Wasn't just heresay it was people confirming they'd done it, looks like you just need the right pen.. I've not got a chain so I have no major interest..

locks and alarms are a plie of pants. My Sv has an alarm and thats because it was part of the deal. Dont belive in locks.

I have been known to leave my keys in the seat unit whilst parked in Brighton, and in the ignition whilst parked in london. If its going to get knicked its going to knicked no matter how you lock it up.

Very true but that's not the arguement, and besides, you can still avoid opportunist thiefs with locks and alarms, and that is a percentage of the risk.

I'll use a parker!

Well, I had to have a go, but I haven't managed to pick my Oxford lock or any other 'round key' lock yet.

I wonder how well 'carved-into-keys' the ends of the pens were?? or maybe all the little rollers were removed, a bit like what you can do with a 'Yale' type lock, remove the pins and then show your skills at opening it with a penknife!!

remember that insurance companies will laugh in your face :laughat: if you leave the keys in and it gets nicked................ there again it has to be some special sort of numpty who admits to leaving the keys in when they make a claim! :roll:

I just had to revive this post.......

It seems that Oxford locks are also badly affected by this problem and they have sort of admitted it:

http://www.oxprod.com/pages/radialkey.html

I have been looking at lock picking websites today and it seems that the barrel type locks are so easy most lockpickers will not even waste their time practicing on them!

Moral of the story, dont use tubular type locks I guess :-)

I've got a really old one of these... best check it when I get home.

Oxford and kryptonite! Thing that bugs me is how bloody expensive these locks are. I've got some generic locks that I put on the bike, not a tube key among the lot.
I used to have a mate who could pick the money box on a public phone but wouldn't tell you his secret. As it was a tubular lock I reckon he was doing something along these lines. He was a right dishonest fecker for a locksmith.....

The reason they are so expensive is because they are quite resistant to brute force attacks, the problem is that people have taken their eye off the pickability strength. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link :-)

After watching a professional lock picking video I am never going to buy a tubular lock (known as an Ace lock) again - their main weakness is the fact that you can gain easy access to the pins. There are tools on the market that allow any idiot to open one of them in a few seconds.....

There's an article about this in December's issue of RiDE magazine.

Aparently the ones that are more vulnerable are those where the depressions on the key are of similar heights - I guess making it easier to wiggle a pen about to get the right level.

Kryptonite are offering replacement locks for anyone with a 'round key' lock of theirs who is worried about security. You can either log on to www.kryptonite.com and fill in the form or phone them on 001 781 828 6655.
They'll send you a label to cover the cost of postage for sending your old lock back and there's no time limit on how old the lock is. You don't need the receipt either.

I've copied the above from RiDE Magazine.