On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

If so, is there a recommendation?

They seem to come ridiculously cheap or quite expensive but I have no idea
how effective each one is.

Cheers


Dave R



--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

I doubt it.


If so, is there a recommendation?

When I had to cut a cable lock after €œclicking€� it on (and leaving key at
home) I was able to borrow a small wire cutter. By nibbling away at the
individual wires (or a few at a time) it didnt take that long to chew
through the cable.

I imagine a junior hacksaw would do the job too but not tried that.


Tim


--
Please don't feed the trolls

On 19/07/2019 16:41, Tim+ wrote:
David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

I doubt it.


If so, is there a recommendation?

When I had to cut a cable lock after €œclicking€� it on (and leaving key at
home) I was able to borrow a small wire cutter. By nibbling away at the
individual wires (or a few at a time) it didnt take that long to chew
through the cable.

I imagine a junior hacksaw would do the job too but not tried that.

For something small, light and effective, I would have though a cordless
Dremel with an abrasive disk AKA mini angle grinder :-)


--
Colin Bignell

On 19/07/2019 16:33, David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

If so, is there a recommendation?

They seem to come ridiculously cheap or quite expensive but I have no idea
how effective each one is.

Cheers


Dave R



I thought I would try carrying one for lopping off branches over
bridleways. Maybe they are OK for super fit military types but I found
them very hard work. I now carry a small folding pruning saw if I expect
to need it. Even the just under 3 inch saw on a swiss army knife is better.

I imagine you would need the expensive (diamond?) ones for metal. I
think you would find them very slow, and also not necessarily easy to
maintain pressure on a small area.

If it was easy to cut them they would not be of much use as a security
device methinks, in fact I'm surprised bolt cutters worked unless they were
extremely big ones. Most people I know use combination bike locks, you don't
need a key.
Brian

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"David" wrote in message
...
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

If so, is there a recommendation?

They seem to come ridiculously cheap or quite expensive but I have no idea
how effective each one is.

Cheers


Dave R



--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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One also has to be wary that the police might not approve of anyone carrying
a portable angle grinder, bolt croppers etc with them as its called going
equipped if they stop you.
Brian

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The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

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Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"newshound" wrote in message
...
On 19/07/2019 16:33, David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without
checking
that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers at
a
railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

If so, is there a recommendation?

They seem to come ridiculously cheap or quite expensive but I have no
idea
how effective each one is.

Cheers


Dave R



I thought I would try carrying one for lopping off branches over
bridleways. Maybe they are OK for super fit military types but I found
them very hard work. I now carry a small folding pruning saw if I expect
to need it. Even the just under 3 inch saw on a swiss army knife is
better.

I imagine you would need the expensive (diamond?) ones for metal. I think
you would find them very slow, and also not necessarily easy to maintain
pressure on a small area.

On Fri, 19 Jul 2019 15:41:13 +0000, Tim+ wrote:

David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without
checking that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers
at a railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

I doubt it.


If so, is there a recommendation?

When I had to cut a cable lock after €œclicking€� it on (and leaving key
at home) I was able to borrow a small wire cutter. By nibbling away at
the individual wires (or a few at a time) it didnt take that long to
chew through the cable.

I imagine a junior hacksaw would do the job too but not tried that.


Tim

Thanks to all.

A small wire cutter seems to be the most sensible option.

Survival type wire saws seem to be of limited value.

I think that cable locks are there merely to slow down opportunistic
thieves and meet insurance requirements (locked to an immovable object).

Noting that we immediately thought of the railway staff (turned out to be
the transport police) because anywhere which has a major bike storage
facility must have countless incidents with cable locks and lost keys,
with the consequent need to release the bikes.

Noting also that combination locks are allegedly easy to crack if you know
the technique (which I don't) and there will always be someone who has
forgotten the combination.

Cheers



Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

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In message , David
writes
On Fri, 19 Jul 2019 15:41:13 +0000, Tim+ wrote:

David wrote:
On a cycle trip earlier this week and one of the group made the classic
mistake of padlocking the bike with a flexible cable lock without
checking that the key matched the lock.

A bit of frantic planning later and we located a set of bolt croppers
at a railway station on the route and managed to get the cable cut.

However I don't want to carry my bolt croppers just in case, and was
wondering if the survival type wire saws would (eventually) cut such a
cable.

I doubt it.


If so, is there a recommendation?

When I had to cut a cable lock after €œclicking€� it on (and leaving key
at home) I was able to borrow a small wire cutter. By nibbling away at
the individual wires (or a few at a time) it didnt take that long to
chew through the cable.

I imagine a junior hacksaw would do the job too but not tried that.


Tim

Thanks to all.

A small wire cutter seems to be the most sensible option.

Survival type wire saws seem to be of limited value.

I think that cable locks are there merely to slow down opportunistic
thieves and meet insurance requirements (locked to an immovable object).

Noting that we immediately thought of the railway staff (turned out to be
the transport police) because anywhere which has a major bike storage
facility must have countless incidents with cable locks and lost keys,
with the consequent need to release the bikes.

Noting also that combination locks are allegedly easy to crack if you know
the technique (which I don't) and there will always be someone who has
forgotten the combination.

First few digits of your mobile phone number?


--
Tim Lamb

On 20/07/2019 08:22, Brian Gaff wrote:
One also has to be wary that the police might not approve of anyone carrying
a portable angle grinder, bolt croppers etc with them as its called going
equipped if they stop you.
Brian

I would think that is a very much up to the actual officer who stopped
you, and how you behave.

A youth with lots of mouth and no respect might well have that added
to the charge of wearing a loud shirt in a built up area after dark
( NTNON reference there ).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chOtJdiBZR4


A fully grown respectful adult who had a proper/believable reason for
carrying will probably get the "have a nice day" treatment.

On 20/07/2019 09:32, Tim Lamb wrote:
In message , David
writes
....
Noting also that combination locks are allegedly easy to crack if you
know
the technique (which I don't) and there will always be someone who has
forgotten the combination.

First few digits of your mobile phone number?

Lots of people would share the same first few digits. The last few would
be more random.


--
Colin Bignell