Leslie Wilson is a locksmith in Mississippi who specializes in servicing motorcycle locks. He called Locksmith Ledger recently with a question about Honda cycle locks. He had a Honda cycle lock disassembled for key fitting and could not find a key blank which would fit into the cylinder. Armed with the year and model of the Honda cycle, we visited a local Honda cycle dealer and discovered that some 2014+ Honda cycle models are now using a sidewinder key similar to a Honda sidewinder automotive key.
Locksmith Ledger receives many product announcements from manufacturers each week. But these announcements are those which manufacturers want to be released to the locksmith community. While every product announcement is appreciated, it is those products which are introduced without fanfare that cause the bulk of problems for locksmiths.
Just during the last year a new sidewinder key system has appeared for RV campers. New keyways have been introduced for Harley-Davidson cycles. At least one new keyway is being used for popular desk locks. New tool box lock keys and key codes seem to be appearing every few weeks. And now the Honda cycle sidewinder key system has been discovered.
In all of the cases mentioned here, lock manufacturers have chosen to keep the key codes and origination of new keys in-house. If a Harley-Davidson cycle owner or an owner of certain desk furniture loses their keys, OEM manufacturers currently require owners to contact a Harley dealer or a designated furniture key replacement company to obtain new keys by code.
Uncut key blanks for these locks are not available from original lock manufacturers and there is often a long waiting period until a large enough volume of locks appear in the field before aftermarket key manufacturers introduce replacement blanks to fill the void.
This is where the eyes and ears of Locksmith Ledger readers becomes very important. The story about Leslie Wilson is not unique. You are the ones who discover these new introductions in the field. Many of the code series in Reed code books have been collected one-at-a-time through reports from our readers. If you discover a replacement key blank which can be used for some unusual new lock please let us know. If you discover the key cuts for even one of these quasi-protected lock systems please pass that cut information on to Locksmith Ledger.
Locksmiths have always been known as the source for lost key and key duplication replacements. In order to continue that century-old reputation we have to work together. Especially now as many OEM manufacturers seem to be using key replacement as their own new profit center.
