Our Online Shop is Now Closed - Stockists Update
Further to numerous website and social media posts since June, our online shop has now closed :-(
However, we have supplied significant product stock to our UK stockists, shown on our Stockists page. They have plenty of stock to help for a good while yet, and there is more stock pending to go to them.
If you need any of our products, please take a look at their respective websites to see if they can help. We are still here for some a while yet and will try to help even beyond that. E-mail us at info@pragmasis.com if you need specific help where resellers can't assist.
Thank you to all our customers and partners for your support over the last 21 years. We apologise for any and all inconvenience.
We have been having discussions that are hopeful for reinstating some future production. We will update more on that shortly.
International Shipping: Sadly, we are no longer accepting international orders as we do not have sufficient time, or stock, to deal with shipping issues that often arise.
Stock Update is below, as of 9th October.
Sold Secure Update is below.
Update 7th December 2024:
Sincere apologies for such a long period of silence. We've been a tad busy! We had the machinery & equipment auction and the following 3 weeks has seen the collections process, where the purchasers have come to collect the Lots that they bought.
The big machines went in the last 2 weeks. Some were emotional for me, especially our MIG welder as I bought that new 12 years ago as a major upgrade on the previous machine I bought second hand shortly after starting Pragmasis. I worked out some years ago that I had done over 100,000 welds and a lot of them were with this newer machine so we've been through a lot together. I largely built up the company around it, in fact, so there is some real history there. I wished it well for the future :-)
The forklift was the last machine to go, yesterday. Another good piece of equipment that has done us proud for many years. I'm sure it will give good service to its new home :-)
There were over 300 Lots and virtually everything sold so it was a success. Thank you very much to Peaker Pattinson Auctioneers, who have been excellent throughout what was sometimes a difficult process for us. They were efficient, professional and a pleasure to work with so we would thoroughly recommend them. (Rolls Royce, the BBC and many others use them so we were in highly esteemed company!)
In parallel with all of that logistic and heavy lifting stuff with cranes, trolleys and huffing and puffing, there has been a lot of decorating so we can leave the building in good condition in due course. In much better condition than we inherited, in fact. We would always leave a building in good condition as that is how we are, but the landlords have been excellent for us for many years and we are going above and beyond as a token of our gratitude. Well done Gold & Wassall Hinges :-)
There has also been some significant progress happening in connection with provisions for future manufacture of several of our products. We will post more on that, shortly.
Last Orders Please!
We are now out of stock of almost everything, with only RoundLocks, Protector Titan 22mm Bare Ended chains, and Shed Shields plus some Squire locks remaining.
Hence, we will be closing our online store early tomorrow morning, 7th November.
If you have been deliberating an order for anything that we do still have remaining, please decide urgently.
All orders that are already underway or being discussed will be processed as you'd expect. New orders will no longer be possible after the store closes.
We will post more information about our stockists that have taken/are taking products from us and that may still have stock available to sell over coming weeks/months.
More news tomorrow!
Sad News: Pragmasis-SecurityForBikes is Closing
This is Steve, joint founder, Director & owner of Pragmasis and SecurityForBikes. I'm very sad to announce that we are closing our manufacturing and despatch factory units before the end of this year :-(
There is more explanation about recent years and how the current situation has evolved in this Announcement.
At the time of this announcement (June 2024), we had quite good stock levels but that has changed radically since. So, if you want any of our range of security stuff then there isn't much remaining and time is running out. When it's gone, it's gone!
Thanks for all the support from many, many customers, suppliers and friends over the years. We've made a difference and annoyed a lot of thieves :-)
We will post more updates here as we progress, especially if there is scope for anyone to take on a licensing deal with us to continue any of our products - Applications Welcome!
Stock and Manufacturing Update
Summary Stock Update as of October 18th:
RoundLocks, Shed Shackles, Torc Mega and Double Doofer Ground Anchors:
Last few remaining in stock!
Protector 13mm, Protector 16mm, Protector 22mm Bare Ended Chains, Anti-Pinch Pins:
Final stock now very low, in limited lengths, only.
Other Items: Shed Shields, Squire Locks: Stock running down.
