A look inside a sidebar inner groove lock

[Rusty_Shackleford]

I recently took apart an inner groove bicycle lock and decided to do a teardown.
The assembled core

Plug out of housing. You can see the sidebars that go into the housing to prevent rotation.


Plug with sidebars removed

Side view of core and tailpiece

An individual pin, take not of the notch that allows the sidebar to retract into the plug to prevent rotation of the core when locked

Here you can see the tab that goes into the track of the key to raise the pin to allow the sidebar to retract into the plug

The gutted core, you can see the different lengths of the pins for different key cuts

More guts

[GWiens2001]

Excellent post! Thanks for the pictures.

Gordon

[KPick]

Holy crap, that is a funky looking lock. The key way is so small, and the pins are double stacked. I would have never though about that once I looked at the lock keyway. Great post though! That is a unique lock.

[femurat]

Interesting lock! Do you think it's possible to tension the sidebars by turning the plug, like bilock? or are they square on the side and don't get pushed in by turning?

Cheers

[fgarci03]

Thanks for sharing this awesome lock!!

Do you have pics of the key? (If it's a key in use, don't forget to blur at least half of it, but it would be interesting to see the key that fits that lock!)

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Interesting lock! Do you think it's possible to tension the sidebars by turning the plug, like bilock? or are they square on the side and don't get pushed in by turning?

Cheers

Turning the plug will tension the sidebars, I was not able to get much feedback though. Raking is how I opened it.

Thanks for sharing this awesome lock!!

Do you have pics of the key? (If it's a key in use, don't forget to blur at least half of it, but it would be interesting to see the key that fits that lock!)

Here is the lock http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/produ ... 2.12855724
Unfortunately, the lock was removed with and angle grinder, so no key. I have seen similar locks, and the keys look like this but a much less complicated bitting.

I would not reccomend this lock tho, the only metal is the bottom tube and shackle, the bottom tube has ALL plastic components besides the locking tabs which only engage less than 1/8th inch and are made of a low grade steel. Even the end caps on the lock tube are plastic.

[femurat]

looks like a nice u lock on the picture, thanks for the warning.

cheers