On the 1st of April 2015 I received a TL090 alarmed disc lock from Target Locks on amazon.co.uk. First impressions were mostly good, there was no way it was 110db (let alone 140 as the advert claims!) and it seemed a bit light but it worked and didn't go off if a cat sneezed within five metres of it so all seemed well. Little did I know that 1st of April would be apt..
I took to putting the lock on the CB250's gear lever as Honda, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to put the speedo drive on the same side as the disc. This means that if I forget the lock is on, I will smash the cable straight off and perhaps even damage the drive itself - my dad did this to my CBX250RS a few years ago. It seemed happy on the gear lever, never going off in the wind but ready in case someone tried to change gear - with the bike parked up in gear this would surely be enough to put them off. Anyway, I used it every weekday and whenever I took the bike out on weekends, leaving the lock at home and only putting it back on once I was done with the bike so I wasn't constantly using it. On the 25th of June, I went to unlock it from my bike and the whole lock assembly popped out:
This was annoying, and a quick search through the negative reviews of this product on amazon shows I am not the only person this has happened to. The listing on amazon and the blister pack the lock comes in talks about there being a five year warranty on these locks, so I set about getting in touch with Target. Since the product was just out of the 30 day returns policy amazon has I couldn't go through them, so tried phoning Target directly. I was pleasantly informed by them that I must contact them through amazon since that is where I'd bought the item, so after a bit more searching I found an email seller link on Target's amazon profile. This put me in almost direct contact with the lovely but soon to be long-suffering Jessica, who quickly agreed to send me a replacement lock once she saw the picture above. No problem, right? I received the new lock on the 8th of August, as I didn't find out how to get in touch with Target until the 6th. I was fairly happy still, although the apparently low quality of the product had meant the bike was sat outside without a lock on it. I went back to using the lock daily.
On around the 8th of November the second lock started to go off on its own for no reason. It had been very wet, more prolonged than earlier in the year, and this seemed to affect the lock very badly. I tried to bring the lock back to life by bringing it indoors, changing the batteries and letting it dry out but nothing seemed to help. This also gave me a look inside the lock, which was depressing.. The metal is thin, and the electronics very cheap while being merely glued in place inside. Shortly after this it stopped alarming and started buzzing instead, only it did this all the time. I took a short video for Jessica's perusal:
Once again Target were fine with this and they agreed to send me a third lock! How can they make any money out of these things? On the 19th of November lock number three arrived, ready for testing, and I set to using it every day as I had done previously. On the 15th of December the lock started going off all by itself, so I brought it in out of the rain and hoped it would dry out and work properly again. It didn't.
By now Jessica seemed to be distraught, and offered a refund which I gladly took. Again, if you read the negative reviews on amazon I am not the only person who has had these failures, it seems these locks do not survive very well in the wet. I may be the only person to have had so many failures though, others seem to think Target cannot be contacted which is clearly incorrect. They will stand by the 5 year warranty until you are fed up with your bike being unlocked while the next replacement is in the post, but they are a pleasure to deal with. Just a shame about the product!