As mentioned above, we are (sadly) closing down and it is getting very close. Stock is running down and our machinery and equipment auction is scheduled for 14th November! And we've just clocked-up another birthday! :-)
Some products have sold out and are not being replaced, while others are finishing production. Here is a quick summary of where we are (as of 9th October 2024):
Protector 13/16mm chains are about to get a top-up from our final production batch of these gauges, only. That will only replenish the most popular lengths, namely 1.2m, 1.5m and 2.0m, and even then only with small quantities. Protector 19mm chains have all gone now. Sadly, we couldn't get any more of any of these from the factory in the time we have available :-(
The final batch of Shed Shackles has almost all gone, now. (My stock sheet shows literally just 16 remaining!)
RoundLocks (including Keyed-Alike): We have plenty of stock.
Torc Mega ground anchors: We have plenty of stock (except for Blockwall mounting).
We have literally the last few Double Doofer removable ground anchors and Anti-Pinch Pins remaining, as well as Protector 22mm Bare Ended Titan chains (other 22mm and all 25mm Titan chain variants are sold out).
Meanwhile, Monday 7th October was our 21st Birthday! Perhaps we've made it to becoming good adults? I hope so :-)
Our unique Anti-Scrote Skewer 'ground anchor for a field' is available again. Limited stock. See the Ground Anchors category in the shopping cart.
The following products are now sold out and will not be replaced:
If you need any products where we can help within the stock remaining, we strongly urge you to place orders ASAP as we are likely to run out of virtually everything!
The website shopping cart shows indicated in-stock/out-of-stock status on all products. We will provide more updates on our stock and manufacturing situation here on the News page and also on Facebook, in due course.New Product Launch: Shed Shield
I know it will seem weird for us to be launching our Shed Shield product when we've announced that we are closing down! We did all the development work in 2022 and 2023, i.e. more than a year ago, but I (Steve) then realised that spending the required time on preparing it all for launch would have been a distraction from much higher priorities that were affecting the business as a whole. We redirected all our efforts onto more strategic work to solve various problems that were threatening the viability of the business. Sadly, as has been announced, all that didn't achieve the necessary improvements so we had to take the decision some months ago to wind down and stop :-( However, we did do a lot of work back then and we think it would be a waste to not finish the Shed Shield and bring it to launch, which is what is happening now! We only made a modest pre-production batch so quantities are limited and, as we've said before, once it's gone it's gone!
We developed the Shed Shield as a replacement for our HS1 Heavy Duty Hasp & Staple for securing shed doors. The key differences with the Shed Shield are that it was designed specifically around our lovely RoundLock, and that it is more versatile to cope with a wider range of shed types. We manufactured 'Wide' and Narrow' versions of the Shed Shield, and Spacer Plates for it, to cater for more sheds, potentially including metal sheds/barns. Plus, it avoids an issue during manufacture as the design means Heat Treatment is not necessary (since the RoundLock gives plenty of protection). The Ukraine issues were causing our gas costs during Heat Treatment to rocket so the Shed Shield not needing HT at all sidestepped that problem :-)
There is more information on the shopping cart pages for the Shed Shield:
Door Security Products
As mentioned above, we are (sadly) closing down later this year. This has led, very understandably, to customers being concerned about the current and future Sold Secure approval status of products they have bought from us in the past.
We have created a new website page all about the Sold Secure topic that will hopefully answer questions and put people's minds at rest.
We have always acted honourably and that is not changing now, even though we only expect another few months of normal trading until we close the doors for the last time, sob sob.
A brief summary is that all previous approvals continue to apply, indefinitely, for products that we manufactured and supplied in the past. New manufacturing, however, has been restricted to a subset of products and we have renewed the Sold Secure approvals for all of them in order to make the current and long-term future situation very clear to customers, and their insurance companies etc. There is a lot more explanation on the Sold Secure page. All of our approval certificates can be downloaded.
We are not renewing our Trustpilot subscription as we are closing later this year and could not justify another ~£9K on an annual renewal. Trustpilot were not able to offer any shorter renewal period. Service-level reviews will continue to be available on our public Trustpilot profile page.
Here are a few of our latest customer service-level reviews verified through Trustpilot:
Our precise Trustpilot Customer Service rating has averaged 4.96 (out of 5) over the last 365 days. Not bad at all! :-)
Very sadly, not renewing our contract means that our Product-Specific customer reviews will become invisible as we are not permitted to display them outside of a paid plan with Trustpilot :-( There is also no mechanism through which anyone can view them on the trustpilot.com website.
Our average Trustpilot Product Review rating has been 4.95 over the last 365 days across all our products. (97% of product reviews gave a 5-star rating, averaged across a total of 378 product reviews.)
