good video. It's true sheldon brown clearly underestimated the ease at which
someone could cut a tire and rim. as your video demonstrates it can be done
in under half a minute. spoke tension is irrelevant. it should be noted
however that in your video the U-lock was installed very loosely which
allowed the ''thief'' plenty of play to rocker the frame and free it from
the wheel once it had been cut. The U-lock wasn't installed tightly as per
sheldon's instructions. If it had been this would have added to the time
needed to free the bike.
While this is a feasible technique personally I've never heard of this
happening.
Firstly, unlike bolt cutters and bolt jacks it's a very noisy technique and
would attract alot of attention. With bottle jacks and bolt cutters
passersby don't even know a theft is happening. And If locked properly it
would be 3 or 4 times more time consuming than jacks and bolt cutters.
Second the bike is left unrideable with a mangled back wheel that clearly
looks like it's been tamprered with. the thief could remove the rear wheel
but it would still look very funny carrying a bike by hand without rear
wheel with the chain dangling down. Would a thief want to drag this down the
street. He'd have to load it into a car unless he wanted to look very
conspicious.
Thirdly, wouldn't a thief simply move on to an easier bike that could be
stolen intact, that could be simply ridden away, rather than cutting
through a rim and destroying the rear wheel ? What with all the bikes
around town that are inadequately or improperly locked with inexpensive,
pryable U-locks or cable locks that can snipped with bolt cutters, don't you
think that's a more likely scenario ?
That being said I wouldn't use this technique on an expensive frame like a
carbon racer or a high-end lugged steel touring frame. But I maintain that
for 99 % of bikes you see around town this technique will disuade a thief.
Of course you could go with a slightly longer lock and secure the front
triangle as well. But you'll have to go with a heavier lock.
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