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Item 721701
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Displaying review 1
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about OnGuard Pitbull Standard STD U-Lock:
Nice big heavy lock. The shackle is long enough to make locking the bike to fenceposts or whatnot relatively easy. On the other hand, that length leaves open space inside the shackle, making it easier for thieves to apply leverage.
The mount which is intended to let you carry the lock on the bike is pretty bad. It consists of the mount itself, plus a nylon strap that you tighten around the frame tube by turning a bolt that winds up the strap. The bolt has a ratchets that keeps it from loosening.
The mount is actually pretty flexible. The nylon strap can reach around pretty much any size frame tube, large or small. The lock has a flange that slides into a slot on the mount, and the slot is on a separate assembly, which can be removed by unscrewing four screws, and rotated to any of four directions. So you could mount the lock in line with a tube, or 90 degrees to it.
Further, the lock flange is molded into a collar mounted around the shackle, and which can be rotated by untightening a small hex bolt. That gives you the option of mounting the lock out of line with the plane of the frame.
So there are lots of different ways you can mount the lock on the bike. The directions suggest several, but there are more. I tried all of them.
Unfortunately, you cannot try a position by merely holding the lock next to the frame. You have to go through the full rigamarole of mounting it. That requires tightening all four screws, tightening the strap, then inserting the lock and seeing if it fits. Further, the strap tension is held by a ratchet, and there is no way to release the ratchet; you just have to force the bolt to turn against the ratchet, probably weakening it. Lastly, the mount and strap are both slippery (the strap has rubber threads woven into it, but they have no effect), so they include a loose thin piece of rubber you are supposed to place between the mount and the frame. It is a fiddly piece of work to hold the mount in place, keep the loose piece of rubber from falling out, and tighten the strap all at the same time.
I did that entire thing perhaps seven times, and each time, the lock interfered with my pedaling. I finally found a place on one of the down tubes (which run diagonally from the seatpost to the rear hub). The lock extended backwards, out of the way.
Unfortunately, in my first day of riding with the lock mounted, the mount rotated around the tube, so that the lock shackle contacted the rear wheel spokes. Repeatedly tightening the strap did little to help, and once the lock swung right into the wheel, stopping it dead and bending a spoke. I dealt with it by aiming the lock outward, away from the wheel, and keeping an eye on it. To really keep mount from rotating around the tube, you would need some different shim material. I was planning to use some high-friction rubber mesh designed to keep thin rugs from sliding.
But it was not to be, because after a six mile city commute, the mount itself broke, so it would no longer hold the lock. Also, I found that the thin rubber had disintegrated, leaving a sticky black smear on my frame. Just as well. I will just carry the (heavy, hard) lock in my messenger bag.
Displaying review 1
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