Skylock Is the Best Bike Lock of the Future, and It's Awesome

Skylock is keyless entry. It looks amazing. Bikeless and alone. The new Skylock, from ex-Boeing and Jawbone engineers, is about to leapfrog the competition and bring bike protection into the 21st century. Skylock looks pretty much like your standard U-lock.

Discovery:

Skylock which works over Bluetooth short-range wireless signals. Via Skylock’s smartphone app, you can press a button to unlock the lock. Skylock set up to have proximity detection, so as soon as you get right up next to it, it unlocks. You can still unlock it via a combination (pattern) lock on the lock itself.

Abduction and Robbery Alert System:

Skylock has built-in accelerometers and Wi-Fi. You can connect the lock to a nearby Wi-Fi network. If someone starts messing with your bike, the accelerometers will detect it, and it will send a push notification to your phone via the app. Obviously, Skylock is still an awesome feature.

Crash Detection:

Crash alerts are also sent to friends and family if the owner has an accident. If you don’t respond within a certain number of seconds it will automatically call emergency responders and give them your position. Really smart, though we still worry about false positives.

Bike Sharing:

This system also makes it easy to share your bike with friends by temporarily authorizing their phones to unlock Skylock. “With the Skylock app, users can arrange to lend out their bike to anyone in their trusted network or the Skylock community while keeping track of it via the app,” says Skylock. So, easy, you could start your own Citibike if you wanted, but with lighter, prettier bikes.

Battery, Availability, Portability

Well, there’s a handy solar panel on the outside of the lock which recharges the built-in battery. Skylock claims that one hour of sunlight provides enough power for a week. It can also be charged via USB and a fully charged battery should run for a month.

which means you won’t be able to get your hands on it for a while. According to the company it should start shipping by Christmas 2014. It doesn’t come cheap. The company says it will have both Android and iPhone apps ready at launch and it will retail for $249 once it hits the market. People who pre-order the lock can currently get it for $159 (£95), although this is a limited offer.

Skylock weighs just under three pounds (2.95) and Skylock claims it’s small enough to fit in your back pocket. Of course it can be easily mounted to your bike’s frame, too. The feature set is killer, and if it can deliver on all its promises it would be a gigantic leap in bike lock technology.

While that’s all very exciting, the Skylock isn’t quite available yet. It’s a bit steeper than the BitLock or a traditional U-lock. But if your bike is your baby, it might make sense for you.

Skylock Is the Best Bike Lock of the Future, and It's Awesome