We are sincerely grateful to all those customers that have taken the time and that have left invariably such glowing reviews of our service and of our products while we have been using Trustpilot - Thank you from all the Team at Pragmasis. We will paste text snippets from a selection of these reviews against our product listings in our shopping cart but they will no longer show verified customer names against them, due to Trustpilot Ts&Cs.
It just goes to show that any company showing less than 5 stars of verified reviews could perhaps do better? Any negative feedback is an opportunity to improve!
Thanks again to our loyal and wonderful customers for their support with these verified reviews, both in terms of our overall customer service and also on individual products. It has all been very much appreciated.
New: Squire Matterhorn Mini D-Lock/Disc Lock
We are pleased to announce availability of the new Squire Matterhorn Mini D-Lock and Disc Lock. This is a very compact and lightweight lock that can make an ideal partner for our Protector 11mm and 13mm chains for portable use. It is Sold Secure Motorcycle (Powered Cycle) Gold approved so well suited for use with our Protector 11mm and 13mm chains.
Noose Chain Replacements - Chain Plus Multiple-Lock Package Deals (Updated)
We are sorry to advise that it has become impossible for us to continue making the Noose-ended chains, but we have a wide selection of replacement options available now that are better in multiple situations. We spent months trying to work something out with our raw chain suppliers, but transport and production costs, especially for modest-sized batches of Noose-only chains, have stopped us. Heat Treatment has got so expensive due to the Ukraine issues (HT can use a lot of gas!) and the Noose chains were always quite slow sellers from our point of view so we had a lot of cash plus storage space tied up (e.g. for 2 years+ on the last 11mm Noose chains batch).
The good news is that we have added some new discounted Package Deals that combine a normal-ended chain with 1 or *2* DIB D-Locks or Squire Matterhorn Mini D-Locks, all at a very good price. The prices can be similar or even less than the previous Noose option with the same lock. Noose chains have very often been used with a D-Lock as that always made a lot of sense. Another D-Lock at what would have been the Noose end actually gives multiple advantages as it allows the end of the chain to be attached often in a wider range of situations than could be used with a Noose end. Plus, the lock physically fixes the end of the chain, whereas a Noose chain had to be used carefully to avoid a thief loosening the loop and perhaps gaining an opportunity to release it completely.
This new approach also helps us as it uses the stock of the normal chains that we already have in a wide range of lengths. A normal chain plus double DIB D-Lock is hopefully a very useful alternative to a Noose chain plus single DIB D-Lock.
The new product offerings are in a new Chain and Multiple-Lock Package Deals category. There is further explanation on our Security Chains Information page.
Recent Customer Reviews, and Happy 2024
Here are a few of our recent customer reviews collected over the Christmas period and verified through Trustpilot:
We are always grateful for feedback, good and bad. Any negative comments can highlight opportunities for us to improve our products and service. Anything other than 5-star is very rare for us, which is why our average rating in Trustpilot is 4.97 :-)
Thanks to all our customers, now spanning 20 years!
We wish everyone a Happy and Healthy and hopefully well-secured 2024 :-)
International Shipping: We are pleased to report that we are able to ship to various international destinations again. This can be quite complex for some EU countries. Please see our Shipping page for more details.
New Product Launch: Protector 25mm Titan Chain
The Protector 25mm Titan Chain is now available and here is a video that introduces it:
It has been a long time in development and it replaces the 22mm Titan chain.
The 25mm Titan chain can be purchased through our website at:
https://securityforbikes.com/proddetail.php?prod=P25-x.x
https://securityforbikes.com/proddetail.php?prod=P25-x.x-SS80CS-XLN-R1
There is more technical information about our range of Protector chains at https://securityforbikes.com/security-chains.php
We will be providing more information on the Protector 25mm Titan chain shortly, including reports on further independent tests.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail us at info@pragmasis.com and we will do our best to help.
It is 20 years since we established Pragmasis Limited. We started with the intention of designing innovative and high quality security products to help fellow motorcyclists and cyclists, etc, to combat the scourge of thefts.
We set out to always run the business in an ethical way, treating our customers, suppliers, staff and even competitors honestly and respectfully.
A theme from Day 1 was to do all that we could to support the environment, even back then when it wasn't trendy! In 2007, we were able to buy Alvecote Wood and we have continued to support the Woods through Pragmasis ever since.
20 years has seen many events and many changes and we have new products soon to launch as we continue our quest to help our customers sleep at night.
Shipping Update: We have switched to DPD as our primary carrier as a result of customer feedback both coming in to us directly and via Trustpilot. There is a general preference for DPD within the UK so we have been in negotiation with them for the last couple of months and are now live and using them from now on.
