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Top Picks for You
Abus Granit CityChain XPlus 1060
The efficiency winner: 10mm hexagonal hardened links with ABUS’s top 15/15 security score in a 5.8-pound package you will actually carry every day.
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Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit 1415
The benchmark 14mm manganese chain with Sold Secure Gold and Diamond ratings — the heaviest hitter here at 15.25 pounds, built for high-theft streets.
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Oxford Monster OF802
A Gold-rated 12mm Ni-Cro-Mo chain for around $100 that splits the difference between carry weight and serious cut resistance.
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If you carry a chain on the bike every day, buy the Abus Granit CityChain XPlus 1060: it packs the most cut resistance into the least weight. If your bike sleeps on a city street in a high-theft area, the Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit is the heaviest hitter and worth every one of its 15 pounds.
I spent a week on spec sheets and attack tests instead of sorting by link thickness, because a chain you leave at home protects nothing. The question is how much cut resistance each pound buys you. I treat a chain as one layer of a full theft-prevention setup, not the whole plan. The stakes: 44,564 motorcycles were stolen in the US last year and only 41 percent came back, per the National Insurance Crime Bureau.
These four chains are ranked by cut resistance per pound, with notes on who should carry each.
What Cut Resistance per Pound Means
Link thickness is the number every ranking shouts about, and it is not the number that matters most. What stops a thief is steel hardness and link shape. Hardened manganese and boron steel shrug off bolt croppers that would slice soft steel of the same thickness.
Hexagonal links spread a cropper’s jaws wider than round links, so the same 12mm of hardened hex steel costs a thief more effort than 12mm of soft round stock.
Independent testing backs this up. In BikeSocial’s attack tests, 42-inch bolt croppers could not break a 13.7mm Oxford Monster XL chain. But an angle grinder got through every chain tested. That is the ceiling: no portable chain is grinder-proof. The real difference is minutes of loud, spark-throwing work, and weight is what you pay for those minutes.
Sold Secure ratings translate those minutes into something you can compare. Gold means the lock held up against a dedicated tool list.
Diamond adds a 90-second angle grinder attack to the test, per Litelok’s rating explainer. A Diamond badge means tested minutes. No badge means you are taking the manufacturer’s word for it.
So here is the scoring for this list: rated or credibly tested cut resistance, divided by the weight you have to carry. Four chains, four different answers.
The Three Chains at a Glance
| Chain | Link | Length | Weight | Sold Secure |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abus Granit CityChain XPlus 1060 | 10mm hex, hardened steel | 110 cm | 5.8 lbs (2.65 kg) | Pedal Cycle Gold |
| Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit 1415 | 14mm six-sided manganese steel | 150 cm (5 ft) | 15.25 lbs (6.92 kg) | Gold + Diamond |
| Oxford Monster OF802 | 12mm hex Ni-Cro-Mo steel | 150 cm (1.5 m) | ~10.8 lbs (4.9 kg) | Gold |
Abus Granit CityChain XPlus 1060
Key Features
- ABUS Security Level 15 of 15 — the highest score ABUS awards any chain lock
- Hardened steel chain, lock body, and mechanism with a pick-resistant XPlus cylinder
- 110 cm version weighs 2.65 kg and coils into a tail bag or backpack
- Textile sleeve protects paint; single-end locking keeps daily lock-ups fast
Best for: the daily rider who carries a chain on the bike and wants the most security per pound.
The 1060 is the efficiency winner on this list. Its 10mm hexagonal links look thin next to the 14mm bruisers below, but the chain, lock body, and mechanism are all hardened steel, and ABUS gives it 15 out of 15 on its own security scale, the top score the company awards any chain lock.
The 110 cm version weighs 2.65 kg, which is 5.8 pounds. Nothing else here comes close on the resistance-to-weight math, and ABUS’s product page lists motorbikes and scooters as intended uses.
Carrying it is the easy part. At under 6 pounds it coils into a tail bag or backpack without changing how the bike feels, and the textile sleeve keeps it from chewing your paint.
The XPlus cylinder resists picking, and only one end of the chain needs locking, so the daily lock-up routine stays fast enough that you will actually do it.
