Bike Locks and Keys for Vancouver

Summer is now in full swing and it’s a beautiful time to get on your bike and explore Vancouver and the surrounding Lower Mainland. It’s amazing how many of the surrounding cities are interconnected to one another using bike paths. We are truly blessed that way. Along the way, you may stop for a coffee or a bite to eat. If so, remember to lock up your bike! For those new to cycling, here is a brief article on bike locks and keys in terms of how to select your bike lock and where to get more keys.

As always, you have any questions or comments, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. You can also drop by our Downtown Vancouver Key Store located at 555 West Hastings St near Gastown. The Key Store is open Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm. Per our Google Horus, we are available for Mobile and Emergency Locksmith Services from 8am to Midnight 7 days a week. 

While we do not carry a large selection of bike locks and keys, we do have the basic essentials if you are in a pinch.

Selecting the Type of Bike Lock

Bike Locks come in all shapes and sizes to fit any type of budget and needs. It really depends on the value of your bike and what you plan to do with it.

When it comes to selecting the type of bike lock, the usual choices are:

• Chains
• Cables
• U-shaped
• Folding

Bike Chain Locks

Chains can be a great economical way to secure your bike. They come in different gauges or link sizes. Obviously, the thinner the chain link, the less protection it offers. Thicker chain links provide greater protection.

However, the chain link thickness is not the only factor to consider. For example, most chains available at Home Depot or from cheaper bike lock brands use round chain links. This is cheaper to manufacture as it simply takes a roll of rod material then cuts and bends into links during the forging process.

Security Chains are often square in diameter. The shape is harder to cut with a pair of bolt cutters. In fact, the average bolt cutter may not open wide enough to cut a 10mm square security chain link. Anyone who has used a pair of scissors knows that it’s easier to cut the material when it is close to the fulcrum point where the two blades come together; thus, the square chain is harder to cut than the round chain.

Another factor to consider is the Rockwell hardness rating and the metal ally composition of the chain. The higher the Rockwell hardness, the harder the material is to cut or penetrate. However, harder materials tend to be brittle so the alloy mixture is important to keep the metal somewhat malleable. Security Chains offer a fairly high Rockwell hardness rating that will exceed the hardness rating of most bolt cutters. Yet they will be malleable enough not to shatter when subjected to repeated heavy impacts.

The second to last factor to consider is the average temperature of your environment. Security Chains have great hardness and malleability, but they are still less malleable than a cheaper chain from Home Depot with lower hardness. As a result, if you live near the Arctic Circle, a Security Chain might shatter during really low temperatures. On the other hand, people living in the Great North are probably not out riding bikes during the Winter months.

In turn, if you live down South with really high temperatures, make sure your bike chain has a built-on covering of some sort. Bare metal can get skin-burning hot during a Heat Wave just like the one we had this week in Metro Vancouver. You can unexpectedly suffer 1st or 2nd degree burns if you leave your bike locked out in the Sun for a long time.

The last fact to consider when selecting a bike chain is the portability of the device. Thicker chains can be surprisingly heavy, so how will you transport it while you are cycling? Most people wrap their chain around the bike seat post which may be fine on flat and downhill terrain. However, when you are going up a steep incline like Oak St off West 4th Ave, that chain will drag you down like an anchor.

Bike Cable Locks

Bike cables can be a more economical way to get the flexibility of a chain but not the inconvenience of the weight nor the cost. There are usually two types of cable locks: Retractable and Non-Retractable.

Retractable cable locks use a thin gauge wire to loop around the bike and an immovable object. It’s similar to those used to secure ski and snowboards at a ski resort. It’s very convenient as the whole device fits into your pocket and is very lightweight. The downside is that it offers minimal protection. A pair of wire cutters or even kitchen shears can usually cut the thin cable.

Non-retractable cable locks are usually thick multi-stranded wire cables coated in a PVC covering. There are versions with interlocking pieces of metal again coated in a PVC covering as well. They are much harder to cut and can provide an economical alternative to a chain of similar diameter or thickness.

U-Shaped Bike Locks

U-Shaped Bike Locks are the quintessential bike locks of my youth. It’s just a hunk of metal interlocked into a locking bar with a tubular or flat key on one key. They used to be quite cheap, but companies like Kryptonite offer premium level U-shaped bike locks with features like ½” to ¾” diameter hardened steel shackles, bump proof disc detainer locks, warded keyways, and so on.

In my professional opinion, U-Shaped Bike Locks with thick hardened steel shackles are the way to go. Even with a professional contractor grade die grinder with high quality German cutting wheels, Kryptonite and similar brand bike locks are incredibly annoying and time consuming to cut. Without a set of good quality power tools, it would be almost impossible to cut one of these locks.

So, if they are so great, what are the downsides? Here’s a few:

• They can get very heavy. Even a small Kryptonite can be a lot of dead weight to be carrying about.
• They cover a small area. If you want to secure multiple points of your bike, you are going to need multiple U-Shaped bike locks.
• The good ones are very expensive.

I have really cheap U-Shaped bike locks at the Downtown Vancouver Key Store at 555 West Hastings St near Gastown. However, the good Kryptonite versions can get very pricey very quickly and best found online at places like Amazon Canada.

