No, the vast majority of bike thieves wouldn't know how to pick even the most basic locks. And they don’t need to, because most basic bike locks are so easy to defeat with brute force!
For sure, a few bike thieves will have some knowledge and may be carrying basic lock raking tools. But it’s such a tiny percentage, and their skills will usually be so limited, that it’s not worth worrying about if you have a half decent lock.
Celebrity lock pickers like Bosnian Bill and the Lock Picking Lawyer are highly skilled experts who use specialized, bespoke tool sets. And they film in laboratory conditions. So just because they can open a lock in seconds, it doesn’t mean anyone else can.
Yes, in the video below, the Lock Picking Lawyer opens up my top pick in a minute and a half. But listen to what he says: "it has enough pick resistance to use in the street". That's because no-one in the street has the tools or the skills that he has!
However, it is worth knowing about the different types of lock mechanisms when you’re choosing a bike lock. And there are four widely used types: disc detainer, slider, pin tumbler and wafer.
Disc detainer mechanisms were pioneered by Abloy but are increasingly used in high quality bike locks such as Abus and Kryptonite, as they’re hard wearing and generally quite difficult to pick.
Slider mechanisms are usually characterized by keys that have straight edges with internal teeth. Increasingly used by budget locks like OnGuard and Zefal, depending how they’re implemented, they may be easier or harder to pick.
Finally, pin tumbler and wafer mechanisms are generally the least secure because they’re more susceptible to raking attacks, which don’t require much skill. Wafer mechanisms are particularly easy to open and are best avoided.