Pictured here is how one XENA disc-lock looked after a punishing 15 minutes of "testing" from France's Classe SRA, one of the most stringent testing bodies. To simulate an attack, the tester places the lock in a vice and uses wedge, hammer and saw tools with brute strength to open the lock. In this case, the XENA bent, but did not open. Pass.

Other lock makers manage to pass these certifications, but individual lock models almost never pass as many as XENA. Different companies take different routes to engineering locks that pass the various requirement of these certifications: for example, submitting a 2kg lump of cast iron may get you SoldSecure Gold, but XENA has consistently managed to do it with a 450-gram disc-lock with electronics in it to boot – a much more elegant and practical solution for the rider to use on a daily basis.

We do our own in-house testing to ensure that we meet all these standards. As a relatively small manufacturer with a global sales base we do not have the luxury of engineering locks aimed at specific requirements in any one market.

To stand out from the crowd, we need to be all things to all certification bodies.