New MEC catalog's bike lock

Unsecure bike locks?

We recieved our new Mountain Equip,ment Co-op (MEC) catalog today.

Inside the catalog is lots of nice stuff, but we remember to always support our LOCAL bike shop, and not the walmart of outdoor gear: MEC. The local bike shop is useful because it's local!

Big megacorp business principles of lowest cost don't serve the community in any meaningful way, despite their greenwashing propaganda saying they do. OK, MEC is better than most, but if you lose your local bike shop, you really want to have to take a long drive to the co-op for a tube or tire? You'll do better in the long run by supporting your local bike shop. It's there when (and where) you need it.

But we digress.

The thing that struck us in this catalog is that they are selling a u-lock for $15.

That sounds good, what's the problem CFM?

This lock bears all the characteristics of a crappy, easy-to-break bike lock. The main problem is the key-at-end-of-cylinder design. A thief can break this thing in about 4 seconds. You deserve better and MEC has no business selling bike locks with such obvious and well-known vulnerability.

If you buy this lock, you can look forward to losing your bike. And you can blame MEC when it happens.