Hmm... be careful not to use that locking feature when 'locking' it to a regular sign post. When I lived in NYC, my roommate's bike was stolen when a thief just removed bolts holding the sign and then he just lifted the whole bicycle and the lock over the post. He then bolted the sign back on. We saw the surveillance video from a neighbor's surveillance camera and the whole thing took under 3 minutes. We initially assumed the lock was defeated but this was a much more ingenious way.
One of the better ways of preventing the theft of a bike in a city (aside from bringing it indoors), is to use an old, junky, beater bike. The Yerka’s unique design is an absolute thief-magnet that’s begging to be stolen.
When I was in college, I didn't have much money, like a lot of us when going to school, so I bought a beater bike at a garage sale for $5. It was a 3-speed type with big tires back before that became cool. The security mechanism was not only that it was ugly, but the 3-speed shifter mechanism was messed up and the pedals only worked if you had it just so between 2nd and 3rd gear, sort of halfway in between, otherwise the pedals would slip if you stood up on them or put much pressure on them. I never locked it. I would just put it in 1st gear and walk away. On campus I don't think anyone tried to swipe it except I noticed a few times it was laying on the ground instead of the bike rack. One time I went to the 7-11 just to grab a soda and while I was in there I hear a scream outside. I went out and saw my bike laying on the ground and some guy hobbling away grabbing at his groin. My friends would ask me "how can you ride that thing" and I would say, very carefully.
A friend of mine had an old junky beater bike, with a fancy new lock. He once found the bike where he left it... but, I shit you not, the lock was gone! (that was > 20 years ago)
My favorite method was the guy who doesn't lock his bike at all and just sticks airtags on it and when it goes missing, calls the police who recover the bike and collect the thief
A friend clarified this strategy for me the other day... Apparently you walk a fine line between beater not worth the effort to take and assumed abandoned and so fair to strip.
You're basically saying "don't own something nice if you don't want it stolen".
More needs to be done to tackle bike theft. Be that education, physical deterrants (cameras, good quality bike lockup locations, etc).
I've had a bike stolen, and the police can do nothing. A bicycle is small, easy to disassemble, relatively low-value, and they are untraceable items.
A car is higher-value, but more easily traced than a bike - due to a large number of factors; size, colour, shape, insurance/legal documents to prove ownership, ANPR cameras, etc.
I’m not sure how true this is. I think in general thieves steal things they can easily sell rather than things that are expensive. I would guess one could more easily sell an ordinary looking bike than a fancy looking one but maybe it can be converted into valuable easily sold parts or it just isn’t that hard to sell.
(1) Doesn't that severely weaken the frame? It looks flimsy, and even if the lock part is attached back, it does not look like as strong as a welded joint.
(2) The levers introduced by the long straight tubes seem to open up a physical way in. Imagine twisting the bike off the post.
(3) Once LPL shows how to open that lock, one might want to swap it for a better one. Is that possible?
As Bjornorn writes down tube are mostly stretched. Some bikes just use a wire. Incidently that could also make for a better locking system that the stiff one with cuts.
(1) was my first thought, especially on that part of the frame. i think if it was the horizontal upper bar, it would be less of a concern, because the upper bar gets different stresses.
also, this lock is way to bulky for many locking situations. i can't even think of a bike-rack where this would work. it seems to be suitable for locking to sign-posts only. (and see the comment below on that)
> (3) Once LPL shows how to open that lock, one might want to swap it for a better one. Is that possible?
Looks like a disc detainer lock. Possibly needs "A pick Bosnian Bill and He made", but as we all know, there are disc detainer locks and disc detainer locks.
I'm not sure it's a top of the line, high security cylinder. Hope it's replaceable.
They are usually a little bit more unique, but still not particularly secure. Just something to fuck you over when you're out in the middle of nowhere and need to repair something.
A dead comment mentions having to readjust the saddle height every time you unlock the bike. Just draw a line on the seatpost with a sharpie. Easy and reversible.
A 30 lb fixie (typically closer to 15 lbs) and you have to take the seat tube out to lock it: awful. It’s impractical, it’s heavy, and a quality U-lock is just as effective for protecting a very low-end bike (such as this one). Gimmick.
This makes a lot of unfounded assumptions about what the police can and would do. There's not a lot the police can do after a bike is stolen within proportion to the value of the stolen bike and bikes are both easy to steal and easy to scrap for parts (that are practically untraceable in most cases). So what do you end up with? More police patrols in "high crime" neighborhoods and more "spot checks" (a la stop and frisk), both approaches that have been demonstrative failures for decades but satisfy the political pressure to "do something".