Trustpilot: We have just partnered with independent review organisation Trustpilot in order to help us impove our product and service offerings. Customers previous and new may receive an invitation to submit a review, good bad or otherwise, from Trustpilot. You can opt out of all such invitations by visiting the Trustpilot website.
Our full Privacy policy is also available to view.
Website Upgrade: We have been doing a lot of work on the usability, functionality and appearance of our website. There have been many improvements to our mobile 'responsiveness' so the website now works much better on phones and tablets, as well as widespread improvements also applying to desktops. We also now have UK PostCode lookups in our shopping cart and product image zoom capability coming to more and more of our product listings. The home page and various 'Product Selection' advice pages have been improved, with further improvements planned. You may have to press Control-F5 or otherwise trigger a full refresh on your browser in order to update all supporting files. All these changes should help to make it easier to use the website as well as helping Google to help people to find us :-)
Closed on Thursday 2nd March: We will be closed on 2nd March 2023 for a family funeral. We will not be able to answer phone calls and will not despatch any orders. We return to normal working hours on Friday 3rd March onwards. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Happy New Year: We wish all our customers, suppliers and everyone else a Happy and Healthy 2023. Thanks for your support for the last year. It is always very much appreciated.
Super Dooper Anti-Pinch Pin Launched
After more than a year in development and testing, the new Super Dooper Anti-Pinch Pin is now on sale! We have all planned sizes in stock but beware that there has been a lot of interest so we expect stock to move quickly. We apologise for the very prolonged delay in getting this product launched. Manufacturing can be quite a challenge in the world we have today!
The Super Dooper Pin will always be sold with the protective heatshrink sleeving, custom-made under-head rubber washer and custom-made cap on the tip all already fitted. These are all different sizes for the Super Dooper Pin - It's much heavier-duty so it needed the protection products to be scaled-up to suit
Bennetts BikeSocial have done an in-depth review of our Super and Super Dooper Anti-Pinch Pins (link opens in a new window).
John Milbank, Chief Product Tester at Bennetts BikeSocial, says of our Super Dooper Anti-Pinch Pin:
"Yes, anything can be defeated, but the Pragmasis Anti-Pinch Pin makes the formidable 22mm chain the only really viable point of attack when attempting to steal a bike. Lock it with the chain out of reach against a wall and any thief really will struggle to beat it. And it's really quick and easy to use, thoroughly recommended."
"An outstanding piece of security kit!"
"Angle Grinder Resistance: OUTSTANDING"
BikeSocial "Recommended"
Can you Pick a Pragmasis Lock?
Do you fancy a challenge? Come and see some of our products on the Bennetts #BikeSocial stand at Motorcycle Live at the NEC. If you can pick one of our locks, such as our very popular RoundLock, you can win it and other kit to go with it! (Terms Apply.) Pragmasis SecurityForBikes.com products on display and part of the Pick-It-To-Win-It challenge include various Protector Chains, the Torc and Double Doofer Ground Anchors, the RoundLock and DIB D-Lock and our Anti-Pinch Pin. BikeSocial are in Hall 3, stand 3C47. #motorcyclelive2022 runs from 19th to the 27th November 2022.
Price Promotion on the Beefy Bridge ground anchor, plus the HS1 Heavy Duty Hasp & Staple
We are pleased to offer a special discount on these products as we are over-stocked and are happy to offer a bit of help in the current UK economic situation.
Please Note these prices can be withdrawn at any time as our stock levels become rebalanced. (Regrettably, we are unable to offer any retrospective price refunds on previous purchases. We apologies about any disappointment.)
We are pleased to be supporting Grown in Britain Week. Grown in Britain is a not-for-profit that supports and encourages UK home-grown sustainable forestry and the timber industry that stems from it (if you'll pardon the pun). This is all very close to our hearts due to our longstanding involvement with our award-winning Alvecote Wood project. We were delighted that Alvecote Wood was awarded the first licence under the Grown in Britain certification scheme. We were a touch nervous when it turned out that the Queen was the second licensee! Pragmasis has supported Alvecote Wood right from Day 1 and we are happy to continue to do that. Woodland and forestry sites are often isolated in rural regions so can be vulnerable to theft and related problems. Our security products have undoubtedly given us a very helpful advantage at the Woods in the quest to keep thieves at bay! Any fellow Grown in Britain licensees are welcome to place orders for security products through this website. We are also always happy to offer advice. Shipping is free on orders above ?250.
