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  • Just to add to the above story of vandalism.

    I own a Fahg but I never use it - it's just too heavy for me to bother with. I really believe the X-54 is the sweet spot for portability, deployability and weight, as you'll see below...

    So: I do own and use an Abus Granit X-54, which has, to me, the huge advantage of a very good frame mounting. It's not pretty but it's by far the easiest way to carry a lock.

    My bike is also Pitlocked all round (didn't initially have a seatpost one and post was nicked within two weeks.) and I've never used a second lock in 3 years of cycling in London.

    The bike in question is a fairly subtle looking geared all black Condor Agio.

    This was about 3 months ago:

    Bike was locked up near Holborn tube, on some highly populated bike racks under some trees on the big junction one block north of Holborn. When I returned to it about 2am, after failing to get through the Pitlocks, they nicked the saddle anyway (easily the lowest value item on there, it was a beater a shop gave me for free while they were replacing my real saddle) and dismantled the front of the stem, leaving my drops just hanging down on the front on their brake cables.

    Perhaps they were trying to take away my whole front fork but that's as far as they got?

    There was a single cut-mark in the rubber on the Abus, but nothing more. I'm still using the same lock today and am confident it wasn't compromised. I almost always lock through both rear seatstays, the back wheel and the bike rack - the clearances are too great for the edscoble method.

    When I got back to it, it was obviously un-rideable so I wheeled/carried it to outside the Condor shop on Grays Inn to get the bus home and return in the morning. I locked it outside a 24h newsagent opposite Condor but obviously that didn't help because when I came back in the morning....

    Either the same guys (it was only about 1km from the initial attempt location) or potentially some other guys tried again, and this time when they couldn't do anything, they too kicked in the front wheel (which is why rhowe's post prompted me to post) beyond usability. Fucking fucks.

    So overall I had to get a new front wheel (the one they fucked up was about 2 weeks old after I'd worn out my old one), new saddle and new seatpost (they'd taken too many of the clamp parts from the top for me to easily get it back in action again without much parts faffing) for a total of about £250.

    MUCH better than losing the bike, but still a fucking pain in the arse.

    Still, Locks That Work: Abus Granite X-54. Twice in one night.

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