SKUNKLOCK V2 Heavy Duty Deterrent Bike U Lock with Anti-Theft Chemicals

This is my second lock as the first one did its job after the thief’s angle grinder set it off I came back to my bike still locked but a now dead lock, so in my eyes I was pleased I still had my bike.

Leaking after 6 months

The SkunkLock’s deceptive. Appears enormous with its 24mm shackle but 5mm of that is plastic and 11mm is hollow space.Once had to hire a locksmith to cut through a keyless smart d lock after water ingress caused the electronics to fail. Locksmith cut through the solid 13mm square shackle in under 15 seconds. The SkunkLock has a shackle that’s almost half that. But the gas will cause the thief to flee! Not really.The BBC have a weekly tech program, Click, to view for free on their website. During lockdown they had an episode all about cycling. Firstly they debunked one of those e-bikes that charges £700 for three years of GPS security tracking when they went out with one of the company’s, “bike hunters”, and he was unable to find the bike that had been stolen as it was in a relatively built up area and it hadn’t been left by the thief locked up on the street.Then they got to the SkunkLock. Reporter wasn’t particularly grizzled. Wasn’t even wearing a mask. Took a grinder to the lock in his garden. When the gas was released he winced and said the smell was unpleasant but it didn’t have much more effect than that much less incapacitating or causing to flee like the advertising makes out.Could get a Kryptonite M18 for a third as much which bright yellow is instantly recognisable as having an 18mm double locking solid shackle.Could get an Onguard Brute. Has a 17mm double locking solid shackle and at £30 is cheap enough that you could have one to carry with you and then leave the other at the place you lock up your bike.Could get a Hiplok D1000. Has a 20mm double locking graphene reinforced solid shackle. Costs about the same as a SkunkLock but is going to be a game changer for bike security. In independent tests it stands up to an angle grinder for ten minutes which is unheard of. The M18 i mentioned above was the gold standard for bike locks for at least a decade and that would hold up to an angle grinder for two minutes at most.So with the SkunkLock you’re paying a lot more and getting a lot less. The gimmick of the gas is just that. Lock has been available for long enough that as we’re now learning that and that the shackle’s only 8mm(bolt croppers can cut through shackles 14mm and under) so too are thieves. Instead of avoiding the SkunkLock they might actually start targeting it and just wearing a mask to deal with the unpleasant smell.