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@Pragma
Can I ask if you have any feeling why you think the Hammerhead might be an excellent lock?
You might be interested that we used to sell the Squire Urban Paramount D-lock as a decent compromise between security level, weight and price. Squire have withdrawn that and have replaced it with the Hammerhead. We have refused to carry that so far because it is made in China (not a good start for us), but also particularly because it has an inferior cylinder (the 'P5' 5-pin cylinder, cf. the Squire 6-pin 'KIK' cylinder that underpins the Stronghold range of locks such as the SS50CS and that was also used in the Urban Paramount), and the Hammerhead is heavier (1.74kg on the one I've just weighed, including carrying bracket). We tend to think the main role for D-locks is for portable security so weight is critical. However, several of the Kryptonite etc D-locks that you favour are very heavy so I am interested in people's views on all this?
How much weight are you willing to carry?
How do you carry the Kryptonite etc locks as I think many don't come with a carry bracket?
Are you interested in the advantages of a superior cylinder in your locks such that you could have a D-lock for portable security and a chain & padlock back at home, and maybe a third lock on your shed door, with all locks on the same key ("Keyed Alike" in the jargon)? This was possible with the Urban Paramount, including retrospectively, but that is not practical with the Hammerhead and indeed with the vast majority of products from the big-name manufacturers. Sometimes, manufacturers will offer Keyed-Alike as an option, but if the resellers don't carry any, and if they don't bother to offer a key-matching (retrospective keyed-alike) service, it can end up rather hollow. The Chinese-manufactured locks tend to suffer from this if the final product is not re-keyable, which many aren't. Squire are very good at making locks to order that match the key on the lock you had potentially years earlier. I personally hate carrying bunches of keys so really rate the ability to get lots of locks onto the same key. Am I different?/Do you not care about having different keys all over the place?
Squire have also talked about offering the Hammerhead with the better 6-pin cylinder so if they do, that might take away one of our gripes with it.
(I should say Kryptonite's products are also all made in China as far as we know, as is the case with a lot of the big-name manufacturers. At least Squire do make their top-of-the-range locks here in the UK - I know because I've seen the machines that do it! This aspect also helps them to give an excellent 10-year guarantee and very good backup on the rare occasions when things have gone wrong, as well as a quick turnaround on Keyed-Alike orders etc.)
The good news with the Hammerhead is that it is cheaper than the Urban Paramount was. The Hammerhead RRP is £54.98 inc VAT but I imagine there will be better deals than that from various stockists.
Cheers,
Steve.