Our Stand at the APF and Arb Show 2022
Thanks to all that came to our stand at the APF Professional Forestry and Arboriculture Show, at Ragley Estate, recently. It was great to see some customers already using our security products as well as fellow woodland owners and others that have visited our Alvecote Wood site. The photo shows Jenny and Rosie, helping me to staff the stand for the duration - Thanks very much to one and all!
All at Pragmasis join people around the world in expressing our sorrow at the passing of Her Majesty the Queen. RIP Your Majesty. The Queen was an incredible icon and Head of State showing tireless service for over seventy years, working right to the very end with such a strong sense of duty with her beaming smile always helping to put people at ease. We welcome King Charles III. He has big shoes to fill but he has been well-trained by an expert.
We are joining many other organisations in being closed on Monday 19th September for The Queen's funeral. We will not be despatching any orders and Parcelforce will not be delivering any sent out on previoius days. All order processing and delivery work will resume and catch up on Tuesday onwards.
Exhibiting at the APF and Arb Show 2022
We are pleased to be exhibiting our products again and this is our first time to exhibit at the APF professional forestry and Arboriculture Show, at Ragley Estate 22nd-24th September. We will be on Stand D7b in the Static display area. We have frequently sold our security products to professional tree surgeons and we feel a strong connection with the forestry and Arb industry. We have visited this show many times over the years as a customer due to our longstanding involvement with our award-winning Alvecote Wood project. This will be new, to be one of the exhibitors. We will not be selling products at the show as there is so much variety in our range and people invariably need to think about what length of chain and what fixing would be best for any ground anchor, for instance, but we will be showing a selection of the range and will be happy to answer questions. Shipping is free on orders above ?250 and we can process orders placed through this website after the show. We look forward to talking to many customers, new and existing.
We are pleased to announce another new video about the Protector 11mm Chain:
Sold Secure Annual Audit
We are pleased to report our independent annual test audit at Sold Secure has all completed with flying colours.
All the new approval certificates are now uploaded on our certificates page.
New Videos
We are pleased to announce another new video about the Protector 13mm Chain:
And we have another new video about the Protector 16mm Chain:
Plus another new video about the Protector 19mm Chain:
And we are pleased to annouce another one about the Protector 22mm Titan Chain:
And we have another new video that previews the upcoming Super Dooper Anti-Pinch Pin:
Payment Processing Improvements
We have changed our credit and debit card processing gateway to Stripe in place of WorldPay as that was a big disappointment a
switched last year. Stripe is widely recommended and is becoming popular across many large organisations. We spent months evaluating it and found that It has a far more thought-out system cf. WorldPay's that had many holes and was shockingly bug-ridden for an offering from a large financial institution.
New Videos
The following video gives an overview of the new Torc Mega and Torc Maxi ground anchors, summarising the similarities and the differences:
This video gives a quick overview of the Shed Shackle:
The next video gives a quick visual overview of the whole Protector range of chains, from the ultimate Protector 22mm Titan chain, through to the Protector 11mm:
This video explains key concepts in how we describe our security chains, including chain 'gauge', link 'pitch' and Long Link vs. Short Link:
Shed Shackle Fitting Instructions
We have updated the Fitting Instructions for our popular Shed Shackle product and these are available to view online
and to download.
Production News and Stock Levels
We are pleased to report that our stock levels across most products are good. We have good stock of Keyed-Alike RoundLocks and DIB D-Locks as well as virtually all other products in our range. We believe we have finally resolved some problems with our 'new' CNC lathe that cost ?5K to fix. We've been using it to develop new product ideas as well as to improve our production quality on certain existing products. The third factory unit that we took on around a year ago is now well integrated into our production and stock holding system, boosting efficiencies and stock holding across many products. Thanks to the whole SFB Team for being so patient while we have knocked holes in walls, painted floors/walls/ceilings and put up more racking all whilst keeping production and deliveries going!
Protector 22mm Titan Chain - New Design RoundLock Version
We are pleased to announce that, after a long process of design revision and manufacture, we have the Protector 22mm Titan chain available again with the new design of RoundLock fitting. This is now CNC-machined on our new machine, giving far higher precision and a smooth radiused outside edge, so it is also easier to handle. Click for the Protector 22mm Titan Chain-Only product listing.
