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A 50-year-old lock design was rendered useless last week when a brief post to an internet forum revealed the lock can be popped open with a cheap plastic pen.

On Sunday, bike enthusiast and network security consultant Chris Brennan described opening an expensive Kryptonite bike lock using a ballpoint pen.

"Your brand new U-Lock is not safe," warned Brennan in a note posted to Bike Forums.

Wired News tested Brennan's claims. A brand new Kryptonite Evolution 2000 was opened in seconds using a Bic pen. After cutting four small slits in the end of the pen's barrel to ease it in, the lock opened with a single twist.

Brennan, 24, of San Francisco, said he successfully opened two Kryptonite locks, an Evolution 2000 and an older Kryptonite Mini lock.

View the original threads at: www.bikeforums.net

This article from:

http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,128 ... _tophead_7

From your posts you seem to be from the west. what's the mountain biking like out there? Some of the canyons etc you see on films look as if they would be great mountain bike routes. Are they, and can you hire bikes etc out there?

Hi GMC,

I was going to respond to your mountain bike post yesterday - but things keep interrupting me!

I am more of an off-road motorcycle rider now. I grew up in Marin County, California - the birthplace of Mountain Bikes back in the 1970's. I'll share a silly little photo of me taking a jump down in the "railroad yard" back in 1975 on my brand new mono-shock bike. This was published in a local newspaper.

Since I was a little kid, I have been an absolute bicycle nut. I learned how to ride a two-wheeler when I was in nursery school and never looked back!

I've got to run now - but I'll send you some cool information about areas in California and Idaho. Great places to ride!

Attached files

I too have been cycling for years. It amuses me no end that it is now trendy and dead cool. I was once told that putting cycling and hillwalking as pasttimes on application forms was not a good idea as it implied I was sad loner and that I should put somthing more sociable.

I would be quite interested in routes like that. I've never been to the states but I would rather head to places like death valley and that sort of area just because I have never seen that kind of country. It looks fantastic in pictures.

I hope seen to head for the pyrenees, a lot of the old trade routes across the mountains make great bike routes if you like exploring and don't have the time for a long walk.

Tombstone wrote: A 50-year-old lock design was rendered useless last week when a brief post to an internet forum revealed the lock can be popped open with a cheap plastic pen.


Crikey. Apparently this was originally published in a UK magazine in 1992, and they *still* haven't done anything about it!!

No kidding! Well, with the power of the Internet now, Kryptonite will no longer be able to avoid this issue. Too many people know about it now.



Bill Sikes wrote: Crikey. Apparently this was originally published in a UK magazine in 1992, and they *still* haven't done anything about it!!