The Litelok X3 is one of a crop of the very highest security (and most expensive) bike locks out there. It offers substantial protection for your pride and joy and in our testing neither bolt croppers nor an angle grinder could defeat it. If you need to lock up an expensive bike, you can do so with this with some confidence that it’ll still be there when you come back.
> Buy now: Litelok X3 for £249.99 from Litelok
Things have changed in the last few years, at least in well-heeled Bath where I live (and where road.cc is based). You didn’t used to see very expensive bikes locked up outside much; anyone fortunate enough to own a £5k bike would generally not be using it to pop into town. Now, if you pass any set of bike racks, you’ll probably see at least one person has secured a bike worth as much as a secondhand car there. What gives?
Of course, I’m not talking about shiny Colnagos or Pinarellos – the major change that is behind this shift is the advent of electric cargo bikes. We love them here at road.cc and the bike buying public (at least round these parts) does too – and let’s not forget that each cargo bike you see locked up probably means one less car has come into town. But with all of these expensive bikes locked up (and plenty of examples of them getting stolen), there’s a need for bike locks tough enough to be sure that your bike will be there when you get back. Litelok is a British brand which can justifiably claim to play a significant part in recent improvements in bike lock security.
The Litelok X3 is its biggest, baddest lock. It’s always welcome to get a product in for test and find that it’s made in Britain. Sold Secure rates locks according to how much protection they provide against theft of bikes and motorbikes. The X3 is one of a fairly small number of locks rated as Diamond level for both bikes and motorbikes. (The motorbike standards are tougher, requiring greater resistance to angle grinder attacks). It uses a heavyweight high-strength steel construction together with a proprietary material which Litelok has named Barronium. It is not a coincidence that the founder of Litelok is called Professor Barron.
Although Litelok is the only manufacturer using the professor’s secret sauce to toughen up its locks and defeat angle grinders, most of the top-rated bike locks now use high-strength steel with some very hard (typically ceramic) material fused to it. Litelok was a notable pioneer in this area.
Attack resistance
We tested the X3 with bolt croppers, but it was so girthy we couldn’t get the jaws around it, so we moved on to the battery-powered angle grinder, generally thought to be the primary tool of today’s bike thieves. After two minutes of trying, the grinder disc was significantly degraded, and the lock was intact, with only fairly minor cutting.
Given long enough, sufficient batteries and spare discs, you could get through this lock or any other, but of course thieves don’t like to stick around for that long, and would most likely move on to another bike if they hadn’t got in in a couple of minutes.
Weight
The Litelok isn’t exactly, well, light. At 2.1kg, you’d feel it in a rucksack, for sure. That said, there are certainly heavier locks in this ultra-tough Diamond category. Lighter locks will mostly be either less tough or a smaller size, which reduces your options in terms of what you can lock to. If you are carrying it in a bag, you’ll appreciate the neoprene sleeve it comes with, offering some protection to your laptop if it’s in the same space.
The lock itself has a rubberised finish anyway, so it shouldn’t really scratch up your bike or your laptop anyway.
Features
There are some unusual features on the X3 which I liked. It has highly-effective reflectives along each side of the shackle – if you carry the lock attached to your frame, this will help with your night-time visibility. Unfortunately, this reflective is stuck on, and I found it to be a bit fragile, already starting to show some signs of wear after a couple of weeks.
Unlike some locks that have a sliding plastic cover protecting the key entry point, here there’s a little silicone membrane which you can just poke the key through, a bit like the self-sealing slit on some water bottles. It is neat, and a second or two less faff than a cover, so that’s a win for me.
Another thing I really appreciated was a flat, all-metal key without the chunky black plastic part used on almost all my other bike locks. This seems such a trivial thing, but it means that the Litelok key fits way better on slimline key storage from the likes of Ridge. You get two keys included, plus a card with the unique code on it in case you need to buy spares. It’s worth pointing out that some locks costing less than this include as many as five keys with them.
The locking mechanism itself is an Abloy Sentry, which Litelok says is the the most pick-proof locking mechanism available. I’m no lock-picking expert, and it’s fair to say there are divergent views about that claim on the internet. Our understanding here at road.cc, having discussed exactly this with various industry and police folk, is that picking locks is not at all a common approach for bike thieves, who tend to favour faster and more brutish lines of attack.
There were a few occasions where I found the X3 a bit tricky to get open. I’ve had other D-locks where the mechanism gets a bit stiff and needs a quick spray of WD40 or GT85, but that didn’t seem to make any difference here. I can’t say for sure, but I think that root cause was the fact that the surface finish on the ends of the shackle (the U-shaped part) was a little rough, like it had been sandblasted. The result was that it sometimes just didn’t want to come apart, and needed a bit of a jiggle to open up.
