000, which, to be fair, is to be expected.
Fiddling about with it I've noticed that when you want to lock it up you have to pull the cross bar on quite tight so that the locks engage fully before you turn the key, a bit tricky at first but it's not a major fault or anything.
The bracket is also quite tight attaching to the lock. It clips on to the silver thing on the lock. I haven't even bothered attaching it to my bike because I think they look awful and I don't want my paint work marked (it does come with a rubber shim, though).
Overall, I'm quite pleased. Not bad for £35... I think I'll be investing in some pitlocks next because I'm paranoid someone is going to nick my forks now....