Yesterday, I had a meeting at 4:30, and I planned to get there on my little Raleigh folder, which was locked in the nearby garage. I left the office with 45 min to get there, plenty o time. Except when I got to my bike, the cylinder in the ulock was frozen. I had just locked it there in the morning, so this was inexplicable. I fiddled with it for 5 minutes or so, figured it would be worse to break off the key, so I double timed it on foot to the South Side. So frustrating. Fortunately I was wearing a wicking golf shirt or that would have been ugly. Made it only 10 min late and everyone was gracious and it was fine.
I came back this morning with a can of WD40, pumped the cylinder full of oily goodness, and it opened instantly.
The moral is, if you use your lock all the time, and it is out in the weather, or just over time, shoot some light lock oil or something in the cylinder every so often. In fact, when you lube your bike, do the lock too, think of it as part of the bike. Those little precision plates do not like to dry out. Save much cursing, if that is a goal.
I tend to keep some chain lube handy in my messenger bag. A little squirt of lube in the keyhole might make things slide more smoothly in a pinch.
I put a little burst of triflow spray in there every now and then to be safe and keep my lock from jamming up.
Kryptonite actually recommends WD40 as a cleaner/degreaser and then some waxy Teflon lube (which they suggest may be found in, say, a bicycle-selling establishment) every month or so: in other words, treat it kinda like a bike chain. Convenient.
And now I realize that I have not done this in months. Oops. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks for the reminder I haven't done this for a while either.
After reading this just lubed up an old lock I stopped using because it was always jamming and difficult to lock/unlock now it works like new. Thanks for the great tip.
for the last few weeks, i actually found that saying 'come on, you son of a b----' got my lock to work. she got tired of the abuse and stopped working. i was just about to head outside to clean n' lube the bike, so i'm glad i read this! good ideer.
@parvipica 'come on, you son of a b----'
Hey! Our locks have the exact same combination!
I'm more worried about the abuse my key takes than the lock itself. I guess that is why onguard includes a million extras.
Also to whomever it was that locked their bike against mine so that I had to squeeze the back of my hand against your casette to unlock my ulock when I finally did get it open, just, thanks.