Mount
If you want to mount this to your bike frame, you need to shell out another £20 to buy the Tactical Mount. This is a substantial piece of glass-reinforced plastic, held to the frame with a couple of plastic straps akin to jubilee clips. On a conventional bike with a metal frame, this can hang from the top tube, but when I tried to fit it to the frame of my Tern GSD cargo bike, I couldn’t find anywhere it would fit without creating an obstruction. This wasn’t really an issue, as I have large panniers that could easily swallow it.
In order to fit the lock to the Tactical Mount, it must be in two pieces – you assemble and lock it through the mount. This, supposedly, improves security, although the risk of someone stealing an (admittedly expensive) lock off your (unsecured, and presumably more expensive) bike seems like something I’d not worry too much about. What this does mean is that it’s more of a faff to fit and remove than most similar mounts I’ve used with other locks.
The mount’s plastic straps are tightened via hex grub-screws. The instructions and video do not cite a tightening torque, but mention that you should periodically check that these straps are tight. I wouldn’t be comfortable using this arrangement (or, in fairness, any other similar mount) on a carbon frame, for fear of crushing the frame tube. I’d suggest this ought to be explicitly counselled against in the instructions, and that a tightening torque should be given to avoid the metal grub screws damaging the threading on the plastic straps.
The Tactical mount weighs an additional 200g.
Value
There are dozens of locks now Diamond rated for bicycles, and they can cost as little as £50. I’d be happy using any of those for locking most bikes round these parts, but in somewhere like London, or when locking up my cargo bike of an evening, the extra resistance offered by motorbike-Diamond-rated locks like the X3 is a sensible precaution. Read our feature Which type of lock is best for your bike? for more thoughts on this.
At the top end, locks such as the Hiplok D1000, Kryptonite New York, Abus Granit Super Extreme 2500 and Onguard RockSolid 8590 all offer massive resistance to even determined bike thieves. The Litelok X3 is neither the cheapest nor the most expensive of this elite selection, so I’d argue it’s a worthy choice for the most demanding scenarios.
Conclusion
Overall, then, the X3 is a very solid and extremely secure lock, and that is what you’re paying for. Whether you need something this secure will depend on what you’re locking up and where. For high-value bikes, I would feel significantly more comfortable locking and leaving with something like this on security duty.
> Buy now: Litelok X3 for £249.99 from Litelok
Verdict
Among the most secure bike locks available, and priced accordingly – your bike should be there when you get back
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road.cc test report
Make and model: Litelok X3
Size tested: One
Tell us what the product is for and who it’s aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?
Litelok says: “It is the most secure full-sized armoured D-lock on the market and contains a host of clever design features that make it easy to use and carry so you can keep your bike secure against the most determined bike thieves.”
I think that’s broadly a fair assessment, although I’m not entirely convinced by the Tactical Mount.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
From Litelok:
LITELOK X3 is armoured with Barronium®, a patent pending composite material that resists angle grinder attack by turning the grinder’s energy and force in on itself. It offers at least 20 times more resistance than the best-selling D-locks without adding any extra weight. It is permanently fused to a hardened fine-grain high-tensile steel core which provides protection against all other commonly used tools such as bolt croppers, cable cutters, long bars, hammers and chisels.
16mm diameter shackle.
100x200mm internal dimensions
Abloy Sentry keylock mechanism, which Litelok claims is the most secure on the market.
Very nicely and solidly made, in Britain, though I don’t think the reflectives will last years.
Very highly resistant to both bolt croppers and angle grinding. Impressive.
No indication of any obvious core weaknesses here.
Not light. But still, lighter than most locks of a similar size and level of security.
Stands up well against most of its direct competitors on price. If you don’t need quite this level of security, you can pay usefully less for a lock, but if you want maximum security, this is competitively priced.
If you needed a mount, you might begrudge paying more for one.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
It resisted the full two minutes of intensive angle grinder attack. That is a resounding success, in our book.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
I really liked that few extra per cent of confidence that my bike would be there when I got back. Oh, and it has my favourite keys of any bike lock I’ve used.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
It can be a bit annoying when it is reluctant to open. And I didn’t really rate the Tactical mount.
How does the price compare to that of similar products in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?
It’s cheaper than most of its direct competitors at the top of the market, with one notable exception.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
You buy an expensive lock to do one job, and to do it in a really dependable way. The Litelok X3 answers this brief very well. There are some minor niggles, but they are just that, and wouldn’t really dissuade me from buying or recommending this lock.
About the tester
Age: 42 Height: 188cm Weight: 83kg
I usually ride: On-one Bish Bash Bosh My best bike is: Rose X-Lite CRS
I’ve been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: Most days I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, time trialling, cyclo cross, commuting, touring, club rides, sportives, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb,