Shed Shackle now Available in Black as well as Red
The Shed Shackle has historically always been manufactured in a Red powder coated finish. Now there is a choice, with Black as a new option at the same price :-)
RoundLock RL21A Socket Now Available Separately
The RL21A socket can be used to adapt our special RoundLock to suit the Protector 19mm chains. It is now available separately, such as if you have previously purchased a RoundLock. Click for the RL21A Socket product listing.
Team News, plus Enhanced Manufacturing Premises
We are delighted to welcome Andrew as a new member of our Production & Despatch team. We are getting busier and busier so we're very glad to have another person joining us :-)
There has been more progress with shelving and racking in our factory unit. We have soooo much more storage coming online, now, that some shelves will look bare! We all know that won't last long as we have larger-than-ever production batches going through, of pretty much everything we make! It seems that the word is getting around that we make good stuff. We certainly try, for sure :-)
New CNC Lathe: We are pleased to report that we have made a major investment in new machinery, with a high-grade CNC Lathe and automatic Bar Feeder. These have just been installed at the end of August and we will be reading a lot of manuals in order to get familiar with it all. This combination will allow us to
Sub Major Bury-in Concrete Ground Anchor Product Launch: We are pleased to announce the launch of yet another new ground anchor: The Sub Major is our first full concrete-in ground anchor and it has already achieved the highest-ever Sold Secure certification of any ground anchor: Ground Anchors Diamond. These are now in stock and available to buy.
Torc Ground Anchor Series III Product Launch: We are proud to announce the culmination of more than 18 months of work: The new Torc Mega and Torc Maxi ground anchors. The Series III anchors replace and upgrade the Series II anchors that have continued our tradition of top-quality ground anchor manufacture. These new Series III Mega and Maxi anchors are in stock, in bulk, and ready to ship, now. Various photographs and videos will be updated with new versions and more details will be provided ASAP. We apologise for the inconvenience while we've been out of stock on the Series II anchor - We've been working on these new anchors and our plans to have a clean switchover were thwarted by Corona Virus. The Series III anchors are available to order, now. Sold Secure approval has been confirmed. Police approvals have also been confirmed.
Corona Virus: We are continuing to work as normally as we can through the current Corona Virus outbreak. We have good stock levels on most products and are normally despatching orders promptly. Shipping can be Delayed at present because of the volume that is going through the couriers and through Royal Mail. Royal Mail, especially, is running slowly at present so we recommend using a courier service in preference if there is any urgency in your order (and Royal Mail ha've just put up their prices, too!). Shipping to some non-UK destinations continues to be slow due to local restrictions. Please Also Note that Squire are working with only a skeleton staff and custom-Keyed Alike orders using their locks can be delayed as a result. We do have a stock of pre-Keyed Alike locks that can be used to supply two or more locks on the same key. Please also note that we are not able to accept any visitors to our premises during this period of restrictions. This is to protect our staff and any visitors as well as to follow government guidelines.
Renewable Energy: In these troubled and scary times, we are pleased to renew our commitment to 100% renewable energy to our manufacturing units, and we've got certificates to prove it! It can be difficult to think about longer-term things when the world is a scary place, but it is important to try to keep these things going so we all have a good future to look forward to. We are continuing to 'Make a Difference' in several ways. Certificate for Unit 6 Renewable Energy, and Certificate for Unit 7 Renewable Energy.
Price Rises Imminent: We have been holding off several price increases for as much as 2 years but we have no choice but to make some changes as a result of multiple increases from our suppliers, particularly through last year and recently. Pricing will change on multiple products, I'm afraid.
New Website: We are pleased to publish our new website. This is a fully 'responsive' design, meaning that it scales cleanly for a wide variety of device types. We are also introducing what we believe to be an industry first by providing quite comprehensive selection advice for our range of security products. This new feature has been implemented by means of several new web pages, providing straightforward guidance and a suggested shopping list to help you select which products may be helpful for your situation. This section will be improved and we welcome feedback and suggestions for further development.
Does Good Quality Security Make a Difference? Another insightful article about the benefits of good quality security from the Bennetts BikeSocial Test Team. In this article, John Milbank discusses the statistics and looks deeper into actual theft data from Bennetts Insurance policies. Their data shows that using good quality security can significantly reduce the chances of a bike being stolen.
Anti-Pinch Pin and Super Pin Protection: We can now provide an application service for the heatshrink and rubber protection products for the Pins. The rubber washers are self-adhesive and straightforward to apply yourself, if you wish, but the heatshrink is really quite awkward if you don't have a proper heat gun. We can apply all of these for you at the time of ordering a Pin for a modest extra charge, saving you the hassle. Just choose the option when adding the Pin to your shopping cart and we will do the rest.
