Want to stop thieving scumbags nicking your bike? Well Pragmasis have a whole pile of solutions to the problem…
Before I get onto showing you a selection of their products I think I should first point out the importance of securing your bike/bikes properly. It might sound like a stupid thing to say, but it seems like a lot of people rely on insurance rather than security. The thing is though that if everyone takes that route the thieves will continue and insurance premiums will just get even higher, whereas I reckon it’d be so much better if we all made a real effort to make it so hard for the buggers to nick our stuff that they ended up trying their luck with something else. Insurance really should be the last resort, and how much better will it feel to have beaten the thieves?
Anyway, who are Pragmasis? Well they’re a little UK based company that specialise in making the best quality security products that they can. It’s as simple as that. Actually that’s not quite true, they also have their own nature reserve! You’ve got to love a company like that. Enough chat though, here’s some of their products…
First up are the Protector chains which Pragmassis buy in a raw state from a European manufacturer and then heat treat to their own exacting standards. It is the tricky heat treatment that makes a chain either a good or bad one in terms of security. Get it wrong and you’ll end up with something too brittle, but go too far the other way and it’ll be too easy to cut. Pragmasis have spent years fine tuning their own process and the result is a range of chains that are incredibly impervious to any kind of attack.
They have a range of chains on offer, all the way from 11mm right the way up to 19mm. All the sizes apart from the 19mm are shown below to give you an idea of the size of them.
Both the 11 and 13mm chains get bicycle gold and motorcycle silver awards in the industry standard ‘Sold Secure’ tests, but the 13mm is obviously going to offer more security than the 11mm. The 16 and 19mm get gold in every category going. Like me, there’s probably a load of you now going ‘well 16 or 19mm it is for me then’, but you have to be realistic, these are massive, and very heavy pieces of kit that are hard to handle and if you weren’t careful you could easily do some damage to a bike with one. Steve from Pragmasis reckons that only two people in the UK are using the 19mm on bikes, and they are in truly exceptional circumstances. He’s even reluctant to recommend the 16mm in a lot of cases, and after trying to use the sample one that he sent us I can see why. At 4.5 Kg per metre it’s hefty to say the least, especially in a longer length. With it being guaranteed IMPOSSIBLE to bolt-crop by hand it will offer better protection than the 13mm, but you have to be honest with yourself because if the 16mm is left lying on the floor because you were too tired to deal with it after a ride then it’s not going to protect your bikes one bit. The 13mm on the other hand is noticeably easier to handle and although it isn’t guaranteed impossible to bolt-crop by hand you’d be very hard pushed to achieve it. For starters you’d need a set of massive Irwin Record 42″ bolt croppers, you’d then need the chain to be on the floor (it’s always worth trying to keep a chain off the ground as this makes it far harder to crop), and finally you’d need to be built like a brick shit house. Even with the best bolt croppers in the business, in perfect circumstances, your average Joe would still fail to crop the 13mm…and remember you have to crop all these chains twice in order to actually get anywhere, there’s no way you can just bend them open.
Of course with any chain you also need a lock and Pragmasis do some great deals on the industry leading Squire padlocks. There’s no point getting a great chain if you’re going to let it down with a rubbish lock, and the good thing about the design of these chains is that you can link several chains into one padlock. This technique is particularly useful if you feel the need for the 16mm chain and want a longer length because two shorter lengths are far easier to handle than one long one. Talking of lengths, Pragmasis can custom cut you one of their chains to pretty much any length you want and the prices below are just as a guide.
11mm x 2m: £58.75 (£87.25 inc Squire SS50CS Lock)
13mm x 2m: £73.75 (£103.25 inc Squire SS50CS Lock)
16mm x 2m: £109.95 (£174.95 inc Squire SS65CS Lock)
If you’ve got a whole pile of bikes then you could use a long chain and simply lock the whole pile together which would make it very difficult for thieves to walk off with the whole lot, but ideally you also want to anchor your chain to something immovable. That’s where something like this Torc Anchor comes in. With it’s massively solid construction and fixings that can’t be removed this thing is never going anywhere. The chemical fixings bond the bolts solid, but then for belt and braces security Pragmasis also supply some ball bearings which can be hammered into the bolt heads. The whole kit comes complete with some excellent instructions which even tell you when is a good time to have a cup of tea and when isn’t. This particular kit is designed for a solid concrete floor but Pragmasis offer a fixing kit for most situations, including one that you can fit inside a van.
Price: From £59.95
If you keep your bikes in a shed (like a lot of riders do), then you might not have a suitable floor for a Torc Anchor, but don’t worry because Pragmasis have come up with a pretty neat solution for such cases. The Shed Shackle works on the simple idea of bolting a metal framework to the inside of your shed. If a thief wanted to steal your bikes he would then have to remove a huge section of your shed and then carry it with the bikes, which would obviously be impractical for many reasons. The kit comes with some clever shear bolts which have a head that simply snaps off when you’ve done it up tight, leaving it incredibly difficult to remove, especially if you also use some loctite. Different length bolt kits are available to suit sheds of different construction, and there’s also a kit for metal sheds.
Price: From £47.00
The final bit of Pragmasis kit that we’re showing you (they’ve got a whole load more on their website) is their Shed Door Beef-Up Kit. Obviously the first line of defence if your bikes are kept in a shed is your shed door, and normally these leave a lot to be desired. The main problem is that all the hinges and lock hasps are normally held in place by screws. Even if these are security screws it’s not much good because thieves don’t mess around unscrewing stuff, they just lever it off and any screw will easily rip out. The solution is a simple one then, just stick some bolts right the way through as they will be far harder to lever out. You could buy this kind of stuff from your local hardware shop but it probably wouldn’t be any cheaper than this kit, and at least with this you know you’ve got everything that you need. Once again, this kit comes with comprehensive instructions and advice.
Price: £6.00
In summary, Pragmasis seem to be a great one-stop shop when it comes to bike security. Their website is full of loads of helpful advice, and but if you’ve still got some questions then drop an email to the fountain of knowledge that is Steve. He’s one of the most helpful people I’ve ever dealt with and will be more than happy to advise you on the best set up for your particular situation. They’ve also got some good deals going if you buy a couple of their products at the same time.
Now let’s all beat those thieving bastards!
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