You can make a more secure version DIY for with some vinyl coated cable, alu swages and a micro padlock. Buy some cable swage pliers from Home Despot and then return after you use them in the parking lot. It will at least stop tin snips for a good minute and only weights a touch more than an ottolock.
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but it also does not neatly wrap around my saddlebag.
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I have one of these things for quick stops/low risk situations. Basically a zip tie with a combo lock. It’s decent for the price, except that the numbers are starting to wear off of the combo wheels, so it will become useless soon.
I’m sure it could be cut with tin snips, but at least it’s cheaper than the ottolock.
Yeah but its like 1/4 the volume of an otterlock, so you can put it IN your bag or whatever.
i feel like any place that’s secure enough to use one of those wimpy little locks, i might as well just wrap my helmet around a wheel. but there aren’t a lot of places of in-between security here.
Just a reminder that unless you have the compound snips, seen in the video, it it impossible to cut these with heavy duty scissors, blades and a hacksaw, tools that easily defeat a really nice zip tie.
I found an old Otto lock on the street that had been run over by vehicles and tried to slice through it with everything I had in my tool cabinet and was unsuccessful.
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I’m a big fan of cheap aluminum u-locks because they look like a real lock even if they could be twisted off like nothing. I leave my bike locked up at my job with one all day often. It just looks serious so no one tries it. Cable locks no matter how tough invite attempts I feel.
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Hasn’t failed me yet! Bewilderment buys time.
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Those snips are like $12, I have the same ones
I cut one with a larger one of these dudes from hazard frought . Non compound. It was a bitch. The blade gap wanted to bend the thin strips of whatever metal was inside rather than shear them. Still didn’t take that long. 
Yeah, maybe mine was just dull, just flipped the strap between blades when you applied pressure.
If the catalytic converter dance as taught me anything, it’s that thieves who want your shit will have exactly the tools they need by at least their second try. I don’t think an Ottolock is useless but I wouldn’t let my bike out of sight if locked up with one.
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Every construction builder has a set of dikes that would go through an Otto in a second
Right… but at a country store on a 600 road on the way to a campground are you all that likely to encounter someone looking for bikes to steal?
“Cheap locks keep honest people honest” or so the saying goes.
The one time I was forced to leave a bike completely out of sight/exposed (due to emergency poop situation) I was freaking the fuck out. One of these would have made the whole situation at least a little less stressful.
I don’t get these dumb videos that are like “SEE? Someone with this tool can break this lock SO FAST” No shit MFer. But that’s not the point. I’m not going to put a Kryptonite NY Chain in my jersey pocket and I’m not going use a store stop lock in a high risk area either.
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Yeah. Lock picking lawyer’s message to his audience (I’m guessing): “Be aware of a lock’s limitations”
What people hear: “All locks that are not a half-inch chain and some expensive, esoteric difficult-to-pick lock are useless.”
I may have some leftover OTTO locks. I’ll check tomorrow, and if I still have them, folx can have them for the cost of shipping (US preferred).
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I found the locks. They’re 30" long and are new w/o packaging. The lime one is a later model, and the orange one is one of the early versions. Pay for shipping and it’s yours (one per-person).
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I’d take the green one!
Send me a PM with your address and I’ll figure out shipping.
I’m in for the other one. I’ll PM you.