Anti-Pinch Pin and Super Pin: We are now using a black electrophoretic finish in addition to a zinc pre-treatment on some of our Pins. We are now offering self-adhesive rubber protective washers for the Pin heads and for the Pin Washer, plus the other individual protection components are now available as separate items (Heatshrink Only and Protective Caps Only).
Bennetts Explain Insurance, Security and Discounts: Bennetts Insurance are one of the largest UK motorbike insurers and this article explains how underwriters view security and discounts. We've been pushing this topic, the underpinnings of the "Approved Locks List" that insurers refer to in their quoting systems, for about 5 years! It has been woefully incomplete and out of date on many sites, including 'comparison' sites, so we've been delighted and impressed that the?BikeSocial Test Team?have helped to push through updates, despite virtual apathy amongst many underwriters. This is a significant step forward in helping to encourage policy holders to select and use good quality security to protect their property. Well done Bennetts!
Upgraded D-Shackle Now Available for the Torc Series II Ground Anchor: The standard D-Shackle supplied with the Torc Ground Anchor is 20mm thick hardened steel. We can now offer an upgraded shackle that has the exposed section made out of 22mm thick hardened steel. This better supports extreme security chains such as our Protector 22mm Titan. Please note that this shackle can only be substituted when the anchor is being initially installed and it cannot be swapped after installation. The shopping cart supports ordering the upgraded D-Shackle.
DIB D-Lock - New Shackle Size Now Available: We are pleased to announce availability of the new 300mm shackle option for the DIB D-Lock. We can also supply these as shackle-only, to allow flexibility for owners with existing DIB D-Locks.
Anti-Scrote Skewers: We are now using a black electrophoretic finish in addition to a zinc pre-treatment on some of the Anti-Scrote Skewers.
Sold Secure Annual Audit: I'm pleased to report that we had our annual test session at Sold Secure and all products passed at their normal certification levels ...as usual! The new approval certificates are all visible and downloadable from our Certificates page.
Stephen's Story Ride-Out SSRO: We were pleased to sponsor the Stephen's Story Ride-Out bike ride in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust on 12th May. Our sponsorship certificate is viewable here. Stephen Sutton was diagnosed with incurable cancer when he was juat 15. He realised he could not follow his dream of becoming a doctor so decided to help others in a new way: He created Stephen's Story on Facebook and, through that, inspired and motivated thousands of others with his enthusiasm and verve for life. To date, his campaign to help the Teenage Cancer Trust has raised well over ?5million and the SSRO ride-out is one of many events organised by his mother, Jane Sutton, to expand and enhance Stephen's legacy. We exhibited our products and were happy to answer questions at the SSRO ride-out but were mostly there to support a very worthy cause, with more than a little in common with my wife, Sarah, and her battle to inspire others in spite of her diagnosis with terminal Cystic Fibrosis when she was just 10. I think Stephen Sutton and my wife Sarah would have got on great!
Police Secured-by-Design National Training Event: We are pleased to be exhibiting at the Police Secured by Design National Training Event again. This conference updates Police Crime Reduction Officers from all over the country on the latest crime trends and deterrents. We are showing many of our SBD-approved products and supporting this annual conference for the eighth year running. Click for more info about Secured by Design.
Super Anti-Pinch Pins now Available: The Super Pins are in stock and available to order. They are much more complicated to make than the standard Pins, but they are significantly tougher against grinders, taking approximately double the time to cut in our tests. More information on the Pinch Pins page.
Threat to Alvecote Wood Ancient Woodland: We own Alvecote Wood and have been developing it as a conservation site for over 10 years. It is now under threat from a proposed development of 1,540 houses. Please put in an Objection to the Planning Application before 16th February as that is when the public consultation period ends. There is more information on the Alvecote Wood website.
Super Anti-Pinch Pins and normal Pins - New Batch: We have been working on a batch of the upgraded Super Anti-Pinch Pin. The Super Anti-Pinch Pin has special tungsten carbide inserts plus a thicker and double-welded head to increase resistance against grinder attacks and others. We apologise for the delay in making these. We have sold out, twice, between making some and getting them properly on the website! These are specialist items and we are in the early stages of developing the manufacturing process so we apologise for all delays. Stock is now available and it will be detailed on the website ASAP. Feel free to contact us to check the situation.
