Best bike locks 2024: heavy duty and portable locks for keeping your bike safe

A good quality bike lock is an effective deterrent to thieves and essential if you plan to commute by bike, leave your bike out of sight or just keep it safe at home.

We have tested hundreds of bike locks over the years here at Cycling Weekly. Ranging from heavy-duty U-locks and chain locks for securing bikes at home and train stations, to portable lightweight options for bikepacking and peace of mind at the café stop.

We extensively test the useability, function and features of all the locks we test, until we need to bring in the power tools. Here in the UK and North America, Sold Secure does this for us, along with ART in Europe. They independently test bicycle locks, classifying them using a simple rating system based on their performance. For each review, we list its security rating and for more details about the Sold Secure rating system head to the bottom of this page.

A good bike lock shouldn't be the only thing that keeps your bike safe. Consider installing a bike tracker, so at the very least if your bike is stolen, it is more likely to be recovered.

Best bike locks: quick list

Best bike locks: Our pick

Best U-Locks

Good for: High levels of security and easy to transport in a bag or pannier. The most simple to use, U-locks are also the best way to protect your paintwork.

Consider: U-Locks tend to have a shorter reach, so consider where you are locking your bike and if this style would be suitable.

U-locks are considered the most secure way of locking your bike. The solid looped design offers very few weak points and the simple manufacturing process allows for the use of extremely durable materials. Most offer decent protection for your frame and from the elements with soft plastic or silicone coverings. Mounting U-locks on your bike can take up frame space, so I recommend slipping them into a commuter backpack or Pannier bag.

Best U-Lock Overall

The Litelok X1 isn't cheap. With the premium price, however, comes premium quality. The lock is diamond-rated meaning you'll be covered under most insurance schemes, it requires multiple angle grinder discs to penetrate and weighs in at a reasonable 1.7kg, meaning that the lock is easy to carry around.

In use, our reviewer found that: "Due to its locking circumference, it was easy to lock the bike up in all of the different places that I needed to and in general, the Litelok X1 was a pleasure to use".

There are other locks, such as the On Guard Brute, which offer a similar security rating for a much lower price, but the security ratings only provide a lower bound - they don’t tell you much a lock passes the test by.

So, for ultimate peace of mind - when it’s the bike you care about, rather than the insurance provider box ticking - the X1 is an excellent option. It's constructed with 'Barronium', a brand new composite designed to resist angle grinders and lined with an environmentally friendly rubber coating that will not scratch your frame.

Read our full Litelok X1 bike lock review

Best budget diamond rated U-lock

Manufactured by Milton Keynes-based security brand, Milenco, the Dundrod ++ surpasses the requirements for Gold and is one of the few locks that meet Sold Secure’s Diamond standard.

Although most bike insurers will only require a Gold-rated lock for cycles worth over £1,000/$1,000, if your bike has sentimental value or is a model that can’t be replaced, you’ll want something more secure — which is where a Diamond-rated lock comes in.

The Dundrod ++ is reassuringly plump with a shackle and crossbar that are visibly beefier than a standard U-lock. The lockable area is on the larger side for this style of lock, making it quite easy to secure the bike through the frame and wheel.

Bear in mind that if you are considering a lock of this application, it is worth using two to lock each wheel to the frame and immovable object, as well as potentially upgrading the locks to wherever you are keeping your bike.

Coming without a bike mount and weighing just under two and a half kilos, the Dundrod ++ isn’t intended as a lock for use when out and about—although this certainly isn’t ruled out, providing you have somewhere to put it.

Read our full Milenco Dundrod ++ lock review

Best U-lock for reach

The Granit Xplus 540’s 23cm shackle height and 10.8cm inner width means you have plenty of room to manoeuvre. While it doesn’t offer quite as much flexibility as the brand’s Bordo folding lock, it still allows for a variety of locking possibilities.

Its Diamond rating is secured through a combination of 13mm temper hardened steel square parabolic shackle and a double bolting shackle and lock body, with the latter designed to deliver protection against picking. The lock also has the feel of something that’s well-made and features an automatic keyhole cover; having had a couple of locks jam on me in the past, this is a worthwhile detail.

It comes with a flexible mounting point that allows it to be attached to the top, down and seat tube - depending on your frame of course. It’s certainly light enough to carry in this manner, although like all ‘full-size’ U-locks it’s likely better stored in a backpack. Its security rating also makes it another consideration for home use.

Best gold rated U-lock

A brilliant low-cost option, making Gold Sold Secure even more accessible to everyone. At this price, it wouldn’t even be too much of an outlay to buy one for every bike in your household. Although it might be tempting to use one lock to secure multiple bikes, especially if you have a longer chain link lock, that only serves to tempt thieves. Far safer to have locks for each one.

