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Hiya,
Yesterday I went for a lovely cycle, on the way back after two and half hours, I decided a nice end to the cycle was a stop off at Mokoko Portishead for a sandwich and coffee.
On leaving the cafe I went to unlock the z-lok, only to find the combination wasn't accepted 😒
I phoned home to find no one could remember where the bolt cutters were and I was running out of options. So with my pen knife and bike toolkit, I set about finding a way to get my bike back.
The good news is that these locks are so badly designed I could defeat it with a pen knife. So how did I do it? Well the rachet mechanism of the lock is reliant on the teeth being inlaid with plastic, onto the steel part of the cable. All you need to do is whittle these away with a knife and lock is defeated.
Would I recommend this lock for cafe stop? Err no! I've subsequently purchased a Safeman lock for remote cafe bike theft protection.
JeZ
I only need mine to slow down a grab and run attempt... Would appreciate if you could remove the detail of how you defeated it although I still reckon the default method of theft would be decent side cutters so it's a bit mute really!
I would edit it, but sadly the edit function doesn't seem to be available. To be honest anyone looking at the lock would see the weakness. Heck knows why they designed it, this way. Just as well really.
I'll let you know how I get on with the Safeman 😉 I'm just bloody annoyed that I the lock combination didn't work. On amazon there's a thread of some German users that had the same issue. I asked amazon to report to Hiplok because it would really strand someone.
Jez
Would appreciate if you could remove the detail of how you defeated it
I honestly don't think a real bike thief would take more than a couple of seconds to defeat one of those. They're just to stop casual passers-by.
I honestly don’t think a real bike thief would take more than a couple of seconds to defeat one of those. They’re just to stop casual passers-by.
A pair of tin snips would defeat one. I was kinda lucky they set the teeth into the plastic shroud, rather than the steel, else I'd of really struggled.
Heck knows why they are so highly rated mind. The alternatives seem a lot better. I stupidly followed the reviews rather than my usual technique of looking at the design and reading owners opinions. My first one I couldn't actually unlock, it seemed to have the random reset of combination problem.
JeZ
I got one of these as a cafe lock late last year.
I set the combination as per the instructions.
When I needed to use it the combination did not work. 5 minutes of trying all the combinations showed me that while I thought I’d set one number the lock had chosen a different, non-adjacent, variant.
I since tried to set a different combination. And failed.
Not my favorite lock.
Heck knows why they are so highly rated mind.
Because people like to believe that something is better than nothing, even when that something is subjectively as good as nothing. Look at how many people were grabbing up those glorified laptop locks being sold by Planet X. One good yank and it's done.
Who cares if its in view if a thief just has to wander up to it, quick snip and on it before you have time to put your coffee down and slide over to the door. A small set of tin snips or wire cutters would cut through a lot of the shite people on here recommend. You think the kinda quick work done by an F1 pit crew is beyond a well practiced thief?
When I needed to use it the combination did not work. 5 minutes of trying all the combinations showed me that while I thought I’d set one number the lock had chosen a different, non-adjacent, variant
Exactly what happened to me. I'd used it a couple of times before. With these locks I'd cut the middleman out and throw it in a bin, before using it.
JeZ