A better long-term solution would be to reduce the need for policing by mending the socioeconomic conditions that result in bike theft. Rampant bike theft isn't a global issue and is actually less of an issue in some countries that have a lot more bikes on the streets per person than any city in the US does. The difference isn't better policing. Aside from the fringe issue of organized crime, most bike theft is associated with addicts trying to make a quick buck to buy drugs and we already know police isn't the answer to reducing drug addiction.
This was my first thought as well. After I got a better lock that wouldn't give after twisting the bike multiple times, they just destroyed it out of spite.
The problem with this design is that it makes it a lot easier to have a big lever (eg. using a bolt cutter) on the frame. That's why folding locks are effective: Not because of their raw strength but because of their awkwardness that makes finding a lever harder.
The real solution would be a police that takes bike theft seriously.
This seems wildly impractical to me and I doubt this solution is good for the structural integrity of the bike.
It will take long, especially if you have to readjust the ride height every time you want to use your bike. You will also only be able to park your bike at pole, not in a bike parking spot or storage facility.
A minor quibble: the frame of the bike is being used as the hasp of a lock. The actual lock is not discussed at all. If it is anything like most of the mainstream locks on the The Lock Picking Lawyer's Youtube channel it will be easily defeated without damaging the frame.
There are 5 jump cuts in the sequence to demonstrate the lock feature in the promotional video and it is only demonstrated once. If even the marketing material is glossing over a USP, then it's a bad sign.
The thought of sliding the seatpost in and out twice (4 times?) every time you end a journey is not good. I had a folding bike with a very long seatpost that moved as part of the fold. Admittedly it was 80% exposed while riding, but it got dirty and gritty very and it isn't realistic to carry a rag and assembly grease with you so it got scratched, required more force over time and became unpleasant to use.
Also, this is a very solvable problem, but no seatpost means that the frame can fill with water in the rain.
Good if you can find an unoccupied pole or ultra low density bike rack. Presumably clunky in a normal bike rack (which are clunky at the best of times).
The one thing that springs to mind, is I wonder how robust, and long-lasting this will be?
Bikes get put through a fair bit of abuse, and the mechanism looks like it might have problems with said abuse.
Robustness is often the Achilles' heel of innovative design. I used to work for a defense contractor, and it was amazing what came back from the field; even when it was packaged in one of those "floating rack" cases.
I had a similar thought, but this strikes me as a city commuter bike. While I used my daily driver a lot, I wouldn't say I used it hard. This probably has a lot of the same structural concerns as a convertible car...servable, but probably less likely to serve after an accident.
This is a great idea! I want to temper the enthusiasm of potential buyers, though: although this might prevent your bike from getting stolen, it won't help against vandalism, and I've spent hundreds of dollars on vandalism. The last time my bike was vandalized was two months ago, and it cost $200 to fix (they twisted the handlebars around until the cables snapped).
I wrote a blog piece about how to keep your bike locked up overnight, outside in San Francisco for years, [0] and the take-away is this: it averages $80 - $100 / month in repair costs, and you're much better off getting a bike rental membership (e.g. Citibike, Bay Wheels) for $15 / month.
> You also won’t have to worry about your tires being stolen. That’s because they feature unique nuts that can only be undone with a special adaptor which comes with the bike.
So do you have to carry the special adaptor when you go riding, in case you get a flat and need to put on a new tube? Not a huge deal, but kind of annoying.
So there are these bars that swing out from the frame. The bottom one holds the lock while the top one holds the seat tube. I wonder if you strike the top one with a sledgehammer right by the pivot point, would it shear the bolt that holds that tube to the frame? Could be a quick attack.
[+] [-] Jerry2|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kazinator|4 years ago|reply
Amazingly good citizen; if you can just look past the bike stealing behavior.
[+] [-] ahoka|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] technotarek|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wolverine876|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tzs|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrismcb|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] em-bee|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cush|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zw123456|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glandium|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gigachad|4 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-fn0yCdqHg
[+] [-] couchand|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _jstreet|4 years ago|reply
More needs to be done to tackle bike theft. Be that education, physical deterrants (cameras, good quality bike lockup locations, etc).
I've had a bike stolen, and the police can do nothing. A bicycle is small, easy to disassemble, relatively low-value, and they are untraceable items.