Protector Titan 22mm Chain - Now Available: We are pleased to have the upgraded Protector Titan 22mm chain available for purchase. Bennetts Insurance have conducted many chain tests recently and they found the Titan to be the toughest chain ever:
Click for the Bennetts league table.
Click for the Bennetts review of the new Protector 22mm Titan chain in conjunction with our RoundLock.
Click for the Bennetts review of the new Protector 22mm Titan chain in conjunction with the Squire SS80CS padlock.
Sold Secure Annual Audit - All Products Passed: We have had all our Sold Secure-approved products re-tested as part of the routine annual audit process and everything passed with flying colours (as expected). The Protector 13mm chain has now been regraded up to Motorcycle Gold standard, whereas is was previously Motor Scooter Silver. This can be especially helpful for people using the 13mm chain for portable security for motrocycles, as it should now be considered sufficient by insurance companies. Please note that we still advise at least a 16mm chain for motorcycle home security, since bikes invariably spend more time at home and a thief often has more time and less chance of detection in such a scenario.
Update: Ultimate version of the Protector 22mm Titan Chain! The new 22mm Titan chain is now in stock in both variants: with an elongated end link to allow it to be used with the Squire SS80CS or Abloy PL362 locks, and with special machined end plate attachments to allow it to be used with our RoundLock. The latter approach will be noticeably cheaper, but still very tough against attack as the machined plates provide significant protection to the RoundLock as a result of it sitting in recesses on both sides of the plates. We will have more details soon. We apologise that this has taken such a long time.
Desperately Sad News: I'm very sorry to give the desperately sad news that my wife Sarah passed away peacefully on 8th April 2018, after illness and complications associated with her longstanding Cystic Fibrosis disease.
Sarah was given 2 years to live when she was 12. Despite being very ill as a child, she became the first person in the UK with Cystic Fibrosis to qualify as a doctor in 1985, went on to become a fellow of two Royal Colleges of Medicine, and was awarded an OBE by the Queen for Services to Medicine in 2004.
The doctors' journal, the BMJ, printed this obituary.
Sarah was the other Director of Pragmasis and has been a lynchpin throughout the evolution of the company since we set it up in 2003. She stopped me making several designs that, in hindsight, looked terrible! By working together, we created and evolved many of our products into the range we have today. Sarah took all the product photographs and filmed and edited all the videos to date. She also spent more time than I'm sure she would care to remember, entering data into our Sage accounts package, all in support of me and our business.Sarah was an amazing person that showed remarkable drive and determination throughout her life. She was easily the most inspirational person I have ever met and she inspired me and many, many others and will continue to do so.
Some things have been delayed as a result of Sarah's illness and subsequent events (e.g. the new 22mm chain, the Super Anti-Pinch Pin, etc). I apologise for any inconvenience caused but I had to be with my wife while she was in hospital and her funeral was a big event that took a lot of organising, with many, many other tasks to deal with after that. We've been extremely grateful to the rest of our team, who have continued to ship orders largely as usual. Sarah has historically done all our Facebook and Twitter activity so I am sorry this has not always been updated as often as we would like.
Funeral Arrangements: Sarah's funeral was on Monday May 14th and the business was closed on that day. We opened again on Tuesday 15th May, I can't say "as normal" as there is a huge hole in our team. We continue to try to adjust.
Coming Soon: Ultimate version of the Protector 22mm Titan Chain! The new 22mm Titan chain is nearly here! We have been working on this for several months, trying to make it as tough as we can. The new chain will be a short link chain. All our other chains are a long link design, which is great in terms of stopping bolt croppers whilst reducing weight and cost and retaining versatility in how they are used. However, a long link chain is not so good against grinder or hammer attacks, in our experience. Grinders are becoming more of a problem, so we have developed a high grade short link chain to offset this growing problem. The disadvantage with short link chains is that you can't interlock the links as you can on a long link. This means you need either a special elongated end link on one end of the chain, or you need to attach special plates to both ends of the chain. We will be offering the new 22mm Titan chain with a choice of both options. The elongated end link will allow it to be used with the Squire SS80CS or Abloy PL362 locks, whereas the special machined end plate attachments we have developed allow this new chain to be used with our RoundLock. The latter approach will be noticeably cheaper, but still very tough against attack as the machined plates provide significant protection to the RoundLock as a result of it sitting in recesses on both sides of the plates. We will have more details soon. Manufacture of the first production batch is almost complete. We apologise that this has taken a long time. Further details soon.
Archive News: Click for News articles from 2017 and Prior.