I recently parked my bike in a main station parking lot of a decently sized city, between 21:00 and 02:00 a few nights ago. Notably, I have no lock at the back wheel, just a chain lock which I use very well. Both myself and my girlfriend noticed it was more difficult to use my lock than usual. Fast forward to today: I tried to open it and my key snapped.

When I inspected the lock more carefully, I found that it had some very weird paste in it. I usually close the key hole of the lock to avoid dust going in. Is this something that bike thieves use to break locks? Is there a way to protect myself against it? Should I contact the station bike parking and let them know (it has cameras)? Or maybe someone has another idea of what this is?

For reference, [here is a picture](https://imgur.com/a/9litKK8) and you can still see my broken key in there.

3 comments

  1. First of all, very out of context, but I really can’t find things on google like I used to before. I tried to search for the solution in Dutch, but couldn’t find anything. Only advertisements for locks, and search optimized websites with “tips for locks” and of course also advertisements.

    So I do not have the answer. All I can think of it is either a reaction of the lock to some sort of weather, or “kwajongens” who thought it would be funny to do this. I think it is a good idea to inform the station bike parking. I don’t think they will let you see the security footage, however if there are more similar reports they can look further into it.

  2. Might be glue? But I wouldn’t know why anyone is gluing random locks.
    Here are some search results about glued locks in dutch. https://www.google.com/search?q=slot+dichtlijmen&oq=slot+dichtlijmen&aqs=edge..69i57.2838j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    But maybe it’s more likely that you just have a broken lock? It looks pretty cheap and rusty. It’s not that unlikely it just got stuck and if you put to much force it’s easy to break the key. And the paste could be grease that was always there but you never really noticed it?

  3. I’m not aware of any attack vector that uses some kind of paste. Keys fo break due to fatigue and depending on age it also could just be worn.

    I do however know that WD-40 and water makes a nice sticky mess, so that could be it as well

    Edit: either that keyway is really worn to hell or that’s not really correctly fitting key

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