The tradeoff is honest: 10mm is 10mm. It holds Sold Secure Pedal Cycle Gold rather than the powered-cycle Motorcycle Gold rating, and ABUS itself describes it as protection against medium theft risk. Against a battery angle grinder it falls sooner than the 14mm chains below.
And skip the 85 cm version: it is too short for most real lockups. Buy the 110 or 140 cm and accept the extra half pound.
Kryptonite New York Fahgettaboudit 1415
Key Features
- 14mm six-sided hardened manganese steel links with a 15mm disc lock
- Sold Secure Gold and Diamond ratings; 10/10 on Kryptonite’s own scale
- Five feet of chain reaches wheels, frames, and street furniture
- Hardened double-deadbolt lock body
Best for: the urban commuter whose bike sleeps on the street in a high-theft city.
This is the chain every other chain gets compared to. Fourteen-millimeter six-sided links of hardened manganese steel, a 15mm disc lock with a hardened double deadbolt, Sold Secure Gold and Diamond ratings, and a 10 out of 10 on Kryptonite’s own scale. Five feet of chain reaches around wheels, frames, and street furniture without a fight. It is also 15.25 pounds of it.
That weight is the entire review. In a backpack it is a workout. Under a seat it leaves room for almost nothing else. City commuters who live with it tend to leave one end locked at the office and carry only what they must. Or they buy the shorter 1410 version: the same 14mm chain at 3.25 feet and 10.8 pounds.
Same cut resistance, four and a half fewer pounds to haul. If the 1415’s weight scares you, the 1410 is the smarter buy and the better cut-resistance-per-pound pick of the two.
The other tradeoff is money and bulk. At around $150 it costs slightly more than the Oxford below, and the fat links will not thread through tight wheel gaps on some sportbikes. This is a chain for riders who park where theft is a when, not an if.
Oxford Monster OF802
Key Features
- 12mm hexagonal Ni-Cro-Mo steel links with a boron-cased padlock
- Sold Secure Gold rated; 1.5-meter cloth-covered chain
- Around $100 street price — the cheapest rated 12mm chain here
- Coils small enough to stow under many seats at about 10.8 lb
Best for: the rider who wants one Gold-rated chain for garage and street without spending $150.
The Monster sits in the sweet spot most riders actually live in: 12mm hexagonal Ni-Cro-Mo steel links, Sold Secure Gold, a 1.5-meter cloth-covered chain that coils small enough to stow under many seats, and a street price around $120.
Testers could not break its bigger XL brother with 42-inch bolt croppers or a sledgehammer, and only an angle grinder got through, which puts this family’s real-world resistance in serious territory for the money.
It weighs about 10.8 pounds with its boron-cased padlock, landing between the featherweight Abus and the Kryptonite anchor. That makes it a genuine do-everything chain: light enough to carry most days, strong enough to trust overnight.
The tradeoff is supply, not steel. Oxford is a UK brand and US stock moves through importers, so delivery can take longer than a two-day promise and prices drift between sellers.
It is Gold rather than Diamond, so it never claimed grinder-rated resistance. For the price, though, nothing else here gives you a rated 12mm chain this cheap.
How to Carry a Heavy Chain Without Hating It
A 15-pound chain in a backpack changes how a bike feels, and on a sportbike with no storage the honest answer is that you carry less chain.
What works: loop the chain through the passenger peg mounts or subframe and cinch it tight so it cannot shift, coil it in a tail bag, or do what city commuters do and leave the chain locked at your regular destination.
Whatever you choose, keep the chain off the ground when locked. Testers note that freeze spray and sledge attacks need the chain braced against something solid, so a chain hanging in the air is a harder target.
If you are still weighing lock types, our chain lock vs disc lock breakdown covers when each one earns its place.
One Chain Is a Layer, Not a Plan
No chain here survives a determined thief with a grinder and no audience. What the chain buys is minutes and noise, and minutes are what make a thief pick the next bike.
Layer it: a disc lock alarm stops the opportunist who just wants to roll the bike away, the chain stops anyone with hand tools, and a tracker covers the worst case. If the bike does disappear, a hidden AirTag is what brings it home, because 59 percent of stolen bikes never come back.