Who’s trying to steal your bike (and what tools are they using)?

Good question! Because in order to beat them, we need to know our enemy. So in this post, first we'll look at the two different types of bike thief.

And then we'll examine the nine most popular tools that they're using to steal our bikes. I've also added some videos of real thieves stealing bikes with these tools.

Who are these Bike Thieves?

So there are broadly two different types of bike thief. The first and most common, is the "opportunist" thief, who is certainly carrying cable cutters, maybe some medium-sized bolt cutters, maybe even a crowbar.

The opportunists are looking for any bikes secured with cables, puny u-locks and thin chains and padlocks. No bike is too cheap or tatty to escape their attention.

But the good news is: a decent u-lock, chain lock or folding lock will usually be too much for their limited tool set, and they will pass over your bike for easier pickings.

The second type is the “professional” bike thief. They seem to almost exclusively use portable angle grinders these days. But they may also be carrying very powerful bolt cutters or pipe cutters.

The professionals target the more expensive bikes and may even steal-to-order. They can defeat any lock given enough time. And the younger and more desperate thieves will often operate quite brazenly in public, knowing the angle grinder can also act as a weapon!

So if you have a bike that a “professional” may covet, you’ll need the best quality angle grinder resistant lock, and you’ll need to be very careful about where you leave your bike and how long you leave it for.

What tools do Bike Thieves use?

OK, let’s take a look at the nine most popular tools these thieves are using in more detail...

1. Their bare hands!

Yep, believe it or not, many cheap bike locks can be broken with your bare hands. And you don’t have to be built like the Incredible Hulk! We’re generally talking about cable locks here.

Don’t believe me? Check out this video…

2. Wire/cable cutters

A pair of hand held cable cutters will snip through most cable locks in seconds. Cheap, inconspicuous and easy to carry around in a coat pocket, this is the tool that's most commonly used by bike thieves.

And it’s worth repeating again: they will cut through nearly all cable locks in seconds. Here’s a video of a thief cutting a cable lock with a tiny pair of wire cutters...

Embarrassing isn't it? There are plenty of great, lightweight bike locks that can't be cut so easily though!

3. Bolt cutters

Bolt cutters come in a variety of sizes (usually 8″, 12″, 18″, 24″, 36″ and 42″). The smaller bolt cutters (8 and 12″) are easily concealed in a backpack and will make mince meat out of all cable locks.

What do you think this man’s got down his trousers?...

Medium sized bolt cutters (18 and 24″) are often carried beneath a long coat, hanging from a piece of rope around the thief’s neck. They’ll defeat weaker chains, u-locks and folding locks...

The biggest bolt cutters (36 and 42″) are usually only used by serious bike thieves. But they can crop mid-range u-locks and chains, and sometimes even the higher end locks. The strongest bike locks will be bolt cutter proof though...

To guarantee that a lock cannot be cropped by any manual bolt croppers, you need a lock made from good quality, properly hardened steel with a diameter of 16 mm.

But bear in mind, not everyone with 36 or 42″ bolt cutters can crop a high security locks that’s less than 16 mm thick.

Even with good locks that are 13 mm thick, it takes a thief with considerable skill (and weight!) who can maneuver the lock into a favorable position where they can use the ground for leverage.

So, again, good locking technique can minimize this risk (keep the lock as far from the floor as possible).

4. Portable angle grinders

When I first started this website (back in 2015), portable angle grinders were not commonly used to steal bikes and were at the bottom of this list.

They were expensive and also under powered (so they couldn’t get through the best locks on one battery). And in many cases, thieves didn’t need angle grinders anyway, because there were so many crappy locks that could easily be defeated with other tools!

They also make a lot of noise and produce a lot of sparks. So they should attract a lot of unwanted attention.

However, as the technology has improved (both in angle grinders and locks), they have become more common. In fact, in many towns and cities, it now seems like they are the only tool that bike thieves are using!

This is because angle grinders will cut through any lock given enough time. And many thieves are happy to wield them as weapons if any member of the public tries to interfere in their thievery.

Forward-thinking brands like Altor, (who sold the world's first "angle grinder proof bike lock"), and SkunkLock, (whose booby trapped u-lock will give any angle grinder wielding thief a very nasty surprise), were the first to fight back.

And as of 2022, there are more regular looking u-locks, such as the Litelok X1, X3 and the Hiplok D1000 and DX1000, that offer such high levels of angle grinder resistance (due to the ceramic compounds they use), that they are very unlikely to be cut in the street.

You can check out the most up-to-date list of angle grinder resistant locks here (it's growing all the time).