A car is higher-value, but more easily traced than a bike - due to a large number of factors; size, colour, shape, insurance/legal documents to prove ownership, ANPR cameras, etc.
[+] [-] dan-robertson|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dazc|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beeforpork|4 years ago|reply
(2) The levers introduced by the long straight tubes seem to open up a physical way in. Imagine twisting the bike off the post.
(3) Once LPL shows how to open that lock, one might want to swap it for a better one. Is that possible?
[+] [-] tokai|4 years ago|reply
https://www.designboom.com/technology/kibisi-biomega-bos-8-s...
[+] [-] em-bee|4 years ago|reply
also, this lock is way to bulky for many locking situations. i can't even think of a bike-rack where this would work. it seems to be suitable for locking to sign-posts only. (and see the comment below on that)
[+] [-] locallost|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bayindirh|4 years ago|reply
Looks like a disc detainer lock. Possibly needs "A pick Bosnian Bill and He made", but as we all know, there are disc detainer locks and disc detainer locks.
I'm not sure it's a top of the line, high security cylinder. Hope it's replaceable.
[+] [-] bjornorn|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] _carbyau_|4 years ago|reply
C'mon, really? Just another specialty socket/drill bit?
[+] [-] jrockway|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imgabe|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Animats|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jrockway|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] loeg|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ahahahahah|4 years ago|reply
I'm not commenting on its value or quality, just on yours.
[+] [-] locallost|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] fartcannon|4 years ago|reply
We don't need better locks, we need better police response to theft.
[+] [-] hnbad|4 years ago|reply
A better long-term solution would be to reduce the need for policing by mending the socioeconomic conditions that result in bike theft. Rampant bike theft isn't a global issue and is actually less of an issue in some countries that have a lot more bikes on the streets per person than any city in the US does. The difference isn't better policing. Aside from the fringe issue of organized crime, most bike theft is associated with addicts trying to make a quick buck to buy drugs and we already know police isn't the answer to reducing drug addiction.
[+] [-] f1refly|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] kevin_thibedeau|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ramboldio|4 years ago|reply
The real solution would be a police that takes bike theft seriously.
[+] [-] phor|4 years ago|reply
It will take long, especially if you have to readjust the ride height every time you want to use your bike. You will also only be able to park your bike at pole, not in a bike parking spot or storage facility.
[+] [-] kwhitefoot|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tweetle_beetle|4 years ago|reply
The thought of sliding the seatpost in and out twice (4 times?) every time you end a journey is not good. I had a folding bike with a very long seatpost that moved as part of the fold. Admittedly it was 80% exposed while riding, but it got dirty and gritty very and it isn't realistic to carry a rag and assembly grease with you so it got scratched, required more force over time and became unpleasant to use.
Also, this is a very solvable problem, but no seatpost means that the frame can fill with water in the rain.
[+] [-] m0ngr31|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] alleycat5000|4 years ago|reply
brompton.com
[+] [-] Lio|4 years ago|reply
I actually find it’s a good idea not to take a lock with me so that I’m not tempted to leave mine outside anywhere.
A Brompton will fit nicely under a desk or table.
I’ve had people object to seeing a bike indoors but if you put it in a bag before you go in they magically stop noticing it.
Bromptons are expensive but mine paid for itself in less than a year in parking fees. That was 10 years ago.
[+] [-] osigurdson|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChrisMarshallNY|4 years ago|reply
The one thing that springs to mind, is I wonder how robust, and long-lasting this will be?
Bikes get put through a fair bit of abuse, and the mechanism looks like it might have problems with said abuse.
Robustness is often the Achilles' heel of innovative design. I used to work for a defense contractor, and it was amazing what came back from the field; even when it was packaged in one of those "floating rack" cases.
[+] [-] madrox|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brian_cunnie|4 years ago|reply
I wrote a blog piece about how to keep your bike locked up overnight, outside in San Francisco for years, [0] and the take-away is this: it averages $80 - $100 / month in repair costs, and you're much better off getting a bike rental membership (e.g. Citibike, Bay Wheels) for $15 / month.
BTW, good locks are really important.
[0] https://briancunnie.medium.com/how-to-lock-your-bike-overnig...
[+] [-] gnicholas|4 years ago|reply
So do you have to carry the special adaptor when you go riding, in case you get a flat and need to put on a new tube? Not a huge deal, but kind of annoying.
[+] [-] TaylorAlexander|4 years ago|reply