Re: [CR]KRYPTONITE LOCK - my story

(Example: Racing:Roger de Vlaeminck)

Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 08:06:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Fred Rafael Rednor" <fred_rednor@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [CR]KRYPTONITE LOCK - my story
To: "mark.d.lawrence" <mark.d.lawrence@ntlworld.com>, classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
In-Reply-To: <005a01c0faf7$634c8840$4d50fe3e@defaultcn>


> I would prefer to just take my deterrent cable lock. Mark, Don't make any hasty decisions in that regard. Here's my story, which I think is fully in accord with the "classic content ruling" as it occurred in 1983 and relates to my 1979 LeJeune tandem. So here goes... During our ten months long journey aboard our tandem, my wife Elana and I were in Rome for a couple of weeks. During the evening the bike was locked to a railing on the ground floor of the building in which our pensione was located. We used a Kryptonite lock through the frame and rear wheel and a cable through the front wheel, frame and around the railing. Since the bike was essentially obscured from passers-by, we weren't overly concerned. One morning, we were awakened by the police. It seems that they had apprehended two youths who were carrying the tandem through the street, rather than riding it. One way or another, they got the thieves to admit that the bike was stolen and eventually found us. (How they managed to find us is another story.) Anyway, the thieves were able to cut through the cable and "liberate" the tandem but were unable to remove the Kryptonite lock. Hence they had to carry it rather than ride away on it. On the other hand, their inability to remove the lock was not due to lack of effort. In fact, they had destroyed the key hole in the process so I could not get the key into the cylinder. Now we couldn't ride the bike either! Without the appropriate blade, we couldn't simply use a hacksaw to cut the lock. Nor did we have a grinder. So we used an electric drill to remove the cylinder - it took about an hour. So in our case, the Kryptonite lock proved much more effective than the cable and saved the bicycle. Of course, it's also possible that bicycle thieves have become much more sophisticated in the intervening 18 years. Fred Rednor - Arlington, Virginia

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