At first glance the idea of visiting a lock manufacturer to find out how it goes about making things that’ll protect your bike doesn’t sound very exciting. It’s not like going to visit the latest, lightest, most aero piece of equipment to be dazzled by. Still however, for years I’ve been promising to make the trip over to Germany to the historic home of Abus to see just how in 15 years of testing locks to destruction the lock maker always manages to come out on top.
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I start out at Abus’ dedicated cycling lock facility, set in the rolling hills and forests outside of Dortmund. Abus has 368 staff working solely on lock production here, with the lock designs developed in house by a 15 strong R&D staff, and it's here where Abus’ unique way of working begins.
Johannes Dietz, head of technical training, explains that the designer of each product (working within a team that includes engineers, product designers, materials scientists and more) sees the design through from concept to prototype, to devising the production process, manufacturing, assembly and even packaging, and on to its full evolution. Once this is done the designer then assumes ownership of the product throughout its lifetime.
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I try and focus on the hugely impressive Granit X-Plus U-lock, a winner of countless best in test awards, to see how such a product is made and developed. In the lock's more than 10-year history it has had no fewer than a dozen or so material revisions alone. Head of research Christian Prellwitz explains: "We are constantly looking to improve our locks, we look to stronger metals, also trying to find lighter ones to make them more usable to be carried."
Lock up and throw away the key
Another element that Abus takes great pride in is the lock mechanism itself. Most of its competitors use an industry standard key combination, which offers around 2,500 combinations. With Abus, its lock uses 1.5 million.
Testing times
The future of bike security
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