At just under 1.3kg, the K-Traz U17 is surprisingly lightweight—especially considering its price and security rating. A complete plastic coating minimizes the risk of paintwork coming into contact with metal.

The two downsides are the straight shackle, which makes it more difficult to mount the crossbar than a bent design and the plasticky bike mount. We found this a little fiddly to set up, as it uses two long screws to clamp the bracket to the frame, and the release mechanism for extracting the lock feels a little flimsy which makes it a bit of a struggle to dismount the lock.

For the money, we think the K-Traz U17 is a brilliant lock, but if you’re after quality all-round performance, you will need to set your price bracket a little higher.

Read our full Zéfal K-Traz U17 lock review

Best Mini U-Locks

Good for: The benefits of a mini U-lock are similar to those of the standard version, they continue to offer high levels of security, whilst being much lighter and easy to transport.

Consider: These short-reach locks are not ideal if you need to lock your bike in an unfamiliar location as they offer such limited flexibility.

Mini U-locks are fantastic for locking your bike to a wall or ground anchor at home, and handy for N-shaped bike racks at stations or supermarkets. Basically, anywhere your bike will be close to an anchor point and reach is not a concern. Their compact size makes them super light and easy to transport, many will just slide them between their belt and body.

Best Mini U-lock Overall

The Master Lock Mini U-Lock is something of a hidden gem. You’d have thought that with the top Sold Secure Diamond rating and its impressively light sub-kilo weight Master Lock would be boasting and inflating the price to match those premium qualities.

But no, despite being one of the lightest locks on the market with a Sold Secure Diamond rating, Master Lock remains quite modest about the Mini U-Lock and its price is surprisingly low.

Naturally, the lock is on the smaller side for U-Locks, but we found that it’s still large enough to lock the rear wheel to your bike’s frame and go around a standard Sheffield Stand, securing your bike to an immovable object. On review, we found that we needed to be a bit more careful about exactly what object we chose to 'lock up' to but this didn't present any real issues.

The plastic coating helps to avoid scratches to your bike and there's a dust cover over the lock mechanism to avoid contamination. After several uses our bikes remained scratch-free. Be careful with your keys though; the four provided are all you'll ever have, as there's no key replacement service.

Finally, a bike mount would have been appreciated. During the review we found ourselves popping out and having to bring a rucksack to carry the lock-in, even though we didn't otherwise require the bag.

Read our full Master Lock Mini U-Lock review

Best Budget Mini U-Lock

The Brute is Onguard's highest security lock, which locks the 16.8mm diameter shackle in four places, rather than the more standard two points of engagement. There's plenty of coverage with a flat area at the top of the lock rather than a curved one to increase space and the shackle is coated with thick rubber to help prevent frame damage.

The Brute has a high security locking cylinder, designed to prevent drilling or other assaults and with a rounded shape it helps prevent leverage around its edges. It comes with five keys, one with an LED to help you see what you're doing and unlock your bike after dark.

There are three different lengths of lock, so you can find one to balance portability and lockable area and the Brute comes with a frame mount. Despite its Sold Secure Diamond rating, the Onguard Brute is reasonably priced too.

Usually, the consequence of a lightweight and compact U-lock is a bit of a sacrifice in its usability, being too small to loop around objects and actually reach your bike.

But we found that simply isn’t the case with this lock. By the addition of a secondary shackle, the weight and size are kept low, but the total lockable area remains very respectable. Securing a wheel to the frame—in addition to reaching an immovable object—simply doesn’t present a struggle.

The main shackle even has a bent foot, which we found made it quite easy to mount the crossbar—exactly what you’d want in a lock designed around portability.

Regarding that portability, though, we felt that there was a significant omission. The lock doesn’t come provided with a bike mount and the mount available that is compatible with this lock is quite a cumbersome-looking handlebar mounting option. For a lock that’s supposed to be used on the go, needing to bring some kind of bag to stow it in is quite an inconvenience.

It is also a little on the expensive side for its combination of security rating, weight, lockable area and portability. That said, if you do always have somewhere to keep the lock on your trips about town, you won’t be disappointed in its application.

Read our full Kryptonite Messenger Mini With U-Lock review

Best Chain Locks

Good for: Chain locks can offer high levels of security, with many offering good reach and excellent flexibility.

Consider: Not all chain locks are strong, so check the Sold Secure rating. Chains are almost always the heaviest options and as a result, can be difficult to carry around.

