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:)

It's sold out at Halfords now anyway. It's an excellent secondary lock and has survived as a primary lock for me in and around London when needs must. When used on its own I think it says "sod off, don't even try" more loudly than the Evo Mini and it doesn't rattle.

Combined with the rest of my measures (Abus Plus 54 230mm, Pitlocks, solder) it's a good'n. I never. Ever. leave my bike out overnight.

I like the Abus 401 because it'd require 2 cuts to defeat it. The Evo Mini has the 'bent foot' design.

I never used the keyhole protector on the Evo Mini actually. And the lock cover on an old massive (not spare she'd lock) NY Krypto broke quickly.

I know this is a SECONDARY LOCK but the Abus 401 Mini (the Gold rated one) is currently £36.57 from Halfords (Slight anomally in the desctiption about it being 'Insurance approved by Sold Secure to Silver level' although it also prominently mentions 'Gold' and '401' several times)

Posting it here as the Secondary Locks thread isn't as active and, well, if we're discussing Primary Locks then you may want a Secondary.

Big fan of this thread btw. My set-up that has survived London for many years:
Abus X-Plus 54 230mm
Abus 401 Mini for quick stops & secure sheds
Kryptonite Evo Mini (now retired as prefer Abus 401)
PitLocks (wheels, seatpost)
Solder in Allen bolt heads [stem, bar clamp, steerer clamp, seat clamp]

Abus granit x-plus 54 and 540 are identical only the 540 has a "housing cover with soft touch properties to prevent paintwork damage".

Ah, thanks good to know.

CRANKY

I've got a solder sucker but when melting the solder in the bolts the solder never actually gets fluid, just soft. A bradawl would be a useful tool for prizing out the soft blob! Good luck with it. Oh, and i did the bolt where my seatpost joins the saddle rails/clamp too.

**Cranky:
**
I've applied and removed it from several heads and all fine. Mine is a very nice but (intentionally) tatty Reynolds mountain bike from the late 90s so the odd bit solder resin doesn't upset me. Might think twice on carbon parts. As several friends have has their bikes picked for parts in East London I want to keep my Deore XT shifters. I wouldn't do it on my drive train as they're parts I may need to get at if I'm in need of a quick fix in the middle of nowhere.

I recently removed some solder after it being in there for 3 years and 7000 miles. Took a lot of heating up (bike acts as heat sink) but once soft and warm some very gentle action with a small drill and pilot bit got it out easily - but not too easily.

I own a soldering iron so it was easy to try. Mine is for electronics and only 25w but I'd recommend a beefier one if using it solely for this purpose. And use solder with resin as it helps it bond to the alloy.

Rogue drips of solder will do less damage than super glue/acetone (which is the alternative) I reckon.

UPDATE: I've seen this blurb on Wiggle and Amazon "*The Sold Secure Gold rated Granit X-Plus 540 replaces the legendary X-Plus 54 with a more stylish look while retaining its safety features."
*
Oh, and here's a trippy video tutorial on the EaZyKF bracket, from Abus*.
*

Abus Granit X-Plus 54 230mm with EaZyKF is less than £60 on Amazon at the moment
I prefer the 230mm to the 300mm to give less space for jacks etc. This lock combined with PitLocks, solder in Allen heads and Evolution Mini as secondary has kept my bike and all it's bits mine all over London.

EaZyKF is my favourite bracket for this - not that I've tried the others, but compared to some Kryptonite crappy brackets I've had this is very good and offers versatile mounting options.

There's a replacement model for this lock - the 'Granit X-Plus 540'.

Looking at the ABUS website the only difference is the word 'hardened'. See 54 vs 540 . Both same weight and same security rating (15). Thoughts?

UPDATE: £56.90 inc P&P from 'faguru' seller on Amazon UK !!

What surprised me most was how little steel there was in this particular stand.

Saw this today and thought you should be aware...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rossforsale/7129395579/in/photostream

hipster touchés

Hipster douches.

Quick release bike parking, Old Street. - YouTube

Stopped on Old Street today so locked up near the tube station, north-east side on the pavement. As I started getting my locks out my bike inexplicably started to lean over... the reason was this stand had previously been cut in two and could swing freely.

I didn't notice it on approaching because it was 'closed' without an obvious gap, so watch out. I reported it to Hackney as a fault.

Shit. That's bad!

I've got a feeling that that location is in Islington Borough though.

Nicked?

Well...in Oct 2010 he bought '2 x STV Zero In bed bug Killer Spray with floral scent' !!

Well...in Oct 2010 he bought '2 x STV Zero In bed bug Killer Spray with floral scent' !!

Very interesting discussion. I'm now checking out everyones bike locking technique. A popular (but crap) method is to use a chunky D-lock as nothing more than a padlock, with a crappy cable wrapped around the railings!

I ride an old 98 Reynolds 525(?) mountain bike, all rigid, smooth tyres, which i love dearly.

I've been lugging around a Kryptonite M18 that Kryptonite sent me as a replacement after the Bic pen fiasco made my previous RokLok rather pointless.

I recently wanted a lock that's a little bit more every day (and so i can leave the M18 at work), and the M18 didn't come with a bracket, probably intentionally, so I bought one and it's broken two EZ Mounts! Too heavy? Too much leverage, maybe?

For now I've gone for the Evo Mini, just for when I'm in cafés etc. It arrived today from Amazon and it's got a Silver Sold Secure sticker on the box. The copyright on the packaging says 2005, but companies often use the same packaging for years, yet this sticker had been added for the UK market.

Ideally I'll get a Fahg soon too, so that and the Evo Mini will make a good Hackney set-up. And all compatible with the same bracket. I've got Pitlocks on wheels and seatpost too. Maybe headset lock next too.

For what it's worth there's a stripped down Merlin MTB frame in Bloomsbury secured with an Evo Mini. Looks like it's been there for a while, and while the wheels and seat have gone, the very nice frame remains, so that must be some credit to the lock.