Folding Bike Locks

Folding Bike Locks can be a good alternative to a high quality U-Shaped bike lock like the Kryptonite series. By folding bike lock, I mean something like the Abus Bordo series. For the uninitiated, the Abus Bordo bike locks have hardened steel plates riveted together using hardened steel rivets. They provide similar protection to a U-Shaped bike lock, but can be folded into a neat block that can be holstered onto your bike frame.

I personally use the Abus Bordo bike lock as it’s a convenient way to secure my bike to various objects. The multi-jointed nature of the lock allows for greater convenience when standard bike locking posts are not available.

Like the Kryptonite, Abus Bordo bike locks can get very heavy at the higher levels. They can also get very expensive. For example, the upper tier Abus Bordo Granite bike lock costs over $300 on Amazon Canada. It also weighs 5 lbs, so it’s quite the behemoth.

 

The Trouble of Bike Lock Keys

About once a day in the Spring and Fall and twice a day during the Summer, I get calls about bike lock keys. Bike locks usually come with 2 keys and when clients lose one they want to get a copy while they still have the last remaining key. Since good locks are quite pricey, it’s totally reasonable.

The trouble is that bike lock manufacturers do not make it easy for their customers to get key copies. In fact, unless you have a reputable brand like Abus or Kryptonite, you might as well forget it. If you lose your second key, it’s time to get a new bike lock.

Otherwise, there are usually 3 types of bike lock keys floating around the Vancouver area:

• Tubular
• Flat
• Disc Detainer

Tubular

Tubular keys have been around for ages. My very first bike lock had a tubular key. You can recognize a tubular key by the circular shape of the key, and it has either 5/7/8 notches evenly spaced around the circumference of the circle.

If you have a tubular key, you may still be able to get a copy of it made. In fact, you might still be able to find a Vancouver locksmith who can make a key for you if you have lost all the keys.

You will usually need to find an old timer locksmith with a working tubular key machine. This is going to be a challenge as most Key Stores will not. The problem is that the machine that copies tubular keys only does that one function and it’s not inexpensive. Given that I only encounter 1 or 2 tubular keys in any given year, I simply never repurchased this machine after my old one died.

However, tubular keys are still common in specialty fields like elevators and industrial electrical switches. You will have to call around town to find an old timer with a working machine or a Key Shop that has a lot of industrial clients.

Flat

The bike lock industry eventually transitioned away from tubular keys and into flat keys. Flat keys are the small keys you use for office furniture, mailboxes, and the like. In the bike lock world, a lot of these flat keys were double sided meaning you had cuts on both sides of the key.

Flat keys are definitely more popular than tubular keys so you have a greater chance of finding a Vancouver downtown locksmith with the proper key blank. Or at least, I used to say that until the market was flooded with cheap cylinders from China. These China-made locks use proprietary key blanks that none of our distributors stock or can get. As a result, we stopped being able to copy these as well.

This also applies especially to our clients with e-bikes. E-bikes usually have cheap Made In China cam locks that secures the battery. Unfortunately, we have never really been able to get key blanks for any of the popular ebike models from Rad Power Bikes and so on. If you have one of these locally sold ebikes, your best bet to get more key copies would be to contact your local retailer. If you bought your ebike online, you are SOL.

Disc Detainer Keys

Whether it’s Kryptonite or Abus, all the premium bike lock brands are now switching over to Disc Detainer Locks for several reasons:

• Inherently bump proof
• Difficult to lock pick
• More resilient to inclement weather and dirt
• Less moving parts
• Higher Security

By moving away from springs and tumblers, these locks are less prone to mechanical failure and things like water and dirt are easier to flush out. While it is possible for a skilled lock picker to pick these open, it requires a level of skill that not even I have. If you lose all your keys to one of these bike locks, the key I will be using is a die grinder.

One of the most annoying things about this new type of bike lock cylinder is the inability of my customers to get more keys. For example, the Abus version comes with a key card that makes it seem possible to get new keys. However, I get callers who tell me that Abus Customer Service told them that their keys can be copied by any nearby locksmith which is patently false.

In fact, I have spoken to the team at Abus Canada and they know that this is not possible. Currently, if you want copies of your Abus key, you have to contact the Abus office in Toronto, Ontario with your Abus key card. They have a special $40,000 key machine that can cut your key.

When I last spoke to the Abus representative in June 2024, they were in the process of setting up a local system whereby we (the local downtown Vancouver locksmith) can take your Abus key card info and have copies ready for pickup in about 3 to 5 business days. That system should be set up by Fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info on pricing and availability.

Conclusion

To protect your investment, it is important to select the right bike lock and to use it. About 5 years ago, I bought my wife a new bike and picked it up in the morning. I stopped by the Key Store for a couple of hours to catch up on admin work. When I got back to my vehicle, my wife’s brand new shiny red bike was stolen.

I had used the medium gauge cable lock that came with the bike rack but it was no use. I had bought an Abus Bordo but had not used it because I would be gone for only a short while. My mistake.

Thankfully my Visa insurance coverage on new purchases covered most of the loss, but it was a lesson I would never forget. No lock in the world is of any use if you don’t use it properly or at all.

If you have any questions or comments, please call or text me at 604-363-2760 or email me at alex@locksmithvancouver.com. You can also drop by our Gastown Key Store at 555 West Hastings St. We are located on the bottom floor of the SFU/Harbour Centre next to the BC Liquor Store. The Downtown Vancouver Key Store is open Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm. Per our Google Horus, we are available for Mobile and Emergency Locksmith Services from 8am to Midnight 7 days a week.