this is being widely reported:
AP- Bike Lock Can Be Picked With a Pen
BOSTON - You don't have to be the Man of Steel to open a Kryptonite bike lock. Faster than a speeding bullet, word is spreading across the Internet, through cyclist hangouts and into bike shops that all it takes to open a circular-key lock, like the one on the famous U-shaped Kryptonite-brand lock, is a ballpoint pen.
In recent days, bicycle chat rooms on the Internet have been flooded with irate comments from cyclists, some of whom have posted short movies of themselves picking their own locks with the hollow shaft of a Bic pen.
A spokeswoman for the Canton-based company, the country's largest bicycle-lock manufacturer, said it plans to accelerate the introduction of new versions of the lock because of the complaints.
Boston bicycle messenger John Anderson, 23, said a friend showed him how easy it was to defeat a U-lock.
"He did it in about two seconds. I was like, `You've got to be kidding me,'" he said. "People spend a couple of grand (on their bikes), so it's kind of a bummer that people can steal them so easily."
Benjamin Running, a 28-year-old graphic designer in New York, helped start the furor after he posted on the Internet a video of himself picking his own lock.
"These locks literally are viewed as the industry standard, the lock that you must have. They're recommended by every bike shop," he said. "I'm absolutely shattered by this."
Kryptonite spokeswoman Donna Tocci said in a statement that the design still provides "an effective deterrent to theft," but that the company is developing new products using a pen-proof, disc-style cylinder.
"We are accelerating the delivery of the new disc cylinder locks and we will communicate directly with our distributors, dealers and consumers within the coming days. The world just got tougher and so did our locks," the statement said.
The company made no mention of any refunds or free replacements and did not say whether it had received any reports of bikes being stolen with a ballpoint.
Kryptonite was founded in 1972 and is known as the originator of the U-shaped bicycle lock. In had sales of about $27 million in the year before it was acquired in 2001 by Ingersoll-Rand Co., maker of other security products such as Schlage door locks.
AP- Bike Lock Can Be Picked With a Pen
BOSTON - You don't have to be the Man of Steel to open a Kryptonite bike lock. Faster than a speeding bullet, word is spreading across the Internet, through cyclist hangouts and into bike shops that all it takes to open a circular-key lock, like the one on the famous U-shaped Kryptonite-brand lock, is a ballpoint pen.
In recent days, bicycle chat rooms on the Internet have been flooded with irate comments from cyclists, some of whom have posted short movies of themselves picking their own locks with the hollow shaft of a Bic pen.
A spokeswoman for the Canton-based company, the country's largest bicycle-lock manufacturer, said it plans to accelerate the introduction of new versions of the lock because of the complaints.
Boston bicycle messenger John Anderson, 23, said a friend showed him how easy it was to defeat a U-lock.
"He did it in about two seconds. I was like, `You've got to be kidding me,'" he said. "People spend a couple of grand (on their bikes), so it's kind of a bummer that people can steal them so easily."
Benjamin Running, a 28-year-old graphic designer in New York, helped start the furor after he posted on the Internet a video of himself picking his own lock.
"These locks literally are viewed as the industry standard, the lock that you must have. They're recommended by every bike shop," he said. "I'm absolutely shattered by this."
Kryptonite spokeswoman Donna Tocci said in a statement that the design still provides "an effective deterrent to theft," but that the company is developing new products using a pen-proof, disc-style cylinder.
"We are accelerating the delivery of the new disc cylinder locks and we will communicate directly with our distributors, dealers and consumers within the coming days. The world just got tougher and so did our locks," the statement said.
The company made no mention of any refunds or free replacements and did not say whether it had received any reports of bikes being stolen with a ballpoint.
Kryptonite was founded in 1972 and is known as the originator of the U-shaped bicycle lock. In had sales of about $27 million in the year before it was acquired in 2001 by Ingersoll-Rand Co., maker of other security products such as Schlage door locks.
