bike lock

bike lock

A week doesn’t go by without someone contacting me to promote their bike related Kickstarter. Where I can, I oblige.

An area that really excites me, is bike locks. I’d like to be able to:

• Unlock my bike with my phone
• Receive an alert if someone tampers with my lock
• Share my bike with my friends, without having to hand them a key
• Rent my bike to strangers to make a little extra pocket money

The best of the current generation of bike locks simply doesn’t do these things. However, I’d like to introduce you to three locks that do.

Lock8

• Available Q1 2015 – Preorder from Lock8.me
• 249 USD or £146
• GPS tracking
• Built in alarm
• Charges as your wheels spin
• Share your bike with others

BitLock

• Available November 2014 – Preorder fromBitLock.co
• 119 USD or £69.95
• GPS tracking
• 5 year battery life
• Unlock using your smartphone (iPhone and Android)
• Share your bike with others

SkyLock

• Available early 2016 – Preorder from SkyLock.cc
• 159 or £94 if you preorder or £146 if you wait until release
• GPS tracking
• Unlock using your smartphone (It senses when you are nearby)
• Tamper alert
• Battery recharged through solar panel
• Can unlock without your phone
• Share your bike with others

Out of the three, the SkyLock looks really promising for an area like London as it looks particularly hefty.

If you had a spare bike, you could rent it out to strangers for £10 to £20 per day using sites such as Spinlister. Thanks to these locks, you could simply authorise the person on your smartphone and they could rent your bike, returning it when they are done. As generally one lock isn’t enough in London, you could attach a second combination lock such as theKnog Party Combo.

It’s like AirBnB but for bikes.

Hidden GPS trackers

Aside from the above GPS bike locks, item-trackers are also about to become much more common place.

Trackr is one such project that started with a crowd funding target of $20,000 USD. It broke all expectations, and has so far raised a total of $844,000 in crowd funding.

These coin sized item-trackers don’t have a built in GPS. Instead, they rely on a Crowd GPS network. If the device is within 100ft of any user, it will transmit its location back to you.

Obviously, this relies on enough people having these devices.

A single Trackr device costs 29 USD or around £17. You can attach it beneath your bike saddle, to your cat, dog, or your bag or anything else you can think of.

Out of all the above bike locks there’s only one that I trust when locking my bike. Can you guess which one?

The Kryptonite New York 3000.

Sure it might be expensive to buy at first (around £55) and sure it’s a heavy beast to carry around, but it beats buying a new bike any day!

As I can’t see myself having the income level to hire a guard to stand by my bike every time I leave it somewhere, I think I’ll keep using it.

Let me explain my choice:

• I reviewed the Kryptonite New York 3000 back in 2009. Since then, I’ve used it on an almost daily basis and left my bike all over London. From Hackney, to Camden, to Angel. My bike has always been kept safe (touch wood!).
• Various cycling magazines have reviewed the bike lock and deemed it to be one of the most resistant ones to attack. You’ll need a high end tool to beat it. Sold Secure have given it their Gold Standard rating.
• There used to be a famous video circulating around, showing that you could open these locks with a bic pen. Since 2005 Kryptonite have switched to an I-key system which ended this vulnerability.
• Whilst the bike lock isn’t wide enough to go around a lamppost, it will get around most objects I attach my bike to in London. It is also big enough to allow me to lock it through the rear triangle of my bike and the object meaning that my rear wheel is secured.
• I’ve never had any issues with keys getting stuck. If you are having difficulty turning your key, don’t force it, you should lubricate the lock. You can use WD-40 but there are better lubricants out there that are less likely to gunk up your lock. Look for graphite powder lubricants that cost about £3.

The secondary bike lock

I think by now we’ve established I’m a fan of the Kryptonite New York 3000 bike lock. However, it’s fairly useless on its own. If you ride a bike in London, you need a secondary lock.

This doesn’t need to be as strong. Instead, just pop in to your local bike shop and buy a chain lock or cable lock that is sold by a reputable brand such as Abus, Kryptonite or On Guard.

This should never be used on its own.

Could this bike lock be better than the Kryptonite?

In many ways the Abus Granit X Plus 54 is better than the Kryptonite. Its the same price (around £55) but it weighs 22% less at 1.4kg. It is also cleverly engineered so that if a thief manages to cut the shackle, in most scenarios they’ll have to cut it again to release the bike as the lock maintains its integrity. However, it has a 13mm thick shackle which is 3mm less than the Kryptonite. In reality both locks do an excellent job.

The strongest bike lock of them all…

If you don’t care about the weight, then you can get the seriously hefty Kryptonite Fahgettaboutit lock. It weighs just over 2kg and has an 18mm steel shackle. The problem is that you won’t be able to get it around your rear wheel, which means a thief could pinch it, unless you have some other locking system in place.

I’m sure there’s even heftier locks than this one!

What lock are you using?

Leave a comment below with:

• Name of the bike lock you are using
• How long you’ve been using it theft free
• Would you recommend it to others

Responses to GPS bike locks