Assuming a high Sold Secure rating, chain locks are one of the safest ways to secure your bike, links mean multiple tools or cuts are required to break them apart. The obvious advantage is the additional reach and unlimited flexibility, great for places where purpose-built bike storage is not available. Don't be surprised by the weight though, that metal all adds up, expect to carry at least five kilos for a short one.

Best chain lock Overall

Visual, the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit chain lock is a serious deterrent to any thief. At 150cm long, made from a series of 14mm six-sided, 3t hardened manganese steel links and weighing just under 7kgs, it's a real brute of a lock. The proved padlock features a 15mm steel shackle, constructed around a disc-style cylinder which should offer effective protection against drilling.

Unsurprisingly its heft makes the chain far too heavy to carry around, as someone who doesn't use panniers; after trying both around my waist and chest the Fahgettaboudit was destined for home use only. Its Diamond rating and length were supreme for locking multiple bikes in the shed, reaching around both with enough room to lock it to an anchor.

Read the full Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit Chain 1415

Best folding locks

Good for: Folding locks are super compact, combining the flexibility of a chain lock without the weight or complication of carrying it.

Consider: Due to how folding locks are manufactured, the joints offer an obvious weakness and don't tend to get the highest Sold Secure ratings.

Folding locks offer a fantastic alternative to chain locks especially if you ride without a bag or pannier. Almost all can be mounted to a bottle cage or with straps to your frame tubes, which means they can always be on your bike with little penalty. Their compact nature makes them brilliant for Bikepacking, locking multiple bikes together or lassoing your bike to a tree. Be careful as this design is inherently flawed with each link offering a weakness to be exploited, only a few folding locks have been awarded a gold Sold Secure rating.

Best folding lock overall

Folding locks bring a range of benefits over the venerable U-lock design. Not only do they tend to pack down smaller and have a larger lockable area, but their flexible nature greatly increases the range of objects you can lock your bike up to.

The typical downside of a folding lock is that with so many moving parts, they tend to be less secure than a simpler design, such as a U-lock. The hinge areas add a potential point of attack that's not there with U-lock.

As such, the Abus is one of the only Gold-rated folding locks currently available, but this superlative security does come with a couple of trade-offs. Tipping the scales at just under two kilos, the Abus lock is over four times as expensive and weighs just over half as much again as the Gold-rated Zéfal K-Traz U17.

The Bordo Granit X Plus certainly isn’t all things to all people—but then, it isn’t trying to be. As a high-security folding lock, it performs excellently. In addition to all the general benefits of folding locks, the Abus has a comprehensive rubber coating to protect your paintwork, a bike mount that is simple to set up and to use day-to-day, as well as an integrated weather seal on the lock barrel—adding some very welcome weather protection.

On review, we found the bike mount not only straightforward to use but also capable of keeping the lock firmly in place, even when we were cycling on uneven and bumpy roads. Once we'd arrived at our destination the Bordo Granit X Plus' large lockable area made it easy to lock up our bike without any fuss; in fact we even locked up two town bikes using the one lock.

Read more: Abus Bordo Granit X Plus 6500 full review

Best Budget Folding Lock

As the name states, it’s a small folding lock. It comprises six steel bars, joined by stainless rivets, that add up to a circumference of 85cm; I found this internal locking space offers just enough room to secure the lock through the front wheel and frame before attaching it to a bike rack or similar. Due to its smaller size, it was less cumbersome and thus easier to use than the folding Abus - it’s as quick to lock up as U-lock but with a little added flexibility that’s inherent in the design.

When folded away it measures just 18.9 x 6cm, which likely makes it one of the smallest and lightest Silver-rated locks around. Again, like the larger Abus lock, it can be secured to your bike’s bottle cage mounts using a plastic case; similarly, it feels secure and silent when in transit. If a combination of weight and portability is important to you then the Compact should have plenty of appeal.

Read our full Seatylock Foldylock Compact lock review

Best Alarmed Locks

Good for: Leaving your bike for long periods of time out of sight, the alarm will alert just about anyone if something suspicious is happening.

Consider: The trade-off for this additional deterrent is that, as far as I am aware, no diamond-rated alarm-equipped locks, meaning you will sacrifice overall security.

Alarm-equipped locks can be useful if you need to lock your bike a long way from your intended destination or plan to leave it for a long period like at a train station. The alarm will raise awareness in the immediate vicinity in the hope someone will contact the police.

Best Alarmed U-Lock Overall

As the name would suggest, this Oxford lock comes with an inbuilt alarm that will sound if the internal motion sensors detect any tampering. It’s very simple to use, with arming and disarming controlled by just a turn of the key in the lock.