But at the end of the day, an angle grinder will get through any lock eventually. So if you have a desirable bike, make sure you leave it in the most public places you can find, for the shortest possible time...

5. Crow bars / Scaffold poles

Crowbars, scaffold poles and other long pieces of metal are often used in leverage attacks on u-locks. Longer ones are obviously a bit more conspicuous! But they’re very effective, even on mid range u-locks.

A smaller u-lock and good locking technique can make this much more difficult for the thief.

This is a great video of a scaffold pole thief in action...

6. Hacksaws

Just like a pair of cable cutters, a hacksaw is cheap and pretty easy to carry around unnoticed. And just like the cable cutters, it will tear through a cable lock very easily.

With enough time, a hacksaw will also cut through low quality u-locks and chains which tend to be made from thin, soft metal.

This video shows a thief stealing a bike with a hacksaw. It takes him seconds...

7. Hammers

Cheap, poor quality mechanisms can be smashed to bits with a hammer. For the thief, it’s much easier if they can hit the mechanism against a hard concrete ground. So using a good locking technique, that keeps your lock as far off the ground as possible is important.

However, they don’t always need the ground. So even more important is not buying a cheap lock that can be defeated with a hammer...

8. Pipe Cutters

This is a newer development, and thankfully pipe cutters aren’t widely used yet. However, I expect they will become increasingly popular, especially as angle grinder resistant locks become more prevalent.

After all: if the thieves can’t cut through the locks, the logical next step is to cut through whatever the lock is secured to:

Hopefully we will see another layer of security added to bike racks, before this gets out of hand, as the video above isn’t an isolated incident.

I’ve read reports of thieves cutting through bike racks in advance in Barcelona and then hiding the cut with stickers. People then lock their bikes to an already compromised rack (without realizing), and the thieves come along later and harvest the bikes at will!

Here’s another report of a bike rack being cut (it’s not clear whether the tool used was a pipe cutter, a saw or an angle grinder):

There's not a lot you can do to combat this. But at least make sure that you secure your wheel as well as your frame, so that the thief can't ride off on the bike (without cutting the lock as well), as he could in the first video.

9. Hydraulic bottle jacks

Hydraulic bottle jacks are used by some of the more serious bike thieves. Inserted into the space inside a u-lock they can exert enough force to pop open even the most secure locks.

This is why smaller u-locks are generally safer: there's less space available to fit a bottle jack. It’s also why a good locking technique should always try to fill up as much of the space inside your u-lock!

What tools do Bike Thieves NOT use?

Bike thieves do not generally pick locks. And by “not generally” I mean hardly ever. Or never. If there are any of the old u-locks you can open with a Biro pen still in circulation, then you might get some thieves “picking” them.

But for any half decent lock, it just doesn’t make sense in the street.

Picking a decent lock requires specialist skills and equipment that bike thieves just don’t generally have. Plus, it takes time and would be very awkward in the street on a busy bike rack, where the locks are generally difficult to access.

And don’t forget: there are so many easier ways to defeat most bike locks: why bother with picking?

So don’t worry about it!

The videos of the Lock Picking Lawyer opening the highest security locks in seconds are highly entertaining. But don’t forget:

1. He is highly skilled
2. He is using specialized tools that he designed himself!
3. He is operating in studio conditions with easy access to the mechanisms

Instead of worrying about whether a lock is pickable, consider whether the general security level of a lock is appropriate for your circumstances and make sure you know how to get the most out of it with proper locking technique!

Wrapping up

So there you have the most popular tools for stealing bikes. As used by both opportunist and “professional” bike thieves.

There are of course other ways to defeat bike locks. They can be picked. They can be frozen with aerosols and then smashed with a hammer. They can be blow torched. But these methods aren’t widely used by bike thieves. Probably because they are either more difficult, less effective or more costly.

And what can we learn from this? Well, the most important lesson is this: never, ever use a cable lock.

If you use a decent u-lock, it won’t be beaten by wire or cable cutters. No-ones going to rip it off with their bare hands. It will take an impossibly long time to cut through with a hacksaw. It can’t be smashed open by a hammer. And small or even medium size bolt cutters will not be able to crop it.

And with a good locking technique that keeps your lock as far from the ground as possible and leaves little space to insert bottle jacks or lengths of metal that are used for leverage attacks, you can vastly reduce your exposure to these other methods.

An angle grinder will always be able to defeat your lock, eventually. But if your bike is desirable enough to attract a thief with an angle grinder, one of the new angle grinder resistant bike locks will slow them down enough to make them give up in most instances.

If you’re thinking your current bike lock might not be up to the job, please check out my bike lock guide where I will show you the three simple steps to find the best lock for you and your bike.