The calibration of the motion sensor was pretty spot on, detecting any suspicious fumbling, but not going off when the bike was just knocked a little when locking another up next to it. With the battery easy to access (when the lock is open), you can quite easily disable the alarm completely if you need it to work simply as a lock for any reason.

But this lock is by no means a novelty, it performs the basics really well. The bent shackle makes it easy to attach the crossbar, three keys are provided with more orderable, the bike mount is easy to set and works well in day-to-day use, plus its weight is pretty middle of the road for this style of lock.

The only reservation I have about this lock is that the rubber bumpers on the crossbar don’t extend all the way across, so some care is needed not to scratch your bike on the middle section of exposed metal.

Read our full Oxford Alarm-D Pro lock review

Best Silver rated alarm-equipped U-lock

The Abus 440 Alarm combines a robust hardened steel shackle with an in-built 100dB electronic alarm that's triggered by motion. It's an effective combination, although, with only a Sold Secure Silver rating, the lock itself isn't as theftproof as the best. You can turn the alarm off for portage.

It operates using CR2 batteries. They're not that easy to source, so you might want to keep a stock in for when those supplied run flat.

There's a bike mount supplied that's easy to use, although finding a position for the lock within your frame might be an issue. The Abus 440 Alarm is heavy too, but in our review, we said that: "This is much more than an 'opportunist anti-theft lock' option. If that is what you are looking for, you really can't go wrong with the Abus 440 Alarm".

Read our full Abus 440 Alarm lock review

Best Lightweight & Wearable Locks

Best Lightweight U-lock

Gram-for-gram, the Pitbull mini packs quite a punch. Despite only weighing 1.3kg it delivers a Diamond Sold Secure rating. It achieves this by measuring just 9cm x 14cm while still featuring a 14mm hardened steel shackle and a pick, pull and drill-resistant ‘bump lock’ cylinder. Its weight and dimensions makes it easily portable, either using the supplied mounting bracket or stuffed into a bag;

I found it rattled less than a larger U-lock when mounted to the frame although it didn’t feel quite as solid as either of the folding locks. Naturally it’s size means the internal locking space is small, and will limit how and what you can lock your bike too - so perhaps not ideal for those who require some flexibility.

However if you're locking your bike up to the same point each time, and know this compact lock fits, then it’s a great way of reducing your carrying weight without having to sacrifice the security rating.

Good for: Leaving your bike for short periods, stopping opportunistic thefts and being easily transported. Lightweight and wearable locks are great for bikepacking, cafe stops and popping into the post office.

Consider: Using much higher-rated locks if you plan to leave your bike for long periods or out of sight.

While lightweight and wearable locks function slightly differently, they ultimately solve the same problem. Transportation of locks can be frustratingly difficult especially if they are heavy or offer little flexibility. The trade-off is less security, which for most will be for very short periods or when the bike is in sight.

Best Lightweight Lock Overall

The Z Lok weighs only 70g, so you’re not going to feel burdened by it if you stuff it into your pocket or clip it round your frame. The design is like an oversize zip tie and inside the plastic covering is a steel ribbon.

We reckon that if you use the Z Lok to secure your frame to a post or railing, it’s enough to stop a thief from walking away with your bike, although it’s unlikely to stand up long to a bolt cutter and its security level is unrated. Its steel band design is significantly more robust than other lightweight locking options, which tend to use thin cables, though.

At 40cm long, our reviewer found that there’s enough length to secure your frame to something immovable and possibly your rear wheel too. Because of its zip tie-like design, you can also shorten the loop to make it harder to get leverage with a cutter. There’s a release lever to undo the ratchet when unlocked.

In summary, we found that it’s a clever, useful bit of kit to carry around for the coffee stop or quick errands on the bike and cheaper than a full-strength lock too.

Read our full Hiplok Z Lok Combo bike lock review

How we test locks

The Cycling Weekly testing team put locks through the varied rigours of urban and utility cycling, using them on the ride into the Bath & London offices, the supermarket, pubs, and running errands around town.

Our testing is heavily weighted toward the everyday use of a particular lock. Ultimately our rating will be based on the key metrics of weight, shape, locking mechanism, mounting attachment, tactile feel, security rating and value – essentially every lock quality, in real-world situations.

The Cycling Weekly tech team will rarely test a lock to destruction unless the lock claims to be angle grinder resistant – and there's a good reason for this. Not only are there trusted, independent and officially recognised test houses like Sold Secure; but as I have mentioned throughout this guide no bike lock is ultimately unbreakable.

The best way to protect your bike is through an insurance policy – that will stipulate which level of security rating your bike lock should have.

For more details on how Cycling Weekly tests products, check out our How We Test page

FAQs about bicycle locks